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 Redeem Us--March 13, 2020


Merciful and loving God,
to each of us you have given
a particular gift, one having one kind
and another a different kind,
but none of us are accountable
for the sins of another. 

You gave us Jesus to do that;
he came to save the perishing,
to redeem us from our iniquities.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 22; 148; 105; 130
Gen. 43:1-15
1 Cor. 7:1-9
Mark 4:35-41

Selected Verses
Ps. 130:8
It is [the LORD] who will redeem Israel
          from all its iniquities.

Gen. 43:8-9a
Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me, and let us be on our way, so that we may live and not die — you and we and also our little ones.  I myself will be surety for him; you can hold me accountable for him.  …”

1 Cor. 7:7b
But each has a particular gift from God, one having one kind and another a different kind.

Mark 4:35-41
But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and [his disciples] woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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