14B*
A Call to Worship
Epiphany 6B [Ordinary 6B] or [Proper 1B] 2015
Psalm 30

God of all hope and responsiveness, we come to celebrate your listening grace.
Responsive God, you have heard our cries of pain, and blessed us with release.

God of all trust and renewal, we come to worship and rejoice in your merciful love.
Trustworthy God, we called to you in honesty and openness, and you redirected us.

God of all healing and wholeness, we come together to share in God’s good news—
God is present with us - regardless of all our fears and anxieties – God is there too.
“...Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! Praise his holy name...” As individuals within
a community of faith, we come to praise you, for you “...clothed me with joy, that I might
sing praises to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!” Amen.

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Psalm 30
A psalm of David. A song for the dedication of the Temple.

1 I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me.
You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you restored my health.
3 You brought me up from the grave, O Lord.
You kept me from falling into the pit of death.

4 Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! Praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime!
Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.

6 When I was prosperous, I said, “Nothing can stop me now!”
7 Your favour, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain.
Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.
8 I cried out to you, O Lord. I begged the Lord for mercy, saying,
9 “What will you gain if I die, if I sink into the grave?
Can my dust praise you? Can it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me. Help me, O Lord.”

11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
12 that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!

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Prayers of Confession and Trust
Epiphany 6B [Ordinary 6B] or [Proper 1B] 2015
Psalm 30

Trustworthy God, we come to you with open hearts and minds, very conscious
that we have failed to live even by our own standards of faith and belief, especially
when you trust us to be more faithful to you than we have been. We confess our
failings to you and share with you our regrets for our selfish concerns; our blind
hope and belief that life will always be kind for us; and that we will always manage
to come out on top of any problems. We now know that is not true, because we
have fallen into troubled times. In our own little realm of self-indulgent conceit, we
have been naive in our grand expectations; and foolish in our pride to just imagine
that God cannot do without our wisdom and skills to fulfil all the purposes of God!
God of steadfast love, Almighty Lord of all creation - we pray - have mercy on us.

God of all hope and responsiveness, we come to celebrate your listening grace,
and the way we can honestly confess our failings to you; and know that you are
listening and understanding our regrets for the ways we have failed and continue
to fail - believing that we know what is best for everyone else. In humble trust and
thankfulness for God’s loving-kindness and tender mercies, we gather to recommit
ourselves to worshipping, loving and serving our God; and to seek to learn from
this descent into deep despair and sorrow at our failures. Renew and revitalise
us, so that we can throw off the heavy burdens of our guilt - and dance before you
with joy; singing and praising our God for all God’s generous mercies and blessings!
God of steadfast love, Almighty Lord of all creation - we pray - have mercy on us.

Healing God, we join with the psalmist in his anguish as he cried out: “...Then you
turned away from me, and I was shattered. I cried out to you, O Lord. I begged the
Lord for mercy..” How well we know that “shattered” feeling! We join in that plea for
a return to God’s merciful forgiveness. Help us O God, never to forget this sense of
failure, so that it becomes a reminder to us not only of how easily we fail; but also as
a permanent reminder of God’s all-encompassing and generous mercy towards us all.
God of steadfast love, Almighty Lord of all creation -we pray - have mercy on us;
and forgive us of all our sinfulness. Let us never be silent; and sing our praises
to our God. Thanks be to God, our Lord and Liberator, that we are forgiven,
restored and blessed. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Epiphany 6B [Ordinary 6B] or [Proper 1B] 2015
Psalm 30

This very honest psalmist sang: “...When I was prosperous, I said, ‘Nothing
can stop me now!’ Your favour, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain.
Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered...” In his own arrogance
he came to what I call a personal “black spot” and he disintegrated! A traffic
or accident “black spot” is a place where historically, traffic accidents regularly
occur. There are varying viewpoints about methods to reduce these accidents,
also with varying degrees of success. The psalmist’s “black spot” was his pride
and arrogance – and not being willing to give God any of the credit and praise!



We each have our specific “black spot” where time after time, we are tripped up,
and we have to pause and “handle” our own personal crises. Often these are
relationship-based, and the way we think we have people “summed up”; and we
“know” what they need or want. Another “black spot” in relationships is the one
where we leave God out of that equation because “I want to do it my way”! Or the
situations that we are so familiar with where we do not properly prepare ourselves
and suddenly again, we have another sticky situations through our own arrogance!



Spiritual “black spots” are similar to personal ones, but they are usually much more
important and also more challenging. We know the things, thoughts and pastimes
to which we are vulnerable; the fads and fancies that creep up on us, and because
“everyone” is doing them, we can become so easily trapped. If we do not monitor
their influences on us, they become very dangerous to our spiritual health! However,
some of those spiritual “black spots” could even be miracles of God’s grace at work
in our lives, when God simply asks of us that we confess our failings, and to humbly
ask for God’s help, forgiveness and blessing. That generous grace of God’s becomes
life changing; and with God’s help, we are able to dodge those difficult “black spots”.

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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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