Colossians 2: 1-7 – Confession

Leader: We confess, O God, that we do not confess. Have mercy on us, and in this holy evening, under the umbrella of your forgiving love, give us the courage to confess our sin. “For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face.”

All: Shining, surprising, grace-full God, for avoiding the searchlight of your desire for us and running away from your love.  Forgive us!

Leader: “I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

All: For preferring the safe, familiar, and certain to the risky, unknown, and mysterious or taking no delight in variety and insisting on sameness and conformity.  Forgive us!

Leader: “I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments.”

All: For fearing those different from ourselves, and projecting onto them what we cannot accept within our own depths.  For failing to believe in the vulnerability of power and the power of vulnerability.  Forgive us!

Leader: “For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ.”

All: For assuming we are superior to the rest of creation, for abusing, despoiling, and failing to celebrate our relationship with the earth and the web of life.  For not noticing your presence in darkness as in light, in body as in spirit, in feeling as in intellect, in pain as in healing, in Good Friday as in Easter Day.  Forgive us!

Leader: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him”

All: For taking you for granted, turning to you only when we’re in trouble, and when we do call your name, expecting an instant magical solution. Set us free, we pray, to be whole human beings and to live our lives graciously and without fear.

Leader: “rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” Let us hear how our deepest hungers, desires, and aspirations can be fulfilled by your goodness and in your service.Let us hear how our worries about the future, and about each other,and about ourselves, can find rest in your providential care. Let us hear how our confessed shame for wrong things done and for good things left undone is covered by your forgiveness.

All: Let us hear how our honest thanks relate us, not only to those with whom we live, but also to you, the Lord and Giver of life.

Leader: When we were dead in our sins, God made us alive by forgiving all our sin – erasing the record that stood against us…by nailing it to the cross. The good news therefore is this: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

All: Thanks be to God!