I crafted this gathering rite for a worship service intended to lift up the role and ministry of Deacons. Gospel text for the day was Luke 6:17-26. Service organized and led by/at Martin Luther University College.
Introduction:
Our gospel reading today begins with Jesus coming down to a level place with the crowd. Worship sometimes begins with either words of confession or words of thanksgiving for baptism as a way of acknowledging that we enter this time equally in need of forgiveness and equally wrapped in the mercy of God. We are on level ground, and Jesus joins us here. Today, as we invite you into an awareness of diaconal ministry that seeks to bring a word of hope and healing to the edge places…the both/and places of joy and pain, broken and bound together, death and resurrection…we fold words of confession and thanksgiving together, acknowledging that we, too, are equally broken, equally cleansed, equally renewed. We are on level ground, and Jesus joins us here.
Blessed be the Holy Trinity, one God,
The fountain of living water
Who forgives all our sin,
The rock who gave us birth
Whose mercy endures forever
Our light and our salvation.
Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.
Joined to Christ in the waters of baptism, we are clothed with God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Let us give thanks for the gift of baptism.
Most merciful God, we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.
In baptism our gracious heavenly father frees us from sin and death by joining us to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.
We are born children of a fallen humanity;
We have not cared for land, creatures and cosmos.
We are born children of a fallen humanity;
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are born children of a fallen humanity;
For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.
By water and the Holy Spirit we are reborn children of God and made members of the church, the body of Christ.
Forgive us, renew us, and lead us,
By water and the Holy Spirit we are reborn children of God and made members of the church, the body of Christ.
So that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways,
Living with Christ and in the communion of saints,
We grow in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God.
To the glory of your holy name.
As children of God, we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven.
Almighty God strengthen us with power through the Holy Spirit
That Christ may live in our hearts through faith.
Amen.
Sources: Brief order of confession & forgiveness (ELW p. 95), Thanksgiving for Baptism (ELW p. 97), Baptism (p. 227), Corporate Confession & forgiveness (p 238)