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.

What Do We Seek?--May 22, 2018

[From May 25, 2010 archive]

In our wilderness
what do we seek?
A heavenly wind,
a glimpse of you?

O God, we have not seen you;
but you watch over the strangers
and uphold the orphan and the widow;
and if we love one another, you live in us.

Perfect your love in us; give us wisdom,
lest we eat the bread of wickedness,
and drink the wine of violence,
and our way ends in ruin.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 42; 146; 102; 133
Prov. 4:1-27
1 John 4:7-21
Matt. 11:7-15

Selected Verses
Ps. 146:9
The LORD watches over the strangers;
            he upholds the orphan and the widow,
            but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

Prov. 4:17
For [evildoers] eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.

1 John 4:12
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Mat. 11:7-8
As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?  A reed shaken by the wind?  What then did you go out to see?  Someone dressed in soft robes?  Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.  …"

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