Confession & Forgiveness & Prayer of the Day for Lent 3A: The Wellspring, the Bread, and the Banquet for All

Peace, All. Here's a confession/absolution & prayer of the day for Lent 3a. This year that's this Sunday, March 12, 2023. 

These go with the John text. I made a translation/paraphrase of that here that I think might be pretty helpful. 

It is to me :)

Copyleft. Everything. Feel free to use 'em in worship. I didn't proofread as much as usual, so look out for typos. They happen. 

Also, cite your sources (AKA this blog).

Peace, again!

~ Tom

[ image source ]

Prayer of the Day (Lent 3a)

At the well 

with heavy hearts,

we sit beneath the sun.

Our bones?

Their hope? It’s thirst:

for that day when none go hungry.

Our veins?

Their hope? It’s hunger: 

pulses, rhythms longing 

for that place where no one thirsts.

Wellspring, soothe us.

Bread, come and satisfy. 

In us plant your Garden, Creation Anew,

So that place takes place in this place, 

so that Day is here and now:

Life abundant, life eternal, now and forevermore. 

 

Amen.

Confession & Absolution (Lent 3a)

Praise & Approach

From creation, you called us good, O God, plucking us from the dust, 

planting us in a garden where all could share.

Each day was a banquet, each night a feast, each morning a smile. 

For food, we were never lacking.

The River was named Life–

a constant promise 

that we would never thirst. 

Confession

And yet, O God, our hunger turned to hoarding; 

and our thirst to things that would kill. 

The feast became a private room with a bouncer 

reserved for just a few. 

And so:

We feasters turn to you and confess: 

Our abundance is comfort.

We sit on it like a couch.

We believe we are living the life. 

And yet, deep down, we know: 

this is neither the abundance nor the life-eternal 

that is called for and that springs from Christ our Life and Source.

When our “life” is death to the many,

help us to use our power with love:

to turn the tables,

to break every chain,

to right the wrongs endured for so long.

Give us the courage to trust that hoarding is not Life, 

and that on that Day that we share there will be enough for all.

We who are hungry are pleading: where daily bread is not given, 

where food can no longer grow;

where water is poisoned, polluted, or filled with lead;

make us a geyser, O God, 

rising up from the ground to declare and to demand: 

Our lives are sacred. God’s will is the Garden. 

All flesh and all of Creation have a God-given right to the Feast. 

Amen.

Absolution

In Christ, forgiveness makes us free. 

We are free to meet at the well.

We are freed to meet in the desert’s drought. 

We are freed to share our bucket

and to leave the things that kill behind, 

exchanging them

for that way of the cross,

and the path toward God’s Reign of Love

where borders cease and, transformed,

all become family again.

May it be so here. 

May it ever be so in you. 

Amen.