28B*
A Call to Worship
Maundy Thursday Year B 2012
Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19

Listening God, we praise you for teaching us about
your listening ear, and how to love and serve you.
We gather this day in response to the way you hear
our prayers, and we offer our sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Holy God, we praise you for teaching us about worship
and reverence of you, and how to love and serve you.
We gather this day in response to your warm welcome
to everyone, and we offer our sacrifice of joyous praise.

Love-engendering God, we praise you for teaching us
about love and loving, and how to love and serve you.
We gather this day in response to your tender care,
your attentive listening, and for your generous actions—
and we offer to you our sacrifice of renewed commitment. Amen.

---

Prayers of Thankfulness
Maundy Thursday Year B 2012
Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19

Grace-giving, grace sharing God, we gather today to
praise and thank you, to worship, honour and revere
you because you are the God who understand us; who
comes near to us in our needs, and who accepts us,
even when we have failed everyone that is dear to us.
Loving God, we want to respond to you in ways that
express our gratitude and thankfulness for the patient
and loving mercy of God, that we experience each day.

Yet, what can we really offer to God that is a fitting and
suitable sacrifice of praise when we are here present with
so many people, when it is often our very personal needs
that have been met by God? All we can do in response, is
to rejoice in the fact that we are precious to God, and that
God has a lively and living involvement with us, and in what
we offer to God as a personal and joint sacrifice of praise.

Inspirational God, we give thanks that you do accept our
flawed and often inadequate worship and praise; and that
you encourage us in our growth in understanding of God
and God’s holy ways, so that we can indeed lift of the cup
of praise and thankfulness to the honour and glory of our God. Amen.

---

A Personal Meditation
Maundy Thursday Year B 2012
Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19

Listening God, I am so grateful that you are always near me,
ready to receive my offerings of worship and praise. Like those
people who follow the ancient practice of literally raising their cup
as a symbol of thankfulness and praise, I, too, lift up my cup in
a toast to God’s saving mercy and grace. These ancient followers
of God raised their cup after reading special records from holy
scriptures about God’s creative powers, and they recalled God’s
saving actions of past generations. I raise my cup in thanksgiving
before God and before God’s people, for God’s gifts to me that
have given my life purpose, meaning, dignity and value in service.



Responding God, it has been suggested by learned scholars that
‘crying’ or ‘calling’ on the name of the Lord actually means yelling at
God. Somehow, to me that does not seem very reverent or worshipful
to yell at God, and yet I believe that people often yell at God in their
anguish and pain! Perhaps I have never walked in their shoes, or
suffered their deep torments, for which I am so grateful. I am reminded
by the Psalmist that God’s people are very precious to God, and that
their welfare is important to God. I hope and pray that as I worship
God in private and within a community, that I am able to honour and
serve God in ways that are appropriate and bring honour to God’s name.



Accepting God, I offer to you, privately and amongst my community
of colleagues and friends, a commitment to regularly raising the cup
in praise and thankfulness for all God’s loving mercy and grace, and
for giving me this life of worship, witness and service - with all its
human mistakes, weakness and fallibility - but with a heart and mind
that desires to love and serve my Lord for of all my remaining days.

---

Acknowledgements:
Unless stated otherwise, all Bible readings and extracts used in these weekly Prayers and Meditations are from
‘The New Revised Standard Version’ Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

*The additional weekly numbering is from the Revised COCU Indexing Scheme
COCU = ('Consultation on Church Union'); as it offers an easy sequential numbering
for the Revised Common Lectionary for the Church Calendar.

If any part of these Prayers and/or Meditations is used in shared worship, please provide
the following acknowledgement:
© 2012 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year B. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: maundy_thursdayb_2012.pdf

© 2012 Joan Stott - " The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year B