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, in the blood of Your Son our Lord, You have offered the world redemption from sin. We confess that one of the great sins of which our nation is guilty is that of despising this offering, this atonement, this sacrifice beyond all reckoning. Your Son has purchased this nation with His blood, and we do not want to acknowledge it. And when we reject the blood atonement that You have provided, we confess that we are left with the only logical alternative, which is that of trying to find a substitute for that blood. And so, Father, we confess in this Advent season that our political fathers have owned the paternity of their father, Herod, in that they are willing to shed the blood of innocents in order to prevent the rule of the Prince, the only one who was every truly innocent. Father, we confess this, wanting to remember that Herod is as much a part of the Christmas story as the shepherds, the wise men, and the star.
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
. Father, we confess that we have not preached the blood sacrifice of Your Son as we ought to have done, and we have not declared it to the world through faithful observance of the Lord’s Supper. We confess, therefore, our complicity in the circumstances that surround us now, and which invite Your judgment on our sorry nation. Restore Your Church, and forgive our sins, we pray
And we now confess our individual sins to You—and Selah . . . We do this in the strong name of Jesus, and amen.
In the gospel, and only through the gospel, you have indeed obtained an inheritance. On the basis of that gospel, as a minister of it, I declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!