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.

Not Like Nebuchadnezzar--April 17, 2021


O God of goodness and mercy, 

forbid that we should use your name

as an excuse to make cruel, vindictive law. 

 

If “whoever does not love abides in death,”

whoever deals in death does not love. 

 

Lead us by your Holy Spirit, 

that goodness and mercy

may be in our law.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 92; 149; 23; 114

Dan. 3:19-30

1 John 3:11-18

Luke 4:1-13

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 23:6a

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
          all the days of my life…

 

Dan. 3:29

Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that utters blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins; for there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.”  [King Nebuchadnezzar]

 

1 John 3:14

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another.  Whoever does not love abides in death. 

 

Luke 4:1

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness…


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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