Call to Confession
 
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7) Let us confess our foolishness before the Lord, and see the Lord’s mercy.

Prayer of Confession, OT25B
 
For all the times
we have betrayed the trust
you have in us,
and the trust that those we promised to love
have placed in us,
forgive us.
For all the times
we have given less than our best,
failed to live our call,
calculated the risk and decided
not to trust in you,
forgive us.
For all the times
we have taken ourselves too seriously,
hoarded our resources,
and cared only for ourselves,
forgive us.
Open our hearts
to a new way of being,
to a new ideal,
to the promise of perfection
that comes through Christ alone.
Cover us in your grace,
we pray,
and in your righteousness,
redeem our sinful selves.
 
 
Assurance of God’s Grace
 
The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. Psalm 147:11 In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God!


Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us also forgive one another. The peace of Christ be with you.
Please extend the peace of Christ to all whom you encounter this day.


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The Lord calls
the courageous
and the timid,
the confident
and the anxious,
the equipped
and the unprepared,
the powerful
and the vulnerable,
the wise
and the wandering.
Everyone is welcome
in God's family.
Everyone
is fearfully
and wonderfully
God's child.


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​

​Creator of the Universe,
Mother Nature,
Sovereign God,
the storm rails against us,
and your people cry out in fear
and frustration
and grief,
as the wind and the water
that have given us life
threaten to take it away.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.

Comforter-in-Chief,
Rescuer,
Redeemer,
tragedies break out indiscriminately
in gaseous explosions
injuring,
killing,
destroying,
as the fire that is meant to refine us
swallows up shelter
and safety.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.

Eternal Hope,
Spirit of Wisdom,
Peacemaker,
violence reigns
in city streets,
and family homes
and between nations who refuse
to heed your call;
in angry,
selfish,
inciting recitations
and behaviors
where people refuse to listen
to those who are pleading
to be heard.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.

Send aid, we pray!
Save your people
from this time of trial,
from the path of destruction,
from devastation!
Calm the storm.
Protect the innocent.
Speak wisdom to all who will hear it,
and inspire action
in the name of justice
and of love.

Call to Confession

“Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way,
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
(Isaiah 55:6-7) Let us turn to God and confess our sin.

Prayer of Confession, OT24B

We are the simple who insist
on wallowing in ignorance,
the cynics who feed on cynicism,
the fools who refuse to learn.
We are the ones who have ignored
God's blatant offerings of guidance,
who have laughed at God's counsel,
and joked about the consequences.
We are the ones who have chosen
not to accept training,
but to continue on paths of carelessness
and complacency ...
paths of destruction ...
for ourselves
and others.
We do not deserve the grace
that God offers in Christ,
the grace we cannot find it in our own hearts
to offer our neighbor,
yet we seek it
fervently.
Pour out your spirit upon us.
Open our hearts,
we pray,
that we might hear and understand,
and heed the call to love
as we have been loved.

Assurance of God's Grace

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-49) In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Thanks be to God!

Since we have been forgiven in Christ, let us also forgive one another. The peace of Christ be with you.
Please extend the peace of Christ to all whom you encounter today.


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Lady Wisdom calls.
Sophia herself urgently pleads,
"STOP! Listen!"
Take a moment,
she implores,
and sit with me.
Be still,
and know that God
is God of all.
Stop.
Listen.
Worship.

​
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​Your people hide behind generosity, Lord,
afraid to let insecurities,
failures
and weaknesses
be known.
We are sure our friends and family members
wouldn't love us
if they knew.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.
Help us to be authentic.
Help us to be real.

Day after day,
week after week,
month after month,
year after year, Lord,
you have children who are struggling
to make ends meet:
children who are working tirelessly
for less than a living wage,
children who are at a disadvantage
because they come from schools
improperly funded,
if they come from school at all,
children who have fallen
into difficult circiumstances
beyond their control ....
illness
and injury
and tragedy.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.
Help us to lift one another up
from the depths of despair,
to support and to encourage,
to listen,
and to be voices for justice
in a world where the poor
and marginalized
are too often unheard.

Stir us from our comfort seats,
O God.
Open our hearts to your Word.
Grant us wisdom
and compassion.
Lord, in your mercy,
grant us compassion,
and boldness,
and teach us to love our neighbor
as much as --
or more than --
we love ourselves.

All around us, 
we are bombarded by worldly definitions
of love.
As we sing along 
with the lullabies
and the lamentations,
our own hearts soar
and sink,
reflecting upon our personal experience.
Hear the lovers rejoice, Lord,
in the springtime rhapsody,
and bless their joyful hearts
with courage
and with laughter.
Hear the spurned lament, Lord,
in the gut-wrenching blues,
and bless their broken spirits
with comfort
and with peace.
Hear the ballad of the long-committed, Lord,
as they sing the wonders
and the woes of love
with all its peaks and valleys,
and bless their attempts to be faithful
in a world where commitment is loosely defined.
Hear the painful expression of the betrayed, Lord,
as they rant
and roar
and rail against love
and against you
and against the world
in search of answers to questions
they can't begin to articulate.
Hear the long, slow wail of the grieving, Lord,
who have loved deeply 
and lost,
and bless their brokenness
with healing 
and with hope.
Hear the mournful cry of the lonely, Lord,
who long to love
and to be loved,
and bless the emptiness within them
with patience
and with strength.
Speak to your beloved, Lord,
and call us away
to pastures of plenty
where our hearts can be nourished
in the love 
that is the source of all love,
reconciling us to one another
and to you.


​Click here to add your prayers, inspired by the Prayers of the People, to the list of those in need of prayer this week.

Call to Confession

God is making God's appeal to us, imploring us to be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20, pp) Let us, then, confess our sin before God, and seek God's mercy.

Prayer of Confession

Our spirits long to know God more intimately,
to hear God's voice,
to feel God's nearness,
yet we do not take the time
to stop and listen,
to pay attention to God's presence,
to respond to God's call to come away with God.
Our bodies cry out in desperation,
cold and lonely and spiritually deprived.
We have forgotten what it feels like
to dance in the joy of new life.
We have forgotten how it feels
to know we are unconditionally loved.
Hear our prayers, O God,
and wrap us in your warm embrace,
melting the protective shields encasing our hearts,
and opening our ears to your invitation
​to love and be loved.

Assurance of God's Grace

Listen! (says the Lord), I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. (Rev. 3:20) In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God!

Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us also forgive one another: The peace of Christ be with you.
Please extend the peace of Christ to everyone you encounter today.


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