Our Lord and our God,
You are the caretaker of the earth, and the custodian of our souls. You have seen to it that we are nourished, pampered, and well provided for in every way.
Chief among your loving providences has been the provision of loved ones. You have surrounded us with all your glorious creation, but best of all you have surrounded us with friends and family.
But we confess that we have not lived up to our responsibilities within these blessed communities.
Truly we are delinquent as families. As parents we have often neglected the proper oversight of our children: Our discipline has been all too faulty and our nurture has all too frequently been neglected altogether.
And we are just as guilty as children, having been spiteful and self seeking.
We know that we readily fall into temptation. We love to look out for our own good rather than seeking the good of others. But this has not only been true in our homes, but we are guilty of the same sin in our neighborhoods and within this sacred assembly too.
Though we have aligned ourselves with Christ, we have not been faithful to his family—to see to one another’s welfare. Indeed, even in this small gathering, where it ought to have been easy to display kindness and affection to one another, we have been negligent of our duties.
Lord, in a large church there might have been an excuse for a lack of community, but we acknowledge that we have no excuse being that we are so few. We simply are guilty of not seeking to avail ourselves to one another. We have not sharpened one another other as iron sharpens iron; we have not encouraged one another as is so often necessary; neither have we actively sought to pour our gifts and graces into each other as you have called us to do.
Lord, forgive us for these sins, and forgive us for the many other ways we have fallen short. We know that we could not begin to confess the countless ways we sin against one another.
But we know that this one thing is true: Our transgressions against one another have been sins against you. Whether we have omitted our duty, or fragrantly offended our neighbor, these acts were not confined to the earthly realm.
So this day we lift our eyes to heaven and we seek your forgiveness. And we ask that you would turn us away from our selfishness and make us to be filled with love.
We beseech you to make us resolved, that we might take seriously our vows and responsibilities. In all, we pray that we might be conformed to the image of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who displayed his love for us in coming into this world and giving his life for us.
And it is in his blessed name that we pray, Amen.
