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 We Have Abandoned the Love We Had--Dec. 8, 2021

[From Dec. 9, 2015 archive]

Today’s lectionary passages, like many in Advent, are full of condemnation.. 

They call for self-examination and repentance. I have not tried to sugarcoat them.

 

If we have trampled on the needy,

and brought to ruin the poor of the land;

 

if we have closed our hearts to pity,

and with our mouths have spoken arrogantly;

 

if we have tied up heavy burdens, hard

to bear, and laid them on the shoulders of others,

unwilling to lift a finger to move them ourselves;

 

if we have abandoned the love we had at first,

forgive us, Lord Jesus, and remind us

how far we have fallen.

 

Lectionary Readings 

Ps. 50; 147:1-11; 53; 17 

Amos 8:1-14 

Rev. 1:17-2:7 

Matt. 23:1-12 

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 17:10 

They close their hearts to pity;

            with their mouths they speak arrogantly. 

 

Amos 8:4 

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,

            and bring to ruin the poor of the land… 

 

Rev. 2:4-5a 

“…But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember then from what you have fallen…”  [He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, to the angel of the church in Ephesus] 

 

Matt. 23:4 

“…[The scribes and Pharisees] tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.”  [Jesus to the crowds and his disciples]


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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