Monthly Archives: April 2012

30 Monday Apr 2012

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My wife Dallis and I met a woman at the local dog park, who had recently rescued a 3-year-old Yorkshire Terrier, whom she named Willow. She said something that spoke volumes about the joy of having a dog in one’s family: “When I’m having a bad day, I know that all I have to do is go home.” I can so relate!
This is my first time to Reblog another blogger’s post (hope it works!). I was very touched by this story of Sydney, a gentle wounded teacher who lives fully present in each moment!
May Sydney’s story bless you too.

Zen Being

I would like to introduce you to one of my greatest Mindfulness teachers.

Sydney lost one of his hind legs when he was perhaps 4 months old.  He was left overnight (tied to a post) in the parking lot of a local animal shelter with his left rear ankle missing and ligature marks just above the wound.  He was undernourished, and he had probably been tied up and entangled somewhere for so long that his entangled ankle became necrotic.  We’re not sure how it happened, but our vet thinks that he may have saved his own life by chewing off his own ankle.

The wonderful folks at the Richmond Animal Care and Control  secured funding and veterinary assistance through Helping Hands, and within hours, they were able to successfully amputate his leg and put him on a course of antibiotics that saved his life.

He was taken very good…

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Let’s not talk about love

29 Sunday Apr 2012

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Mission tripOver 100 years ago, the Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard pointed out that Jesus was looking for followers, not admirers.

Jesus invites people to go with him into the world and to serve others in his name. Jesus calls people to an active form of believing, not a set of propositions. Jesus challenges people to believe in the power of God to repair what is broken in the world.

We encounter problems when we think that being Christian means believing a hundred impossible things before breakfast! Furthermore, we begin to think that perhaps we are not real Christians, never were, and cannot ever hope to be.

As First John states this dilemma, there are days when “our hearts condemn us” (3:20). There are days when we wonder if we are good enough to call ourselves Christian.

Thankfully, by a miracle of God’s grace, our hearts do not have the last word. As John says, “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”

God sees with a Father’s eyes of unconditional love the goodness that resides within our hearts, yearning to break free. God sees with a Mother’s eyes of unmerited grace the blessing we are when we are able to embrace the truth about ourselves. For in the end, it is truth, and only truth, that sets us free.

In his book Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller writes, “There is a lie floating around that says I am supposed to be able to do life alone, without any help, without stopping to worship something bigger than myself. But I actually believe there is something bigger than me, and I need for there to be something bigger than me. I need someone to put awe inside me; I need to come second to someone who has everything figured out.”

That someone is Christ … the very One who meets us in worship and in life … the very One who invites sinners and outcasts to the banquet table … the very One who ushers us into the company of God.

Our best response to Christ is to live in the awareness of God’s Presence, to give thanks for the blessedness that follows us all the days of our lives, and to “love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action” (1 John 3:18).

We needn’t worry about whether we’re doing it right or not. We needn’t become self-critical about how we feel toward others – that we’re not getting that warm, fuzzy feeling. We just need to act in loving ways, leaving the feelings to sort themselves out.

John says we do this by laying down our life – that is, laying down our normal human inclination to live for ourselves only, laying it down at Christ’s feet, and then allowing God’s love to reorient us toward the needs of others.

Someone has called this our core competency as Christians … loving one another. Clarence Jordan captures the concrete practicality of this everyday love in his Cotton Patch Version of 1 John 3:18: “My little ones, let’s not talk about love. Let’s not sing about love. Let’s put love into action and make it real.”

Father Thomas Keating, in his book Invitation to Love, writes, “To love one another as Jesus loves us is to love one another in our humanness—in our individuality and opinionatedness, in personality conflicts and in unbearable situations. It is to continue to show love, no matter what the provocation may be to act otherwise.”

Jesus responded to human need around every corner, and expects his disciples to do the same – feeding the hungry, healing the sick, forgiving the sinner, loving the despised and forgotten ones of the world.

So, we throw our lot in with Jesus, the crucified and risen One! We see in his self-giving life and death, what love truly is. We practice that love through lives of integrity and grace. Most of all, we let Christ’s love grow within us so that our love is tangible and healing, and is true to the love Christ has for all people.

We move from admiration of Jesus to following him on the Way. We don’t merely talk about love, or sing about love. We put love into action, and make it real.

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photos of Sierra Service Project the summer of 2011 with sixty high school youth

All That Is Breaking

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Poems, Reflections

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One should never explain a poem in advance. Having said that, I need to at least disclose that I wrote this poem several years ago during a difficult period in my pastoral ministry. Earlier experiences of watching the waves crash against the breakwater not far from our home became a metaphor for managing the mistreatment I was feeling.

Being human means being hurt, in big and small ways. It means acknowledging the pain when it comes, as it does to every life, in order to move through it and beyond it. Often by naming what we don’t understand or the ways we are tempted to play it safe we begin to understand that life is all about risking – love, talent, energy, friendship, certainty, ego, creativity, the inner voice – or it is not living! Often the risking involves letting go.

So, this poem may be an admonition of sorts – I am still unsure what exactly it is saying to me (or perhaps about me).

How about you? What does it say to you? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Pacific Ocean at Asilomar

All That Is Breaking

Swells crash against the breakwater,
leaping high in the salty air,
like flying walls of sea water.

We come to watch nature’s powerful display,
moving in just close enough to taste danger,
to take the risk of dread.

Otherwise we are more cautious creatures,
driving the speed limit,
minding our manners,
keeping our heads low,
risking only what we are able.

A day may come
when our own powerful natures confront us,
taking the waves of deep grief
swelling within our fluid bodies,

and watching them wash over
all that is breaking
along the turbulent shores of this life.

Words (c) 2009 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photo (c) 2012 Dallis Day Richardson

The Gift of Embodiment

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Guest Blogs, Reflections

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Today’s blog is by my friend Cynthia McCabe. In the twelve years I have known Cynthia, I have been blessed, as I know others have been, by her positive energy, her exuberant joy, her creative imagination, and her full embrace of life! She has graciously agreed to let me share her words below, from a message she originally shared with the good people of Trinity United Methodist Church in Los Osos, California, a church I previously served for ten years.

Here are Cynthia’s words:
When I was invited to speak for Laity Sunday and given the topic of “How has my gift affected my faith?” I had to stop and think – what is my gift? Let’s see… I’m a successful massage therapist, hmmm… a yoga teacher,… hmmm… I love to sing, but it’s debatable whether it’s a gift or not. What is my gift? Well… I realized after some contemplation that my gift happens to be the same as yours. Or at least the same as one of your gifts, because I happen to think most of us have a few gifts. This gift that I think we have in common is the gift of embodiment.

There is no debate here…. we all have bodies, some tall, some thin, some short, some stout – we all have been given a body in which to live this life and through which to experience Divine Grace. In fact, I have heard it said that our embodiment is a direct expression of Divine Love, that God delights in us so much that we were given bodies with which to delight in creation. And, of course, Christ is the highest gift of embodiment of Divine Love and like him, we are made in the image of God. Spirit and flesh made one.

OK! So… back to the original question. How has my gift affected my faith? From my point of view as a person who has made it her professional career to deal with embodied people, this is an important question. First of all, I have to admit that MY body can be sort of hard to ignore. It makes noises and has sensations and carries me and sometimes doesn’t want to. What would I be without embodiment? What would you be without embodiment?

I happen to think that my body directly reveals to me, on a daily basis, a lot of information about how I am walking in this journey of faith.

I am frequently amazed at how easy it is for me to forget that I am a direct expression of God’s Love. I am frequently amazed at how easy it is to become superficial and distracted by the pulls of the world, I identify with things that are changeable, AND I forget to see embodied Love in my neighbor.

But my commitment to embodiment reminds me how important it is to pay attention, to remember, to slow down, to stop each day and to put the breaks on my life so that I can REMEMBER. My commitment to embodiment helps me to come home to connectedness, to feel my breath, to listen, to wonder, to appreciate.

What am I listening for? For the spirit moving inside, to the pulsation of life that is constantly moving within me, in and out, in and out. By remembering (and by the way, have you ever thought about that word REMEMBERING? RE – MEMBERING, bringing our members back together), I am listening to the truth of “I am created in the image of God.”

This is core truth, unchanging, eternal, constant … I breathe in, I breathe out … and I begin to remember and to identify with that unchanging presence of God. I empty myself of the distractions, the pulls, the past, the future, the grudges, the resentments, and OPEN TO GRACE.  To something bigger than the limited consciousness that says I am the center of the universe.

This then becomes my renewed foundation – standing firm in the knowledge that I am held by Grace. That even when I forget, Grace holds me and never lets go….. and so I practice remembering – that God resides in every layer of my being, and in every layer of your being and it is our job to figure out…. How can I be of service in this moment with this gift of embodiment?

God has chosen freely to be embodied as me – God has chosen freely to be embodied as you. WHAT AN AMAZING GIFT!

In the words of an author and yogi that I admire, Stephen Cope, “In order for anyone to live a life of meaning and purpose, each one of us must (1) identify and recognize our unique gift and (2) share it … if you don’t, it’s as good as not even having one.”

The gift is free and it is our responsibility to bring it to the world. In order to know that gift we must take time to soften, to listen, to re-member, to breathe and to open to Grace (OFTEN). And then … we must trust that the gifts that we have been given are exactly what the world needs!

I Did This For You

22 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Peace with justice, Sermon portions

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"Peace"In the 24th chapter of the gospel of Luke, the disciples are gathered in Jerusalem and are talking about the empty tomb, and about the encounter two of them had on a road to Emmaus with someone they only recognized as Jesus after he took bread, blessed and broke it. As they are talking, Jesus himself stands among them and says to them, “Peace be with you.”

The risen Jesus offers the frightened disciples peace. He also offers them his hands and feet, so that they might touch and see. Perhaps on this night as Jesus stands among them, the disciples understand what the scriptures say about him for the first time.

It is to us, as much as to these early disciples, that the risen Jesus utters the words: “Peace be with you.” As recipients of the peace of Christ, we are called to take up a new identity and a new calling. Having received the gift of peace we are to become peacemakers.

It is no easy thing to be a peacemaker, especially in a world that seems constantly to pit people against one another, to highlight our differences over our shared humanity. It is no easy thing to be a peacemaker in a world dominated by self-interest, power struggles, and a disregard for the environment.

"world peace"To put it simply, being peacemakers means valuing others for who they are – children of God – and not looking upon anyone else as less than human just because they have views or values contrary to your own. Being peacemakers also means taking care of the earth, simplifying our lifestyles so as to use no more natural resources than we need, and protecting the ecosystems on which all life depends. All of this is making peace with the home God provides us.

We are all artists. Someone has explained this truth by saying that life is the medium and we are the canvas. Our task is to creatively work at making our lives a thing of beauty, molding and shaping the person we are becoming in the sight of God. That is our work, our calling as peacemakers.

Aimee, like other children of preschool age, would often come home with a drawing or other piece of art. Next to her own name she’d scrawl the name of someone she loved – usually Mommy or Daddy, sometimes baby brother Ben. As she presented her picture, she’d say proudly, “I did this for you.”

"Children's art"What if we were to take seriously the apostle Paul’s admonition, “Whatever you do … do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17)?

What if our lives bore the marks of the Prince of Peace?

What if, as we went about our daily lives, the words of the Beatitudes played quietly in the background: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, the gentle ones, the merciful, the pure in heart, the ones who work for peace?”

What if, at the end of the day, we were able to present our lives to God and say, “I did this for you?”

Perhaps then our lives would be worthy of the artist in each of us. Our lives would truly be things of beauty, a source of joy in the heart of God!

(This is a portion of today’s sermon, “Witnesses to Peace,” preached at the First United Methodist Church of Santa Maria, California.)

Full of God’s Glory

21 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in Reflections

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The prophet Isaiah wrote, “The whole earth is full of God’s glory.”

Earth from space
Tomorrow is Earth Day, a day to educate and mobilize ourselves about our shared human responsibility to care deeply and proactively for the health of the planet. Christians, and many others too, consider the earth God’s creation! It is not necessary to agree on the specifics of how God created the world in order to acknowledge that this is the place where we experience the gift of life and to show our gratitude by taking care of it.

William Sloane CoffinThe late William Sloane Coffin, one of my favorite authors, offers this insight into our human responsibility for the earth: “We have learned to soar through the air like birds, to swim through the seas like fish, to soar through space like comets. Now it is high time we learned to walk the earth as the children [trustees] of our God.”

As trustees of the earth, we have responsibility not only for our individual lives, but for the environment and ecosystems we all share.

There is a famous Talmudic story about two men in a rowboat heading toward land. One man suddenly starts to bore a hole in the bottom of the craft. When challenged, he retorts angrily, “This is none of your business. I am boring the hole under my seat!” The Jewish view is that the earth is a boat, a conveyance on which we are privileged to be carried.

James Irwin

James Irwin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Astronaut James Irwin, speaking of his experience of traveling in space, once said, “The earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament, hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away, it diminished in size. Finally, it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God.”

Most of us, of course, will never travel in space. However, as we walk upon this fragile earth, and experience its innate and diverse beauty, we come to understand our place as stewards, entrusted with the care of this interconnected ecological system we call home.

As the psalmist says, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it” (Ps. 24:1). May we act as though we believe it!

How are the children?

17 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Peace with justice, Prayers

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In these weeks following the tragic shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, much has been written in the media about the case, and the trial has not yet even begun. The defendant’s guilt or innocence needs to be determined by a jury weighing all of the evidence, but whatever the verdict it will not bring this young man back. Nor will it alter a tragedy that did not need to occur when a neighborhood vigilante pursued, and then shot and killed an unarmed teenager. A Florida law is being cited by the defense because it justifies shooting in response to any perceived threat of violence. In my opinion, the world is not made safer or more secure by such laws nor by the cover they potentially provide for those who wish to take the law into their own hands.

Several years ago, I attended the Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Washington D.C. at the invitation of a wonderful humanitarian organization called Church World Service (www.churchworldservice.org). The theme of the weekend was “How Are the Children?” If this question were asked more frequently in the halls of power and in our own communities, what a different world would result ~ a world of safety, health and well-being for all God’s children, regardless of race, religion, sexuality, economic status, different abilities, or country of origin.

While attending the conference, I was privileged to meet Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund (www.childrensdefense.org), and hear her speak. She is a very passionate and persuasive woman, whose loving concern for children knows no bounds.

This prayer by Marian Wright Edelman, from her book, Guide My Feet: Prayers and Meditations for Our Children, reminds us that all children are God’s children…indeed, all children are our children!

God, please stop injustice,
the killing of innocent children
by violence at home and in faraway lands.

God, please stop injustice,
the killing of innocent children
by poverty at home and abroad.

God, please stop injustice,
the killing of innocent child spirits
by vanity and greed in our land and others.

God, please stop injustice,
the assault on precious child dreams
by neglect and apathy near and far.

God, please stop injustice,
so our children may live
and love and laugh and play again.

All prayers are also invitations to act differently, to be people whose rule of life is love, to challenge the systemic injustices of our world, and to invest our lives in the reconciling and healing work of the God who made us all!

God, guide my feet, so that I might be one who helps you stop injustice and build a world where all your children may live and love and laugh and play again. Amen.

Praying on Sunday

15 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Poems, Prayers

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Two years ago this month, my wife Dallis and I stayed for a week on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. Here’s a poem I wrote that Sunday morning as I looked out upon the day!

Praying on Sunday

There are many to-morrows, my love, my love,
            But only one to-day.
            Joaquin Miller

On a Sunday morning like this
I am routinely in my study
gathering words to express peoples’ prayers
revisiting my sermon for flow and transitions
giving thought to a benediction.

Today I look out at towering pines
snow-brushed hills
blue sky meeting bluer water
birds of the air and creatures of the earth
my study renovated and redecorated
by all that God has made.

This life—
a particular path toward tomorrow’s tomorrow—
one day so often meeting the next
with little more than the passing recognition
that time flees before us we grow older we die—

This life is a prayer
written on the tips of wings and branches
carried on the breath of the winds
lived upon the altar of the earth.

On a Sunday morning like this
there is holy ground everywhere I look.
I enter my temporary study
and prepare to pray
my heart spilling over with gratitude.

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photos (c) 2012 Dallis Day Richardson

P. S. ~ If you enjoy this blog, please share it with someone. My heartfelt desire for my writing is to invite others to see life from a place of awe and wonder!

Reaching Out

13 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Poems, Uncategorized

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Have you seen Jesus?
I’ve been looking for him.
I met him as a child.
He was rugged
but he liked to hold children on his lap.
He smiled and laughed a lot.
He was the kindest friend imaginable.

Sometimes when I felt sad or alone
I would pray –
“Hi Jesus. It’s me. Remember me?”
He always did.
Then the tears running warm down my face
made me feel like I was alive again and not dead,
like I was found and no longer lost.

I’m not a boy anymore.
Life has become way more complicated.
There never seems to be enough time.
And I get tired from the grind.
I only wish I still had time to stop
and consider the lilies.

~            ~            ~

Thomas wasn’t there on the first day of the week –
the day Jesus came and stood among the disciples
behind their closed doors of fear.
Thomas didn’t hear the words of peace
or see the Lord’s wounded hands or side.
How could he know for sure that the Lord had even been there,
though the others assured him?

Oh, how he missed Jesus –
the ache was almost unbearable.

Seven long days later – what felt like an eternity –
they were gathered again in the same room.
This time Thomas was there,
though his heart did not possess the others’ joy.

Again Jesus came and stood among them.

Jesus said to Thomas,
“Put your finger here and see my hands.
Reach out your hand and put it in my side.
Do not doubt but believe.” (John 20:27)

Thomas reached out,
and in his reaching out
his heart flooded with memories –
meals for hungry crowds,
the Master’s voice teaching,
miracles of healing,
offers of forgiveness,
walking the dirt roads of Galilee and Judea,
reclining by each table with its bread and wine,
praying for the kingdom to come.

“My Lord and my God!” Thomas nearly shouted,
his heart bursting with rediscovered joy.
It was like being alive again after feeling so dead inside,
like being found,
like coming home.

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Morning Light

08 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Poems

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Some days when I awaken the sun does not greet me,
Its light hidden behind clouds of doubt and confusion,
Its warming rays unable to reach me.
The sky barely visible through the fog,
I worry what my life and my children’s lives may be
As fear mounts its wild horse and rides the earth.

Yet with eyes watching God I receive the day,
I look out of grace’s window upon the wide world.
Then the rock calmly emerges from the bay fog
In resolute testimony to creation’s permanence,
While Hollister peak reaches heavenward
Among a chorus of hills declaring their Maker’s praise.

I take my place among the wild things,
Blue herons standing stubbornly against the wind,
Playful otters cherishing their watery games,
Fox and deer, hawks and falcons, shark and egret,
And in every wild step I find peace, I walk
In morning light and rest in the grace of God’s world.

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photos (c) 2012 Dallis Day Richardson

P.S. This poem was originally written for Easter in 2004, and read at the small community sunrise service that met at Sweet Springs Nature Preserve in Los Osos, California. We met in the pre-dawn dark of Morro Bay and listened to the varied sounds of nature and felt the crisp early morning air draped in light fog as we sang and prayed and heard the Easter story of resurrection life!