The Prayer of Confession...

[rickus]

It's now a year that Katie & I have been attending Mayflower Congregational Church. I didn't think I would ever feel good about attending a church, but It's been a wonderful experience. I hope that each of you will have an opportunity to attend services with us sometime (please consider this an invitation). But since I've been going there I haven't asked about The Prayer of Confession. I don't know if it comes from a book of prayers. Or if it's originates at the headquarters of the UCC, or if Dr. Meyers writes them (I suspect the latter.)Everyone, (if they are able) stands and reads the prayer out loud from our church program "in unison". I almost always like them, and I think one of the reasons is they feel so honest. And another is that they're prayers asking for non-selfish help. I think they're really great. And I look forward to them during the service. I'm going to start posting them on this thread for your reading pleasure, until I'm asked to stop.

Sun. Mar. 4, 2006

Lord of Life, many of us are deeply concerned that we have betrayed our deepest values as a nation, and that we are distorting the gospel itself in pursuit of power and wealth. Everywhere we turn, followers of Jesus advocate violence to solve problems, and seem to possess none of the dispositions of a follower of Jesus. Help us, we pray, to seize the day, and turn the ship of state around. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

[Jeff]

My guess--only a guess--is that these are original prayers based on the form given at Pslams 32:5-7.

"I have acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess against myself to Jehovah my wickedness; and thou didst remit the guilt of my sin. Selah. Therefore shall every one that is meek pray unto thee in the time of finding thee; so that in a flood of many waters, they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding-place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah."


www.ccel.org/c/calvin/comment3/comm_vol08/htm/xxxviii.iii.htm

[Betterout]

Here's the Methodist version:

Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church.
We have not done your will.
We have broken your law.
We have rebelled against your love.
We have not loved our neighbors,
And we have not heard the cry of the needy.
Forgive us, we pray.
Forgive us for joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

[rickus]

Sun., Mar. 12, 2006

Lord of Life, help us to understand what a fundamentalist is, what a fundamentalist believes, and what a fundamentalist wants. We live in a time of danger and uncertainty, and the increasing power and influence of fundamentalism in all areas of life has brought us to the brink. Help us, we pray, offer another way-before it's too late. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

[Guest Justin]

It will never cease to bother me that right-wing Christians are called fundamentalists. To me, they would more accurately be termed anti-fundamentalists. They really seem--at least from their actions--to have missed the very quintessence of the faith, that we are called to love God, to love ALL others, to forgive one another, to suffer, and to serve. To my way of thinking, those who are sometimes called liberal interpreters often have a greater claim to the fundamentals. Not always, but often.

[jtmx1]

Of course, I agree with you, Justin. My next question--and one that we've been dealing with as a group since 10/04 when these discussions began--is how to deal with fundamantalists, especially if you are a liberal christian. Some approaches that don't work: Ignore them, Reason with them, Make fun of them, Explain your own faith as carefully as you can, etc... I am at a loss and have been for a while. Praying for them sounds nice, but this particular prayer sounds about as condescending as you can imagine. Well...it would have been slightly worse if there had been a line that went "Lord open their tiny brains to your eternal truth."

[chris]

Catholic Act of Contrition:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen.

There are other versions, but that's the one I learned. I've always loved the phrase "the near occasions of sin."

[rickus]

Every year during the season of Lent, Dr. Meyers conducts a book study where members of the church get together on Wednesday nights and have open discussion about the selected reading. This year the book is, Our Endangered Values : America's Moral Crisis by President Jimmy Carter. Dr. Meyers sermons during Lent reflect the study of the book. And thus the prayer of confession (I believe) reflects the sermon.

The Scripture for this Sundays sermon came from First Corinthians 1.10

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,* by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose.

Justin, in this Sunday's sermon Dr. Meyers said many of the same things that you brought up. However he believes that, (and this may come from Pres. Carter's book) that religion has been co-opted by the political Right, by using divisive social issues to gain power and control of the government. The irony, Dr. Meyers pointed out, is that this is taking Christians further and further away from the teachings of Jesus. He stated as fact that The Southern Baptist Convention recently changed its bylaws, from Christ being the head of the church, to read that the head of the church is the minister of the congregation, and that he has final authority for the interpretation of the scriptures. At least that the impression I came away with. I don't know if it is true or not. I haven't had a chance to check this out, but will try.

Anyway he went on to describe how fundamentalism has three main characteristics that are present throughout time and geography. They, 1. subjugate women, 2. they are authoritarian, and 3. they dehumanize those who disagree with or are the enemies of them. All of these qualities Dr. Meyers contends, can be found in conservative Christian churches across America, and also in the dealings of the political Right.

Of course you can hear the sermon for yourself here: www.mayflowerucc.org/listening/listening.html in 2 weeks.

Or next week you can hear it on KOMA (AM 1520), where the previous weeks sermons are now broadcast twice on Sundays: once at 9:30 in the morning, and again at 10:30pm.

[CaptAdam]

I guess I'll have to come up with a different name to discribe the type of church I attend since My belief of a conservitive church is not the same as what Dr. Meyers has defined. I don't see any of this though process or teachings in the church I attend, but I would consider it a conservitive church. But that's just my view whether I it's true in the eyes of the rest of the work I don't know.

I'm glad your at least involved with a church even if I don't hold to Dr. Meyer's lack of faith in some of what the bible teaches. Again that doesn't mean I'm going to start up the spanish inqisition to burn him at the stake, cause that mintality was against every thing Jesus taught. You show a person where they are wrong by knowing the scripture and living it out in your life.

Not saying I don't have to fight the errge to beat the truth in to people cause I do ever time I talk with others or read these discussions. I'm sure in some way the rest of you probally feel the same about me.

At least it doesn't keep us from being friends and still talking and helpping one another.

Take care I hope to be up on my own Computer soon.

Cap Ad

[rickus]

I'd kind of forgotten about this, being so busy.

Prayer of Confession - March 19, 2006

Lord of Life, help us to heal the rift between science and faith. We are again fighting a battle that does not need to be waged - between forces that are not natural enemies. Help us not to fear the methods of science, even if we do not believe science can answer our deepest questions. In Christ's name we pray, Amen

Prayer of Confession - March 26, 2006

Lord of Life, help us to understand the wisdom of the separation of church and state, and the importance of religious values in the shaping of a humane society. We have not only freedom of religion in our nation, but freedom from it as well. As the world grows more violent, help us to recover the wisdom of our founders, who gave us a legacy of religious freedom, and religious tolerance. In Christ's name we pray, Amen

[jtmx1]

Wouldn't it be cool to start one of these prayers with "Lord of Death," not Father Moloch or Mammon or anything, just "Lord of Death." She is, after all, isn't She?

[rickus]

Well... Yes. I suppose you could start a prayer, "Lord of filth." Or "Lord of all that is unholy." Or maybe "Lord of whores, addicts and pedophiles." Unless there is some other lord for these things, these would be true as well. Wouldn't they? If the Lord is the creator, and all creation is the Lord's, then all that we don't normally associate with God, would in essence be God's handy work. In a manner of speaking.

Or maybe not. Maybe God is just the Lord of Life and Death and all else is it's own. I don't know. I kind of like the thought that God is Lord of all that we don't like as well. If you like Jeff I can ask Dr. Meyers if he could just for once use, "Lord of death." I think there could be an interesting sermon about just that.

Shall I ask?

[jtmx1]

No, no, I was just kidding and all. But I do think that once a year every church should be required to print Python's "All Things Dull and Ugly" in their bulletins:

All Things Dull And Ugly

All things dull and ugly,
All creatures short and squat,
All things rude and nasty,
The Lord God made the lot.
Each little snake that poisons,
Each little wasp that stings,
He made their brutish venom,
He made their horrid wings.
All things sick and cancerous,
All evil great and small,
All things foul and dangerous,
The Lord God made them all.
Each nasty little hornet,
Each beastly little squid,
Who made the spikey urchin,
Who made the sharks, He did.
All things scabbed and ulcerous,
All pox both great and small,
Putrid, foul and gangrenous,
The Lord God made them all.

[rickus]

April 2, 2006

Lord of Life, help us to overcome the long and sad legacy of treating women as second-class citizens. Forgive us for not understanding the equality of creation, and for abusing and controlling women. much of what we do is born of fear and insecurity. Help us to recover the teachings of Jesus - the world's greatest liberator of women. Amen.

I'll be honest I was a bit taken aback by this last sentence in the prayer. And while Dr. Meyers tried to explain this thought during the sermon, I'm not completely convinced. It's my belief that it's only been about the last 50-60 years that the average everyday woman has truly been liberated. And that of course would be the women of the western world. Even then I would argue that there is a lot that needs to be done before women are truly equal.

As for the line in the prayer, "Forgive us for not understanding the equality of creation..." The scripture reading was Genesis 1:26-27.

Again, this sermon was inspired by Jimmy Carter's book Our Endangered Values : America's Moral Crisis . <-- This is a link.

[Tyler]

Just a question...
What do you say if you haven't done anything wrong?

[wrikkus]

Ty, do you know anyone who can make a claim like that ?

[Tyler]

Me. I'm not saying that I haven't done anything wrong ever, but I haven't done anything wrong recently.

[wrikkus]

tyler said:

I'm not saying that I haven't done anything wrong ever...

Then you don't bloody well count then do you! On your knees boy and pray!

[Tyler]

I've reconciled all the things I've done wrong in the past. And since then, I haven't done anything wrong.

[kyle]

Lutherans also have a Confessions of Sins that is much more similar to the Methodist version. It is the same every week and deals with our shortcomings as worshippers of Christ. It goes a little something like this: “I, a poor miserable sinner confess that I have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed; by what I have done and what I left undone.” There is more to it but that is all I can remember off the top of my head.

Every Sunday we have prayers of intersession. Our pastor calls out those people who are in need of healing, those that are celebrating birthdays and anniverseries, those families that have just lost a loved one.

We also pray for those families that have someone overseas in the military to protect them and to let His will be done. There is also an intersession that we pray for all our leaders, religious and political, so that they may do what is God's will.

This prayer happens every week. This is the only time that there is any mention of anything political. The last time that Pastor Henke spoke of anything outside of this prayer was when there was an election taking place. He asked for God's guidance to help us make our votes.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I am surprised to hear about all this political talk taking place during the course of worshipping the Triune God. Rick, as I read all of those prayers, that's what I heard, political rhetoric disguised as a prayer. I think the last prayer about women only strengthens this point. Although some of these prayers sound like good prayers for guidance and help with our daily lives, it seems extremely un-personable. It seems like they are very pointed prayers that may or may not pertain to everyone in the congregation. I hope that Tyler is joking a little bit, but he does bring up a good point: What the hell did the women do while this prayer was going on? Did they actually say “I’m sorry for abusing and controlling myself?