62C*
A Call to Worship
Pentecost 23C [Ordinary 30C] or [Proper 25C] 2013
Psalm 65

Listening God, from the least to the last, you hear and answer our prayers.
We come to renew our vows to you and to worship and praise our Saving God.

Faithful God, you offer abiding hope to all who place their trust in you.
We come with joy to celebrate the blessedness of worshipping our God.

Forgiving God, you are indeed the hope of all people and all creation!
In your sanctuary amongst the people of God – we know your peace.
We come, “...though our hearts are filled with sins, you forgive them all..”
and in your mercy, Generous God, you have quietened our inner being.
Joyous praise and reverent honour is forever due to our Awesome God! Amen.

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Prayers of Thankfulness and Petition
Pentecost 23C [Ordinary 30C] or [Proper 25C] 2013
Psalm 65

Liberating God, we gather this day in the sanctuary to worship and praise
you. We celebrate together the covering over of our sinfulness - so that it
is no more – all wiped totally away through the gracious mercy of our God.
In response to this generosity, we renew our vows and commitments to
our Glorious God, whom we seek to honour and serve God all of our days.
In awe and silent wonder, we joyfully celebrate the miracles of God’s grace!
God’s daily creative miracles brings sheer delight to our human eyes, and
also to all creation, as it responds to its Creator. All creation celebrates with
us the glorious wonders of our Renewing, Sustaining and Reinvigorating God.

Answering God, we your people have cried out to you in our pain and anxiety.
We yearn for a transformation of your creation that is being damaged or brought
almost to destruction through humanity’s selfish misuse of the earth’s unique
and precious resources. Through God’s creative powers, we pray that God will
not only renew us and our sinful preoccupation with our own desires, but that
God will continue to renew and recreate the whole of creation. This is our hope
and our challenge - so that we, too, can do our part; so that all of creation can
legitimately give thanks for a partnership of love, hope, care and commitment.

Creating God, each day we see and experiences the miracles of God’s creative
love and power as the seasons change; as the days and nights become longer
or shorter; changes in temperatures and in the gardens; through the ebb and flow
of the seas’ tides as they reflect the cycles of the moon; and the daily yet ever-new
wonders of the sunrises and sunsets. Still-Creating God, it is because of these daily,
yet ever-new experiences of God as the Quiet Centre of all powers and majesty,
that we dare to hope, that we dare to dream that there is a better future for all of us.
In shared penitence, we need to turn back to our Merciful and Forgiving God, to
seek forgiveness of our shared sin-filled lives, so that once again, all creation can
celebrate together in a common purpose of seeking to know and thank our Holy God. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Pentecost 23C [Ordinary 30C] or [Proper 25C] 2013
Psalm 65

Holy God, you are not only the “Quiet Centre” in this noisy world, you are
also the “Still Centre” in my turning and challenging world. It is a great joy
and blessing to cling to these two descriptions when all around it noise and
confusion; when all around are questions demanding answers when there
is no simple answer; and when there are conflicting viewpoints urging us to
make choices when life-time choices and vows have already been made.
It is then that I take time-out to stroll through my garden, to see which new
miracle God has evolved since I last looked; to see which of the secret bulbs
have stretched up through the soil towards the sun; to count which camellia
tree has the most flowers; and to see which plant needs encouragement,
and which needs to be pruned. This partnership with the Creator puts
life back in balance, and I move once more, confident that God is in charge.



Having refreshed my spirit, I can then take that newly sustained energy into
the life of this world, and as one very small cog in the big wheel of this universe,
and I can leave all things in God’s tender care and to God’s delicate balancing.
I can also take that renewed spirit and confidence with me into worship, into my
relationships, and to my own personal and shared sinfulness. Psalm 65, a song
attributed to King David, who along with his people, gathered to praise God and
to seek in the holy sanctuary forgiveness for each person’s sin. In that sacred
space they discover once again, the joy of sin forgiven, the liberty of freed spirits,
and the shared experienced of God’s grace and mercy. The Psalmist likens their
release from sin to the abundance of creation at harvest time; or the stillness that
comes after a storm as sea; the awesome brilliance and beauty of the sunset at
the close of the day; or the brisk morning chill amidst the rosy glory of the sunrise.



Sounds and stillness echo through this Psalm! The thunderous noise of battle, and
the quiet silence of real peace; the shouts and songs of joy when
sin is forgiven , and the stillness of God’s holiness in worship. The celebrations
of harvest safely gathered, and the gentle patter of welcome rain on the furrowed
soil just waiting for the kiss of the Creator’s blessing in the seed hidden in the soil.

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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.

*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:
© 2013 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year C. Used with permission.

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

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost23[30]c_2013.pdf

© 2013 Joan Stott - " The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year C