A Prayer of Approach & Confession
You.
You speaking your goodness into creation.
You birthing your Word in human flesh.
You enflaming your church with speech.
You.
Great Three in One.
We worship You.
We praise You.
We adore You.
You, our hope.
You, in glory.
You, with power.
You.
And then us.
Us in praise.
Us in gratitude.
Us in love.
With you.
But not only You.
Also others.
Others who peddle wisdom,
but trade in foolishness.
Others who promise life,
but deal in death.
Others who market hope,
but have no future.
Others.
Idols.
Not You.
We fall for others.
We betray You.
We lose ourselves.
And then, again, You.
You speaking Your goodness.
You birthing Your newness.
You opening the ear, the heart, the mind, the soul.
Your folly, our wisdom.
Your death, our life.
Your future, our hope.
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison
Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.
Declaration of Grace
Friends,
the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is,
at once,
liberating and terrifying.
To our great surprise,
when we dare to tell the truth
about the power of Sin in the world -
to humbly name our part in the deep trouble,
to honestly speak of our complicity in the hurt,
to boldly confess our propensity to blame and to shame -
we discover that the God we meet in Jesus Christ
is waiting there - waiting here -
our Risen Companion on the long path to reconciliation,
our Loving Shepherd on the cruciform journey to life,
our Trusted Guide on the holy pilgrimage to healing.
To live the gospel is to risk the truth about the trouble.
To live the gospel is to risk the new life of God's kingdom come.
To live the gospel is to risk the gracious gift
of God the Father,
revealed in Jesus Christ,
made ours through the Holy Spirit.
This is the gospel truth.
This is the love of God.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
and I raise a tired Hallelujah, which, surprisingly is OK
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