Bible – Page 15 – hymnsandbooks

All of us are valued by God…a hymn…This goal of equality

All of us are valued by God – Matthew records these words of Jesus:
 
10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

And a hymn…

This goal of equality laid out before us,
where each one is valued and no-one denied,
is given, through loving, to those who will listen,
yet, while we should welcome, we often deride.

We look at our neighbours and judge by appearance:
the colour of skin or the cadence of voice,
the cut of a jacket or youthful confusion,
while prejudice beckons our ultimate choice.

Yet love would compel to see Christ clothe our neighbour,
the ragged and ugly gain elegant grace;
enabling discernment, refined understanding:
the future is present and all have a place.

Andrew Pratt Words © 2001 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: ST CATHERINE’S COURT

We are a pilgrim people – a hymn

Methodists in the area in which I live are part of the way through the Methodist Bible Month. Some of our preachers are modelling worship on a sequence of passages from the Book of Revelation. Many of these verses are obscure and difficult to penetrate. Jewish and Christian history has been built on a sequence of revelations. The Book of Revelation is one of those.

Meanwhile, as a nation, a world even, we are living in a time of change. As such we are a pilgrim people, moving forward, guided by the Spirit, reliant on God, dependent on our understanding of what is revealed to us now of how our Christianity can be expressed in our days and time.

We are a pilgrim people, forever moving on,
each day a new creation, each dawn a brand new song.
And when our hearts are rooted into one place and time,
we lose God's moving Spirit, that singing, dancing rhyme.

The Hebrews came from Egypt, each turn along the way
another revelation, another dawning day;
and through this God would teach them to always travel light,
to trust grace for the future, to calm them or excite.

The shepherd of our future, calls us to something new,
and this may twist and turn us before it can renew.
But trust and God will take us, will help us realise
beyond imagination the hope that can arise.

We must not cage the Spirit, we must not quench the flame,
we move with God together, are ready for the game.
Each day a new creation, each dawn a brand new song,
we are a pilgrim people, forever moving on.

Andrew Pratt Words © 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: 13 13 13 13
Tune: THORNBURY

Reflection for Ascension Day

Reflection on Ezekiel 37 and the raising of Lazarus

Reflection on Words taken from Ezekiel 37: 1-14 and the story of the raising of Lazarus.

To set the scene - The people of Israel had been taken into exile. The temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. They thought that God had deserted them. Then a prophet called Ezekiel came and spoke to the people and this is what he said:

Reflection 1: Some people think that faith is rigid. You learn facts. You believe them. You’re saved. That’s it. The trouble with that is that life intervenes, birth and death and all that’s in between. That’s what is means to be human. Things happen. Sometimes they’re bad. So called faith can be shattered. Some folk say its wrong to doubt. Life has shown me that doubt is often the only sane response to what is going on.
The people of Israel, taken into Israel, thought God had abandoned them, been destroyed. God lived in the temple. The temple had gone. They had been taken into slavery…end of!! Doubt big time. Then this prophet has a dream, a vision if you like, and says, actually its not like that. These bones coming back to life were a sign that God was with them where they were. They had not been abandoned. But God is in his temple was their mantra. Clearly what they had learnt, what they had put their faith in was wrong. And the proof came when the nation was restored, returned and Jerusalem was rebuilt. Think Ukraine…
Through doubt they had learnt something new and far more amazing than what they had lost. That God was not constrained to a place, a building but was, to quote an old Beatles’ song – ‘here, there and everywhere’! Unsettling that and, I think this is something that we as Christians, with the way we treat our buildings, still need to learn.

So God is everywhere. As the Psalmist said, ‘there is nowhere we can go from you presence. Here’s part of a story of Jesus. You may know it. Joanne and Susie are going to share it…John 11: 1-45

To set the scene - Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.

Reflection 2: If you find this story hard to believe you are not alone. A friend of mine imagined the scene:

They said he was dead, but it seems a bit suspicious to me. How can they prove it?
I know we’d had all the weeping and wailing and the body put in the tomb and the door sealed to keep him in and the animals out, but they could have played a trick on us,

They’re just trying to convince people that their friend is a marvellous magician who can bring dead people back to life. They’ve already convinced hundreds of other people that he’s a healer, but how do we really know that?

I think it’s all an act. And I think those three were in on it.

And so it goes on. You may be thinking similar thoughts. We pick at details and miss the wider picture. Put aside the queries and doubts, the need for explanation, if any in this story for a moment. Allow me to think of it as a parable, a story with a message.

If Jesus gives us a window into God, which I believe he does, then this God is love in totality. This Love is not limited by geography or walls. This love is not fettered by a creed, or constrained by people who say, ‘if you believe this’ or unless you say these words you are not going to heaven.
This love meets us in the joy of a wedding offering wine, but in this story is with us in our grief, shares our weeping and is beside us, holding us and those we love, even in death. Seal the tomb and you do not seal it from the height and depth, the length and breadth, the totality of the love of God.
I am convinced that nothing in all creation in life or death can separate us, or our loved ones, from Love which we see expressed in Jesus. As John Wesley put it as he was dying, ‘Best of all is God is with us’, always from birth, in life, through death and beyond.

1 Best of all is God is with us,
God will hold and never fail.
Keep that truth when storms are raging,
God remains though faith is frail.

2 Best of all is God is with us,
life goes on and needs are met,
God is strongest in our weakness.
Love renews, will not forget.

3 Best of all is God is with us,
hearts are challenged, strangely warmed,
faith is deepened, courage strengthened,
grace received and hope reformed.

4 Best of all is God is with us,
in our joy and through our pain,
till that final acclamation:
'life is Christ, but death is gain'.

5 Best of all is God is with us
as we scale eternal heights,
love grows stronger, undiminished;
earth grows dim by heaven's lights.

Palm Sunday Hymn – As Jesus came riding

As Jesus came riding along on a donkey, 
the pavement was holy, he hallowed the ground.
The stones will cry out if the people are silent, 
a day filled with joy and with praising is found.
	
Then those who had followed and those who came after
sang loudly while waving their palms in the air;
these palms they laid down on the ground like a carpet, 
some joined celebration, while some stood to stare.
	
Then loud the hosannas that rang round about him, 
this man of humility, heading for death;
and would we sing with them, hosannas and praising,
or cry for the cross that would take his last breath.
	
And now in this moment the trial and the testing
for you and for me, and for each and for all, 
is sharing God's sacrifice, selflessly loving, 
to stand beside Jesus, respond to his call.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 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.
12 11 12 11
STREET OF LAREDO