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.

Amazed, Sometimes Afraid--April 3, 2020


In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To follow you, Jesus, is to be amazed;
sometimes it is also to be afraid.

We know that always you are in the right,
and very often we are in the wrong,
but your mercy sustains us;
we do not lose heart.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 22; 148; 105; 130
Exod. 9:13-35
2 Cor. 4:1-12
Mark 10:32-45

Selected Verses
Ps. 22:4
In you our ancestors trusted;
          they trusted, and you delivered them.

Exod. 9:27
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.  …”

2 Cor. 4:1
Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 

Mark 10:32
[Jesus and his disciples] were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. 

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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