18B*
A Call to Worship
Ash Wednesday, Year B 2015
Psalm 51: 1-17

Calling God, you invite us into your community of faith, love and acceptance.
We come, because we need the love and acceptance that God’s mercy gives us.

Welcoming God, we come to worship you, bringing with us our human needs.
We come, because our God welcomes us into God’s fellowship of forgiveness.

Responding God, we come to worship you, not because we have any financial
or social significance; but because God’s great compassion is for needy people.
We come in humble sorrow as we lament our failures as God’s people, who have
promised to honour, revere and love our Faithful God; and we have failed again.
Because of your great compassion, cleanse and blot out the stain of our sinfulness. Amen.

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Psalm 51: 1-17
For the choir director:
A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet
came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.
2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.
3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.
4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.
5 For I was born a sinner—yes,
from the moment my mother conceived me.

6 But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.
7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me,
and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me—now let me rejoice.
9 Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you.
14 Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves;
then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.
15 Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you.
16 You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

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Prayers of Lament and Confession
Ash Wednesday, Year B 2015
Psalm 51: 1-17

Calling God, you invite us into your community of faith, love and acceptance where
the inexhaustible love and compassionate mercy of God accepts us as we are; and
we come in worship, because we need that love and acceptance that God’s mercy
gives to us. We pause, as we lament our failures and our faithlessness towards God,
and we cling to God’s many promises, whose “...love of God is broader than the
measure of our mind; and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind...”¹ We
come in worship of God this day, because we know we are welcomed back into God’s
community of forgiven people; even as we celebrate that kindness and mercy of God,
and offer our many confessions! Do not banish us from your presence, and don’t take
your Holy Spirit away from us; because we do recognise our rebellious natures, which
haunt us every day and night. O Lord, hear our prayers and grant us your forgiveness.

Responding God, we come to worship you, not because we have any social status,
or any financial significance before God; but because we know the breadth and depth
of God’s forgiving love. Forgive us again, Merciful God, that we make our faith journey
more difficult than it need be because of our expectations that our smug behaviour
and our prideful posturing will gain us acceptance from you; and that God will look with
favour on such actions and attitudes as “...we make [God’s] love too narrow by false
limits of our own, and we magnify [God’s] strictness with a zeal [God] will not own...”¹
Listening God, remind us once more of your special love and compassion for needy
people, and help each of us to humbly renew our commitment to always love you.

Welcoming God, we come to worship you, bringing with us our very human needs for
your love and acceptance, because we know from past experience that as we confess
our sin; as we admit to our rebellion against people and against godly living; and to own
and acknowledge the evil that has crept so secretively into our minds. We come to God
in humble sorrow, knowing that we have failed again; and that God asks for a repentant
heart and mind, rather than any offers of lavish sacrificial giving. We confess that we have
failed as one of God’s own people who had promised to love our Faithful God, and so our
Merciful God, hear our humble prayers; and grant us your forgiveness because of your
unfailing love towards erring humanity. We rejoice in the knowledge that God will always
welcome us back into God’s fellowship of forgiveness; and a renewed relationship with God. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Ash Wednesday, Year B 2015
Psalm 51: 1-17

Divorce is a very destructive process that is shadowed by guilt, and a sense
of personal failure for dishonouring commitments and vows – at least that is
my experience! I struggled for a long time before finally deciding to obtain a
divorce. There was no hope of reconciliation, and I am not sure I would feel
comfortable about trusting enough to try again anyway! A breakdown in any
relationship is fraught with traps, and fears of further rejections. For a number
of reasons, I have recently had problems with leading worship when the theme
is forgiveness, because I know whatever I say, I know I will be hypocritical in
my prayers or my sermon - which is something I will have to resolve for myself.
Psalm 51 presents its own challenges, but I hope I have been as honest as
was the psalmist before God! The psalmist cried: “...For I was born a sinner—
yes, from the moment my mother conceived me...” This was no “guilt trip” for
either himself or his mother – he was just stating his human condition – as a
sinner – the same as every other human being – and in need of God’s grace.



The honesty that enables us to “know” we have sinned can lead to a sense of
utter helplessness – and so how do we deal with that feeling? It is suggested
that the words “....Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I
will be whiter than snow...” arose from a ritual cleansing process whereby the
sinner voluntarily submits to a very public and actual physical scrubbing down,
as a symbol of their desire for a renewed purity of body, mind, spirit and heart.
Such actions underline the level of guilt, sorrow, pain and helplessness that sin
engenders within people; but despite such symbolic actions, it is only through
God’s gracious mercy that forgiveness and inner peace is ever personally gained.



Guilt is another awful burden to carry. I remember being in a group of people who
were asked how they physically responded to and about their sense of guilt, and
every person there clutched their “middle” – a sign of what guilt does to a person.
We tie ourselves up in knots over guilt and our sense of failure, which is based on
knowledge of ourself, because we know we have sinned; we admit it to ourself—
even if not ever to anyone else, that we have failed and “sinned”. We/I did all that
happened in that act of “sin”, yet Psalm 51 does not dwell on the actual guilt, but
rather, it highlights the sorrow, loss and sense of failure associated with that guilt.
In all the perfection and holiness that is God’s-Own-Being, we can still come to that
God, deeply stained as we are by sin, but also relying on the “...wideness of God’s
mercy [that is] like the wideness of the sea...”¹ to forgive and heal us all our guilt.



1 From “Together in Song” #136
There's a wideness in God's mercy
Words by Frederick William Faber 1814-63 alt.
Words in the Public Domain

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Acknowledgements:
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation,
copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

*Revised Indexing Scheme from 'Consultation on Church Union' (COCU).

I acknowledge and give heartfelt thanks for the theological inspiration available from the writings of
Professor Walter Brueggemann; and through the resources from the internet and “The Text this Week” (Textweek).

If the Prayers and/or Meditations are used in shared worship, please provide this acknowledgement:
© 2015 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year B. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au
www.thetimelesspsalms.net

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