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dreamprayact

~ Reflections of a preacher, poet, and contemplative activist

dreamprayact

Tag Archives: sacred worth

Love. Period

21 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Justice, LGBTQ, Sermon portions

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Christ's body, Confession, gender identity, heterosexism, homophobia, human dignity, interfaith worship, Jesus Christ, LGBTQ community, peace, Pride, sacred worth, sexual orientation, United Methodist Book of Discipline, walls of separation

Interfaith Pride Celebration Santa Barbara, CA

Interfaith Pride Celebration, July 12, 2015, Santa Barbara, California

Members of our church recently participated in the first Interfaith Pride Celebration in Santa Barbara. I was pleased to be part of this outdoor worship service in support of the LGBTQ community. There were about 20 sponsoring faith communities, including ours, and an estimated 250 to 300 people in attendance.

The reason we were there is simple really – if Jesus were here it’s where he would be. We are Christ’s body on earth and so it follows that we will go where Jesus would go, and we will spend time with people with whom Jesus would spend time, and we will be the bearers of grace and peace to those with whom Jesus would do so.

It was a beautiful afternoon, with great gospel music and inspiring speakers. I was among the faith leaders who read a Confession written by the Rev. Frank Schaefer acknowledging the wrongs that faith communities have done to LGBTQ persons. We have not always been welcoming and affirming of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. We have failed as churches and people of faith to acknowledge the human dignity and worth of LGBTQ persons. We, the Church, have treated them as second-class believers and have harmed them with words of exclusion and hatred, defining them as “sinners,” “perverts,” and “abominations.”

We have not given them their own voice to express their love of God. We have subjected them to abusive “religious counseling” and harmful “conversion therapy” in a misguided effort to fix them. The heterosexism and homophobia of our faith communities has caused real suffering in the lives of our sisters and brothers in the LGBTQ community. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, told us to “Do no harm.” But we have been doing harm for decades now.

Following the service, a woman came up to me with a couple of her friends, and with tears forming in her eyes she said, “It was very moving for me to hear the words of confession. It is the first time I have heard anyone say they were sorry for the hurt we have felt. Thank you so much.”

My heart is with my LGBTQ brothers and sisters, who have been harmed by the Church’s message of exclusion and condemnation in the past. I have been involved over the years in advocating for marriage equality. I have been involved in trying to change the language in the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church so that it no longer singles out one group of people based on sexual orientation to deny them the ability to be ordained as ministers or to receive the blessing of the church for their committed relationships. I will continue to do these things because I owe my primary allegiance to Jesus Christ and his reconciling grace and not to the United Methodist Church.

I want to be unequivocal and stand on the side of love, because as I see it, “love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). “Those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them” (1 John 4:16b). As long as I am the Pastor-in-charge in the church I serve, we will be working toward full inclusion of all people in the church’s ministry, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other ways we have of dividing people into classes.

Christ is our peace, my friends. Christ has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. We become people after God’s own heart as we continue this work of tearing down the walls that have harmed others, and indeed have harmed us all.

Words (c)2015 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photo credit: Dallis Day 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

What’s in a name?

05 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Uncategorized

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

dream a world, grateful heart, sacred worth

In preparing to launch this blog, I needed to create a name for it, which I quickly discovered wasn’t an easy assignment. After a few false starts, I did a little research and learned that a blog name needs to be: readable, pronounceable, spellable, memorable, concise and unique – a tall order! As I considered how I approach life, I realized that the words dream (with close affinity to imagination) and pray and act are descriptive of how I understand who I am. If I were able to draw a picture here for you – dreaming (imagining) would lead to praying would lead to acting (doing) would lead back to dreaming and so on – a kind of interactive process of engaging real life from a spiritual center. Life is adventure, just as God intends it to be. Will we do our part in creating a more humane, just, and peaceable world?

Dream
Dream a world at peace
Dream tables of plenty for all
Dream an end of violence against innocents
Dream tanks beaten into combines
Dream happy children everywhere
Dream God’s dream of harmony
Dream a resurgence of the common good
Dream reconciliation
Dream undeserved, relentless grace
Dream blessing on all people
Dream

Pray
Pray honestly
Pray hopefully
Pray trusting in the sacred worth of each human being
Pray believing that God still speaks
Pray with a grateful heart
Pray with a broken heart
Pray for the poor and the rich
Pray for the sick and the well
Pray for the weak and the strong
Pray for all the world’s children
Pray

Act
Act from a place of passion
Act where the world needs justice
Act where the world needs healing
Act while your heart aches
Act as though you are blessed
Act when you feel lost or alone
Act in the Spirit of the Christ
Act with courageous compassion
Act with humor and humility
Act without fear
Act

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