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.

When Others Make Us Anxious--March 17, 2020


How easily we can grow anxious
over the presence of others—
to be dismayed by them,
and to take offense.

From these anxieties, free us.
As you love and accept us,
God, make us loving
and accepting
of others.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 34; 146; 25; 91
Gen. 45:1-15
1 Cor. 7:32-40
Mark 6:1-13

Selected Verses
Ps. 34:4
I sought the LORD, and he answered me,
          and delivered me from all my fears.

Gen. 45:3
Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph.  Is my father still alive?”  But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

1 Cor. 7:32-34a
I want you to be free from anxieties.  The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided.

Mark 6:3
“…Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”  And [the people in Jesus’ synagogue] took offense at him. 

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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