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.

May We See the Promise--Feb. 1, 2022

[From Feb. 3, 2004 archive]

 

You, the living bread, have given

your life for the life of the world.

 

We who eat your bread cannot ignore

the lives of others who live in your world.

 

Open our eyes, that we may see how many

have no bread.  Open our eyes to see how

 

the poor are despoiled, how the needy groan.  Rise up,

O God; place them in the safety for which they long.

 

The day is distant when all will share, that all may eat.

The day is distant, but it is a day you have promised.

 

May we see the promise, greet it, and work

toward the day when you will bring it to be.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 12; 146; 36; 7

Gen. 21:1-21

Heb. 11:13-22

John 6:41-51

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 12:5

“Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,

            I will now rise up,” says the LORD;

            “I will place them in the safety for which they long.”

 

Gen. 21:19a

Then God opened [Hagar’s] eyes and she saw a well of water.

 

Heb. 11:13a

All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.

 

John 6:50-51

“…This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  [Jesus to the crowd that had come looking for him]


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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