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.

Inviting the Devil to Dine at Our Banquet--Nov. 12, 2018


We trust in silver and gold, the work of human hands,
but in an hour our wealth can disappear.
As I write, wild fires rage in California and elsewhere.
We constructed our world on combustion
of fossil fuels, which is bringing climate change,
which promotes uncontrollable burning.

Having invited the devil to dine at our banquet,
we are being repaid with fire and ashes.
But God, must the innocent suffer
more than we, the guilty?

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 135; 145; 97; 112
Joel 1:15-2:2
Rev. 18:15-24
Luke 14:12-24

Selected Verses
Ps. 135:15, 18
The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
          the work of human hands. …
Those who make them
          and all who trust them
          shall become like them.

Joel 1:19
To you, O LORD, I cry.
For fire has devoured
     the pastures of the wilderness,
and flames have burned
     all the trees of the field. 

Rev. 18:17a
"…For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!"  [The merchants who watched the burning]

Luke 14:12
[Jesus] said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.  …"

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