Call to Confession
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23) Let us confess our sin before God, and seek God's mercy.
Prayer of Confession
Are you looking for justice from your people, God?
You won’t find it here. 
Here, your people murder one another in the streets
and in department stores
and in schools
and in nightclubs.
Here, injustice runs bloodred.
Cries of the victims
and their families 
echo throughout the city.
No, there is no justice here, O God,
in spite of the myriad of ways
you have taught us to love,
our love comes with conditions …
rules about skin color
and gender identification
and sexual orientation,
rules about political viewpoint
and cultural backgrounds
and theological beliefs.
Forgive us, O God,
and cover us with your grace,
inspiring in us a desire for justice that heals and uplifts 
in your name.
Assurance of God's Grace
For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation. Psalm 149:4 In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, thanks be to God! Let us live as people of grace.
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~

Come, you inhabitants of the kingdom.
Our God sings a ballad of love for us.
Come, you beloved of God.
Our God stands in our midst as nurturer, protector, and keeper.

​From sweat factories
and hot corporate fields,
from the victims of sex trafficking rings
and drug cartels,
from dictatorships
and censored media,
from racist
and gender-empowered societies,
businesses,
and homes,
your people cry to you, Eternal One,
and you listen.
Embolden your church, Lord,
to answer cries for justice
for the voiceless, the powerless, and the fearful.

From the darkest valleys of despair
and grief,
from loneliness
and poverty,
from disease
and pain,
from addiction
and mental illness,
from victims of abuse
held as prisoners in their homes
as well as those struggling
to make a living wage,
your people cry to you, Eternal One,
and you listen.
Dispatch your church, Lord,
with compassion and kindness,
to the voiceless, the powerless, and the fearful.

From the bloodied interiors of department stores
and nightclubs,
of elementary schools
and high schools
and institutions of higher learning,
of office buildings
and warehouses,
of movie theaters
and shopping malls
and places of worship,
your people cry to you, Eternal One,
and you listen.
Inspire your church, Eternal One,
with wisdom and discernment,
to use their voices in places of power
that violence is stopped in its tracks
and peacemaking methods taught in every classroom,
that the language of leaders becomes thoughtful and inclusive
and that loving our neighbor becomes the law
by which we live.

​Children of unfaithfulness call to you today, Faithful God,
and look for stability and strength,
longing to know what it looks like to love unconditionally,
to work through conflict,
to live in a relationship of grace with one another
and journey into the future
in covenant.

Children of destruction call to you today, God of Hope,
from food-insecure cities
and burning wildfires,
from war torn countries
and gang-infested neighborhoods,
yearning to run and laugh and play without fear ...
yearning for hope.

Children of shame call to you today, God of Mercy,
embarrassed to call upon your name,
certain you could not love us if you knew ...
but you do know ...
and still you love us all ...
in spite of the ways we fail you.
Open our ears to hear your Word proclaimed.
Open our hearts to receive it.

Children of those who call you by other names
call to you today,
according to the names by which they identify you ...
children of other cultures,
other faiths,
other interpretations of theology,
seeking familiarity,
seeking understanding,
seeking wisdom.
Hear, and answer, Lord.
Gather all of us together ...
all your children ...
in the name of love,
in a community of grace
on earth as it is in heaven.

Come, you who are faithful
and you have been unfaithful
to the Lord your God.
Come, you who have known God's mercy
and you who believe you are far from it
and find mercy in the community of grace.
Come, you who identify as children of the Creator
and you who do not yet know how you identify
but know you are not who others call you.
Come, and find redemption
among your siblings in Christ. ​