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dreamprayact

~ Reflections of a preacher, poet, and contemplative activist

dreamprayact

Tag Archives: incarnation

An Advent Prayer for All God’s Children

27 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Prayers, Worship Liturgy

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Advent season, Bethlehem, birth of Christ, earth stewardship, hope, human dignity, incarnation, light of Christ, prayer, suffering, Word made flesh

children-photo-by-susan-barrett-price-creative-commons

Photo by Susan Barrett Price on Flickr Creative Commons

God of all the seasons of life,
here we are in Advent –
a season of expectant watching and waiting –
and we are aware of the grand struggles
playing out on this earth …
… struggles for human dignity
… for freedom from oppression
… for sustainable living
… for responsible stewardship of this precious earth.

Holy and mighty God,
you speak of a day when we will know
that Christ is near, even at the door.
You warn us to keep awake
and not succumb to the sleepiness
of casual accumulation and comfort.
There is so much need around us
our eyes and hearts cannot contain it.
So many of the world’s children
whom you love
suffering
through no fault of their own.

In this holy season,
while the world dances transfixed
before the dazzling lights of commerce,
we are invited
to sit in wonder beneath a brilliant nighttime star,
to seek the true light that shines in the darkness,
to follow where the child of Bethlehem leads,
to listen anew to the Word made flesh.

Draw us up short, Lord,
from any pretensions of piety we may have,
and surprise us again by the miracle of hope,
that this child who is to be born
may remind us of all the world’s children
who carry within them your image
your life
your love
your light!
Amen.

(c) 2011 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Prayer for the World’s Children

14 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Prayers, Worship Liturgy

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Tags

3rd Sunday of Advent, Advent, Bethlehem, children, Christmas story, grace and truth, humanity, incarnation, Jesus, Mary, Mary's Song, peace, prayers for victims of violence, sacred worth, the poor

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

Choosing to Receive a Life

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Reflections, Sermon portions

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bread of God, Eucharist, faith, incarnation, Jesus' death, Living bread, manna in the desert, sin, spiritual journey

In John chapter 6 Jesus reminds his questioners that it wasn’t Moses who provided manna in the wilderness. It was God – the same God “who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-33).

The manna only met the Israelites’ immediate needs for sustenance, not their ultimate human needs. The bread of God is different. It is the gift of life, the pouring out of Jesus’ life for the sake of the world.

Jesus has been living bread in my life! I see illumined in Jesus a life filled to the utmost with the presence of God!

People were healed with a touch.
People were forgiven with a word.
People were given new life through a holy conversation.

I have always felt that Jesus is a friend who is so close to God that he has brought me closer just by hanging out with him!

So when Jesus says, “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (6:51c), there are several meanings.

First of all, it recalls the opening chapter of John, where we hear “and the Word became flesh and lived among us” (1:14). These are the words we usually ponder at Christmastime as we consider the incarnation, the gift of Jesus’ life that is born from God’s love for the world.

Likewise, we see an allusion in John’s words to Jesus’ death. Jesus will give up his life, his flesh, as an expression of the same love revealed in the incarnation. He offered himself to God in death, thus releasing his life for the life of the world.

Finally, we hear a clear eucharistic note in John’s words. Jesus mentions his flesh and his blood as gifts of true food and true drink (6:55). We are invited to have a sacramental meal with our Risen Lord, and to witness to the life that is ours through Christ.

Craig Barnes says this about our role as witnesses to the life we have in Christ: “When Christians take on the vocation of being witnesses, it has a dramatic effect on how they conduct their lives. They stop trying to achieve a life and choose instead to receive one. As long as their goal (is) achievement, their constant companion (is) complaint because they (can) never achieve enough. But the day they (decide) to start witnessing the many ways God is still creating their lives, their companion (becomes) gratitude. Even when their lives take a hard turn, there is still opportunity for quiet moments of thankfulness, because by now they have learned how to find the manna and the gentle stream that flows into every desert” [M. Craig Barnes, The Pastor as Minor Poet (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009), p. 64].

How to find the manna – how to find the living bread that comes down from heaven – how to be nourished by the very presence of the living Christ in our midst – these are the desires in every believer’s heart!

Still we do sometimes run into problems. We get wrapped up in trying to “achieve a life,” in trying to earn our standing before others or before God, in striving to be “good enough” or “smart enough” or “well off enough” to convince ourselves that we have achieved what we set out to achieve.

Protestant Reformer Martin Luther defined sin as “the heart curved in on itself.” Too often we are curved in on ourselves, even us followers of Jesus, focusing mostly on our own needs and wants, our own aches and pains, our own preoccupations, our own temporary achievements.

Jesus beckons us on one of the most important journeys we will ever undertake – the long, countercultural journey outside of ourselves toward the true center of our being, the God who creates us and loves us and saves us from ourselves.

Jesus invites us on a journey toward wholeness as we risk living and loving for the sake of a calling bigger than ourselves. No more hearts turned in on themselves, but rather hearts turned outward in Christ-like love for the world!

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson

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