58A*
A Call to Worship
Pentecost 16A [Ordinary 26A] or [Proper 21A] 2014
Psalm 78: 1-4, 12-16

Eternal God, we gather to worship you and to learn from you.
God of all the Ages: “We shall listen, Lord, to your teaching…”¹

Remembering God, we gather to praise you and to listen to you.
Covenanting God: we will indeed “…heed the words of your mouth.”¹

Faithful God, we gather to thank you for your past mercies and for the
blessings we receive from you here in this place of worship and praise.
We respond in faith: “It is good to trust in the Lord our God, [to] trust
and hope in the Lord our God… O Lord, how great are your works...!² Amen.

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Psalm 78: 1-4, 12-16
A psalm of Asaph.

1 O my people, listen to my teaching.
Open your ears to what I am saying,
2 for I will speak to you in a parable.
I will teach you hidden lessons from our past –
3 stories we have heard and know,
stories our ancestors handed down to us.
4 We will not hide these truths from our children
but will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD.
We will tell of his power and the mighty miracles he did.

12 The miracles he did for their ancestors in Egypt, on the plain of Zoan.
13 For he divided the sea before them and led them through!
The water stood up like walls beside them!
14 In the daytime he led them by a cloud,
and at night by a pillar of fire.
15 He split open the rocks in the wilderness
to give them plenty of water, as from a gushing spring.
16 He made streams pour from the rock,
making the waters flow down like a river!

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Prayers of Confession and Petition
Pentecost 16A [Ordinary 26A] or [Proper 21A] 2014
Psalm 78: 1-4, 12-16

Eternal God, we gather to worship you and to learn from you about the
ways you have blessed and guided your people in the past; and for the
way that gracious mercy has continued to this day. However, O God, we
confess that we do not always listen to your words of encouragement or
your words of warning or rebuke! So often we think that we have heard all
those words before, and that we have still managed to get along all right—
without too many problems. Merciful God, your words and ways will always
remain a mystery to us however many times that we have experienced or
heard them, because we do not treat them as a sacred lesson or memory,
which teaches us about the truth of your life-giving presence here with us.

Covenanting God, help us to listen and learn from our past memories about
the ways the God of the sacred promises has always fulfilled those promises.
Forgive us for thinking that we are far too sophisticated to believe that God’s
abiding presence can be discerned and acted upon in and through the natural
world; and that that long-ago day-time cloud and that night-time pillar of fire
could ever again be a sign to us of God’s guiding presence. Give us the eyes
to see, the ears to hear, the spirit of discernment, and the minds to understand
and interpret the messages of those signs and symbols of past generations;
and to believe that there will always be God’s signs and symbols to be seen
in this and future generations. Forgive us all for our narrow minds and spirits.

Faithful God, however you bless and challenge us in these days with lessons,
words, signs or symbols, or natural miracles as ways for you to communicate
with us, may we be trusting and faithful to you in our responses. Forgive us for
assuming that the “age of miracles” is now over; that the power of the Creating
God has somehow been diminished or made redundant; that the power of God’s
unchanging word will never be heard again; or that God has even given up on
us because of the state of our world today! “O my people, listen to my teaching.
Open your ears to what I am saying, for I will speak to you…I will teach you...” Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Pentecost 16A [Ordinary 26A] or [Proper 21A] 2014
Psalm 78: 1-4, 12-16

I belong to a world-wide women’s organisation who have is their motto:
“To know Christ and to make Christ known”. However, I believe that “to
know Christ”, you need to learn to first learn to know God, so that Christ—
as God’s fulfilment – can teach all us the lessons we need to learn about
God’s-Own-Self. Through many centuries, there were long journeys to be
experienced – literally and theologically - as they explored and learned what
it meant to be the “people of God”; what it meant to trust in God’s guidance
and care of them, so that they could eventually know their “own story”. That
story of discovery is recorded in many of the psalms as a gradual growth in
understanding of the various aspects of God’s Being, such as God the Creator
(Psalm 8); God as Shepherd (23); God as people’s Strength and Security (71
and 91); God as people’s greatest Hope (103) and God as people’s Intimate
Companion (Psalm 139). The Prophets also added to the learning processes,
with their added promise of God’s Messiah, who would finally come amongst
humanity to teach them, and personally live out the lessons on knowing God.



The daily practice of reciting to their children their own spiritual history was
an important element in preserving for future generations their special identity
as “the people of God”. God’s responses to those people’s many and varied
failings were: “O my people, listen to my teaching. Open your ears to what I
am saying… I will teach you hidden lessons from our past - stories we have
heard and know, stories our ancestors handed down to us…” Every generation
has to make their own personal and individual discoveries of who God is for
them; and for each member of their own generation to also resolve to fulfill the
following promise: “…We will not hide these truths from our children but will tell
the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord.….” The real challenge
for each member of every succeeding generation is not only to “tell” that story,
but also to authentically “live” out that story in their daily life in “their” world!



The latter part of the text lists some of the defining “saving acts” of God for the
people of Israel during their slow formation as a nation living under God’s Law—
as they sought to fulfil their destiny as “the people of God”! Surely, not everyone’s
personally defining moments or miracles are as spectacular as the ones described
in that psalm, but if we have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the minds to
understand, discern and interpret the signs and symbols around us as literally
special reminders of God’s abiding presence with us, we will indeed be blessed.



1 From “Together in Song” #41
“We shall listen, Lord, to your teachings”
Used with Permission,
United Methodist Publishing House, Nashville.
Word of Life International Licence #2425

2 From “Together in Song” #50
“It is good to trust in the Lord our God”
By Jacques Berthier 1923-94
© Ateliers et Presses de Taizé Ltd
Used with Permission,
Word of Life International Licence #2425T

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Acknowledgements:
Unless stated otherwise, all Bible readings and extracts used in these weekly Prayers and
Meditations are from the ‘New Living Translation’, © 1996. Copyright. All rights reserved.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189 USA.

*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:
© 2014 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year A. Used with permission.

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

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost16[26]a_2014.pdf

© 2014 Joan Stott - " The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year A