Blogs

A troubled soul – a hymn for Lent 5

A troubled soul, the Christ of God – inspired by John 12: 20-33

1	A troubled soul, the Christ of God, 
	humanity exposed, 
	with all the turmoil that we feel, 
	when choices are proposed.
	The monumental choice he faced, 
	the crisis must be met, 
	to take the path of love to death, 
	or turn away, forget.
	
2	The riddle of the grain of wheat 
	was told with fear and dread, 
	yet mention of new fruit gives hope 
	that God might raise the dead. 
	The loss of life, the gain of life 
	are tangled in this game, 
	yet those who live in love of God 
	are held within love's frame.
	
3	So Jesus chose and we must choose, 
	which path we are to take, 
	the one which will deny God's love 
	or cause the earth to quake.
	God give us courage to deny 
	the self that harbours hate, 
	to trust in your eternal grace, 
	before it is too late.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2012 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: DCM
Tune: ELLACOMBE

Mothering Sunday – a hymn and a song (re-posting with a link to a tune)

Two very different items for Mothering Sunday

God, you hold me like a mother – inspired by Psalm 131

God, you hold me like a mother,
Safely on her knee;
God, you hold me like a mother,
Close to you but free.

God, you watch me when I wander,
Keep me in your sight.
God, you watch me when I wander,
Hold me day and night.

God, you hold me like a mother,
Teach me to be free.
God, you hold me like a mother,
Show your love to me.

Words Andrew Pratt © 1995 Stainer & Bell Ltd & The Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes 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. Published in Big Blue Planet (1995)
Metre: 8 5 85 Trochaic
Tune: GOD YOU HOLD ME (George Bexon)

Vulnerable presence of God in creation

Vulnerable presence of God in creation, 
fragile, yes broken, in order to be;
cracking the egg of existence in birthing, 
mothering God who is setting us free.
	
Vulnerable God source of nature, will nurture, 
sharing our pain in the process of birth; 
bloodied, yet beautiful, changed, yet unchanging, 
passionate partner of love on this earth. 
	
Vulnerable God found in human relations, 
held as a baby, yes, suckled and fed; 
yet an enigma, creating and feeding, 
God is our parent, while being our bread.

Words Andrew Pratt © 2015 © 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: 11 10 11 10
Tune: STEWARDSHIP