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.

Lord, No One Is Too Small--March 20, 2022

[From March 15, 2020 archive]

 

O Lord God of hosts,

even the sparrow finds a home with you, 

even the swallow makes her nest there.

No one is too small for your love, 

no one is too unimportant.

 

To deal with our sin, you sent your own Son— 

who told us to care for the least important— 

and you granted your Son a life with you. 

 

In peace now all can go up to be

with Father and Son.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 84; 150; 42; 32

Gen. 44:1-17

Rom. 8:1-10

John 5:25-29

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 84:3

Even the sparrow finds a home,
          and the swallow a nest for herself,
          where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O LORD of hosts,
          my King and my God.

 

Gen. 44:17

But [Joseph] said [to his brothers], “Far be it from me that I should do so!  Only the one in whose possession the cup was found shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

 

Rom. 8:3

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh…

 

John 5:26

“…For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself…” [Jesus, to those who sought to kill him]


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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