Hand Washing
A worship experience for a community group or a service. Includes clay.
I’ve been thinking about this idea of forgiveness, and one of the first realizations I came to was that relationships are always messy. The closer you get to someone, the more likely you will have disagreements, it’s more likely that you will hurt each other. And as a result, forgiveness becomes very important. We are faced with the decision to forgive or not to forgive someone all the time. Relationships that are full of dirt and grime and filth are all around us. So, tonight, I thought we would start there. With all the dirt we have. I was hoping that we could make this very tangible, very real, so I decided to put a hunk of clay on every table. If you would like to, feel welcome to take some of the clay in your hands and to make a mess, to get dirty, to cover yourself in this stuff, as a way of acknowledging that we don’t have everything figured out, and that are constantly in a place where we need help. We need to get cleaned up.
O God, we bring you our failure,
Our hunger, our disappointment, our despair,
Our greed, our aloofness, our loneliness.
When we cling to others in desperation
Or turn from them in fear
Strengthen us in love.
Teach us, women and men,
To use our power with care.
We turn to you, O God,
We renounce evil,
We claim your love,
We choose to be made whole.
The St. Hilda Community
The Book of a Thousand Prayers, no. 341
One of the daily miracles of faith in Christ is forgiveness. Because Jesus laid down his life for us, we can be right with God. We can be made clean. God wants to take away the dirt and the grime, and to wash us.
There are some bowls of water at your table as well. As we continue singing, take a moment to clean your hands as a way of committing to forgiveness and as a way of accepting God’s gift. Let’s take a moment to pray.
Psalm 51:1-4a,7,10
Psalm of David, speaking to a prophet after sleeping with another man’s wife.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my wickedness,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my rebelliousness,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your eyes,
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
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