Friday, September 16, 2005
Preparing to Pray 9/16
With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:6-8, NRSV
As we gather for worship this week, O Lord, help us to make a faithful connection between “faith and practice, justice and ritual action, theological talk and doxological living, and sanctification and human liberation.” (Melva Costen, African American Worship, Abingdon Press, 1993, p. 126, quoted here).
News Articles for Prayer This Week
Hurricane victims along the Gulf Coast continue to suffer but have renewed hope this week as the floodwaters recede. Meanwhile, we also remember victims of violence in Iraq, where over 200 people died this week. And we remember worshiping communities in Mongolia, where new opportunities for ministry are a cause for gratitude.
Themes for Prayer and Worship This Week
Micah Challenge Global Day of Prayer in the United States (Christian Reformed World Relief Committee)
Take O Take Me As I Am (Outline for Services of Ordination and Installation, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship)
Lectionary Gospel Text: Matthew 20:1-16 (Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary)
Also see resources for this week’s lectionary reading from www.textweek.com, and Barbara Brown Taylor’s related sermon “Beginning at the End” in A Chorus of Witnesses, ed. by Long and Plantinga.
Pondering the Purpose of Worship
In addition to our prayers in preparation for worship, we ponder the purpose of worship. This week, we reflect on these words of wisdom about worship as we gather.
We worship God because God created us to worship him. Worship is at the center of our existence, at the heart of our reason for being. God created us to be his image—an image that would reflect his glory. In fact the whole creation was brought into existence to reflect divine glory. The psalmist tells us that “the heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). ... Worship must above all serve the glory of God.
-Hughes Oliphant Old, Worship: Reformed According to Scripture
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