Father, we know that when we hear that Jesus is both Lord and Christ, this knowledge should cause us to be cut to the heart. We confess that our nation is not in fact cut to the heart, and so the reason must be that they have not heard that Jesus Christ has been established …
Theologies With Wiggle Room
Father, Your Word summons all nations everywhere to listen to the voice of Your faithful Son, Your faithful Servant. We confess that as a nation we have wanted to assume that the residual moral capital of former generations is good enough, and that we can somehow pretend to know the difference between right and wrong …
Fearing Phantoms
Father, we confess our fear to You. As a nation, our courage has turned to bluster, our confidence into a calculated pose. We are afraid of real threats, like economic hard times or terrorism, and we are afraid of phantoms of our imagination, like global warming. Father, as a people it often appears that we …
Callused or Tender
Father, we ask You to forgive our trespasses, and we ask You to convict our nation of those trespasses so that we might confess them fully and heartily. We confess on behalf of our people that we have assumed that a bad memory is the same thing as a clean conscience, and that a callused …
The Scalpel of Affliction
Father, we are taught the true nature of our sinfulness by many means, but among those means we experience the scalpel of afflictions, as administered by Your wise and steady hand. We pray that as we confess our sins now, we will do so as those who have learned from this what we ought to …
Without Holiness
Father, we acknowledge that You are the holy God, and that we have somehow believed that we could rest in Your favor without being holy, and without appealing to the name of Jesus Christ, the only name capable of making men holy. We confess that our nation thinks of itself as amiable and well-meaning, and …
Sinners as Open Book
Father, we bow before You now in confession, acknowledging that You are in fact the God who tests the minds and hearts of all men. We pray as part of a sinful generation, one which believes that You do not see all things, and that You cannot read the thoughts and intentions of the heart. …
Delivered From Mere Externals
Father, when men do not know You in truth, they of necessity gravitate to the externals. The Spirit of God always marries the inside and the outside, and it is the sin of man that seeks to divide them. We confess that we live among a people whose hearts are far from You, and yet …
Not Basically Good at All
Father, Your Word says that no one does what is right, and our national catechism impudently contradicts this, saying that everyone is basically good. Father, we not only confess to You how bad we are as a nation, but we confess the lies that we tell ourselves about how bad we are. We pray that …
Highhandedness
Father, we live in a time when the worldliness of the unbelieving world is truly stark. We confess that in many places of our national life. — in our letters, on our politics, in our entertainment — our rebellion against You is highhanded in the extreme. Father, we confess that our nation is guilty of …