Call to Worship
One: The Lord is merciful and gracious,
All: slow to anger and abounding in love
One: Because of God’s love and forgiveness
All: We are free to love and be loved,
forgive and be forgiven,
bless and be blessed.
One: Gracious God, thank you for loving us in spite of our flaws. Let us come to rest in your presence today, so that we can remember your grace for us and be sent out as messengers of your love.
All: Amen
Prayer of Confession
Merciful God,
you created us for love,
but we have hardened our hearts against you and each other.
Wrapped up in our own needs,
we forget our neighbors.
Afraid of the cost,
we are silent in the face of injustice.
Filled with despair,
we give up on our world.
Forgive us, Lord. Restore in us the heart you gave,
fill us with care and purpose,
so that we may love as you love us.
Scripture Jeremiah 31:31-34
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.