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.

If Only We Would Walk in Your Ways--June 21, 2020


O Lord God, you know the human heart,
and you know how the innocent suffer,
though you make no distinctions.

Children suffer for the wrongs of their parents;
religious leaders think you are theirs only;
they even persecuted your Son.

If only we, your people, would listen to you,
if only we would walk in your ways!

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 19; 150; 81; 113
Num. 14:26-45
Acts 15:1-12
Luke 12:49-56

Selected Verses
Ps. 81:13
O that my people would listen to me,
          that Israel would walk in my ways!

Num. 14:33
“…And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.  …”  [The LORD’s message to the Israelites, to be delivered by Moses]

Acts 15:8-9
“…And God, who knows the human heart, testified to [the Gentiles] by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us.  …”  [Peter, to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem]

Luke 12:50
“…I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!  …”  [Jesus, to his disciples]

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