Third Sunday of Advent

God of liberation, in Jesus Christ you promise release from all that binds us. In you, we find freedom from guilt and death. Nonetheless, O God, we choose imprisonment. We are captivated by false idols and selfish lifestyles. We invest in prisons of addiction and self-aggrandizement. We lock ourselves within walls of willfulness and self-centered pursuits. Forgive us, God, and free us yet again, that this Advent will welcome our full freedom, in Jesus Christ. Amen.