Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all.
Father, we confess that as a people we have not wanted to be tied to the objectivity of words. Words come from outside us, and they mean what they mean apart from our lusts and desires, and when they cross our lusts and desires, we insist that the words give way to what we want. We have sinned against Your commandments, statutes, and ordinances, and we have wanted to pretend that we as a nation could possibly do this in the name of a higher way. Father, we have rejected Your ultimate word, and as a consequence all lesser words, like constitutions, treaties, laws, and regulations, turn into mush. Forgive us for our flight from reason, we pray.
We know, Father, that if we in the Church regard iniquity in our own midst, or in our own hearts, this prayer will be ineffectual
. We confess that in the Church we have listened to impulses, visions, thoughts, guesses, speculations from the pulpit, instead of submitting like quieted children to the clarity of Your Word. We confess that in this particular form of disobedience, the Church has led the way, and the nation has followed.
Father, we now confess our private sin to You—and Selah . . . We do this in the strong name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and amen.
God hates all sin, but He delights to receive sinners back when they return to Him. Because of this, and because He has given His word of promised forgiveness in His written Word, I therefore declare that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!