These liturgical texts are appropriate for use throughout the Season of Lent and may be repeated from week to week.
Confession and Lament Sequences
1.
Let us approach God with our confessions,
trusting that even before we speak,
God knows us and loves us.
God of glory and righteousness,
we confess that we do not live as citizens of your kin-dom.
We give allegiance to earthly thrones.
We ignore the neediest in our midst.
We discount our own worth.
We forsake the justice due your kin-dom.
Take from us the spirit of isolation, greed, lust for power, and false pride.
Give us instead the spirit of interdependency, generosity, humility, and love.
Amen.
Beloved in Christ, you are blessed by God
to inherit the kin-dom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
By the power of the Holy Spirit,
you are refashioned every day
to live according to God’s reign,
in the freedom of Christ Jesus.
Friends, know that you are forgiven
and be at peace.
2.
Beloved in Christ,
we ask God now to hear the prayers of our hearts
as we bring our confessions to God’s ear.
Loving God,
in this quiet time of prayer and meditation,
we feel our souls stretching,
reaching past our sins to be closer to you.
Help us to look deep into ourselves,
that our Lenten penitence might be about
more than something we want to give up
or even something new we want to take on.
Reveal to us the temptations that make us complicit
in the ills of this world.
Rid us of the desire to get more,
and inspire us to give more.
Rid us of our selfish insecurity,
and guide us in the way of selflessness.
In our brokenness may we find the kind of healing
that brings wholeness to others. Amen.
Jesus walked on the earth
and knows the temptations that lead us away from God.
His gift of healing extends even to our transgressions.
His life shows us the transforming power of God’s mercy in a world of hurt and pain.
His ceaseless love and grace assure us of our forgiveness.
Invitation to Discipleship
1.
After forty days and forty nights,
Jesus came down from the mountain
to invite disciples to follow him.
We, too, hear the question, “Will you come and follow me?”
Whether we have given up something dear to us
or taken up something we yearn to do in this season,
it is always the season for discipleship.
Will you answer the call of Jesus?
We give thanks to God
that our hearts and our hope are all we need to follow.
2.
Come and pray; search your heart.
In the stillness of this hour, Jesus is with us.
He is standing at the door knocking,
calling us not because of who we think we are
but because of whose we are
and who we can be, disciples of Jesus Christ.
Will we answer?
God has chosen us by grace.
We respond by choosing life in Jesus Christ.
Come and pray; search your heart.
Come and pray, saying together:
Triune God, we choose life;
we desire to abide in you.
All honor and thanks to God.
