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dreamprayact

~ Reflections of a preacher, poet, and contemplative activist

dreamprayact

Monthly Archives: June 2012

From Our Present Abundance

27 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Prayers, Worship Liturgy

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

abundance, Collect, generosity, God's Realm, grace, Jesus Christ, Lectionary, Opening Prayer, Second Epistle to the Corinthians, spiritual growth

On the first Sunday of each month our faith community gathers around the Table of our Lord to receive the gifts of God in bread and cup. We also bring our gifts to be shared with those in our community who find themselves hungry and in need of food.

This coming Sunday’s Opening Prayer (for Proper 8, Year B, in the Revised Common Lectionary) is based on 2 Corinthians 8:7-15. Please feel free to use this prayer in worship, whether it be your own private prayer or that of your community of faith.

Generous God,
whose very word is life,
whose presence is peace,
and whose promise is hope,
we give thanks for this new day!

Your grace unfolds before our eyes
as we come face to face with the One
who though he was rich became poor for our sakes.

Through this generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ
we are invited into a rich relationship with you.

Grant that as we worship and grow in grace
the genuineness of our love for you
will excel in our eagerness to live generous lives
and to give from our present abundance
to meet the needs of our neighbors the world over.

So that we might live into your coming Realm. Amen.

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Permission to use with attribution.

When the Storms of Life are Raging

25 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Reflections, Sermon portions

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

Christ, faith, God's presence, Gospel of Mark, peace, Sea of Galilee, spirituality, Stand by Me, storms of life

The geography of the Sea of Galilee – a low-lying area surrounded by hills – makes it especially susceptible to sudden and sometimes violent storms. Lake storms can be swift and terrifying, even to those who make their living on them, like the fishermen in Mark 4:35-41.

There are storms in life as well – storms of weakened health or prolonged illness, storms of job loss or mounting debt, storms of troubling global events, storms of emotional upheaval, storms created by the normal aging process, the human journey toward death or the grief of losing someone we love. Most of these storms are uninvited. They appear suddenly on the horizon, like dark gathering clouds, and move toward us while we consider what to do.

The story in Mark’s gospel gets interesting, because Jesus falls asleep on the trip over. This may not seem like a big deal. After all, he’s the carpenter, the rabbi, the landlubber. Some of his disciples have spent their whole lives fishing on this very lake. They are the experienced ones here. They are the ones who understand the variations in weather, and know how to handle them.

But here’s what happens. A great windstorm arises, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat is being swamped. The disciples do their best to remove the water, but it is getting into the boat faster than they can bail it out. They panic. These men who have always been comfortable on the water are now having their confidence tested.

Isn’t that how life treats us sometimes? Don’t we have our comfort zones, our places of safety, our circles of family and friends? Don’t we have our country – where the ideals of democracy and freedom have guided us for over two hundred years? And then something happens – a storm brews, divisions arise, an enemy approaches – and we are suddenly in fear for our lives.

In the midst of the raging storm on the Sea of Galilee, the seaworthy disciples find themselves afraid that this might be the day that their time runs out.

They are at the moment of truth.

Life is about to overwhelm them.

Death, they fear, is about to swallow them up.

And Jesus is asleep.

Pastor Kevin McHarg poses this question for us to consider: Am I willing to trust a sleeping Jesus?

When I’m in the doctor’s office awaiting a diagnosis, am I willing to trust a sleeping Jesus?

When I’m in the throes of a difficult divorce, am I willing to trust a sleeping Jesus?

When I’m making a change in my career path, am I willing to trust a sleeping Jesus?

A Jesus on the road to Jerusalem I might be able to trust.

A Jesus opening the eyes of the blind I might be able to trust.

A Jesus teaching on a hillside or in the synagogue I might be able to trust.

But – a sleeping Jesus? I’m not so sure.

The disciples, fearing for their lives, wake Jesus from his sleep, and say to him, “Teacher! The boat’s going down. Don’t you care?”

Jesus wakes up, rebukes the wind, and says to the sea, “Peace! Be still!”

All becomes calm. The wind stops howling. The water lays so still that it reflects the starlight. There is nothing but silence, until Jesus speaks, and asks the question that is asked of us as well, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

It is as though Jesus is saying, “I am right here in the boat. I am right here in the midst of your lives. What more do you need before you will trust me?”

Charles Tindley wrote a hymn a century ago titled “Stand By Me.” The opening stanza reads: “When the storms of life are raging, stand by me; … When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea, thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me.”

Faith, you see, is a willingness to let God be God. Faith means that even in the storms of life we know that Christ stands with us. Faith assures us that we are never more than a whispered prayer away from the powerful Presence whom even the storms obey!

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

God of wind and wave

23 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Prayers, Worship Liturgy

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

adoration, faith, God's love, God's presence, Gospel of Mark, Opening Prayer, peace, praise, trust

 

Here is an Opening Prayer for use in worship tomorrow on the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, based on the Gospel reading from Mark 4:35-41.

God of wind and wave,
the seas of life can be rough some days,
tossing us here and there,
threatening our wellbeing,
troubling our minds and testing our hearts.

You are the One whom even the wind and sea obey!
You are the One whose words, “Peace! Be still!”
settle with calm resolve in our hearts today.
You turn our fear into faith, our trembling into trust.

We come in adoration, praise, and thanksgiving,
for your strong and tender presence,
your steadfast and durable love.
Amen.

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson (Mark 4:35-41)
Photo (c) 2012 Dallis Day Richardson (Pacific Grove, California)
Permission to use the prayer in worship with attribution.

For the needy shall not always be forgotten

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Reflections

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Christian Scripture, covenant, Creator God, Guatemala, hope, Jesus, Poverty, Psalm

“For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever.” Psalm 9:18

It is impossible to escape God’s concern for the poor and needy in Christian Scripture. Read the law, the prophets, the psalms, the gospels and letters, and Divine concern for the least among us is everywhere in abundance.

The people in covenant with God are expected to live in ways that honor and care for the most vulnerable among them – widows, orphans, aliens – and so fulfill the law’s requirements for “right relationship.”

Likewise, the early church is essentially a community of caring that practices the lifestyle of their Teacher and Lord by sharing what they have with one another, be it much or little, and in so doing Christ’s presence becomes real to them.

When we remember the poor and the needy we are remembering the promise of God to live among us and be our God. We are remembering that we too are poor, we too are needy, only in different ways. We are remembering that hope cannot be bought or sold – it is given by the One who is “a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble” (Ps. 9:9).

Hope often arrives through the instruments of human hands and hearts moved by God’s concern. Hope comes in the forms of meeting tangible human needs and advocating for societal responsibility for the least among us. Hope is frequently expressed by challenging oppressive economic practices and skewed governmental priorities that reward the powerful and leave the poor with fewer and fewer resources.

Scripture is not only a comfort, it is a challenge – a challenge to live a life attuned to God’s concern and so fulfill our highest calling as ones made in the image of our Creator.

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photo (c) 2012 Hannah Kelsey Richardson (children in Guatemala)

Magical Powers

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Poems

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Affection, children, Father's Day, hugs, letting go

Father’s Day is approaching, and I will be out of town for the next few days, so I’m putting this post up a little early!

Parents understand that raising children involves a lot of “letting go.” Here’s a poem I wrote a little over a year ago following a visit from my daughter Hannah, home for the weekend from college.

 

Magical Powers

“You’ve lost weight,” she said,
her tall slender body slightly bent,
her head nestled into my neck.
“Maybe,” I admitted.
“You’re not as comfy,” she joked.

And I remembered—
the little girl
who loved to be lifted up
and held in unrelenting arms
as time slowed
a busy world was hushed
and her little life brightened,
her head resting
on daddy’s chest.

If only I still had those magical powers.

Words (c) 2011 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photo (c) 2011 Dallis Day Richardson

Looking Up When Life Has Got You Down

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Reflections, Sermon portions

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

2 Corinthians, Anne Sullivan, God's reigning, Helen Keller, hope, inner nature, promise, spiritual renewal

Helen Keller once said, “By faith, I mean a vision of good one cherishes and enthusiasm that pushes one to seek its fulfillment, regardless of obstacles. … Faith reinvigorates the will, enriches the affections, and awakens a sense of creativeness. Active faith knows no fear, and it is a safeguard to me against cynicism and despair” [Helen Keller, “The Light of a Brighter Day,” in This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women, eds. Jay Allison and Dan Gediman (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2007), p. 138].

As an infant, a fever left Helen deaf and blind. But with the assistance of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, she learned to communicate through the eyes and ears of others. In time, she graduated from Radcliffe College, and became a renowned author and activist.

Faith is a verb! When we lose ourselves in service to others, it is an expression of faith and a form of participation in the Way of Jesus. As C. S. Lewis once said, “Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”

Helen Keller admits how troubled her heart was when she learned of all those who “must labor all their days for food and shelter, bear the most crushing burdens, and die without having known the joy of living.” Likewise, you and I know people who struggle to get by in this economy, who battle addictions, who experience lingering illness, or who do not have a place to call home. We too are affected by the world’s pain because of our shared humanity.

However, it does little good to lose heart. The apostle Paul writes, “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). The external material of life as we know it deteriorates and changes. But there is something more than this outer nature we see. There is an inner nature that is being renewed by Christ each and every day!

As disciples of the resurrected Christ, we already live in the dawning of God’s coming reign. We “look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal” (4:18).

We do not lose heart because we don’t think this physical, material world is all there is. There is an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure (4:17) waiting for us! We trust that in the age to come both our bodies and the body of Christ will be transformed.

So when life gets us down, we look up! We look at the promise of hope in the risen Christ! We look beyond the transiency of earthly life to the eternal presence of God! We look past the slight momentary afflictions we suffer to the eternal weight of glory seen from the perspective of faith!

Despite her handicaps, Helen Keller was not only grateful; she devoted her life to assisting others who were deaf and blind. She said, “For three things I thank God every day of my life. Thanks that He has given me knowledge of His works; deep thanks that He has set in my darkness the lamp of faith; deep deepest thanks that I have another life to look forward to – a life joyous with light and flowers and heavenly song.”

Rachel Hackenberg, a United Church of Christ pastor in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has written a beautiful poem called “Hold On.” Here’s an excerpt, but the whole poem is found at faithandwater.blogspot.com.

When all else fails you, hold on to a song:
one that stirs your soul and pulls you with it
on a high soaring ride….

If it is love that fails you, as love does,
hold on to a flower: see how its true beauty
is revealed in blessing the work of bees.

If it is the mind that fails you,
hold on to a toddler’s hand
and discover the world again….

If it is time that fails you, hold on to your path:
you have only the Where and the When
of the Present; God meets you there.

But again, dear friends: when all else fails you,
hold on to a song that sings you to heaven
and do not be afraid.

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

Peace begins in you

11 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Peace with justice, Poems

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Christ, compassion, forgiveness, gentleness, gift, God, kindness, peace, Peace With God

Tulip

Peace begins in you —
in your soft eyes,
your tender heart,
your compassionate spirit.

You are made for peace —
peace with God, others, yourself.
You are able to receive peace, know peace,
even be peace, if you will.

Peace is Christ’s gift to you and in you.
So far as it depends on you,
live from deep within that gift.

Do not counter anger with anger.
Extend the hand of forgiveness
to the one who offends you.

See in the other’s eyes a child of God.
Listen to your neighbor’s pain, listen.
Practice kindness, patience, and self-control.

Be gentle with yourself.
Be gentle with others.

You are an instrument in the hands of God.
Today peace begins with you.

Words (c) 2004 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photo (c) 2012 Dallis Day Richardson

Dancing in the Circle of God’s Care

07 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Sermon portions

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Christianity, Circle dance, Community, divine-human relationship, faith, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Trinity

At a wedding reception Dallis and I attended, it was fun to watch the ways different people have of moving themselves around the dance floor – some with practiced grace and others with reckless abandon. But what impressed me the most was the number of times I saw people dancing in small circles – in groups of laughing, expressive joy!

The Christian faith celebrates the variety of ways we know God – God as Heavenly Parent, God as Beloved Son, God as Holy Spirit. The word Trinity does not appear in Scripture. But the Bible does portray three predominant ways in which we come to know who God is and what God is doing in the world – the Creator God, forming and shaping life; the Redeemer God, restoring life to its original intention; and the Sustainer God, continually breathing new life into all creation.

To know this Trinitarian God is a bit like getting up out of your chair and making your way to the dance floor, where you are invited to join a circle dance, a dance of relationship, in which you become part of the movement of grace, the stirring of joy, the music of the soul. One of the early church fathers, John of Damascus, even talked about the Trinity using the word perichoresis, which loosely translated from Greek means “circle dance.”

In the gospel of John, chapter 3, Jesus seems to say that the Spirit is not confined by our beliefs, our expectations, or our literalisms. The Spirit is like the wind – it “blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (3:8). To enter the Reigning of God, to be a part of what God is doing in the world, we must become free to live in the transformative Spirit of God.

The Spirit blows where it chooses, and just try to stop it. The Spirit may even blow through the lives of those who have lots of questions and can’t quite believe, or through the lives of persons of other religious traditions, or even through the lives of those who are antagonistic toward organized religion, because you see, no one can control the wind of the Spirit.

For many of us, this uncontrollable, unpredictable Spirit of God might come into our lives and upset our priorities. This Spirit might come as the wind and sweep away the prejudices we harbor. This Spirit might come as the dew and refresh us, giving us a new way of thinking about things. This Spirit might come as a fire and cause a great burning within us – a refining of our personal faith, a greater sense of urgency about living the gospel.

St. Augustine speaks of the Trinity in this way: “Now, love is of someone who loves, and something is loved with love. So then there are three: the lover, the beloved, and the love.”

A personal faith is a precious gift. It is a relationship formed within the very relationship of God’s Trinity … three expressions of the one God … a dynamic community defined by love.

Thanks be to God for the winds of the Spirit blowing freely, unpredictably, through our world today. Thanks be to the Triune God who draws us into relationship and invites us into the circle dance of life, abundant and free, where together we experience God’s care!

   Words and top photo (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Bottom photos (c) 2006 Dallis Day Richardson (Josh & Jenna’s wedding; Left: crazy nephew dancing, and Right: My Mom and me)

Peace is an Act of Remembering

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Peace with justice, Prayers

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, human community, humanity, Islam, Judaism, peace, World religions

Arboretum in Harrisonburg, Virginia

“There can be no peace between nations until there is peace between religions.  There can be no peace between religions until there is dialogue between religions.” ~ Hans Kung

Peace Invocation

God of all languages, peoples, and races,
God of Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, and Christian,
God of all who hold onto hope
and all who have stopped hoping,
God of hawk and dove, forgive us and help us.
Forgive our failure to live the vision of one human community.
For we know that peace is an act of remembering,
and war is an act of forgetting.
We have much work to do,
beginning today,
beginning in ourselves.
As we look into the eyes
of our sisters and brothers around the world
may we renew our commitment to them,
to each other,
and to peace.
In your many names. Amen.

Words (c) 2009 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Lower photo (c) 2012 Dallis Day Richardson

A Room Made Holy

02 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Poems

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

Buddha, Christ, compassion, grace, Hawaii, loneliness, Oahu, Pali, soul, spirit, spiritual companion

(Photo credit: Steven Davis, Pali Lookout – Oahu, Hawaii, March 18, 2009)

A Room Made Holy

The drive over the Pali doesn’t distract me as I had hoped.
The State Hospital looms large, like a guarded estate
perched on the verdant Hawaiian hillside.

The burdens I carry on this self-imposed day of reckoning
are no less formidable—a marriage lying in ruins,
a heart dashed against the rocks, an aching loneliness.
Why would anyone want to listen to another lost soul?
Indeed, I have tired of my own complaints.
Surely God must be weary of me as well.

Where does a minister go to unburden himself?
Who will pray for me when my own prayers
are strewn about like so much brittle lava?
Who will utter words of my acceptance into the human race?
Who will walk beside me while sorrow slowly yields
to the promise of God making a way in the wilderness?

I knock and a man appears at the door.
He is expecting me, and invites me in.
I reveal to him my desolate spirit, my God-forsakenness.
His eyes are a reflecting pool of compassion.

The room becomes holy—my chair an altar,
the icon of Christ a window into grace,
the Buddha on the floor a reminder to let seriousness go,
the former priest my spiritual companion.
We sit among the questions and do not worry about answers.

One thing is certain–the fire nearly went out.
So I fan the flames of my spirit-fire each day.
It is all any of us can do.
It is enough.

Words (c) 2007 Mark Lloyd Richardson, reflecting on an experience in 1999 while living in Hawaii
Photo: I am grateful to Steven Davis for giving me permission to use his photograph that I discovered on Flickr. You can also find his photos at http://www.stevendavisphoto.com.

June 2012
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