Confession
When we have acted out of judgement rather than grace
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy
When we have forgotten your story and been shaped by the story of the Western Dream of the good life
Christ have mercy
Christ have mercy
When church has taken all our energy and we've not had time to get stuck into our locality
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy
When all our friends have become Christians and we haven't made new friendships
Christ have mercy
Christ have mercy
When we have acted in our own strength and forgotten the gifts of your Spirit
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy
But when we are filled with grace,
live out the gospel
in our locality
make good friends
and share the gifts of the Spirit
then God rejoices with us
Almighty God who forgives all who who truly repent
have mercy on us
pardon and deliver us from our sins
and keep us in life eternal
through Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen
2 comments:
snip
"When church has taken all our energy and we've not had time to get stuck into our locality
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy"
snip
I'm not sure I get this one. Is it bad to give your energy to church and wouldn't it depend on what that energy is spent doing? Getting stuck into our locality reminds me of being consumed with the petty concerns of our small portion of the world. Maybe I'm missing the point.
Thanks for all your faithful comments Deborah! While I can't say what was in the author's mind, what I get out of it is that rather than giving our energy to the church in effective ways, sometimes the church (and I think issues floating around) sucks all of our energy and takes our mind and focus off of what God has called us to do at the local level. I'm happy that St. Peter's has managed to keep its focus on the local while also giving time and energy to the larger issues as well.
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