Litany of Penitence Laying down the Burdens and Sacrificing the Sin that Separates Hebrews 12 says, Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. All of us accumulate burdens that weigh us down and sin that trips us up. Each of us is prone to wonder, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Tonight we will name these burdens, these failures, these habits, these attitudes collectively and individually, and we will lay them down on the altar, so that we can cling to Jesus as our cornerstone. When our hands are already full of stones, we are unable to take hold of any treasure. Likewise, these sinful behaviors and attitudes fill our hearts and effectively prevent us from receiving grace and enjoying forgiveness. We must first lay down useless things in order to accept Jesus gifts of salvation, sanctification, and transformation. We must be willing to give up our old ways of thinking and behaving, if we are to be transformed by the Holy Spirit into new creations. Together we will pray responsively, and then there will be time for individual reflection as well. A Series of readers, will lead us in communal confession and surrender. Each will finish their prayer with the line, LORD IN YOUR MERCY, To which we will respond collectively, HAVE MERCY ON US, O GOD. Greatest commands Holy and merciful God, we confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and
strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others as we have been forgiven. Lord in your mercy, Apathy and indifference 1 John 3:17 - If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? We lay down APATHY and all we do to ignore things that matter. We are often indifferent to the suffering around us in sick, poor, or lonely people. We find it too easy to ignore the pain of those fleeing terrorists in Syria or drug cartels in Central America. We give up our indifference and instead choose to love and to serve. Lord in your mercy, Blaming others Matthew 6:5 - You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother s eye. We lay down BLAMING OTHERS. Too often we pass the buck, avoiding responsibility by find fault with others. Rather than blame co- workers, spouses, children, or even God for our disappointments, challenges, and failures; we will take responsibility for our part and make amends. Lord in your mercy, Have mercy on us, O God. Impatience Psalm 27:14 Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. We lay down IMPATIENCE with God and other people. Too often we grow angry with slow people, traffic on the highway, or unanswered prayers. Instead, we will do what we can, when we can, and trust God s timing for the rest. Lord in your mercy,
impurity Ephesians 5:3 - But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity. We lay down IMPURITY and all that defiles the image of God in us. Our world praises the sexually liberated, but we honor you with our bodies and our sexuality, laying down pornography, lust, objectification, and lewd humor. Lord in your mercy, Entitlement and me first 1 Cor 4:7 - For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? We lay down ENTITLEMENT. We lay down ME FIRST attitudes and DEMANDING personalities. We give up the lie that other people exist to serve us, and instead realize that all we have is a gift from our homes to our bodies to our jobs to the breath in our lungs, we humbly receive these gifts with the hope that we can be a servant to others. Lord in your mercy, People pleasing and fear of people Matt 10:28 - Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. We lay down PEOPLE PLEASING and FEAR OF PEOPLE. We will give into cultural standards or cave to peer pressure. We quit altering our appearance, dress and body through eating disorders, excessive shopping, and suggestive clothing. Instead we find our value in Jesus. Lord in your mercy, Overcommitment and busyness
Col 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, We lay down OVERCOMMITMENT and BUSYNESS. We give up the things we do unnecessarily to make ourselves feel important, like attending every meetings, joining too many clubs, serving on too many committees. We give up doing more with less, and instead give God and others our best by choosing to do less with more intentionality, energy, and commitment. Lord in your mercy, Distractions and wasting time Romans 6:13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. We lay down DISTRACTIONS and WASTING TIME. We give up the things we use to numb ourselves to unpleasant emotions and the things we use to procrastinate the necessary tasks. We give up TV, Video Games, Drunkenness, Comfort Eating, and anything we binge on to distract ourselves. Instead, we will make ourselves available and useful to Jesus. Lord in your mercy, Destructive speech and gossip Ephesians 4:29 - Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. We lay down DESTRUCTIVE SPEECH AND GOSSIP. We give up laughing at other people, retelling other s misfortunes, and using our words to hurt others or their reputation. We give up nasty Facebook posts, Tweets, and passive- aggressive hostility towards everybody from our parents to political pundits. Instead, we will season our speech with grace to encourage the faint and to bless our enemies. Lord in your mercy,
Bitterness and resentment Colossians 3:13 - Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. We lay down BITTERNESS AND RESENTMENT. We quit hating others for their sins and we give up the right to make them pay for what they have done. We lay down the burden of retaliation and everything we do to cause them pain or wish them injury. instead trust God our Avenger to execute justice for them and us. We can forgive them as Christ has forgive us. Lord in your mercy, Give up and quit 2 Timothy 1:7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self- discipline. We lay down our desire to GIVE UP and QUIT, which stems from laziness and fear. We are often half- hearted creatures hoping for healing through half- measures and easier, softer ways. We prefer the comfort of routine and low expectations, rather than the risk of fully committing ourselves to the active surrender of following Jesus. Lord in your mercy, Pride and self-promotion 1 Peter 5:5 - All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. We lay down our PRIDE and SELF- PROMOTION. We reject the lie that we are the center of the universe, that we know best, that we are better than others, smarter than others, and so God and people need us. We quit the habits of bragging, name- dropping, exaggerating, and out- right lying in hopes others will like us more. Instead, we will celebrate others and praise God. Lord in your mercy,
Guilt and shame Isaiah 54:4 - Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. We lay down our GUILT and SHAME. We lay down the lie that our sin is somehow too bad. We quit denying forgiveness to ourselves. Instead, we believe you died to cover our shame, you gave the Holy Spirit to give us power to conquer the things that make us ashamed. So, we will seek help conquering the actions that continue to bury us in guilt like habitual sin, addiction, lying, abuse, or our past. Lord in your mercy, Striving and Hypocrisy Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. We lay down our STRIVING and LEGALISM and HYPOCRISY. We quit trying to be good enough to earn your love, to merit forgiveness, and to win heaven. We repent of judging ourselves against other s failures, and justifying our favorite sins as not that bad. We lay down all we have done as filthy rags and trust wholly in Jesus name and his cross to save us. Lord in your mercy, IMPOSITION OF ASHES There are millions of things we need to lay down. Millions of things that we have made the cornerstone of our lives, millions of ways we have dishonored and disobeyed God, millions of ways we ve hurt ourselves and others. There are
scores of character defects, shortcomings, and failures that keep us buried in shame, guilt, and unproductive cycles. It is time to lay them down. To lay it all down. Col 3 says it this way: Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 12 Therefore, as God s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. We invite you to think about the actions, attitudes, and occurrences that keep you from fully surrendering yourself to Jesus and his way of life. We invite you to think of those things you seek to hide from others most carefully and those things you talk about most frequently. We ask you to think about what you turn to on the bad days to comfort you and the things you think about first thing in the morning. These are probably the things that keep your hands so full, you cannot enjoy the benefits of Christ. They may feel like security blankets, but they are burdens.