56C*
A Call to Worship
Pentecost 16C [Ordinary 24C] or [Proper 19C] 2010
Psalm 14

O Lord our God, we come to worship you!
You search our hearts, our minds and
our lives for signs of confidence in you:
Lord, encourage our faltering faith and
our witness to you within a corrupt world.

O Lord our God, you search our hearts,
our minds and our lives for signs that justice
is our motivation for our opinions and actions:
Lord, empower us to show the signs of your justice,
to offset the ruthless destroyers of innocence.

O Lord our God, you search our hearts,
our minds and our lives for signs of spiritual maturity:
Lord, renew us so that once again we can be
a beacon of your truth in a sceptical world.
Come, let us worship God. Amen.

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Prayers of Confession
Pentecost 16C [Ordinary 24C] or [Proper 19C] 2010
Psalm 14

Lord God of all time, space and creation, you are all-powerful!
With heavy hearts we bring to you our confession of failure
as your representative people placed in your world.
God of all goodness, the ‘world’ cries out that there is no God,
and their living shows the absence of goodness within them.

God, we confess that you have not been the central influence
in our life, and the motivating force for any of our actions;
and that we have not made the level of commitment necessary
to be a true follower of God’s way in our neighbourhood.

We confess that we have not been confident of our faith in God,
and that because of that, our witness has been half-hearted.

We confess that we have been contaminated by the values
of the ‘world’; and that we have been influenced by the loud
noises of the world’s doubters and those who deny God’s reality;
or even the ever-living presence of God in their lives.

We confess that our priorities have been materialistic and self-centred—
that we have not thought or acted to relieve the plight of people
less fortunate than ourselves. All we have cared about is ‘me’.

Hear our confessions, O Lord our God, and by your grace and
mercy, welcome us back within the family of your faithful people;
so that once again, we may joyfully declare the wonders of God’s
blessings, and to be a living testament to the reality of God’s presence.

Declaration of Forgiveness

There is nothing to fear. God does offer renewal.
God’s goodness is wider than our self-centredness.
God’s generosity is greater than the ‘world’s’ ignorance.
God’s mercy is beyond all we can imagine
God is our everlasting Refuge.
God heals and forgives us.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Pentecost 16C [Ordinary 24C] or [Proper 19C] 2010
Psalm 14

O Lord my God, hear my cry for help! Can you hear me
above the loud and raucous sounds of disbelieving people,
who recklessly claim that there is no God; that the concept
of a universal God is irrelevant to them and their life; or
that it is just superstitious nonsense for the weak-minded.



The ‘world’ says that power and wealth is all that matters;
that it is everyone for themselves these days; and that
the person on ‘the top of the heap’ is the one who has
‘made it’, regardless of who they have trampled on their
way to the top. Will the ‘world’ ever learn from its own history?



O Lord my God, you created humanity in your image
with your goodness impregnated into each person
in the very depths of their beings, but what has happened?
Goodness has been trampled by evil and corruption;
care of the weak and vulnerable is considered as wasted
resources; the beauty of innocence as something for
depraved pleasures; and ignorance and intolerance
something for which we should be boastfully proud!



O Lord, do not give up on us! Be our refuge in troubled times.
Come to us with your saving grace and power; so that once
again, people will know God through their personal experiences;
and that the God of justice, mercy and peace has always been present
in the world in the hearts and lives of God’s faithful people.



Come amongst us again, my God. Give me a real sense of your
vital presence active in the world so that once again I will see justice
flowing like a mighty river, cleansing the evil contamination from
the voices of the ‘world’; and that once more the glory of God’s reality
will be revealed and recognised, in the lives of God’s faithful people.

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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:
© 2010 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year C. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost16[24]c_2010

© 2010 Joan Stott - " The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year C