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~ Reflections of a preacher, poet, and contemplative activist

dreamprayact

Tag Archives: peacemaking

A Child Has Been Born For Us

30 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Peace with justice, Reflections, Sermon portions

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Child of Bethlehem, Christmas Eve, fear, grace, Isaiah, Israel, justice, peace, peacemaking, Psalms, terrorism, worship

(Originally preached on Christmas Eve 2015 in Santa Barbara, CA)

The world has had a rough year! I suppose that could be said of any year, but there seems to be a heavier sense of worry and fear in the air these days for reasons we all understand. Parents may sense a greater burden when the world feels like it’s going off the tracks. All of us feel the burden though – grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, first responders, counselors, health care providers – all of the adults who care about the generations being raised in today’s world.

Fear is being hyped these days. It’s being bottled and sold on the political trail along with sides of protectionism and militarism masquerading as patriotic fervor. That’s not to say there’s no basis for the fear, only that the escalating rhetoric benefits the ones using it more than it does the public good. Tough talk lets people feel safer in the short term but doesn’t significantly change anything for the better.

The prophet Isaiah wrote during a time of national chaos and despair. In fact, things were about as bad as they could get for those living in the kingdom of Judah. In the midst of geo-political upheaval and shifting alliances in the Middle East, King Ahaz refused to listen to the counsel of the prophet Isaiah who offered him a word promising God’s deliverance from their aggressive neighboring kingdoms. The resulting destruction of Damascus, annexation of large portions of Israel, and deportation of much of the population forms the backdrop of darkness Isaiah describes at the beginning of chapter 9.

The light of the nation had grown dim. It was not just King Ahaz who had chosen this path of destruction; it was the people themselves who were looking for easy solutions to their fears without stopping to listen to the God who had rescued them before. It was the people themselves who had opted for darkness – the darkness of warfare, violence, oppression, and inhumanity. Darkness describes those times when we do not allow the better angels of our nature to come out.

The psalmist, in perhaps the most familiar poetry in scripture, describes darkness as the “shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4). “Even though I walk through the darkest valley,” the psalmist reassures, “I fear no evil; for you are with me.”

We long to be in that state of grace that would enable us to face all of the challenges of life and the troubles of this world without fear, knowing that God remains near. We long also, I believe, for an end to the violence and conflict that touches us not just on an international scale, but much closer to home, and sometimes tragically even within people’s homes. We long for the light of God’s peace to spread throughout the communities and nations in which we live.

Sometimes it is difficult to relate the message of scripture, written in a different time, in ways that will be fruitful and relevant to our lives. Isaiah spoke to a people who had been mired in dark times, their freedoms under threat, their spirits troubled, and he said that God had not given up on them, that God had already broken the yoke of their oppressor.

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness –
on them light has shined. (Isaiah 9:2)

As we gather around the manger, we come to embrace the child of the light! With hearts that ache for this world, with hearts longing for peace, with hearts open to the healing word of God, we come and kneel before the holy child of Bethlehem.

Indeed this is the sign offered by the prophet Isaiah that a new divinely inspired dominion is upon us:

For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
for this time onward and forevermore. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Stephen Boyd comments, “In the face of the fear, even terror, it is tempting to put our trust in the powerful – those who, seeking their own interests, promise to protect us. In this, our own darkness, Isaiah poses the questions: Will we make room for the Prince of Peace, who orders the world with justice and righteousness? Will we prepare to follow him in peacemaking?”[i]

At Christmas, kneel before the Christ Child who is the very light of God. Poet Ann Weems, in her poem “The World Still Knows,” leads us to the manger with these words:

The night is still dark
and a procession of Herods still terrorize the earth,
killing the children to stay in power.

The world still knows its Herods,
but it also still knows men and women
who pack their dreams safely in their hearts
and set off toward Bethlehem,
faithful against all odds,
undeterred by fatigue or rejection,
to kneel to a child.

And the world still knows those persons
wise enough
to follow a star,
those who do not consider themselves too intelligent
too powerful
too wealthy
to kneel to a child.

And the world still knows those hearts so humble
that they’re ready
to hear the word of a song
and to leave what they have, to go
to kneel to a child.

The night is still dark,
but by the light of the star,
even today
we can still see
to kneel to a child.[ii]

Let us pray:
God of all ages,
in the birth of Christ
your boundless love for your people
shattered the power of darkness.
Be born in us with that same love and light,
that our song may blend with all the choirs of heaven and earth
to the glory of your holy name. Amen.[iii]

Words (c) 2015 Mark Lloyd Richardson (except where noted)

[i] Stephen B. Boyd, “Theological Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1, eds. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, p. 102.

[ii] Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1980, p. 55.

[iii] The Revised Common Lectionary website, Year C – Christmas, Nativity of the Lord – Proper I (December 24, 2015), Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

My Trouble with Seeing

05 Thursday Sep 2013

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Barack Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Middle East, peacemaking, prayer, refugees, shared humanity, sorrow, Syria, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, violence, war

IMG_1527

A view of Morro Bay from Los Osos, California, USA

I often think about (and pray for) the people suffering in Syria in the confluence of a brutal regime and rebel forces that have various allegiances and motives. The flood of refugees out of Syria grows with each day while the world waits. Thousands of them are children.

I wrote the following piece five years ago, long before Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, was a household name in the United States (at least for those of us who follow international news). Yet it speaks to me again today.

From a Christian perspective (and I dare say, from the perspective of most religious traditions), this human community in which we live is interconnected in such a way that we feel the suffering of innocents whether we consciously acknowledge the causes or understand the forces at work, many of which are evil.

Here is a poem illuminating how our consciences are stirred by the troubled world in which we live. I am not able to ignore the troubles of others because I feel they are my sisters and brothers regardless of ethnicity, national origin, class, religion, or race.

I pray for them. I pray too for people like me, living in relative comfort. I pray for those who hold the power to act in responsible and humane ways to enlarge the realm of peace and security for all people and to hold accountable anyone who disregards the human bonds we share.

In the end, though, I am left with questions.

My Trouble with Seeing

I will miss this view
when the day comes
and I must go–this panorama
that stretches east and west far beyond
the edges of our wall of windows
on the northern exposure of our home.

There is so much to see each day
that I have trouble seeing it all.
My eyes appear to be open and yet it is only
with great difficulty that I see the neglected
children, the forsaken refugees, the hungry
families, the war-torn lands, on this troubled planet.

There is beauty in these hills I see stretched before me.
Yet what lies beyond them on other hills in other lands?
What sorrows accompany the families of those
whose lives are made brief by the trick of violence?
What misfortunes await the ones whose lives are lived
on the margins from somewhere to nowhere?

Copyright (c) 2008 Mark Lloyd Richardson

I Did This For You

22 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Peace with justice, Sermon portions

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Beatitude, care for the earth, children's art, Christ, Luke's Gospel, Matthew 5:3, peace, peacemaking

"Peace"In the 24th chapter of the gospel of Luke, the disciples are gathered in Jerusalem and are talking about the empty tomb, and about the encounter two of them had on a road to Emmaus with someone they only recognized as Jesus after he took bread, blessed and broke it. As they are talking, Jesus himself stands among them and says to them, “Peace be with you.”

The risen Jesus offers the frightened disciples peace. He also offers them his hands and feet, so that they might touch and see. Perhaps on this night as Jesus stands among them, the disciples understand what the scriptures say about him for the first time.

It is to us, as much as to these early disciples, that the risen Jesus utters the words: “Peace be with you.” As recipients of the peace of Christ, we are called to take up a new identity and a new calling. Having received the gift of peace we are to become peacemakers.

It is no easy thing to be a peacemaker, especially in a world that seems constantly to pit people against one another, to highlight our differences over our shared humanity. It is no easy thing to be a peacemaker in a world dominated by self-interest, power struggles, and a disregard for the environment.

"world peace"To put it simply, being peacemakers means valuing others for who they are – children of God – and not looking upon anyone else as less than human just because they have views or values contrary to your own. Being peacemakers also means taking care of the earth, simplifying our lifestyles so as to use no more natural resources than we need, and protecting the ecosystems on which all life depends. All of this is making peace with the home God provides us.

We are all artists. Someone has explained this truth by saying that life is the medium and we are the canvas. Our task is to creatively work at making our lives a thing of beauty, molding and shaping the person we are becoming in the sight of God. That is our work, our calling as peacemakers.

Aimee, like other children of preschool age, would often come home with a drawing or other piece of art. Next to her own name she’d scrawl the name of someone she loved – usually Mommy or Daddy, sometimes baby brother Ben. As she presented her picture, she’d say proudly, “I did this for you.”

"Children's art"What if we were to take seriously the apostle Paul’s admonition, “Whatever you do … do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17)?

What if our lives bore the marks of the Prince of Peace?

What if, as we went about our daily lives, the words of the Beatitudes played quietly in the background: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, the gentle ones, the merciful, the pure in heart, the ones who work for peace?”

What if, at the end of the day, we were able to present our lives to God and say, “I did this for you?”

Perhaps then our lives would be worthy of the artist in each of us. Our lives would truly be things of beauty, a source of joy in the heart of God!

(This is a portion of today’s sermon, “Witnesses to Peace,” preached at the First United Methodist Church of Santa Maria, California.)

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