SOUTH GREY BRUCE LUTHERANPARISH OF MILDMAY, NEUSTADT and MORMANBY
Order for Confession and Forgiveness provided by the ELCIC Synod for Lent.
We are unfinished. Our universe is unfinished. We confess the ways in which we attempt to limit God’s creative power working in and through us. <Silence>
Creating God, shape us into fruitful co-creators and faithful stewards of your design, liberated by your covenant to bless and be a blessing.
In Jesus we have met the one who, with his very life, showed us the power of love to transform the lives of all who are vulnerable. We confess the ways in which we steadfastly cling to our rights and entitlements, refusing to be changed, or even touched, by the world’s pain. <Silence>
Transforming Christ, move us from comfort to courage, from empathy to engagement, from prayer to policy change.
All things belong together; we are many, and we are one. We confess the ways in which we have allowed separation-from God-within-me, from God-within-you, from God-within-creation- to define us. <Silence>
Enlivening Spirit, breathe into us the breath of your grace that we may release our hold on the fear and arrogance that keeps us from knowing wholeness. <Silence>
Beloved, God’s forgiveness is fulfilled in Christ. Because we are unfinished, we are ever being recreated. Because we have met Jesus, we are ever being transformed. Because we are both many and one, we are ever being enlivened with the Spirit’s power – the grace of God, in whom we live and move and have our being. Forgiveness, grace, and love are yours to have ☩ and yours to share, now and always. Amen
Psalm 22:23-31
23You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
28 For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
29 To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
This prayer chant written by Mark Miller was referred to during the sermon. Here it is sung by the Inshallah community from Waterloo.
Thankyou for being part of worship. Serving today: Rev Pam McNeil, presiding pastor; Marlene Dietz, musician; Dave Dietz, hymn leader; Liturgy contributions were prepared by Rev. Jennifer Hoover, Rev. John Polacok, Rev Martin Malina. The Inshallah video was edited by Rev Ronnie Smith.
finding Grace in Surprising Ways 