Cycle A Lent 1

3/9/2014 Confession

Sunday Title:  Identity Sunday

Sermon Title: “The Antidote”

Previously:  

Sunday Title:  Eden Sunday

Sermon Title: “Who are you?”

Sunday Title:  Relationship Sunday

Sermon Title: “Obedience and Faithfulness”

Sunday Title:  Temptation Sunday 

Sermon Title: “The Master of Disaster”

Scripture Cuttings:

Genesis 2:15-17 & 3:1-7 You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat....

Psalm 32 I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Romans 5:12-19 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.

Matthew 4:1-11 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came....

Confession:

All may make the sign of the cross in remembrance of baptism

as the presiding minister begins:

P:  In the Name of the Father, and the Son, + and the Holy Spirit.

C: Amen

P:  Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away. Let us confess our transgressions to the Lord, and seek the forgiveness of the guilt of our sin. (pause)

  O Lord...

C: how we love our choices,

and when we choose badly,

  we are experts with “but”

    and blaming others

      and bad circumstance

        and even “the devil made me do it.” 

Lord you make your word known to us,

  and we cover ourselves with sad stories of unfaithfulness.

You ask us to pick good over evil,

  but we decide to just re-categorize

    using our own scheme of sad compromise.

Save, O Lord, your people.

Forgive us the sins we know in our heart.

Save us from the sins we hide. (pause for reflection and self-examination)

P:  Lord, you are God...

C: we acknowledge our sin and do not conceal our guilt. Amen

P:  God does see the stain of sin upon us. A stain we can not excuse or remove. But God wills grace for us through Jesus Christ. Because of this free gift from God’s love we are returned to right relationship. (Our repentance counts. For Christ's sake our sins are forgiven.) God even sends the Holy Spirit to lead us through all that the tempter would put in our way. In the name of the Father, and the Son, + and the Holy Spirit.

C: Amen. -wjw

P:  The peace of the Lord be with you always!

C: And also with you!

during Lent the Absolution may be withheld