Prayer of Confession, P+14A

Call to Confession

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (1 John 4:20-21) Let us earnetly confess our failure to love and seek God's forgiveness:

Prayer of Confession

Merciful God,
We have failed you at every turn.
We don't even pretend to love our neighbors anymore,
and we certainly do not honor each other's humanity.
We're incredibly self-righteous, God, 
and we spout it on social media every chance we get.
We are more enthusiastic about judgment
than we are about service,
more selfish than generous,
more exclusive than welcoming.
We congregate in our corners with people who
look like us
and talk like us
and think like us
and live like us
so that our worlds become ever smaller
and less respectful.
We do not consider others equal, God. 
We are quick to bash entire groups of people 
who are different,
quick to "other" them,
quick to call them names
and to call for their banishment.
We do not follow Jesus' example of associating 
with people who have no status,
but only choose to hobnob with
people who can build us up in the eyes of the world.
Forgive us, we pray.
We are so far from who you have called us to be
that we are not fit to be called children of God.
Hear our cries for mercy,
and transform our hearts,
that we might more fully embrace
the call of citizenship in the kin-dom of God.


Assurance of God's Grace

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access[b] to this grace in which we stand, and we[c] boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2) Hear the Good News: in the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Thanks be to God! Let us live accordingly.

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 week.