Prayers of Adoration and Confession: Wesley's Conversion Sunday, 24th May 2020

For God who works through Christ, we adore you

For God who assures us liberation in Christ, we adore you,

For God who strangely warms our hearts, we adore you,

For God who visited John Wesley at Aldersgate on this day in 1738, we adore you

For God who surprises us by meeting us, when sometimes we unwillingly join in prayer or faith discussions like you did to John Wesley, we adore you,

For God whose ways are strange and different, for at a Moravian Church, listening to Luther’s preface on the epistle of Romans, you O God granted assurance of salvation to John Wesley, we adore you,

For God who has been faithful to the life and witness of the church today, for continuing to warm the hearts of people in all generations, we adore you,

For God who continue to act in God’s own diverse ways, in meeting people where they are, we adore you,

For God who has never given up on people, though we are imperfect and inconsistent, we adore you,

For God who has never stopped God’s visitations to this creation, we adore you

For God who is collaborating with each us in transforming our world today, we adore you

For God who is never partial to those privileged or chosen, but whose grace is for all of the creation, we adore you

For God who is supporting us to cope with this lockdown, whose presence we experience at our homes, at our communities, at these online services and at several other places we did not know, we adore you

We also come to your presence dear Lord, confessing our own weaknesses and sins,

We confess for being selective in our listening and for not being open to listen to you, who have been speaking through many of ways which we did not know or did not want to know,

We confess today for drawing boundaries in trying to know you only in certain parameters and for not being open to your creative and diverse ways of strangely warming our hearts experiences,

We confess today for being self-centred only thinking about our church buildings and for not being able to locate and situate God’s presence among our communities and in our public spheres,

We confess today for keeping to ourselves the hearts strangely warmed experiences, and for not being to able to witness to Jesus Christ in the context of inequality, injustice, poverty, hunger and homelessness.

Dear Lord, come now and warm our hearts,

come now and ignite our faith,

come now and inspire us to be your witnesses today,

come now and lead us on to carry the mantle of your gospel relevant for our times today.

Come lord, come. We pray these prayers in the name of Jesus Christ who strangely warmed the heart of John Wesley. Amen.

                                                                                    @rajpatta