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.

Jesus, You Astonish Us--Sept. 7, 2018



You astonish us, Jesus; you open our eyes,
and we see we are unworthy of your love.
Yet even if all others reject us, you do not.
Happy is everyone who trusts in you.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 84; 148; 25; 40
Job 19:1-7, 14-27
Acts 13:13-25
John 9:18-41

Selected Verses
Ps. 84:12
O LORD of hosts,
          happy is everyone who trusts in you.

Job 19:14-15
"My relatives and my close friends have failed me; the guests in my house have forgotten me; my serving girls count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes. …"  [Job to his friends]

Acts 13:25
And as John was finishing his work, he said, 'What do you suppose that I am?  I am not he.  No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals on his feet.'"

John 9:30
The man answered [those who scorned Jesus], "Here is an astonishing thing!  You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.  …"

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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