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Assurance of pardon for a communion Sunday

Brothers and sisters, God does not leave us in our sin and shame. He does not abandon us to our self-centered decision-making. We prefer to starve ourselves on the world’s bread that cannot satisfy. But at this table, our God provides us with the Bread of Life. Jesus feeds our souls, knowing just what we need. He said in John 6:51, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. Anyone who eats of this bread will live forever.” Through his pierced and broken body, we are made whole. In Christ and through Christ alone we are forgiven, and therefore we rejoice! Amen.

Assurance of Pardon from Psalm 51:9-12

The Lord has hidden his face from our sin. He has blotted out all of our iniquity. For Christ Jesus, the Perfect suffered for the imperfect, the sinless became sin for the sinner. We are forgiven and freed to live in a right relationship with God. He has created within us a clean heart and renewed a right spirit within us. God has restored our joy and given us a willing spirit to do all that he asks. Brothers and sisters, you are forgiven, indeed! Amen.

God of the Nations: Prayer of Confession

ALL: God of the Nations

Our hearts are often far from you

Our hearts are closed to our neighbor

We stand with our tribe, we keep strangers far away

We hide behind walls, we speak badly of others

These things dishonor you, they break your heart

When we harm instead of heal, we contradict the gospel. 

Psalm 95:1, 6, 7, 8, 10

Leader: 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, 

let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; 

ALL: 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, 

the flock under his care. 

Leader: Today, if only you would hear his voice,

8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,  

as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, 

10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; 

I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, 

and they have not known my ways.’ 

ALL: 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, 

let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; 

Leader: 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, 

the flock under his care. 

ALL:    1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD!

         let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation!

Psalm 146

Leader 1: 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
    I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Leader 2: 1 Haleluya. Ee nafsi yangu, umsifu Bwana!

ALL: 1 Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord, O my soul!

Leader 1: 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
    whose hope is in the Lord his God,

Leader 2: 1 Haleluya. Ee nafsi yangu, umsifu Bwana!

ALL: 1 Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord, O my soul!

Leader 2: The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8     the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

Leader 1: 1 Haleluya. Ee nafsi yangu, umsifu Bwana!

ALL: 1 Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord, O my soul!

Leader 2: 9 The Lord watches over immigrants;
    he upholds the widow and the fatherless,

Leader 1: 1 Haleluya. Ee nafsi yangu, umsifu Bwana!

ALL: 1 Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord, O my soul!

TR