46C*
A Call to Worship
Pentecost 6C [Ordinary 14C] or [Proper 9C] 2010
Psalm 30
O Lord our God, we join together to praise you!We have been so blessed by God’s goodness!
Together we will sing our praises to the Lord our God,
as we cannot be silent before such love and mercy!
We have struggled with many of life’s challenges,
and been troubled by unexpected stumbling blocks.
But with joy, we celebrate the fulfilment of our
gracious God’s promised presence and blessings.
Through the Lord, our great Healer, we have been
healed of the disabling pains of distress and fear.
With joy we come together to honour our holy God
who releases us from the captivity of panic and fear. Amen.
Prayers of Thankfulness
Pentecost 6C [Ordinary 14C] or [Proper 9C] 2010
Psalm 30
Let the community of people with faith in God join togetherto sing their praises and offer their prayers to the Lord our God!
Let the people of God celebrate with joy the wonderful mercies
of our God, who frees us from all that imprisons us and restricts us
from being God’s true follower! Let us praise God’s holy name!
We each have had experiences when we have cried out to God
in our anxiety, our confusion and bewilderment; when we believed
that all we held dear to our existence was under threat; and when
our health, and even our life itself was in danger of being taken!
However, God’s mercy has sustained us in these times of struggle.
Yet, in our pride and arrogance we have not always listened to God’s
commands as we should; we have neglected to nurture our faith in God;
nor have we listened for God’s words to us. When we were not fully
attentive to God and our faith grew weak , we foolishly thought God
was absent, gone forever, or perhaps God was even angry with us.
We were arrogant enough to wonder if God could manage without us!
Despite our foolishness and self-indulgent views, God heard our cries
of distress and fear - and reached out with the warm arms of love and
forgiveness; humbling us with the overflowing streams of forgiveness.
Loving God, just when all had seemed dark; when anguished tears
filled our seemingly interminable nights as we struggled to survive—
then the morning light came – and with it joy and new hope! Let us
all rejoice in the security that God’s love and blessings brings to us.
Healing God, now our dark shrouds of fear have been tossed away!
The keys of your love have unlocked our self-imposed prisons;
and the longed-for freedom in God is now our joyful experience.
Now we can put on our dancing shoes in praise of our Great God!
Let us rejoice in the light-giving, life-giving mercies of our God. Amen.
A Personal Meditation
Pentecost 6C [Ordinary 14C] or [Proper 9C] 2010
Psalm 30
O Lord my God – how wonderful you are – how merciful!I want to share my joy with anyone who will listen to my
songs of praise; and to my happiness at the way my freeing
God has released me from all my self-imposed burdens.
| Creative pause: | Released from self-imposed problems. |
O God, I even had the audacity to consider that I belonged
amongst the company of your especially good and godly people!
What pride and arrogance! What an overgrown ego I had
developed; just because God had blessed me! I was even
disrespectful enough to think that God needed my many skills!
| Creative pause: | The stupidity and foolishness of pride. |
Then I came crashing back to earth when reality set in again—
and I was once again the weak-kneed person who is so
desperately dependent on God’s grace and mercy. O God,
how could I be foolish enough to imagine that I can manage
my life, my relationships, and loving and living all by myself!
| Creative pause: | A reality check is a good idea. |
In my ignorance of God’s ways, I even thought that God had
abandoned me - had given up on me - that God considered that
I was not worth bothering about, and had forgotten me! How little
did I understand our God who is all compassion and mercy!
How meagre was my belief in our God’s compassion and love!
| Creative pause: | How little do I understand God! |
Rejoice with me! I still have much to learn about my God, but I do
know this! God has turned my mourning and sadness into joy—
and turned my tearful nights into mornings of hope and freedom!
So now I am again filled with enthusiasm for life! My God is near!
Whether I recognise God’s presence or not, I know God is there
for me whatever happens in life or in death! I just have to trust
and believe in God’s holy presence, which never leaves or fails me.
| Creative pause: | Nights of tears turn to mornings of joy and hope. |
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: pentecost6[14]c_2010.pdf