56B*
A Call to Worship
Pentecost 16B [Ordinary 24B] or [Proper 19B] 2012
Psalm 19

We come to worship the Lord our God who has spoken to us in
so many ways - giving us life, love, beauty, and rules to live by.
Communicating God, today we gather to worship and praise you.

Creating God, you have surrounded us with beauty, comfort,
mercy, compassion and forgiveness, and today we worship you.
God, our Beginning and our End, you give meaning to life and
love through your involvement with us, and for all this we thank you.

Sustaining God, you have blessed us with a body, heart, mind
and soul that yearns to be in relationship with our Great Creator.
God, you are the Fountain of grace, and you call us to respond
to your invitation to be at one with you; and so as God’s own
people, today we come to worship you with open souls and minds. Amen.

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Prayers of Praise and Trust
Pentecost 16B [Ordinary 24B] or [Proper 19B] 2012
Psalm 19

Wise and Holy God, we come in humble yet grateful prayer, to praise
and thank you for trusting humanity with the glories of your creation;
and for giving frail and fallible people the honour and privilege of taking
responsibility for your gift of our planet Earth. All that is beyond the realm
of this planet is too complex for our human mind and intellect, but we
can still glory in its infinite wonders, and these physical wonders are
just one way our God speaks with us. Yet we do not need any words to
tell us of the majesty, power and might of the Glorious and Creating God
of all things - visible and invisible, implied and mysterious, heard and silent.

Awe-inspiring God, the Source of all truth and wisdom, you have gifted
humanity with the truth about yourself - as we are capable of receiving it.
You have expressed the wonder and beauty of yourself in creation, and
we can only marvel at it all; and the timeless wonder of your revelations
have inspired people of all cultures, traditions and customs to find meaning
and purpose in life on this our planet. We rejoice and give thanks for this
generosity, and for the purity of truth and wisdom found in God’s laws that
are beyond the capacity of our minds; and the love born within our hearts
and souls which enables us to respond to the infinite wisdom of our God.

Healing God, you have gifted us with capacity to understand that we often
fail to reach our full potential as God would have us become, and the
gracious gift of God’s forgiving and healing mercy enables us keep on
trying to do better and to more fully worship and serve our God in the
places where we have been placed. Glorious God, may the words of our
mouths, the working of our minds, the varied emotions within our hearts
be acceptable to you, O Lord, you, who are our Rock and Redeemer. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Pentecost 16B [Ordinary 24B] or [Proper 19B] 2012
Psalm 19

Creating God, every night I look to your heavens to see if your
stars are visible, but lately, they have been covered or hidden
by heavy clouds; yet I know that our moon, stars and planets are
still there circling around each other, gifting us all with an image
of something so much more mysterious than our imagination;
so much more beautiful that we can dream of; and so much
older than we can understand. These heavenly miracles were
orbiting within the universe before God’s Laws were handed
over to Moses; and long before Abraham trusted God enough
to go on his faith-inspired journey into the unknown. Despite all
this, I have no concept of the time or reality of these heavenly
bodies, so all I can do is say “Thank you” to my Wonderful God.



The Psalmist also wrote about anyone’s inability to “hide” from
the heat of the sun, and later of anyone’s inability to hide our
sinfulness from the heat of God’s justice, love and mercy. And yet
whatever or wherever we try to hide from God, the communication
lines between God and ourselves always remain open, with God’s
wordless messages being sent and pronounced daily - if we only
have the open heart, mind and soul to discern and respond to
them with a sense of deep gratitude, acceptance and commitment.



As I offer my acts of worship to God, I am in awe of the diverse
ways God’s self is revealed to me. Throughout my entire life I have
never had such an experience of the awesome presence of God as
I did when I visited the amazing “Temple of the Reclining Buddha”
in Bangkok! My stunned reactions to that experience have always
puzzled me, and whether I was blessed with as gift of openness
of spirit, or a combination of many external things - I will never know—
all I do know is that, in those brief moments of time in my life, God
was extraordinarily close to me in an awe-inspired moment of worship.
I give thanks for that special revelation of the mystery that is God.

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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: pentecost16[24]b_2012.pdf

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