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.

Among Us or Not, God?--Jan. 8, 2022

[From Jan. 8, 2016 archive]

 

Are you among us or not, God--that is our question. 

 

You have sent us your answer, and his name 

is Jesus, and in him all your fullness 

was pleased to dwell. And to all 

who are thirsty he issued 

an invitation to come, 

to come and drink. 

 

In Jesus you are 

present with us, O God; 

 

as you turned the rock into water, 

turn our thirsty, quarreling hearts to him. 

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 47; 149; 27; 114

Exod. 17:1-7

Col. 1:15-23

John 7:37-52

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 114:7-8 

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the LORD, 
          at the presence of the God of Jacob, 
who turns the rock into a pool of water, 
          the flint into a spring of water. 

 

Exod. 17:7 

[Moses] called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

 

Col. 1:19 

For in [his Son] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell… 

 

John 7:37-38a 

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.  …”


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