51B*
A Call to Worship
Pentecost 11B [Ordinary 19B] or [Proper 14B] 2012
Psalm 130

Comforting God, we come together today to worship you
within this shared fellowship, and to help support each other.
Through God’s forgiving mercy, we know we do not stand alone.

Nurturing God, within the beauty of your holiness and peace, we
find the hope and strength to try lifting the weight of our darkness.
Through God’s sustaining grace, we know we do not stand alone.

Our God, who is the fountain of Love, we gather to be cleansed
of all that drags us down, and separates us from your presence.
Through God’s generous love, we know we do not stand alone. Amen.

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Prayers of Penitence and Confession
Pentecost 11B [Ordinary 19B] or [Proper 14B] 2012
Psalm 130

God of all peoples, we gather this day to worship you, even as
we are weighed down by a sense of regret and remorse, and
even a feeling of real guilt. Yet, being able to define of our sense
of guilt and remorse is often like a hazy feeling of incompletion.
We find it difficult to understand this deep sense of separation
and sinfulness, and the need to repent and confess. We know
deep in our hearts O God, that we have drifted away from God,
who has always been our Quiet and Calm Centre, and so, O God,
we come to you now, asking you to shift the burden of our guilt,
and accept us back into your presence and your forgiveness.

Awesome God, time after time you offer us your forgiveness, yet
we keep coming back to you in confession and penitence, seeking
your merciful forgiveness. Strange as it may seem, Gracious God,
the more frequently we come to you in remorse and penitence, the
more generous your forgiveness towards us seems to become. The
more repeatedly we come seeking your mercy and blessing, the
more your loving your tenderness towards us seems to become.
And the more we come to you, the more forgiving are your acts of
gracious mercy becomes towards us. Through this abundance of
God’s life-restoring, life-renewing forgiveness of our sin, the greater
and deeper our knowledge and love of God grows and develops.

God, the Great Hope of all peoples, we come today to you in prayer;
as we place our trust; our future; and hope in God’s grace for lives that
are rich and fruitful. We come, too, in the hope that our desire to worship
and praise our God all our days will continue to grow; because only in
worship and fellowship with our God will we experience life’s true joy, true
peace, and a true sense of belonging, and being God’s beloved children. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Pentecost 11B [Ordinary 19B] or [Proper 14B] 2012
Psalm 130

O Lord my Gracious God, I come to you today, feeling adrift in
a sea of uncertainty; and confused because of a sense of loss of
purpose and meaning to my life; and generally, feeling not quite
right with my loving God; and not even feeling right about the small
part of the world that is my home, and my place of involvement.
I don’t know whether I am imagining feeling distanced from people who
are normally seem close to me, or whether I have offended people.
I am filled with despair over this overwhelming sense of disconnection
and isolation, and I ask: “Why have things gone wrong in my life?



Is that old saying true: “If God seems distant, guess who moved?”
If I take that further, if people seem separated from me, who has
moved? If my world suddenly seems very small or narrow, who
reduced its size? If I am drifting in a sea of uncertainty and loss
of meaning and purpose, who pulled up the anchor? I think the
answer to all those questions is me! I am the one who has stepped
back from God; the one who has distanced myself from people;
and I am the person who allowed myself to retreat into a small world
centred around me! May my God and my friends forgive me; and
open my eyes, my heart and my mind again to life, living and loving!



As I seek to rise above the this sense of gloom and uncertainty, I look
in hope and expectation to my Ever-present God. How I long for a fresh
and challenging experience of life again; and how I long to be able to join
in worship again with an open and free spirit of praise and thankfulness!
I am so encouraged by the Psalmist who went from deep despair to hope!
He went from feeling that God was distant from him to the discovery that
God was present with him all the time, simply waiting to be recognised
and known, and overflowing with healing and forgiving love all the time!
My earnest prayer is that I, too, can make this same wonderful discovery!

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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: pentecost11[19]b_2012.pdf

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