This confession and assurance liturgy originally appeared in "Listening to the Prophets—Lent 3: On Being Cheerful in Lent."
Call to Confession from Isaiah 55
As we turn our hearts to the Lord in a time of confession we remember the words of the prophet Isaiah: Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Let us look to the Lord in a time of personal confession.
[silent prayer]
Let us pray together:
Most merciful God, we your church confess that often our spirit has not been that of Christ. Where we have failed to love each other as he loved us, where we have pledged loyalty to him with our lips and then betrayed, deserted, or denied him, forgive us. By your Spirit make us faithful in every time of trial, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
—Marvin Hofman © 2003 ReformedWorship.org CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Song
“What Wondrous Love” (st. 1–2) Anon
Announcement of Grace from Isaiah 55 and Romans 8
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! For those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Song
“What Wondrous Love” (st. 3–4) Anon
Revised Common Lectionary
Year A: Season after Pentecost—Proper 10 (15)
Year A: Season after Pentecost—Proper 13 (18)
Year C: Epiphany—Eighth Sunday after the Epiphany
Year C: Lent—Third Sunday in Lent
Year C: Season after Pentecost—Proper 3 (8)
