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dreamprayact

~ Reflections of a preacher, poet, and contemplative activist

dreamprayact

Tag Archives: salvation

To the God of many names

29 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Prayers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

awe, compassion, creation, forgiveness, Future, healing, love, praise, prayer, salvation, wholeness

IMG_5508Prayer to the God of many names

May I reside in your boundless compassion,
and may my soul reach its wholeness in you.

May I feel awe in your generous creation,
and may my heart song rise in praise to you.

May I love with a fearless abandon,
and may I speak with a voice that is true.

May I trust with a heart that is healing,
and may forgiveness abound in me too.

May I hope in a future always open,
and leave the work of salvation to you.

O God of many names, hear my prayer.

(c) 2018 Mark Lloyd Richardson

In a Stable Lowly

16 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Worship Liturgy

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Advent season, Birth of Jesus, Christ the newborn king, Christmas story, Gospel of Luke, Holy Family, In the Bleak Midwinter, Joseph, Manger scene, Mary's Song, salvation, Worship song

Starry night

Photo credit: Pai-Shih Lee, Flickr Creative Commons

With allusion to Mary’s Song in the gospel of Luke, I wrote these song lyrics several years ago that can be sung to the melody of “In the Bleak Midwinter.”

In a stable lowly comes the One foretold,
wrapped in swaddled clothing warding off the cold.
Stars drift in the evening sky, glisten in the trees,
for this infant holy, born to set us free.

Creatures great and small come gather ‘round his bed;
children poor and friendless sound the earth’s lament.
God throws down the proud and lifts the humble high;
in his strength and mercy, souls are magnified.

God comes near to Mary, Joseph and the child,
blesses and beholds their family strong and mild.
God comes near to humankind in this gentle way,
bends to earth and leads us toward a brighter day.

In this holy season what gifts shall we bring,
to lay before our Savior, Christ the newborn king?
All the treasures we possess have no meaning here;
only hearts flung open, loving and sincere.

Words (c) 2015 Mark Lloyd Richardson
[You may use in worship with my permission]

Ashes

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Poems, Reflections

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Ash Wednesday, Confession, death, Lent, new creation, reconciliation, salvation, spiritual wholeness

ash
Ashes
earthy gray
dry as parched wilderness
symbol that we too shall perish

Dust to dust
ashes to ashes
each of us makes our humble return
back to the habitat of our origins

All that is false is allowed to die –
misguided allegiances
harmful compulsions
lingering resentments
ego-driven agendas –
dead on the ash heap of confession

Only then is there a new beginning
a reconciling
a turning toward wholeness
a desiring for God

Finally in the fullness of time
the desert blooms again
salvation comes
life triumphing over death.

Words (c) Mark Lloyd Richardson, 2015

Creator, Christ, Spirit

12 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Prayers, Worship Liturgy

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Tags

Christ, Creator God, discipleship, Gospel, grace, gratitude, Holy Spirit, hope, Invocation, praise, salvation, Savior, Trinity, worship

DSCN0050_2

A prayer for worship on Trinity Sunday:

Creator God,
in you all of nature sings of heaven.
In this sacred time and space
may our hearts join the chorus of praise
that already resounds in the rocks and trees,
the skies and seas of this amazing world.

Christ our Savior,
in you our eternal inheritance is secure.
In this sacred time and space
may our souls stir with the joy of salvation,
as we surrender to the holy love
at the center of your gospel.

Gentle and powerful Spirit,
you carry us on the generous winds of grace.
In this sacred time and space
may we fully embrace the freedom
that meets us on paths of discipleship
and invites us into faithful and whole lives.

Fill us with hope and gratitude this day,
knowing that wherever we go
there you are with us. Amen.

Words (c) 2014 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Different Roads

08 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Reflections

≈ 38 Comments

Tags

compassion, Dalai Lama, faith traditions, gospels, Jesus, Marcus Borg, Religious pluralism, salvation, spirituality

63880_456334967737818_2081127342_nOn Facebook recently I posted this quote from the Dalai Lama and commented that I wish more Christians believed this about people of other faith traditions. I agree with something Bishop John Shelby Spong said: “God is not a Christian. God is not a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu or a Buddhist. I honor my tradition. I walk through my tradition. But I don’t believe my tradition defines God. It only points me to God.”

After posting the above photo a friend commented, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6). This friend considers this a definitive statement with no ambiguity. Another Facebook friend, my niece Kaitlynn, agreed that “God speaks very clearly through scripture and specifically in John 14:6 about how to be reconciled and receive salvation.” She didn’t see any other way to interpret that verse.

Facebook is many things, but perhaps it is not the best place to carry on a theological dialogue! However, because I want my Facebook friends (and relatives) to know that I respect and care about them, I offered the following response:

For me following Jesus is about trying to see the world through his eyes of mercy and relating to others with compassion more than it is about adhering to a particular set of beliefs. I believe in Jesus – it’s just that I don’t think my belief saves me. Christians often confuse faith and a faithful life with belief. I think of faith as trust in God. To confess “Jesus saves” is to acknowledge that we are not saved by a creed, a set of spiritual laws, or a particular view of scripture. We enter salvation by placing our ultimate trust in the Source of our life and Ground of our being. Nor are we saved so that we can personally enjoy a happy eternal future. Our lives are saved from meaninglessness and self-centeredness and saved for the purpose of living for God and loving the world that God loves.

The early Christian movement of the first few centuries was all about taking care of one another, showing radical hospitality to strangers, and being a countercultural witness of the power of God. God is much bigger than the Bible, and Jesus’ message of salvation goes way beyond individual concerns to address the whole of God’s creation and all the systems that we take for granted that have nothing whatsoever in common with God’s kingdom or Jesus’ way.

The gospels are human documents written decades after Jesus’ death expressing how particular evangelists understood Jesus. The gospels are not verbatim transcripts of historical events so much as they are stories of how the pre-Easter Jesus changed peoples’ lives and how the post-Easter Jesus continued to reveal the nature of God’s power in the world – the power of self-giving love and unconditional acceptance. They are meant to point us to the God of Jesus, the God in Jesus. The goal of the evangelists was to have their hearers receive the good news and permit God’s grace and power to transform their lives, and through them to transform their world.

The gospel of John includes many “I am” statements on the lips of Jesus. Jesus claims to be true bread, a gate, a good shepherd, the vine, and the light of the world, and I affirm by faith the truth in these claims. But they are metaphors, not statements of literal fact. In many ways they speak of a mystical relationship that exists through faith, which itself is a gift from God, lest anyone should boast.

So … I choose to see the Christ of the gospels as someone whose love embraces the whole of humanity and all of creation, and that choice moves me beyond self-interest in my own personal future to seek to embrace the whole world that is loved by God.

In this religiously pluralistic world, where people of many traditions seek the sacred and long to know God, I am helped by something New Testament scholar Marcus Borg wrote in his book The Heart of Christianity: “To say ‘Jesus is the only way’ is also the language of devotion. It is the language of gratitude and love. It is like language used by lovers, as when we say to our beloved, ‘You’re the most beautiful person in the world.’ Literally? Most beautiful? Really? Such language is the poetry of devotion and the hyperbole of the heart, but it is not doctrine. . . . [He concludes,] We can sing our love songs to Jesus with wild abandon without needing to demean other religions.”

Again, I respect those who don’t share my views, and I in no way question your faith or devotion to Jesus. I too seek to follow Jesus in my life, and my spiritual path has led me to see the meaning of faith in a different light. I trust we can still be friends.

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson

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