43A*
A Call to Worship
After Pentecost 2A [Ordinary 11A] or [Proper 6A] 2017
Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19

We come today to revere and honour the God who gifts us with holy freedom.
We come today to worship the God, who bends down to listen to our prayers.

We come in joy-filled celebration to bless our God, who in love hears our cries.
We come today to offer our thanks for God’s generous and gracious blessings.

We come today to worship and praise our God, who bends down to be near to
us in tender compassion; and who hears and responds to our prayers and cries.
We come today to reaffirm before the people of our own community of faith, our
renewed commitment to love and serve God with all the gifts God has blessed us.

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Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19

1 I love the LORD because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy.
2 Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!

12 What can I offer the LORD for all he has done for me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and praise the LORD’s name for saving me.
14 I will keep my promises to the LORD in the presence of all his people.
15 The LORD cares deeply when his loved ones die.
16 O LORD, I am your servant;
yes, I am your servant, born into your household; you have freed me from my chains.
17 I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.
18 I will fulfil my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people—
19 in the house of the LORD in the heart of Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!

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Prayers of Trust and Thankfulness
After Pentecost 2A [Ordinary 11A] or [Proper 6A] 2017
Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19

Welcoming God, we come today to worship the God, who bends down to be near
us and who inclines God’s-Own ear to hear our prayers. We honour and revere the
God who blesses us with a holy freedom to worship our God - even if sometimes
our praises and prayers are offered in secrecy. Reliable God, we give thanks to you
for the compassionate understanding that flows from the depths of God’s-Own-Self,
as in trust we offer up our responses to God’s love and mercy. The sacrifices we offer
to God may be only be a poor token of our love and our desire to honour our God; but
again, we give thanks that God already knows our circumstances; and blesses us so
abundantly in ways that inspire and guide us in our faith pilgrimage. “...Praise the LORD!”

Faithful God, we come in joy-filled celebration to bless our God, who in love hears all
our cries. We have been so blessed by God and we come as a community of faith to
give our thanks to our Generous and Gracious God. We have so many different needs;
so many different circumstances; so many failings and strengths; and so little wisdom
at times; yet God knows and responds to our cries; and for this we are so grateful and
we have been so very blessed. We give thanks for our heritage of faith, gifted to us by
God, and for the many stories and experiences from the past and present that have
enriched our shared faith and trust in the God of all ages and time. “...Praise the LORD!”

Responding God, we come today to worship and praise our God, who is near to us in
tender compassion; and who hears and responds to our prayers and cries. Loving God,
we give you thanks for the communities of faith who have placed their hope and trust in
you since the dawn of enlightening and understanding; even as they struggled to under-
stand who and what was this wondrous Being - God’s-Own-Self – and who through the
ages has revealed more and more to receptive people. We give thanks that now we know
that if we want to know about God, that we look to Jesus, the ultimate revelation of God.
It is in that limited knowledge that we come today, to reaffirm before the people of our own
community of faith, our renewed commitment to love and serve God with all the gifts God
has blessed us. And so we offer to God the “...sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the
name of the LORD...” All praise be to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “...Praise the LORD!” Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
After Pentecost 2A [Ordinary 11A] or [Proper 6A] 2017
Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19

The psalmist sang his glad song of liberation: “...you have freed me from my chains...”
but what were those chains from which he was liberated? He recognised that he was
the LORD’s servant, but just what did that entail? In cultures other than my own, I have
been a guest in households who have had servants, and at times they seemed to be
treated more like slaves than servants. What bothered me most about that was that
their ‘service’ was never apparently recognised or appreciated by their mistress! To
me, their chains of servitude seemed very heavy; but maybe not to them, as they
were probably glad to have the status of being a servant in a prestigious household!



What does being the LORD’s servant mean and what chains bound him to the LORD?
It appears that the chains that bound him were the chains of an anticipated death—
and that God had acted to deliver him from that threat. The response of the one who
was now delivered through God’s grace and mercy, was to offer a sacrifice of praise
“...and of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD...” He also promised to fulfil
his earlier vows to God before witnesses in the “...house of the LORD in Jerusalem...!”
The psalmist was committed to a life-time’s service to the LORD which would include
obeying the commandments and the Law of Moses. To the psalmist, that was freedom—
freedom to celebrate God in ways he thought was appropriate and relevant for him as
a response to God. How do you choose to celebrate God’s great goodness towards you?



That sense of glad freedom is for me expressed in one of Joy Cowley’s earlier prayers
as she wrote: “You big, bright, beautiful Creator God. / This is my day for flying! / I reach
out to the bigness of you. I touch the brightness of you / and I feel the beauty of you / in
the centre of my living. / Today you bear me up, up, / past my doubts about both of us, /
to the certainty of your love /… Today I fly / and I am dissolved in you…!”¹ The concept
of flight is for me the ultimate physical freedom – not in aeroplanes – but like birds soaring
on the currents of the wind, like the wedge-tailed eagles I recently saw in Tasmania. Both
Joy Cowley and the psalmist were talking about spiritual freedom within God’s deep love!



1 Words by Joy Cowley from “I fly!”
“Aotearoa Psalms” © 1989
Published by Pleroma, NZ
Used with personal permission.

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Acknowledgements:
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation,
copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

*Revised Indexing Scheme from 'Consultation on Church Union' (COCU).

I acknowledge and give heartfelt thanks for the theological help and inspiration so frequently available from the writings of Professor Walter Brueggemann and Professorial brothers Rolf and Karl Jacobson; and the resources from "The Text this Week" (Textweek).

If the Prayers and/or Meditation are used in shared worship, please provide this acknowledgement:
© 2017 Joan Stott –‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year A. Based on verses from Psalm 116.
Used with permission.

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

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: pentecost2[11]a_2017.pdf