The following originally appeared as part of "Grounded and Growing—Bearing Fruit Week 1: Love."
Call to Confession
God’s love endures forever;
our own love is frail and fleeting.
But out of God’s unending love,
we are offered grace and forgiveness.
Let us confess our lack of love,
bold in the certainty that God’s love is bigger than our sins.
Prayer of Confession
Loving God,
you have commanded us to love one another.
Through your Son, you have shown what this love looks like,
as he knelt to wash the feet of his disciples,
as he laid down his own life out of love.
We confess that we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.
We do not lay down our pride in service of the other;
but instead we treat people as objects who might be of service to us.
Yet, we expect unconditional love from our friends and family and partners.
When their love is imperfect, even as our love is imperfect,
we grow angry and bitter.
Help us to forgive one another for our imperfect love,
even as you forgive us.
Help us to love, and to love well,
for in loving this world you have created,
we live in love for you.
Amen.
Assurance of Pardon & Response of Praise
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life.
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world
to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him.
—John 3:16-17 NRSVUE
Thanks be to God,
whose perfect love saved the world
and freed us from our sins!
Song of Thanksgiving
“Not What My Hands Have Done” Bonar
Revised Common Lectionary
Year A: Lent—Second Sunday in Lent
Year A: Season after Pentecost—Holy Cross
Year B: Lent—Fourth Sunday in Lent
Year B: Season after Pentecost—Trinity Sunday
Year B: Season after Pentecost—Holy Cross
Year C: Season after Pentecost—Holy Cross
