In our worship orders, it can be common to use an “Order of Confession and Forgiveness” – often at the beginning of a service. …and sometimes we’re more likely to include this part of the service when we’re in the reflective season of Lent – a time where we’re invited to ponder mortality, and our human nature and who we are in the world.
As an alternative, words using language about being bound to unjust systems and accepting responsibility for our part in such systems, as well as words of absolution that talk about being freed to live otherwise, are offered here (see pdf-files at the bottom of this entry).
We know that our food is often produced in far-away places, sometimes using chemicals that can poison water-sources and shipped on barges and trucks that release carbon into the air; we know that people work in poor conditions for long hours to sew the clothes we wear; we know that the coffee we drink, the chocolate we enjoy, the metals used in the production of our electronics… all of these have significant human and environmental cost – and we don’t need to turn a blind eye to such costs. We can work to change those systems.
The first step to change is to acknowledge the injustice and our part in it. So, more than saying that we are bound by “sin,” let’s name those places where our lives are detrimental to relationship with others. Let’s say it out loud, and let’s work to change our living.
God is gracious, God frees us to live justly – to work at living in a way that all may have life.
(The image of hands that is used was found in Sundays and Seasons a number of years ago – credit to Augsburg Fortress)
For pdf files of liturgy resources for this, as well as items referenced in previous blogs, click here.
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