Tag Archives: blessing

Blessing for When You Don’t Know Where to Begin

31 Tuesday Aug 2021

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Award-winning photo of Morro Rock by Dallis Day Richardson

Blessing for When You Don’t Know Where to Begin

This blessing isn’t sure where to begin.
So many steps are just steps in the dark. 
So much of life is shaped by uncertainty.
So many questions litter our paths.
Where to begin.

Where to begin in mending one’s shattered heart.
Where to begin in creating a life on one’s own.
Where to begin in accepting joy when it comes.
Where to begin.

Even if there are discernible first steps, then what?
At the core of being human the heart beats
with a force originating in the earth’s beginnings
where fire and water and soil and air collide
and explode into wondrous breathtaking life!
Is this the place where healing begins –
as you immerse yourself in this cosmic life force?
If so, where do you learn how to do this?

This blessing sees how often you lose your way
as you unsteadily chart a strange new path alone
without another soul truly able to guide you.
What could anyone possibly say?
They would be trying to piece you back together
into their vision of wholeness.

This blessing admits defeat when necessary.
There is no winning the wrestling match with grief
when it approaches with muscles bulging
and gaze focused squarely on your weaknesses.
It will pin you every time.
Every damn time.

Maybe though, just maybe,
this is precisely what you need –
a sweeping wide-ranging battle to live
with the very things you fear most –
loneliness,
meaninglessness,
being forgotten 
left behind
as the world moves on,
accepting undeserved joy –
as you spar with your muscled opponent
who looks surprisingly familiar,
like someone you’ve encountered before
but haven’t seen in years.

Mark Lloyd Richardson
August 27, 2021
7 months

Blessing While Searching for Home

26 Monday Jul 2021

Posted by in grief, Reflections

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Dallis on Hanalei Beach, Kauai (2017)

Blessing While Searching for Home

When we fell in love
it was a long and lovely fall
tumbling heart first
into a trust so deep and wide
neither of us recognized it at first.

Here where the soul is bare
and unashamed
and caught off guard 
by the beauty of another
we discovered home
for the first time in our lives.

It is not to be taken for granted –
this serendipity of finding
what we knew our souls needed
but had never been able to find –
a shelter from the storm,
a refuge amid life’s troubles,
a sanctuary of healing grace.

Your dying
shook the foundations
of this home we fashioned
out of love and sweat
and laughter and tears.

Now many questions travel with me
in this liminal territory I’ve entered –
where am I to turn for shelter,
how will I recover a sense of home,
how do I cultivate a circle of trust,
how does one pray with a heart bereft,
how do I travel this long, lonely road?

Travel with me, sweetheart.
Please, I pray, travel with me,
as I wait for answers 
and go in search of them.

Travel with me, sweetheart,
and in the traveling
hold these questions with me
until a new dawn arrives.

Travel with me
and be home for me,
and in the sweet mystery of love
be home with me.

Mark Lloyd Richardson
July 27, 2021

Blessing of the Unexpected

20 Sunday Jun 2021

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This blessing
is not the one you expect.

You
who wonder 
if a time will ever come
when contentment
comes calling again.

You
who limp through most days
on legs weary 
from carrying
the heaviness of grief.

You
who look for signs
amid the trees
and birds of the air
that there is yet some life
able to flourish
and fly.

You
who struggle
with even the simplest things.

You 
who have given up on the why,
and need to know how – 
how to be,
how to move,
how to breathe,
how to live.

The heart knows its way home.
It does.
The heart – 
your heart – 
has always hungered for wholeness,
has always delighted in joy,
has always longed for love,
has always looked for the truest way.

This blessing may not be 
the one you expect.
Yet it is the one you receive – 
even as your heart aches,
and healing seems slow,
and days long.

This blessing
meets you where you are
and remains with you – 
in the silent spaces,
in the open wounds,
in the private pain,
for as long as you need.

This blessing knows
that even though it seems impossible – 
you will be well again,
you will be whole again,
in the fullness of time.

~ Mark Lloyd Richardson
June 2021

Sunlit Grace

04 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Poems, Prayers

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Red Bluff Church

Church on Red Bluff Road, south of Quesnel, British Columbia, Photo credit: blog Cruising Canuckistan

Bless the people
who labor for a better life
a better neighborhood
a better country
a better world,
who love family
create community
and give of themselves
so that seeds of hope
planted in places of despair
may be watered
and grow
and emerge as new life!

Bless the artists and poets
who see what might be
with a piercing clarity
of what now is.

Bless the journalists
who ask uncomfortable questions
and expose inconvenient mistruths
in their dogged pursuit of truth.

Bless the churches and mosques and synagogues
that dot the prairies, hills and valleys
of this precious landscape,
breathing a spirit of prayer and goodness
into the shared life of their communities.

Bless truck driver, crop picker, waiter and cook.
Bless coal miner, windmill farmer, and solar installer.
Bless single mother, newly married, aging couple, and widowed.
Bless teacher, student, leader, and follower.
Bless dreamer, shaper, thinker, and friend.

Bless the fraying edges of relationships,
the absences and separations,
the losses and heartaches,
the holy disruptions,
the sacred silences of peace.

Bless it all, Creation’s Lord.

Let the sunlight of your grace
shine upon poor and rich alike
exposing the treasures nearest each beating heart –
love of neighbor,
love of God.
Bless the whole world, we pray –
no exceptions.

 
Words Copyright (c) 2017, Mark Lloyd Richardson

Blessing

27 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Poems

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Ganna Walska Lotusland, Santa Barbara, CA

Blessing is
the feeling you get
when the day’s gifts
are more
than your gratitude can hold.

Blessing sings
in the sunlight
and dances in the rain
knowing
each is irreplaceable.

Blessing favors
no one
it is not stingy or reluctant
it seeks new ways
to express itself each day.

Blessing sleeps
on the pillows
of the just and the unjust
yet truly awakens only in those
who seek God with pure hearts.

Blessing reaches
the furthest limits
of human endeavor
and sets those who receive it
on holy ground.

Blessing surprises.
Blessing breaks open that which is closed.
Blessing speaks to our deepest need.
Blessing wraps us in God’s grace.
Blessing completes.

Copyright (c) 2016 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Before Heading for the Exit

05 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by in Reflections, Uncategorized

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Photo credit: Dallis Day Richardson

Photo credit: Dallis Day Richardson

Here’s a topic most pastors don’t want to talk about – what to do when someone leaves your congregation. I don’t mean because they are moving out of the area or being relocated by their employer. We have rituals for saying goodbye to people as they make these life transitions, especially if they have been intimately involved in the life of the church. We acknowledge the pain in farewell and pray God’s blessing upon them. We celebrate the gifts and graces they have brought to our faith community and express our thanks. More often than not there is cake and ice cream! Grief, grace and gratitude mingle in such moments.

I am not referring to these expected partings when people are simply living their lives and for a time we are blessed to be in beloved community with one another and then their life circumstances change. I am referring instead to those occasions when people make a conscious choice to leave a church because they no longer feel in sync with the direction the church is moving.

It’s never easy. Maybe that seems obvious, but I just want to acknowledge the pain. For everyone involved. For those choosing to leave. For those being left. For those charged with spiritual leadership of a congregation. Even for those who are only minimally aware of what has happened. The sudden unexpected loss hurts. There’s no way around it.

You may have guessed by now. This happened recently in the church I currently serve. A couple who had been involved in many dimensions of church life for years informed us one Monday morning that they were withdrawing their membership, effective immediately. It is not an understatement to say that most church members who knew them were left in stunned disbelief when they heard the news. No one, not even close friends, saw it coming.

To their credit, this couple had fulfilled their annual giving, completed various assignments on committees, and tied up loose ends. They did not leave angry or maliciously. Over a period of some time they had simply determined that their spiritual path no longer lined up with the theological emphases they were hearing from their pastors or their denomination. It was not a decision they made lightly, and I have no trouble affirming them as a sister and brother in Christ.

Every pastor who has been at this work of shepherding congregations for more than a year or two has experienced this kind of significant loss. We each have our own ways of walking through the aftermath with those we are called to serve. My own pastoral response involved first going to visit this couple in their home, listening as carefully and lovingly as possible, praying with them, telling them they are loved and will be missed, and asking God to bless and keep them. Then of course, I needed to leave, not wanting to prolong the new reality that I was no longer their pastor.

I was troubled by one thing though, and I heard myself verbalize it in their home that day, saying something like, “One thing I am struggling with is my belief that a community that follows Christ is going to be diverse and have many gifts and viewpoints. There is room for all of us at the table of grace. We don’t have to be in agreement on everything to have community. In fact, an important part of our church’s role is listening and caring for one another in our differences so that the world knows it’s possible.”

My pastoral default position will always be to bless people as they choose other paths. However, that morning in their home I wish I had gone beyond blessing and been bold and alert enough to venture, “I think you may be making a mistake. I think Christ calls us to something more than finding like-minded people to be our community. It would be better if you didn’t leave because of differences of opinion. It would be better if you stayed and continued the hard work of being in community with people who don’t always agree on everything, because honestly, that is what you are going to find wherever you go.” Those are the thoughts that were left unsaid because they were not yet clearly formed in my mind.

Creating genuine Christian community is never going to be easy, but a good place to begin is with the shared commitment to talk things through before heading for the exit in search of greener pastures!

Words (c) 2015 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Like a River Flowing

15 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in Worship Liturgy

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WyomingWe sang this song at the close of worship this past Sunday using the familiar tune FINLANDIA. If you wish to use these lyrics in worship sometime, please let me know.

The peace of Christ is like a river flowing
from God’s own heart in healing streams of grace.
In all our comings and in all our goings,
God’s mercies lead us to a holy place.
Peace like a river flowing through our lives
reminds us what it means to be baptized.

This earthly home we share with one another
cannot withstand our hatreds and our fears.
So when we look and see a sister, brother,
we know Christ’s peace is also coming near.
May we now live into this hopeful dream,
a day made new in shared humanity.

This dream for peace seeks out the meek and lowly,
children of God by blessing and design,
created in the image of the holy,
to reconcile this life with life divine.
Peace like a river flowing through our days
renews our hearts in gladness and in praise.

Copyright (c)2010 Mark Lloyd Richardson

What Grows in God’s Garden?

21 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by in Sermon portions

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I don’t usually post entire sermons, but on Sunday, June 15, I preached my final sermon among the wonderful congregation at the First United Methodist Church of Santa Maria, California, and am being appointed now to the First United Methodist Church of Santa Barbara, California, as of July 1st. So here I am including my final sermon called “What Grows in God’s Garden?” based on 1 Corinthians 3:1-9.

As I look over the vastness represented in Scripture – the many voices, times, cultural and historical contexts, the personalities, and the ways of expressing faith – a consistent theme is faithfulness. It is a theme that encompasses the relationship between God and creation, and between God and humankind.

Scripture portrays God as always faithful to the people God has called for particular purposes – first Abraham and his descendents, the Israelites, and then the early communities who gathered around the story of Jesus and moved out under the Spirit’s power to change the world.

Those who seek to live according the commandments of God in the Hebrew scripture are themselves called the faithful. Those who seek to live according to the way of Jesus and the greatest commandment in the New Covenant are also called the faithful.

In other words, faithfulness is somehow sown into the very fabric of this divine-human encounter toward which each of us is drawn.

The Psalms lift up this theme of faithfulness repeatedly. In Psalm 145:10 we hear:

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.

Then just a few verses later, after extolling the glorious splendor of God’s everlasting kingdom, the psalmist adds (vs. 13b):

The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.

As we theologize on Scripture and consider how God is revealed in this world, in the church, and in our lives, and as we pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are aware of only glimpses of the kingdom here and now. Yet we still believe God’s kingdom will come in the fullness of glory someday! We believe that God is always faithful and that as we contribute our own faithful witness and actions, the kingdom is revealed a little more and a little more.

We celebrated 140 years of Christian ministry in this valley last year – 140 years of people doing their utmost to be faithful to the call of God so that this congregation could be part of what God is doing in the world.

Imagine the settlers of this town and others who followed them putting their sweat and their tears and the joy they had in Christ and their Wesleyan spirit of grace all out on the line so that a Church could be planted here and so that all who would listen would hear of God’s faithful love.

Think of how many Sunday School classes have been taught and how many children have been touched by the story of Jesus in those years!

Think of the worship that has been conducted in several different locations, and now in this place, and of all the worshippers who have felt the strange warming of their hearts in the presence of Christ expressed through word and sacrament!

Think of the caring fellowship that has been expressed among the faithful in this church over the years, moving beyond the superficial to love one another as Christ commands us!

Think of the mission trips, service projects, outreach efforts, and ministries that have been undertaken by this community of faith … and more importantly, think of the lives that have been changed, the addictions that have been overcome, the meals that have been served to the poor, the lonely who have been visited, the lost who have been redirected, the grieving who have been comforted, the showers that have given a new sense of self-worth to so many, and the homes that have been rebuilt or repaired!

These are all validation of God’s faithfulness to us and our faithfulness to God. These are a confirmation of the fruit of the Spirit in our life together. These are an authentication of the presence of Christ in this community.

I commend you for carrying on the vision of this faith community after 140 years – building beloved community and helping people commit their lives to Christ and grow in grace.

All of the beautiful ways that this church has witnessed to the faithful love of God over many years continue to this day. We can look upon all of it and see what God has done in our midst, and be grateful.

As I came here four years ago, I told you that I was pleased and proud to be appointed to this church. As I leave here I want to express the same sentiment – I am pleased and proud that I was given the opportunity to be your pastor and to provide spiritual and temporal leadership for a time.

You will continue to be a witness to the love of Christ through your ministry presence in this community. You will continue to give spiritual nurture to children and people of all ages.

You will continue to serve others with tangible signs of God’s gracious kingdom, by visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, encouraging the stranger, praying for those in need, and serving the poor.

I have no doubt of any of this because I believe God is faithful, and I believe you are faithful, and that is enough.

The apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthian church, says that he is one of the “servants through whom (they) came to believe” (1 Cor. 3:5). But he acknowledges he isn’t the only one. Paul says to them, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (3:6-7).

In the United Methodist Church, appointments are made and ministers are moved, and congregations must rely upon the growth that God gives. None of us is indispensable, but each of us is necessary. Our gifts are necessary. Our hearts are necessary. Our love is necessary.

Like Apollos, I have carried the water pail for awhile, and have tried to give the right amount of attention to the needs of the church, and now another one of God’s servants is coming to be in ministry with you, to help you grow in faith and trust, to listen with you for the promptings of the Spirit, and to walk with you in discipleship and mission. You are called to live out your baptisms and be the people God created you to be – generous, giving, hopeful, loving, gracious, Christ-like.

Paul uses a metaphor for God’s people not used anywhere else in scripture. In the midst of his observation of how God desires growth in the spiritual life, Paul says to the people of God, “you are God’s field” (vs. 9). This is an intriguing way to think of ourselves, as a field in which things grow, things of beauty and things of usefulness. God’s field – a place of growth and emerging life. As I look over the past four years and consider the growth that God has caused in our lives together, I am glad that I could be a part of your journey for this brief time.

A father and daughter prepared to part at the airport one day. After a hug the father said, “I love you. I wish you enough.” His daughter boarded the plane, and a few moments later, a woman who overheard their conversation asked the father what it meant to wish someone “enough.” He said that wishing someone “enough” was a tradition in their family. There was even a short poem attached to it.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough ‘hellos’ to get you through the final ‘goodbye’.
(Mennonite pastor and author Ralph Milton in an e-zine titled Rumors)

The life of faith provides us with the opportunities to be generous and supportive of one another. As Paul says, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share it abundantly in every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8). That’s a pretty healthy way to think about our discipleship – seeing our lives as full of enough of God’s goodness and grace, and choosing to help other people see their lives as full of enough too.

I close with a Franciscan Blessing that makes me want to be a Franciscan:

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers,
half-truths and superficial relationships,
so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice,
oppression and exploitation of people,
so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those
who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war,
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them
and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in this world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

God is faithful.
You are faithful.
That is enough.

Words & photo (c) 2014 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Thanksgiving Eve Prayer

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Prayers, Uncategorized, Worship Liturgy

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First United Methodist Church, Santa Maria, CA, USA

First United Methodist Church, Santa Maria, CA, USA

I will be sharing this Opening Prayer I wrote for our 13th Annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving Eve Service in Santa Maria, California this evening. We are the host church for this annual event involving about ten congregations. If you wish to adapt this prayer for your own use in worship, please feel welcome to do so. ~ Mark

God of all creation and Source of all life,
tonight we offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving.                                        Psalm 50:14
We bring ourselves, humble and broken though we may be,
to the altar of your blessing and grace.
We bring our voices, frail and hesitant though they may be,
in joyous praise to the One who gives us a new song to sing.                  Psalm 40:3
We bring our gifts to the One who is awesome,
who inspires fear in the rulers of the earth.                                               Psalm 76:11-12
We thank you for these moments we have together
to pause from the busy pace and endless noise of our lives
and simply rest in a spirit of gratitude for all you are to us.
We thank you that as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is your steadfast love toward us,
and that as far as the east is from the west,
so far do you remove our transgressions from us.                                    Psalm 103:11-12
We thank you for your deep compassion over your creation,
and the ways in which you constantly call us back to you.
Most of all, we thank you for your Son Jesus,
who came that we might have life and have it abundantly.                       John 10:10
Christ is the morning star who rises in our hearts,                                    2 Peter 1:19
the true light which enlightens everyone.                                                  John 1:9
Christ instructs us in your holy way of love,
and invites us into that perfect love that casts out fear.                            1 John 4:18
We pray this day for people and nations the world over
who need to be blessed by the bounty of your grace.
May our thanksgiving bring others closer to you,
O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.                                                         Psalm 19:14
There is no other rock besides you, O Lord,                                             Isaiah 44:8
our fortress in whom we take refuge.                                                        Psalm 18:2
So we join the multitude from every nation,
from all tribes and peoples and languages,
and all the angels standing around the throne
worshipping you and singing,
“Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”                                                  Revelation 7:12

Words (c) 2013 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Fasting and Feasting

18 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Reflections, Sermon portions

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548640866fA pear seed grows up into a pear tree,
a nut seed grows up into a nut tree–
but a seed of God grows into God, to God.
~ Meister Eckhart

Lent is an invitation to reflect on our faith experience, a time to delve more deeply into the spiritual meaning of our lives. We study the life and ministry of Jesus for clues about the will of God and the work of the Spirit in the world. We seek fresh insight into the basic patterns of the Christian life – prayer, worship, reading Scripture, and giving our selves as servants of Christ.

During this 40-day period, we begin with ashes and commit to a discipline that we believe will ultimately be resurrecting! It may involve fasting from certain foods or activities. But it will certainly involve feasting as we gather on the Sabbath and receive the bread and cup of communion with Christ as nourishment for this spiritual journey.

We have an opportunity in these forty days to renew the commitment of our way to Christ. This is our chance to put our faith into practice in new ways. This is a time set aside for us to “grow into God, to God.”

A short piece from the curriculum The Whole People of God provides an opening for us to choose how we will use this holy season. We are invited to…

Fast from pessimism, and feast on optimism.

Fast from criticism, and feast on praise.

Fast from self-pity, and feast on joy.

Fast from bitterness, and feast on forgiveness.

Fast from idle gossip, and feast on purposeful silence.

Fast from jealousy, and feast on love.

Fast from discouragement, and feast on appreciation.

Fast from complaining, and feast on hope.

Fast from selfishness, and feast on service.

Fast from fear, and feast on faith.

Fast from anger, and feast on patience.

Fast from self-concern, and feast on compassion for others.

Fast from discontent, and feast on gratitude.

Fasting and feasting – not just for the experience, but for the same reasons Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit following his baptism by John. Jesus was preparing for the saving mission of a loving God – the mission of restoring creation, the human family, the sick, the lonely and isolated, the marginalized and vulnerable, back into the truth of who they are, beloved ones made in God’s own image!

Just as Jesus was baptized and given a blessing, and then sent into the wilderness to contemplate that blessing, so it is for us. You and I – Christ’s body on earth – have a mission, to share God’s gracious love and resurrecting hope in every possible way!

The season of Lent calls us to choose: Choose life! Choose grace! Choose compassion! Choose justice! Choose blessing! In the desert experience of Lent, may God grant us to the grace to grow in wisdom and in love. In the wilderness of this holy season, may God lead us along the resurrection road to a place called hope.

What is your commitment this Lent? What do you choose to do or not do as a way to move toward the Center of this human adventure where we meet God?

Words (c) 2013 Mark Lloyd Richardson