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dreamprayact

~ Reflections of a preacher, poet, and contemplative activist

dreamprayact

Monthly Archives: December 2012

Wonder

24 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Poems

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

angels, Bethlehem, Christmas, David, faith, grace, life, miracle, shepherds, wonder

tropical_moon_blog

Wonder

In distant fields
shepherds
keep silent watch over their flocks.
In long ago skies
angels
come down to earth on bended wings.
In far away Bethlehem
a son of David
is born in a humble stable.

Some days
faith feels strangely distant,
tradition needs a good dusting off,
genealogies sink unnoticed into the past.
Some days
we honestly wonder
if we have misplaced our sense of wonder.

Then a star tumbles across the night sky,
a full moon leaps upon the stage,
a deer strides gracefully across our path,
a pelican performs a perfect dive,
a child laughs,
a friend cries,
a grandparent passes through the veil,
and we set our eyes upon the miracle that is life.
In the midst of this miracle
we are astonished again by grace,
we are captured anew by wonder.

profile_blog

 

Words (c) 2006 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photos (c) 2012 Dallis Day Richardson

Prayer for a Holy Christmas

22 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Prayers

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

blessing, Christ's birth, Christmas, grief, hope, human suffering, loving-kindness, peace with justice, prayer, presence of Christ, shalom

nighttime_paradise_blog

Prayer for a Holy Christmas

We come to this holy season with mixed emotions.
We want the hopefulness of the Christ event to wash over us.
We want to encounter the living presence of the one
who comes to live among us, full of grace and truth.
Yet we are troubled by the problems we see worldwide.
We see the people of Syria struggling to survive.
We see neighbors trying to rebuild their lives after severe storms.
We see communities indelibly harmed by needless gun violence.
We see hunger, poverty and disease affecting millions of people.

Still this season remains a season of hope.

It is a season to look outward to the places
where suffering needs to be alleviated,
where food needs to be delivered,
where homes need to be rebuilt,
where hope needs to be tangibly restored.

It is a season to look inward to the places
where hearts need to be softened,
where minds need to be stretched,
where plans need to be carried out,
where life needs to be given another chance.

It is a season to look upward to the God
who is sovereign over life and death,
whose heart grieves as long as any little ones suffer,
whose vision is for the well-being of shalom for all people,
whose will is that we learn the way of love.

Grant us a holy Christmas, O God.
Grant us a deepening understanding of the story of Christ’s birth.
Grant us a time to experience anew your living presence among us.

Bless all the dear children of the world with your loving care.
Renew in us the commitment to live as people of hope.
Strengthen our resolve to pursue peace with justice.
Give us trusting hearts, ready to welcome the Christ among us,
and ready to serve our neighbors
with the loving-kindness we learn from you. Amen.

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

 

 

 

 

Will you welcome the little one?

20 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Poems, Reflections

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Bethlehem, children, Christmas, compassion, Jesus, peace, suffering, violence

"Bethlehem at night," Flickr photo by Nancie Sill taken on January 17, 2011. Used by permission.

“Bethlehem at night,” Photo by Nancie Sill taken January 17, 2011. Used by permission.

Life is a sacred gift, and all the world’s children deserve to grow up in safety and security surrounded by love. Sadly, far too many children fall victim to the violence of poverty, food insecurity, war, civil unrest, human trafficking, sexual predation, gun violence, and more. Yet these are all our children. The human family is one family in spite of all the forces at work to tear it apart. As Christians reflect upon a child who came into this world to bring peace, we must ask ourselves if we are ready to welcome all the vulnerable ones of this world into our consciousness. For it is only in opening our hearts to the suffering of the little ones that we prepare our hearts to receive the gift of this holy child we await at Christmas.

Will You Welcome the Little One?

Bethlehem…city of David…
will you welcome the little one?

Give me reason to believe
you will protect the holy child –
the holy in all children – from harm.

Amid all the bad news –
economic woes
political corruption
a planet willfully plundered
wars and rumors of wars –
take care to use your humanity
fragile as it is
to ease the world’s pain.

O Bethlehem, open your eyes
to the holy one born among us.

Make room in your hearts
for this one who comes
as compassionate healer
justice teacher
abundant life giver
prince of peace.

Brother, Sister, Friend,
will you welcome the little one
sent from God?

Words (c) 2008 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Beginnings

18 Tuesday Dec 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Poems

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bethlehem, birth, Christmas, creation, Jesus' birth, peace, reconciliation, spiritual life, Ultimate Mystery

windblown_blogAs we approach Christmas, I share this Christmas poem I wrote a few years ago with you. It speaks of the timeless mystery of God’s presence in creation in which we live our lives.

Beginnings

From the beginning, eternity’s song
danced on garden breezes,
singing God’s delight.
From the beginning, earth’s bounty
blossomed in forests and fields,
declaring God’s glory.
From the beginning, life’s spirit
beat within each human heart,
creating God’s life within us.

Here is the story of our birth.
Everyone is born of God and in God.
Everyone is born through God and for God.
God is in our beginnings.
God will be in all of our endings.

On a still night in Bethlehem
a cry pierced the starry sky,
a life began,
a child was given,
a mystery began to unfold.
All who have need of a new beginning
find it here in this child of peace–
this one who comes bearing
God’s reconciling love to the world.

Words (c) 2006 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photo (c) 2012 Dallis Day Richardson

The Song of the Dove

15 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Peace with justice, Poems, Prayers

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

birth of Christ, Christmas, comfort, forgiveness, grief, hope, peace, prayer

white-dove

In this season when Christians await the coming of the Prince of Peace, and in light of another tragic shooting rampage in our country, this time ripping the lives of innocent young children from their families in Newtown, Connecticut, I share this prayer poem that I wrote six years ago. As we offer our prayers for God’s comfort for the grieving, I hope that we also offer our determination to collectively work as communities and as a nation toward preventing this kind of senseless violence in the future.

The dove is a symbol of peace – a peace we so desperately need in our lives, our communities, and our world! The dove is also a symbol of God’s promise that we are not alone; nor are we lacking the spiritual resources necessary to seek change in our hearts or in our world.

The Song of the Dove

In this season of crisp air,
billowy clouds,
and heightened senses,
I go in search of the place
where eternity lies peacefully in a manger.

I go in search of the place
where the humblest of God’s children
come with little more than adoration
to worship a newborn baby
whose name means “God saves.”
They come bearing unadorned gifts
of simple lives and trusting hearts,
and I see what is expected of me.

In this troubled world, this vengeful time,
with its endless supply of weapons,
its young all too ready to use them,
I hold stubbornly to life
with every ounce of hope within me,
and the prayer that forever forms in my soul
is a prayer for peace.

Forgive us, gentle Savior.
We, of all the earth’s people,
need to hear the song of the dove.

Words (c) 2006, Mark Lloyd Richardson

Different Roads

08 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Reflections

≈ 38 Comments

Tags

compassion, Dalai Lama, faith traditions, gospels, Jesus, Marcus Borg, Religious pluralism, salvation, spirituality

63880_456334967737818_2081127342_nOn Facebook recently I posted this quote from the Dalai Lama and commented that I wish more Christians believed this about people of other faith traditions. I agree with something Bishop John Shelby Spong said: “God is not a Christian. God is not a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu or a Buddhist. I honor my tradition. I walk through my tradition. But I don’t believe my tradition defines God. It only points me to God.”

After posting the above photo a friend commented, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6). This friend considers this a definitive statement with no ambiguity. Another Facebook friend, my niece Kaitlynn, agreed that “God speaks very clearly through scripture and specifically in John 14:6 about how to be reconciled and receive salvation.” She didn’t see any other way to interpret that verse.

Facebook is many things, but perhaps it is not the best place to carry on a theological dialogue! However, because I want my Facebook friends (and relatives) to know that I respect and care about them, I offered the following response:

For me following Jesus is about trying to see the world through his eyes of mercy and relating to others with compassion more than it is about adhering to a particular set of beliefs. I believe in Jesus – it’s just that I don’t think my belief saves me. Christians often confuse faith and a faithful life with belief. I think of faith as trust in God. To confess “Jesus saves” is to acknowledge that we are not saved by a creed, a set of spiritual laws, or a particular view of scripture. We enter salvation by placing our ultimate trust in the Source of our life and Ground of our being. Nor are we saved so that we can personally enjoy a happy eternal future. Our lives are saved from meaninglessness and self-centeredness and saved for the purpose of living for God and loving the world that God loves.

The early Christian movement of the first few centuries was all about taking care of one another, showing radical hospitality to strangers, and being a countercultural witness of the power of God. God is much bigger than the Bible, and Jesus’ message of salvation goes way beyond individual concerns to address the whole of God’s creation and all the systems that we take for granted that have nothing whatsoever in common with God’s kingdom or Jesus’ way.

The gospels are human documents written decades after Jesus’ death expressing how particular evangelists understood Jesus. The gospels are not verbatim transcripts of historical events so much as they are stories of how the pre-Easter Jesus changed peoples’ lives and how the post-Easter Jesus continued to reveal the nature of God’s power in the world – the power of self-giving love and unconditional acceptance. They are meant to point us to the God of Jesus, the God in Jesus. The goal of the evangelists was to have their hearers receive the good news and permit God’s grace and power to transform their lives, and through them to transform their world.

The gospel of John includes many “I am” statements on the lips of Jesus. Jesus claims to be true bread, a gate, a good shepherd, the vine, and the light of the world, and I affirm by faith the truth in these claims. But they are metaphors, not statements of literal fact. In many ways they speak of a mystical relationship that exists through faith, which itself is a gift from God, lest anyone should boast.

So … I choose to see the Christ of the gospels as someone whose love embraces the whole of humanity and all of creation, and that choice moves me beyond self-interest in my own personal future to seek to embrace the whole world that is loved by God.

In this religiously pluralistic world, where people of many traditions seek the sacred and long to know God, I am helped by something New Testament scholar Marcus Borg wrote in his book The Heart of Christianity: “To say ‘Jesus is the only way’ is also the language of devotion. It is the language of gratitude and love. It is like language used by lovers, as when we say to our beloved, ‘You’re the most beautiful person in the world.’ Literally? Most beautiful? Really? Such language is the poetry of devotion and the hyperbole of the heart, but it is not doctrine. . . . [He concludes,] We can sing our love songs to Jesus with wild abandon without needing to demean other religions.”

Again, I respect those who don’t share my views, and I in no way question your faith or devotion to Jesus. I too seek to follow Jesus in my life, and my spiritual path has led me to see the meaning of faith in a different light. I trust we can still be friends.

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson

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