As a
church family, we are
a banquet
table - feeding the poor
a
circle of sheltering love - caring for one another
a
journey which is only at the halfway point - a milestone.
O God, keep our feet strong in our pilgrimage of love.
May
the roots of our love reach deep into the ground of your being. Amen.
Prayer of Confession for Communion Sundays.
Invitation:
Minister: (Confession)
Before God and you who are near me,
I release anything I hold against another.
I regret the harm I have done (to another and to creation),
and ask for God's restoration.
People: (Assurance)
Embrace the Assurance
that God cancels our debt,
that Christ renews our lives,
And that the Spirit enables us to grow in love. Amen.
People: (Confession)
Before God and every person here,
We release anything we hold against another.
We regret the harm we have done,
And ask for God's restoration.
Minister: (Assurance)
God's hope and vision for us is to restore us.
We fail, make mistakes, hurt(harm) others and
turn off our compassion, our concern.
Despite all the ways we fail, however,
God works for the restoration of how we relate to one another,
to God's creation, to ourselves, and carry God in us.
If we pause to listen to God
and to one another,
If we open our mouths and our hearts to confess our regrets,
God fills our emptiness with forgiveness, hope and strength to love.
In God's restoring love, we are made new.
God restores in us the power and strength to make a
difference
in our life and others.
God cancels our debt.
Christ renews our lives.
The Spirit enables us to grow in love. Thanks be to God.
Evaluation from a church member
"N and I both thought the young people would love the service. The service and sermon are so relevant."
Theological Rationale:
From cheap grace to costly
grace
(quoting from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost
of Discipleship)
“Cheap
grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks' wares. The sacraments,
the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut
prices. Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which
she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing
limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we
suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been
paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the
possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it
were not cheap?...
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.”
Evaluation from a church member
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.”
Evaluation from a church member
"N and I both thought the young people would love the service. The service and sermon are so relevant."
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