39B*
A Call to Worship
Day of Pentecost, Year B 2015
Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b

Breath of God, we gather to celebrate the life and love you have given to us.
We give thanks for the renewing power of life and love that enriches our living.

Breath of God, we gather to rejoice in the wonders of your creative powers.
We joyfully celebrate the miracles of creation with which God has blessed us.

Breath of God, we gather to sing your praises and share together in prayers of
thankfulness for the glory of God, as we experience God’s presence amongst us.
We gather together in worship of our Creating God, giving thanks for the vitality
that brings new ideas and new understandings from God’s gifts to us of Life and Love. Amen.

Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b

24 O LORD, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of your creatures.
25 Here is the ocean, vast and wide, teeming with life of every kind, both large and small.
26 See the ships sailing along, and Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea.
27 They all depend on you to give them food as they need it.
28 When you supply it, they gather it.
You open your hand to feed them, and they are richly satisfied.

29 But if you turn away from them, they panic.
When you take away their breath, they die and turn again to dust.
30 When you give them your breath, life is created, and you renew the face of the earth.
31 May the glory of the LORD continue forever! The LORD takes pleasure in all he has made!
32 The earth trembles at his glance; the mountains smoke at his touch.
33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live. I will praise my God to my last breath!
34 May all my thoughts be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.

35b Praise the LORD!

Prayers of Thankfulness
Day of Pentecost, Year B 2015
Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b

Breath of God, we gather to celebrate the life and love you have given to us
as you breathed into us your gifts of Life and Love; and we offer to our God
our praises; and give thanks for the renewing power of that Life and Love which
enriches all of our living and life. We give thanks that God “takes pleasure in
all...” that God created and sustains, and we pray that we may be worthy of that
pleasure; and that our living and loving are a reflections of our God’s creativity.

Breath of God, we gather to rejoice in the wonders of your creative powers, and
we joyfully celebrate the miracles of creation with which God has blessed us.
In awed wonder, we give thanks that we can each day and night experience the
miracles of God’s gracious acts, and may we sing our praises to God for as long
as we have breath. We give thanks “For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of
the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies, Lord, our God,
to you we raise this our sacrifice of praise.1 Eternal thanks be to our Creating God.

Breath of God, we gather to sing your praises and share together in prayers of
praise and thankfulness for the glory of God, as we experience God’s presence
amongst us as Creator, Sustainer, Initiator and Liberator from all that holds us back
from living and loving as we were created to become. God, our Living Reality, we
give thanks “...For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind’s delight, for the
mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight. Lord, our God, to you we raise
this our sacrifice of praise....1 We ask, O God, that the thoughts of our minds; the
responses and hearts; and our actions as a result to these impulses are pleasing
to our Creating God, for we do indeed “...rejoice in the Lord,” always and forever. Amen.

A Personal Meditation
Day of Pentecost, Year B 2015
Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b

How do we celebrate the miracle of the gift of the breath of life, be it a human baby,
an animal, reptile, fish, insect or bird? In the natural world there always seems to be
an absolute extravagance of new life offered, for example in the spawning of fish; or
the abundance of fertilised eggs in other creative processes that provides an apparent
oversupply of new life. Is it because of the fragility of each life and the risks involved in
actually living that our Creating God has made compensation for failures to survive; as
each creature is often devoured either by its natural enemy or hunted down for human
consumption? I was recently told of the practice at a church-based hospital that whenever
a baby is born, as part of the thanksgiving process the entire hospital community – staff
and patients - are informed of that birth by the sound of a lullaby via their sound system.

Creative pause: How do you celebrate the miracle of the gift of the breath of life?


Being present when a person has just died is an incredibly holy experience, and in many
ways a great blessing, because one is in the presence of God in a unique way. Sitting
with a dying person is also an amazing privilege, as the breath of life slowly recedes. Yet,
how do we appropriately recognise and acknowledge the ceasing of breath in a human being,
when a unique life is completed, whether lived well or otherwise? How do we mourn or even
make sense of the apparently senseless and cruel death of a victim, whatever and whoever
was that victim? I always find great comfort from the words of Timothy Rees’ hymn: “...God
is love, and gently enfolding all the world in one embrace, with unfailing grasp is holding every
child of every race. And when human hearts are breaking under sorrow’s iron rod, then they
find that selfsame aching deep within the heart of God....”2 The Creating God to whom we offer
our praises, prayers and worship is a compassionate God who yearns over all of creation; and
how blessed we are to be one of God’s creation who has received God’s breath of Life and Love!

Creative pause: Our compassionate God who yearns over all of creation.


Timothy Rees was a Welshman who became Bishop of Llandaff in southern Wales and had a depth of spirituality that was clearly expressed in his many hymns, and especially in the words of the hymn “God is love, let heav’n adore him; God is love, let earth rejoice; let creation sing before him, and exalt him with one voice. God who laid the earth’s foundation, he who spread the heavens above, and who breathes through all creation, God is love, eternal Love....”2 On this Day of Pentecost we celebrate the power and majesty of God’s breath over all creation, and the Spirit of God who: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters….”3 Today, may we pause to reflect on the power and mystery of God’s breath of Life and Love, and to cherish and celebrate each moment of that gift of breath.

Creative pause: God “...breathes through all creation, [and] God is love, eternal Love....”2


1 From “Together in Song” #137
“For the beauty of the earth”
Words by Folliott Peirpoint (Alt)
Words are in the Public Domain.

2 From “Together in Song” #153
“God is love, let heaven adore him”
Words by Timothy Rees (Alt)
© Oxford University Press
Used with Permission.

3 Genesis 1: 1-2 (NLT)

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 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:
© 2015 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year B. Used with permission.

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

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