We’ve been using the traditional communal confession at church in recent weeks. You know the one… “things I have done and things I have failed to do.†And I realized this week that it doesn’t really do it for me. It doesn’t express my understanding of covenant breach, of broken relationship, of sin. So here is a first try at a new communal confession.
God,
We have participated in evil,
Woven into the fabric of our lives,
The fabric of ourselves,
We have been disordered.
We have placed ourselves before loving you,
Before loving others.
At times we have even failed to love ourselves.
We create systems of selfishness,
Convince ourselves that we are better,
More deserving than others.
We anesthetize our fear with goods,
Goods bought through unjust systems,
Goods coated in blood.
Please forgive us.
We confess our sins, our selfishness.
We rely on your mercy
And the love of your utterly selfless son,
Trusting in infinite love,
To lift us,
For short moments,
For eternity,
From the misery of our sins.
Amen.