No peace for the Master - July 28th John 6: 1-21
1 No peace for the Master, the people would follow,
for he had compassion for those who were lost,
then when he had healed them, and answered their questions,
he saw they were hungry, yet food had a cost.
2 Now Philip computed, they never could manage,
but Jesus was adamant, they must be fed.
What was there to feed them? A boy had come forward,
he offered two fishes and five loaves of bread.
3 The crowd were now seated and Jesus was ready,
he lifted his eyes, blessed the fish and the bread.
Miraculous feeding, five thousand were feasting,
O wonder of wonders, yet more lay ahead.
4 However we see it, God's power over nature;
a sharing of little so all can be fed;
this story still points to the person of Jesus,
for here God is present, God's nature is read.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2011 © Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre:12 11 12 11
Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO; ST CATHERINE’S COURT
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Over the moors
Over the moors – iPad art Copyright Andrew Pratt 2024
On a Galilean hillside – hymn inspired by Mark 6: 30-34
On a Galilean hillside – July 21st – Mark 6: 30 – 34
1 On a Galilean hillside
stood a crowd with wondering eyes,
captivated by the mystery,
framed by mountain, sea and skies.
2 Jesus stood, and with compassion,
met their gaze and understood
depth of pain, and human anguish,
evil challenging their good.
3 What he said defied their senses,
challenged values, yet affirmed
those whom life had spurned or battered,
lifted them above the herd.
4 Now we stand, impassioned, waiting
for a word to cure our ill;
but he challenges complacence,
love is ours to share or still.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2002 © Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: 8 7 8 7 Trochaic
Tune: WRAYSBURY (Hymns & Psalms 141)
Recreational Violence – Jim Burklo reflects on the shooting of Donald Trump
The sky, at sunset, still bleeding…
When the sky at sunset, bleeding, mirrors pain that fells our hope;
it seems that love is fast receding, sowing tears that can’t be quelled.
Can it be that God, seceding, leaves this world, all grace expelled?
When the streets are warm with terror, as emotions run or seize,
singing notes of music shudder, when God’s tempo should relieve,
must we lose the spirit’s rudder, losing hope?
We start to grieve.
When the darkness is descending, night a quiet, yet chilling, shroud,
folding round us bleak, unending, muting what we cry aloud,
is God near, with grace transcending fear and dread, defeat or cloud?
© Andrew Pratt 27/7/2016/2020/2024
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