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.

God Shows No Partiality--June 5, 2018


Righteous God, you show no partiality--
at least not for worldly distinctions--
for princes die, and when they do,
their plans perish, just like ours.
Eventually the world forgets--
who were wise, who were fools.
Even Jesus was scorned by his own.
Teach us it is your opinion that matters;
neither glory nor censure from the world do.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 54; 146; 28; 99
Eccl. 2:16-26
Gal. 1:18-2:10
Matt. 13:53-58

Selected Verses
Ps. 146:3-4
Do not put your trust in princes,
          in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
          on that very day their plans perish.

Eccl. 2:16
For there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or of fools, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. 

Gal. 2:6
And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)--those leaders contributed nothing to me. 

Matt. 13:55-57a
"…Is not this the carpenter's son?  Is not his mother called Mary?  And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?  And are not all his sisters with us?  Where then did this man get all this?"  And [the people in Jesus' home town] took offense at him.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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