I am an emeritus professor from Cornell University and was a Commissioned Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For many years I have followed the Daily Lectionary as printed in the Mission Yearbook of my church. For each day of a two-year cycle, the lectionary lists four psalms and three other scriptural passages--usually one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. My practice is to copy down a verse or two from one of the psalms and from each of the other three passages. After I have written out all four selections, I reflect upon them, rearrange their order, and incorporate them into a meditation. Sometimes I retain much of the original wording; sometimes all that remains of a selection is an idea that was stimulated when I read the original words. All selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For the Daily Lectionary, see the link below.

The Babel in Our Lives--Jan. 18, 2018


How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
Under your wing, all people may find refuge
as we feast on the abundance of your house,
as we drink from the river of your delights.

Yet we fail to take advantage of your love,
for we cannot understand one another,
any more than the Samaritan woman
understood what Jesus meant by
his living water or by the sure,
steadfast hope he offered.
Teach us how to listen.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 36; 147:12-20; 80; 27
Gen. 11:1-9
Heb. 6:13-20
John 4:1-15

Selected Verses
Ps. 36:7-8
 How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
          All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
          and you give them drink from the river of your delights. 

Gen. 11:7
“…Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."  [The LORD]

Heb. 6:19-20
We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

John 4:10-11
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."  The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.  Where do you get that living water?  …" 

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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