a community creating for the relentless return of Sunday
God we cry out to you from the valleys of our lives.
Hear our pleas, listen to our cries, hear our voice, O God.
Lord, we wait, and we wait, and we wait.
Divine one, our soul waits for you, for our hope is in your word.
Hope in the Lord, you people of God,
For God’s love for us is unbreakable!
Submitted by Rev. Will Ryan, First Christian Church Burlington IA
Creator God, you made us to live together with you. We confess that we are sorely tempted by the opportunity to be our own gods. We admit to you that we have tried shortcuts to wisdom—we think we know what is best, when really we know just enough to do harm to your creation and your beloved people. Forgive us for acting so arrogantly out of our limited human perspective. Forgive our disobedience, and give us ears to hear your word, and hearts ready to obey your will. Amen.
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL
One: In the beginning, when God created, God looked at the world and called it good.
All: Not only way back when, but even now, God is creating, calling us to join the work
of making the world good.
One: Earth and water and air, plants and animals and people, made from dirt and word and love.
All: God gifts us all this and more, so that we can glorify and enjoy God forever.
One: Come, let us worship God together.
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL
Invitation to Tell the Truth About Ourselves
One: God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and God’s mercy endures to all generations. When we confess our brokenness, God’s grace offers us a glimpse of healing. Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, let us confess with open and honest hearts our failure to live up to God’s call. Let us pray.
Prayer of Confession (we tell the truth)
All: God our creator, you asked man and woman to tend this garden of your creating, to care for the creatures of your making, to speak and so join you in creating your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We confess that we have sinned: we have used your creation rather than cherished it, we have lived greedily rather than gratefully, we have spoken words of destruction rather than love. We acknowledge the damage our heavy footprints, our hard hearts, and our rash tongues have done, and we pray for your forgiveness. Take the dust of our lives and re-form us into your image, and then breathe into us the grace to live for you. Amen. ~silence~
Assurance of Forgiveness
One: In the beginning, God breathed life into being, and every morning God’s mercies are new. Know that you, child of God, made in God’s image, are forgiven, loved and free. Believe and live the good news:
All: God’s goodness is planted more deeply than all that is wrong. Thanks be to God!
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, The Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL
Prayer of Confession:
Parent Who Seeks, Christ who Speaks, Spirit that Springs, the correct and right seems so urgent yet you seek people of spirit and truth. We offer public politeness yet you give us sacred truth. We desperately fill reservoirs of cravings forgetting that life springs from You. Find us. Forgive us. Fill us. May we know for ourselves and not by others that you are the Savior of the world.
Assurance of Pardon:
Hear the good news! Christ gushing up to eternal life! Know Christ is truly the savior of the World and of you.
Submitted by Christy Ramsey.
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