Good Friday (D) — A Prayer of Confession and Declaration of Forgiveness

Ezra 9:5-15 OR Jeremiah 25:15-38 OR 2Chronicles 7:1-22

Psalm 88

Luke 23:(1-12) 13-49

1Peter 4:1-19

Prayer of Confession [see Ezra 9]

O Lord our God, how can we lift our faces to you, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our ancestors to the present, we have been deep in guilt, and we are ashamed of all our iniquities. For we have forsaken your commandments and filled the land from end to end with uncleanness. And now, our God, what shall we say? Here we are before you in our guilt, and no one can face you who may claim to be righteousness, no one but Jesus Christ, the Righteous One himself. After all that has come upon us for our sins and our great guilt, you, our God, have not punished us as our iniquities deserve; you have not forsaken us, but have extended your steadfast love to us, to give us new life in Christ. Forgive us, therefore, O merciful God, for the sake of your gracious Son, Jesus Christ, that his great suffering and his redeeming work might bring us fully into eternal fellowship with you, and that we might commit and commend our spirits, as he has done, into your loving and gracious hand.

Declaration of Forgiveness [see Luke 23; 1Peter 4]

Truly Jesus our Messiah came not to save himself, but to save sinners. In his suffering on the cross, and in his prayer that even his executioners might be forgiven, he who was found guiltless has atoned for our guilt and secured the salvation of all those who, though formerly his enemies, now trust in him whose love covers a multitude of sins. For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to you who were once dead in your sins, so that you too might live in the Spirit as God does, no longer by human desires, but by the will of God and with all the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ, in whom we are forgiven and to whom, with the Father and the Spirit, belongs all glory and power, forever and ever. Blessed be God forever! Amen!

First Sunday of Lent

Deuteronomy 10:12-22 OR Nehemiah 9:1-38
Psalm 6
John 7:1-13

Galatians 2:1-14 (15-21) OR Galatians 1:1-24 OR James 1:1-27 OR James 1:17-2:13


   

   

CALL TO WORSHIP [from GREATER ATTENTION: LERW, YEAR D]

You shall fear the LORD your God; him alone you shall worship.

To the LORD you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear.  

The LORD is our praise; he is our God, who has done

great and awesome things for us that our own eyes have seen.

Heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the LORD our God,

the earth with all that is in it!

The LORD, the great God, is God of gods and Lord of lords.

Mighty and awesome, he is not partial and he takes no bribe.

Circumcise your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer,

for what does the LORD your God require of you?

Only to fear the LORD, to walk in all his ways, to love him,

to serve him with all our heart and soul, and to keep

his commandments and decrees for our own well-being.

A freedom better than independence

Now that the Independence Day celebrations are behind us for another year, why not read about and celebrate the far greater, eternal freedom promised by the gospel of Jesus Christ?

The Freedom of Christ

So what can happen when one superimposes lectio continua over Lent? Well, for one thing: this short series of six sermons on Galatians, preached ten years ago as I was designing and experimenting with Year D. With so many homiletical options on the table these days, one would not presume to issue such a collection with the expectation that such a series would ever be considered normative or exemplary—by anyone, least of all an author whose job it is to study and teach manifold approaches to preaching—nevertheless, this little book is at least a fair representation, a non-exemplary example, so to speak, of how preaching can cover significant territory with (I hope) some depth, yet at a fairly brisk pace.

More specifically and somewhat pedagogically, I offer it as an example of what I call "reiterative exposition," which is, as I understand it, akin to what Walter Brueggemann calls "re-utterance." For the record, I do realize that while Brueggemann favors, promotes, and envisions preaching as "re-utterance" of the Word, he is less positive about "reiteration." The difference, if there is one, seems to me less clear and stark than it evidently does to him. So with that expression of intent, i.e., that I think we are aiming at the same thing, here it is: a reiteration or a reutterance (as you like) of the gospel of freedom, The Freedom of Christ.

Here's hoping that, after all the flailing and failed fleshly attempts at freedom we see displayed in the weeks leading up to Lent, this articulation of and invitation to the freedom of Christ will find its way home in many a reader's heart.

UPDATE: For some reason, according to Google Trends, there seems to be particular interest in Galatians in Zimbabwe these days, so perhaps this title will grab some African readers. Note as well the rising interest in the epistle itself, in contrast to the diminishing interest in the lectionary.