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confession and pardon: forgetting the resurrection

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Prayer of Confession

Living Lord, Loving God of this Easter Season—we confess that we have already forgotten the Resurrection.  We are already back to our old ways, clinging to consuming, scrambling to be “good enough” and trying to do too much.  We have fallen back into the trap of thinking that we are gods, that the welfare of the world and of our lives depends only on us.   We have already taken more than we should —forgetting that you want to first carry our lives and our loads.   How quickly O Lord have we forgotten you, just one week since Easter.  How quickly have we made ourselves back into gods.  Help us to realign our lives and our faith, once again.  We pray these things in the name of Jesus—our Friend, always offering us a fresh start and forgiveness.  Amen.

 

Assurance of Pardon (adapted from I John, 2 in The Message)

“But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of God the Creator: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s.”  Remember these ancient words, remember God’s Love for you, that is beyond all understanding.  Remember that you are forgiven, and do not forget your God.  Amen.

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

once again…a prayer for easter morning

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Once again O Living God, it is Easter Morning.
Do we dare to believe in the Resurrection—that You offer us New Life?
We confess on this morning that we are often timid and afraid, unable to believe your promises, unable to offer all of our lives to You.
Once again O Living Lord, it is Easter Morning.
Do we dare to practice Resurrection?
Do we dare to do something bold in our lives, set loose by the freedom You give us?
We confess that too often we stay chained to our fears, our worries, our desperation.  
We do not trust you. 
We hide the light you have given us. 
We try to tame the Spirit that You have released into the Creation.   
Today O Living Lord we recommit ourselves to You.
We renew our trust in You.
Help us and give us the strength and courage for these Resurrection Days that are before us. 
We pray these things in the name of the one who rose from the grave—Jesus the Christ, the Risen Lord,
who reigns in our lives and the life of this world on this day and in all the days to come.  Amen.

 

(The prayer is designed to be as a call and response.  The last two lines could be read together in unison with the reader and speakers saying these words together.)

 

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

confession: scared

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We hear the words from Jesus: “Take up your cross and follow me.”

These words scare us.
We know what taking up a cross meant for him.
We do not feel able to sacrifice our lives.
We are not even ready on most days to sacrifice smaller things for the sake of the Kingdom.

Today O God we confess our timidity, our weaknesses, our fears, and our hesitations.
As we gather today—as we look at the cross in front of us,
as we remember the crosses that marked our foreheads
on Ash Wednesday, such a short time ago, to begin the Lenten journey,
as we think of the Cross that Lent calls us to journey towards
may we find strength in new places deep within our souls.

May we find courage, hope, and the peace to really follow Jesus.

May worship today help us to begin the Lenten journey
towards finding our crosses and figuring out how to bear them.

Hear our prayers,
remind us of the grace that covers our sin
and offers us the endurance
to the run the race of faith.

Amen and Amen.

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

confession: forgotten covenant

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Prayer of Confession

There are times O Spirit that we forget all that you have given us.   Our sight has become obscured.   We have forgotten that rainbows which still grace the skies are reminders of your Great Love.   Your covenants take on infinite number of colors and shapes, and in our confused nature, we want to push everyone and everything into one box, one shape, and one size thinking that this is how You would want things.  How wrong we have been.   Remind us that your creative genius cannot be boxed up, that your covenants cannot be controlled.   In this time of worship send your Spirit to disrupt and then renew our troubled souls.   Restore in us the hope of your promises.  We pray all these things in the name of the One who came to redeem all of Creation.  Amen.

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

CTW: a promise for all time

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One: God has made a covenant with us, a promise for all of time.
All: A promise that began with Noah,
A ribbon of vibrant color in the sky.
One: God has made a covenant with us, a promise for all of time.
All: A vow that continued with Abraham,
The uncountable stars in the heavens would all be gifts from God.
One: God has made a covenant with us, a promise for all of time.
All: With Moses and the refugees who crossed the Red Sea,
Words to order life in peaceful community.
One: God has made a covenant with us, a promise for all of time.
All: For David and those who would come after him,
That they would inherit it all.
One: God has made a covenant with us, a promise for all of time.
In Jesus, the Christ,
Price of Peace—who calls us to New Life,
Invites us to live the promise and the covenant
With our lives, without fear, with total abandon.
All: We gather today to worship
To remember the promise of the covenant
And to go out into a world where rainbows still grace the skies.

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