Tag Archives: humanity

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

Prayer for the World’s Children

14 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by in Prayers, Worship Liturgy

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God who lifts up the lowly and humbles the lofty,
God who bends down to be with us in our humanity,
we pray in the name of the Child of Bethlehem
for all of the children of this vast and beautiful world.

We pray for immigrant children, street children,
neglected and abused children, at-risk children,
and children in good, stable, loving homes.

We pray for safe environments where children can be children,
with the freedom to explore their common identity
without the shadows of fear and danger hanging over them.

We pray for the safety and security of people living in places
where deep divisions exist and turmoil has taken hold.

We admit to feelings of despair and anxious thoughts
as we consider the violence on our own city streets.

We confess to a sense of helplessness and uncertainty
as we question how things will ever change for the better.

In the midst of our prayers and concerns this holy season
we come to listen anew to the wondrous story
of how you become known to us in fragile flesh,
how you enter into the very places we most fear and bring peace,
how your goodness overcomes evil and your life overcomes death.

Jesus, born in a stable under the boot of imperial rule,
lives a life in the fullness of divine grace and truth
that challenges the oppressive violence of his time.

Jesus, born to a young girl living below the poverty line,
lives a life of radical trust, deep compassion and abundant mercy.

In this holy season may we also begin to trust you more fully.

May we also resist the violent ways of the world and seek paths of peace.

May we also challenge the systems that marginalize the poor and vulnerable.

May we do more than offer charity and hand-outs.

Rather let us stretch our limited consciousness
and begin to believe in the sacred worth of each person we meet.

Let us, like Mary, seek the favor of God.

May our souls also magnify the Lord and rejoice in God our Savior.

May we do our best to walk in the way of Jesus,
who is our life and our hope, now and always.

Words (c) 2013 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Peace is an Act of Remembering

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Peace with justice, Prayers

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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

An Untroubled Heart

29 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Reflections

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“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” ~ Jesus

From a Christian point of view, your heart is who you are as a child of God. It not only reflects your affections and your intentions; your heart is the core of the person you are, and are becoming, in the light of God’s grace!

Jesus speaks of having an untroubled heart even as he himself prepares to face the very troubling consequences of a world wracked by hatred, intolerance and violence.

After a lifetime of doing my feeble best to follow Jesus, I still find it difficult to get my mind around his absence of fear and worry as he stared the prospect of death in the face.

Some of my fellow Christ-followers would ease my mind by easy talk of Jesus’ divinity. Our spiritual tradition, though, always keeps Jesus’ divinity in tension with his humanity.

Jesus’ humanity is evident throughout the gospels as he wept with those who were suffering. Jesus felt compassion for all who were hungry, whether for food or justice. Jesus became angry with people who were so focused on appearing pious they had lost track of their inward spiritual compass. Jesus condemned the taken-for-granted bigotry in the world – the sexism, racism, and classism masquerading as holiness.

Jesus was a human being whose divinity was expressed through a deep and abiding communion with God, whom he addressed as “Abba,” a term of familial intimacy.

Jesus was at peace with the path of his earthly life because he knew that all of life is ultimately blessed and encircled by God’s steadfast love, now and for all eternity.

Jesus invites his followers, then and now, “Believe in God, believe also in me” (see John 14:1-7) ~ an invitation to be in relationship with the Divine. Jesus assures his followers that this act of trusting God is the way to discover a “dwelling place” with God – a place of refuge, safety, and peace!

As we approach Holy Week, and consider the meaning of Jesus’ life and death, spend a few moments recalling Jesus’ untroubled heart, and let his words of peace roll over you like streams of living water ~ “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

You are a beloved child of God. You have a place in the circle of God’s care. Your life, and all the life you see around you, is held within the abiding and steadfast love of God!

 

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