(Written for World Communion Sunday 2018, after the public affirmation of Judge Kavanaugh.)

God of all creation,

    God of bushes and booths,

   of worms and whales. 

God of all, we pray to you this night

    with confession on our hearts,

   for we too have heard your call to Nineveh,

        and turned the other way.

We have sensed you wanting us,

    needing us,

      to do things that are bigger than us.

We have felt you pulling us into you,

    and we have resisted.

We’ve nestled ourselves into our small spaces,

    our comfortable corners,

      our tiny imaginations.

We’ve rejected bigger plans with unknown outcomes,

    for we’re rather hide, than risk salvation.

For all the ways we shrink ourselves and neglect

     the work you place upon us, forgive us.

Lord in your mercy, forgive us we pray.

God of all we pray to you with confession this night,

  for we too have been angry at the bush. 

We have stomped off into lonely places,

   angry about conflicts we thought were ours to win. 

We’ve let brief moments of shade 

     lull us into comfort, 

   small victories appease us into stopping the fight.

We’ve pulled on the long scale of history,

    believing justice must bend towards us.

We’ve reduced our injustices

    to fit our schedules,

  then we rant and writhe 

      when the same wickedness appears again.

For all the ways we make big problems bigger,

    finding solutions that serve us and not you, God forgive us.

Lord in your mercy, forgive us we pray.

God of all we come to you with confession this night,

    for we don’t even see the animals.

We see enemies and arguments we want to defeat,

   ideas and opinions we must defend,

      and we’ve been blind to the ones in the middle of it all,

    the ones who stand to burn if the city is destroyed.

We’ve named them victims and survivors, 

      immigrants and detainees,

  we’ve named them the unjustly treated,

     the unfairly condemned,

  we’ve named them “brave” and “well-spoken,”

     while we’ve closed their coffins and turned away.

God, for all those we don’t even notice,

    while we wrap ourselves in ideas and arguments

       that privilege us to remain blind, forgive us.

Lord in your mercy, forgive us we pray.

And God of all, we confess,

    that even in the midst of confessing 

       we’re not sure if we’re talking about ourselves. 

For we already have the enemies in our sight. 

We already know who the wicked are, 

   and have no problem shouting “we told you so.” 

But you came to Jonah, again and again.

You listened to his weary rants,

    his immature intolerance for the salvation of others.

So come to us too, won’t you God?

Hear our confession, and help us confess.

Unbind our hearts so heavy in this day,

    that we might dare to follow your calls into big things,

    that we might dare to participate in the salvation of your world.

Lord in your mercy, forgive us we pray.

And so we pray together this night, 

   with a chorus of witnesses from around your world.

We pray with our voices together this World Communion Sunday,

    confessing that we need each other, 

    protesting the ideas that have torn us apart,

    committing ourselves to work and wait for a better day,

  we pray together…Our Father…