Just in Time! Prayers and Liturgies of Confession and Assurance
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About this ebook
Rev. Kenneth H. Carter JR.
Kenneth H. Carter, Jr. is resident bishop of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Along with the Cabinet, he gives pastoral and administrative leadership to almost 800 congregations, fresh expressions of church, campus ministries and outreach initiatives in an episcopal area that stretches from Tallahassee and Jacksonville to Miami and the Keys. He came to the Florida Conference in 2012, following a ministry of almost thirty years in Western North Carolina, twenty-nine as a local church pastor. Bishop Carter is the immediate past-president of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church, and he was one of three moderators of the Commission on A Way Forward, the commission authorized by the General Conference in matters of unity and human sexuality. He is author of a number of books, most recently Fresh Expressions of People Over Property and Fresh Expressions: A New Kind of Methodist Church (both with Audrey Warren) and Embracing The Wideness: The Shared Convictions of United Methodists. He travels extensively across the state, preaching in local churches and encouraging lay and clergy leaders. Bishop Carter and his wife, Pam have been married for thirty-seven years. Pam is also an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, and was previously a regional team leader in disaster recovery for the Florida Conference. They are blessed with two adult daughters: Liz lives in Los Angeles, where she is a PhD. student at U.C.L.A., and Abby is on the staff of Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tennessee. Abby and her husband Allen are parents of Paige, the bishop’s granddaughter. The Carters consider it a great blessing to live and serve in Florida.
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Just in Time! Prayers and Liturgies of Confession and Assurance - Rev. Kenneth H. Carter JR.
JUST IN TIME!
PRAYERS AND
LITURGIES OF
CONFESSION AND
ASSURANCE
Kenneth H. Carter Jr.
Abingdon Press
Nashville
JUST IN TIME!
PRAYERS AND LITURGIES OF CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
Copyright © 2009 by Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.
Prayers and liturgies may be reproduced provided the following credit line and copyright notice appear on each copy: "From Prayers and Liturgies of Confession and Assurance by Kenneth H. Carter Jr. Copyright © 2009 by Abingdon Press. Reproduced by permission." No other part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Abingdon Press, P.O. Box 801, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202-0801 or e-mailed to permissions@abingdonpress.com.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carter, Kenneth H.
Prayers and liturgies of confession and assurance / Kenneth H. Carter, Jr.
p. cm. — (Just in time!)
Includes indexes.
ISBN 978-0-687-65489-5 (binding: pbk., adhesive perfect : alk. paper)
1. Confession (Liturgy)—Christianity. 2. Confession (Liturgy)—Texts. 3. Church year. I. Title.
BV845.C37 2009
264'.13—dc22
2008021163
All scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter One: Reflections on Sin: Why Do We Need to Confess?
Sin as Pride
Sin as Violation of Boundaries
Sin and the Possibility of Forgiveness
Chapter Two: Confession, Assurance, and the Human Condition
Dependence on God
Seeking Guidance
In Response to World Hunger
In Response to Apathy
In the Midst of Despair
Self-sufficiency and Pride
Disobedience
Judgmentalism
Exhaustion
After a Natural Disaster
Confusion
Acknowledging Brokenness
Rebellion
After a Senseless Tragedy
For Renewal of Life
For a Renewed Sense of Purpose
Seeking Clarity
Seeking God’s Will
Depletion
For Increased Compassion
Discouragement
Weariness of Soul
Unfaithfulness
Estrangement
Lack of Dedication
Chapter Three: Confession, Assurance, and the Holy Scriptures
Genesis 1–2
Genesis 3
Exodus 3
Exodus 13
1 Kings 19
Psalm 23
Psalm 46
Psalm 51
Psalm 119
Isaiah 6
Ezekiel 1
Micah 6
Matthew 4; Luke 4
Matthew 5
Matthew 6
Luke 15
John 6
Acts 2
Romans 6
1 Corinthians 11
1 Corinthians 13
2 Corinthians 5
2 Corinthians 12
Ephesians 3
Philippians 1
Chapter Four: Confession, Assurance, and the Liturgical Year
Advent
Christmas
Epiphany
Baptism of the Lord (or Baptismal Renewal)
Transfiguration
Ash Wednesday
Lent
Palm/Passion Sunday
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday
Easter
Sunday after Easter
Ascension Sunday
Pentecost
Trinity Sunday
Sunday after Pentecost
Ordinary Time
World Communion
All Saints
Christ the King
Resources
Scripture Index
Hymn Index
INTRODUCTION
We practice ministry and gather as Christians in the midst of worship wars.
In the last century, the patterns and rituals of our worship were passed, uncontested for the most part, from generation to generation. And while warfare might be too strong a word to describe our conversations and debates about worship, particularly in a time of warfare around the globe, worship practices are no longer uncontested. This is true for styles of music, oral communication, the presence or absence of visual images, and the structure of the worship service itself.
There is a real question, in the midst of these debates, about the need for confession of sin within the service of Christian worship. Some see confession as a set of rote expressions, sometimes disconnected from human behavior. Others view confession as a downer
in the midst of more upbeat praise experiences. Yet others view worship as the reconstruction of the self-esteem of the individual; confession is an unnecessary detour on that journey.
Some congregants have insisted to me that they do not feel that they have sinned; others do not quite see themselves in the words of confession. As a pastor I take these conversations very seriously. And yet, my reading of Scripture, my sense of the tradition, and my pastoral experience is heavily weighted in a different direction.
The reality of sin is deeply embedded in the biblical witness: from the first saga, of Adam and Eve, through the lineage of the patriarchs and matriarchs to the enslavement of Israel by Pharaoh—and that’s just Genesis. Sin is pervasive throughout Scripture: from the social environment that called forth the rebuke of the prophets to the religious leaders who resisted the ministry of Jesus to the conflict and immorality that existed in early Christian communities.
The teaching of the Scriptures across the centuries in the church, especially in the context of worship, led to the need for a formal recognition of confession of sin, often as a response to having come into the presence of a God who is worthy of our praise and adoration. These confessions were sometimes corporate, sometimes offered by the priest on behalf of the church, and sometimes related to the liturgical calendar.
The tradition of confession serves God’s people best when it is in conversation with the rich diversity of human experience: personal and structural sin (see Reinhold Niebuhr’s classic Moral Man and Immoral Society), recurrent moral failure, remembrance of past horrors (as in the confession of complicity in racism or genocide), or attempts to discover meaning in human tragedy.
Biblical faith teaches us to hold in tension our need to confess sin with God’s gracious offer of forgiveness. Without confession, we are not honest in examining our own lives before God or others in the human family. And yet confession itself, apart from assurance, leads to a demoralized condition and a downcast spirit. At the same time, assurance without confession (and repentance) results in cheap grace.
The pastor and the laity are also aware that all of God’s people are in need of both confession and assurance; as the Apostle Paul wrote, "All have sinned and fall short of