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Call to Worship (based on Psalm 130)

L: Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.
P: Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!
L: If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?
P: My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning.
All: O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

Prayer of Confession

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have
made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and
make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily
lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wickedness,
may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission
and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.

Prayer based on all lessons
by Rev. Thomas Hall

We raise our hearts and voice before you, Almighty God, on this great day. Once again we are reminded of your gracious and loving care for our lives.

But we also come before you with some reservations as we move closer to your week of passion. Each week brings us nearer to the Tragedy and Victory of heaven and earth. We come once again to the place outside the city walls where our sins became your sins. Though you have shaped your human creations in your magnificent image, we have through our own neglect and actions defaced and deformed our souls. We have scuttled the very word that keeps us from your grace. We call it by other names, but it is still sin, our sins, O God, that has been the cause of your immense pain and grief. We are in the depths as we consider our condition apart from you.

Forgive us, O Lord, and be attentive to our prayer for mercy.

We honor you as our God—Creator/Redeemer/Renewer, the One who alone offers the single word that can free us from despair and lift us up from the depths; may we hear you speak your forgiveness-Word down deep in our souls and may we awaken to your love and mercy.

We wait for you, Lord. We hope. And we watch for your saving Presence to come and restore us, to come and renew us for joyful service to you. Thus renewed and buoyed by your forgiveness, we rise from this place to love and serve you as love and serve our neighbors. Forgiven, we go forth to extend your forgiveness and to proclaim with our lives your great power to redeem through your unfailing love. Amen.

 

Prayer based on the gospel lesson

Lord,
you went to Lazarus' tomb,
and would not let him die
but loosed the bonds of death,
so great was your love for him.

Savior,
we believe
you weep at every death,
and pray at every tomb,
for all the dead
whose faith is known to you alone.

Like Lazarus,
call us your friends,
stay in our company,
share what we have,
come to our aid when we call.
and grant us eternal life.

 

Litany of Penitence

Most holy and merciful Father:
We confess to you and to one another,
and to the whole communion of saints
in heaven and on earth,
that we have sinned by our own fault
in thought, word, and deed;
by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and
strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We
have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.

Have mercy on us, Lord.

We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us.
We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved
your Holy Spirit.

Have mercy on us, Lord.

We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the
pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation
of other people,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those
more fortunate than ourselves,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and
our dishonesty in daily life and work,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to
commend the faith that is in us,

We confess to you, Lord.

Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done:
for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our
indifference to injustice and cruelty,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our
neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those
who differ from us,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of
concern for those who come after us,

Accept our repentance, Lord.
Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us;
Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.
Accomplish in us the work of your salvation,
That we may show forth your glory in the world.
By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord,
Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.

Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
desires not the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn
from their wickedness and live, has given power and
commandment to his ministers to declare and pronounce to
his people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of
their sins. He pardons and absolves all those who truly
repent, and with sincere hearts believe his holy Gospel.

Therefore we beseech him to grant us true repentance and his
Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do on
this day, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure
and holy, so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Closing Prayer:

Almighty and most gracious God,
allow your Spirit to walk with us,
before us, beside us, and among us,
to revive, guide, comfort, and encourage,
and to give us strength as we go forth
into a world filled with darkness and despair.
In the name of Jesus the risen Christ. Amen.