Confession (Anastasia)

God, there are times we act
As if we belong only to ourselves,
Forgetting who we are, and whose we are.

Forgive us for the times
We have used others for our own ends,
Directing them toward our preferred path,
Rather than seeking to discern with them
Which path will lead them towards you.

Forgive us for the times
We have come to believe
That there is no hope.

Help us find the melody of holiness
That will make our souls dance again;
The notes which will remind us of
what we almost lost.

Keep us grounded in your heart.
Call us back to one another.
Call us back to you.

Amen.

Prayer of Confession,
God on Broadway Series:
Anastasia

Confession (Dear Evan Hansen)

Loving God,
You who see us more clearly
Than we ever see you,

We confess the stories we make up
to pad the empty places of our lives,
the false images we create in word and picture

To buffer our true selves
from our neighbors, from pain,
and sometimes even from you.

These lies are
no more comfortable
than the truth.

They hurt, too, God.

Forgive the avalanche of words and actions
that serve no good purpose at all.
Forgive all the ways in which we fall down;
And knit our broken pieces back together. Amen.

Prayer of Confession,
God on Broadway Series: 
Dear Evan Hansen

Confession (Lion King)

Holy One–
Mighty, Tender, and Challenging,

We must confess that we sometimes get lost.
We lose the sound of your voice within us,
The powerful truth that you spoke before time began,
And we feel as if we are going it alone.

Sometimes the world seems to laugh.
The powers threaten to devour us.
The night and the scope of our problems
Make us feel tiny and friendless.
We are tired, ashamed, vulnerable.

Forgive us for what we have done, and left undone.
Reach within us and give us hope and courage.
Set our spirits aflame.

Remind us of who, and whose we are:
We are your children. We cannot do this alone.
We need you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Prayer of Confession:
God on Broadway Series
The Lion King (Pentecost Sunday)

The Meeting Place (A Transfiguration Sermon)

Did you see the trees yesterday? My social media feeds were filled, for a time, with photos and glad remarks from friends who stopped what they were doing and took note. The afternoon sun passing through ice-encased twigs was perhaps the best after-effect of Friday night’s weather. Driving along a country road on Saturday was like driving through a jewelbox, all glittering crystal. I thought it looked like a hymn. My daughter and I debated how you might paint such a marvel. These curves and branches - the shapes had seemed so dull and ordinary, late-February drab fading into the background just a few days before. Yesterday? Glorious.

This is transfiguration: that which surrounds us everyday, elevated, made more beautiful. For a while, holy imagination reigns and we can see the glory.

And then we round the curve into town, and pull into the garage, and somehow it’s all still there waiting for us. There is still homework to be done, a sermon to be finished, dinner to be sorted out, and the cats have an opinion about the state of their litterbox.

There are the times when your holy imagination is filled with sunsets and mountains, crystalline trees and freshly-washed baby, hope and newness and the glory of God. The stuff of life, transfigured. Flesh, milk, water, bark, sunshine, photosynthesis, DNA, …which coexist with diapers, spitup, sweat, dirty litterboxes and the desperate need for sleep.

Jesus took his closest followers up the mountain to pray, and Luke tells us they were so gosh darn tired they were ready to drop. There are the times when human limitations tell holy imagination to stuff it. Aching muscles, tired of paying attention, do we have to do this now?


Yes, now. Even though we are tired, and smelly and messy, just ordinary human beings. He wants to do this now. Right now is the time for glory to meet our footsore, fumbling attempts to follow.