Confession & Absolution (Lent 2023) "Command These Stones to Become Bread!"

Peace, Friends.

Here's a confession and absolution y'all can use for Lent.

Use it personally. Use it communally. Wherever. Whenever. 

Whatever. If you do, use it, help me out. Let me know.

And cite either this blog or my website (tomgaulke.com).

Thanks so much. 

Peace, love, and liberation. 

~ Tom

[ image source ]

Confession & Absolution for Lent 2023

Inspired by the reading for Lent 1a: the Temptation in Matthew 4. There, the devil says to Jesus, “Command these stones to become bread.” 

Confession

On every continent, every day, your people, pray for daily bread, O God. And yet, for many, that bread has yet to arrive. Days? They are marked by hunger. And nights? With an infant’s cry. “If only we were able to make bread from this stone!” it is said. But it is no stone that is in the way. Our stumbling block is hardness of the heart. And so we come before you to confess. 

We confess to you, our God, that we have been mistaken. And we have been wrong. Though the reality of hunger and inequality, racism and hate, run rampant all around us, those of us who have more than enough have called our abundance “a blessing.” We confess to you and to one another that this is not the case. 

On the contrary. You teach us, O God, that in your Reign of Love, blessed are the hungry and the poor. This is a blessing that comes to fruition not when we hoard–or when we choose to decide for ourselves who is worthy and not worthy of food; but, rather, when it is revealed to us that nothing we possess is our own. All of Creation belongs to you, we learn. And so, we are able to share. 

Nurture your Reign of Love within and among us, we pray. Forgive us. Show us where we have gone astray. Remove all within us that might prevent the bubbling up of your love. Free us to delight in your will and to walk in your ways, now, and until the hungry are hungry no more. Amen.  

Absolution

In Christ, beloved, a mustard seed moves a mountain. When the Spirit moves, shackles fall. Held in grace, perfect love will cast out all fear. And God’s grace holds you now. 

In the name of Christ, I declare to you that you are forgiven. And you are loved. Forgiven and loved, you are also freed to live into the love of God, even as the love of God lives in you. May it be so. Amen.