Ordinary Time

Pause

“We belong in a bundle of life. We say, ‘A person is a person through other persons.’ It is not, ‘I think therefore I am.’ It says rather, ‘I am human because I belong. I participate, I share.’”

from No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu (1999)

Listen

Prayer that comes from faith will heal the sick, for the Lord will restore them to health. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven. For this reason, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person is powerful in what it can achieve.

James 5:15-16

Think

A prayer of confession from the Book of Common Prayer states: “Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved thee with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.”

Confession is hard. Honesty is hard. While we all know no one is perfect, we also know that judgment and harsh criticism are very real. It takes courage to be honest with ourselves and with others to admit what we have done wrong, both in what we’ve done and what we’ve left undone.

If we can embrace that courage and confess, grace and mercy are possible. A renewed relationship through the giving and receiving of prayer is possible. We can do wonderful and powerful things with this relationship. This power comes from achieving the goal of working together and of sharing God’s transforming love with everyone. And that is indeed a powerful thing.

Kim Crowley

Pray

God of grace and mercy, help me to be honest with myself and others about what I have done and left undone. Help me to be open to hearing others’ confessions, that we can be in right relationship with you and with each other. Amen.

Go

Go and remember: you belong to the body of Christ. The body needs you in order to work as it should.

Go out and share your gifts, so that the body of Christ may be the healing love of God to the world.