LiturgyLink

a community creating for the relentless return of Sunday

You are here: Home / Archives for call to confession / declaration of forgiveness

call to confession / declaration of forgiveness

prayers for Trinity Sunday

By Leave a Comment

Prayer of Invocation (Unison)

Sovereign God, we look at the things You have made, the works of Your hands, and we stop to consider them with awe. From the intricate immensity of the universe to the specific singularity of a flower, Your works astonish us. Who are we mortals that You pay attention to us? We wonder at your love for us and rejoice in your presence, praying in the name of the Creator, the Christ and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Call to Confession

The book of Proverbs tells us that from the beginning of time, since before the creation of the Earth, there has been wisdom. Wisdom cries out to all people. But we do not always listen. We do not always care to listen. We do not want to know wisdom’s way. Let us bring our confessions to God together.

Prayer of Confession (Unison)

Great Wisdom-Maker, You arranged the world in beauty and brought humankind to life upon it. You want what is best for us. You provide us with guides and examples. You even came to be among us in Jesus Christ. We confess that we do not always pay attention. We admit that we do not always listen. We own up to taking the shortcuts and the easy ways because sometimes we cannot handle the truth. Forgive us, we pray, for the things we can acknowledge and especially for the things we try to hide from ourselves and You.
Silent Prayers of Confession

Words of Assurance (Responsive)

Minister: Beloved Children of God, the Maker of all Beauty, Goodness and Wisdom offers forgiveness to each and every one of us.
ALL: Amazed and relieved, we breathe in the Spirit of Forgiveness.
Minister: God is ever and always healing us, renewing us and preparing us for deeper understanding through the Holy Spirit. This is the good news that brings new life.
ALL:  We thank God for it. 
Submitted by Rev. Martha K. Spong, Sabbatical Pastor, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055

confession: we think too highly

By Leave a Comment

Call to Confession

It is tempting to gloss over our sin and focus on our strengths, but God calls us to focus on the strength of Christ, not ourselves. God, who is faithful and just, offers us a new way to live, and so we join together to confess our faults and failings. Let us pray.

Prayer of Confession

All: God, we are prone to think too highly of ourselves. We forget that it is you who are good, you who are the greatest. We forget that you call us to do your will, not the other way around. When we have fallen into arrogance, forgive us. When we have allowed our good intentions to stand in the way of your grace, forgive us. When we have directed attention away from you, forgive us. Empty us of all things that do not give glory to you, so we are ready to be filled with your love.

 ~silence~

One: We pray in the name of the One who emptied himself in order to live your will. Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness

Hear and live this good news: Love could not be contained in the tomb and will not be constrained by our understanding! Christ is risen, bringing forgiveness and hope to all people. Alleluia! Amen!

 

Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL.

confession and assurance: not enough

By Leave a Comment

O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

We confess that we are no longer seeking anything because we believe we can longer be surprised.  As those who live in a place of security we do not understand what it means to faint or to thirst.   Have mercy on us.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.

We have come into this sanctuary today with not enough reverence, not enough praise, and not enough awe for You.  Have mercy upon us.

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

We are afraid to make a spectacle of ourselves when we sing, or pray or praise You.  Our worship is too clean, organized and so stay an arm’s length away from You.  Have mercy on us.

But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword, they shall be prey for jackals.

We look for revenge, we gloat and we rejoice when some around us stumble or fall.   We have lost sight that we have participated in the destruction of life and are in danger of Your disappointment, wrath or anger.   Have mercy on us.

Silent Confession

Words of Assurance

O Lord, You have been our help.  In the shadow of Your wings we sing for joy.  Our souls cling to you.  Your hands hold onto us.  We are reminded of Your forgiveness and Your mercy.  We are reminded that in You we have new life.  Alleluia.  Amen.

Passing of the Peace

(Can be read responsively with the leader reading the scripture and then the Congregation responding, or by two voices, or by voices sprinkled throughout the Congregation.)

 

Submitted by Rev. Shannan Vance-Ocampo, Watchung Avenue Presbyterian Church, North Plainfield, NJ

confession: Love

By Leave a Comment

Call to Confession:
Whether we have the gift of beautiful speech, or the gift of understanding and knowledge, or the gift of faith or of generosity or of any other good thing—if we do not love, even our most precious talents are as nothing. And if we believe Love to be a only feeling or a thought, still we miss the Truth. Before God, with the people of God, let us confess the ways we have fallen short of God’s Love. Let us pray.

One:    Love is patient and kind
All:     and we are in a bit of a hurry…
One:    Love does not insist on its own way
All:     but really, God, my way is clearly best.
One:    Love is not envious or resentful
All:     and yet we hoard it as if there might not be enough.
One:    Love is all these verbs—rejoices, bears, believes, hopes, endures—
All:     but we are so tempted to confine it where we can understand and control, domesticating love into romance or intellect.
One:    God is Love, and those who abide in Love abide in God.

silence

One:    When we have not lived in your love, when we have insisted and hurt and believed ourselves to know fully even as we know only in part,
All:     Forgive us, O God.
One:    When we have thought, spoken, and acted in childish ways even as you call us to grow in your grace,
All:     Forgive us, O God.
One:    Draw us again into your embrace, that we may abide in faith, hope, and love.
All:     Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness:
Friends, hear this good news: Though now we see dimly, as through a tinted window, Love is clearing the way for us to know God just as fully as God knows us. We will live the good news: in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God! Amen.

call to confession for the annual meeting worship service

By Leave a Comment

On days like today it is easy for us to celebrate all we have done, while forgetting what God has done. It is easy to look back with rosy glasses and then turn our eyes to the future, unreflective. But God calls us to honesty in both our individual and collective lives, so let’s take this moment to reflect on the ways we have failed ourselves, one another, the church, the world.

(begin in silence, then follow with unison prayer of confession)

 

Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL.