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.

To Abide in Your Tent--July 25, 2018


[From July 25, 2018 archive]

Who may abide in your tent, O God?
Who may dwell in your holy hill?

An altar of unhewn stones
may be pleasing to you, but not
if a stumbling block or a hindrance.
To slap down in anger another's credo,
to spit in the face of one's sacred beliefs,
does not make us fit to abide in your tent.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 15; 147:1-11; 48; 4
Josh. 8:30-35
Rom. 14:13-23
Matt. 26:57-68

Selected Verses
Ps. 15:1
O LORD, who may abide in your tent?
          Who may dwell on your holy hill?

Josh. 8:30-31a
Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, "an altar of unhewn stones, on which no iron tool has been used" …

Rom. 14:13
Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.

Matt. 26:67-68
Then [the chief priests and the whole council] spat in [Jesus'] face and struck him; and some slapped him, saying, "Prophesy to us, you Messiah!  Who is it that struck you?"

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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