Tag Archives: thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Eve Prayer

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

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First United Methodist Church, Santa Maria, CA, USA

First United Methodist Church, Santa Maria, CA, USA

I will be sharing this Opening Prayer I wrote for our 13th Annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving Eve Service in Santa Maria, California this evening. We are the host church for this annual event involving about ten congregations. If you wish to adapt this prayer for your own use in worship, please feel welcome to do so. ~ Mark

God of all creation and Source of all life,
tonight we offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving.                                        Psalm 50:14
We bring ourselves, humble and broken though we may be,
to the altar of your blessing and grace.
We bring our voices, frail and hesitant though they may be,
in joyous praise to the One who gives us a new song to sing.                  Psalm 40:3
We bring our gifts to the One who is awesome,
who inspires fear in the rulers of the earth.                                               Psalm 76:11-12
We thank you for these moments we have together
to pause from the busy pace and endless noise of our lives
and simply rest in a spirit of gratitude for all you are to us.
We thank you that as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is your steadfast love toward us,
and that as far as the east is from the west,
so far do you remove our transgressions from us.                                    Psalm 103:11-12
We thank you for your deep compassion over your creation,
and the ways in which you constantly call us back to you.
Most of all, we thank you for your Son Jesus,
who came that we might have life and have it abundantly.                       John 10:10
Christ is the morning star who rises in our hearts,                                    2 Peter 1:19
the true light which enlightens everyone.                                                  John 1:9
Christ instructs us in your holy way of love,
and invites us into that perfect love that casts out fear.                            1 John 4:18
We pray this day for people and nations the world over
who need to be blessed by the bounty of your grace.
May our thanksgiving bring others closer to you,
O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.                                                         Psalm 19:14
There is no other rock besides you, O Lord,                                             Isaiah 44:8
our fortress in whom we take refuge.                                                        Psalm 18:2
So we join the multitude from every nation,
from all tribes and peoples and languages,
and all the angels standing around the throne
worshipping you and singing,
“Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”                                                  Revelation 7:12

Words (c) 2013 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Overflowing with Gratitude

21 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Prayers, Reflections

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On this eve of Thanksgiving Day in the United States, I share A Thanksgiving Blessing by Naomi King.

“Let us join our hands and hearts in gratitude on this wondrous day, where we have the abundance of our lives before us. We remember on this day of bounty all of those who do not have enough, who are afraid, who are lonely, and who suffer. We wish for the abundance of this world to be shared, for fear to become love, for the lonely to feel welcomed, and for the suffering to know rest and joy. For the labors, the love, the care that gave us the delights of this and every day, we say ‘Thanks!’ For the nourishment of our spirit, the challenges that strengthen us, and the friends we have on the journey, we sing ‘Thanks!’ For all that is our lives, for these good gifts, we whisper, ‘Thanks!’ Overflowing with gratitude, let us shout, ‘Thanks!’ Amen.” ~ Naomi King

This prayer is a blessed reminder to me to express my thanks to the One who is in all and around all and over all creation! We say our thanks, but we can also whisper or shout them. Each day is an invitation to give thanks for the good gifts of life.

I am also mindful this day of all those who suffer, and in particular the people affected by Hurricane Sandy, and those in harm’s way in Gaza and Israel. May they be comforted and strengthened in the days ahead.

Words and photo (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Filled with Songs like the Sea

31 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in Prayers, Reflections

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On Palm Sunday, a portion of Psalm 118 is read during worship. For all that God has done in the past, all that God is doing in the present, and all that God will do in the future, the psalmist gives thanks and praise!

It’s very possible that in Jesus’ final Passover celebration with his followers, they sang this psalm in accordance with Jewish tradition. They joined their voices to history’s choir to lift up God’s faithfulness in the past and their confidence in God’s help in the future.

On Palm Sunday, we hear the crowds echo the words of the psalmist: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” (Ps. 118:26; Mark 11:9-10). And we hear also Jesus echoing this same psalm, reminding the people that the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone (Ps. 118:22, Mark 12:10). The triumphal procession with palms spread across the road eventually leads to another road, a road of suffering.

God’s enduring love is revealed in the life and death of Jesus, who is the Passover lamb for us in our journey toward freedom. The Christian faith is a “way of life” more than a belief system. Christ initiates a new community in which all are welcome and transformed by grace!

Gary Wilburn says the Christian life is …
“a way of being human in an inhumane world,
of living in love not hate,
of faith not fear,
of hope not despair,
of forgiveness not revenge”
[The God I Don’t Believe In (Stamford, CT: Progressive Pub, 2008), 70].

So we gather in worship, and with the psalmist we say, “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!”

Here is a Jewish Passover Prayer that expresses beautifully our thanksgiving to God:

Even if our mouths were filled with songs like the sea, our tongues with joy like its mighty waves, our lips with praise like the breadth of the sky, if our eyes shone like the sun and the moon, and our hands were spread out like the eagles of heaven, if our feet were as swift as the hind, we should still be incapable of thanking you adequately for one thousandth of all the love you have shown us. Amen.

Words (c) 2012, Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photos (c) 2012, Dallis Day Richardson

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