Hymn: We strain to hear the voice of God
We strain to hear the voice of God,
this God who knows us inside out,
a whispered voice of gentleness
that never seeks to force or shout.
Christ's voice was heard in Galilee
by those who had the ears to hear,
he challenged hypocrites with truth
while sinners, sensing love, drew near.
His crazy, crafted way of life,
gave little hint where it might lead,
and yet the people followed him,
each word of Christ met hidden need;
for he addressed with present sense
a desert way of wilderness,
or else the intellectual task
within the city's busyness.
'Come follow me', hear Jesus say,
to those who answered to his call;
and in our present time and place
may we respond and give our all. Amen.
Andrew Pratt 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: 8 8 8 8
Tune: GONFALON ROYAL
Second Sunday after Epiphany, 1 Samuel 3: 1-10 (11-20), Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; John 1:43-51
Category: Poems
A Hymn for the New Year – for Covenant
A hymn for the New Year, for Covenant
1 The year is new, do not resist,
for God is moving in our midst
who brings a covenant to birth,
of common wealth throughout the earth.
2 The atmosphere is cold and raw
and yet our God engenders awe:
is kneeling there to wash our feet,
to heal, to love, to kiss, to greet.
3 And in our healing we will find
a wholeness hidden, yet refined,
a God made known in every face,
each neighbour ministers God's grace.
4 And God says all is ready yet;
the meal prepared, the table set.
And will we come? And dare we share
the covenant that sounds God's care?
5 No complicated myth or sign
a simple meal of bread and wine,
speaks of the love that feeds us still:
come all who can, come all who will.
6 And when we rise and go our way,
remember who you met today,
who showed you love, who held, who healed,
who, in each neighbour, is revealed.
Andrew Pratt Words © 2010 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: LM
A hymn for New Year – Oh where is there love
Oh where is there love in a world that is tired,
across the year's threshold, where hope has expired?
We wait amid movement, to pause and to pray,
to nurture our God at the dawn of each day.
Our eyes have been opened, compassion unlocked,
the road has been cleared, and the future unblocked.
The narrative moment has fractured the storm,
the chill of the moment unfrozen, now warm.
Such newness is waiting with every new day,
the new year is dawning through danger and play.
The dance is still twisting through hate into light,
is spinning and turning creating new light.
We hold in our neighbour the broken and hurt,
those lost within living, God would not desert.
The frail and the fallen, the fraught or the free
are reaching for Jesus, will Christ be in me?
© Andrew Pratt 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: 11 11 11 11
DATCHET; CRADLE SONG (Kirkpatrick)
We dare not risk forgetfulness
We dare not risk forgetfulness,
the eyes where light has been extinguished,
the gathered limbs and shattered bones,
that hone the memory, shatter hope.
The shadows lengthen, colour fades.
What now?
The choice is ours.
This turning of the year:
forgiving fault
can we renew relationships
or, festering, lurch onward into hell?
The choice is yours, is ours, is mine…
choose life…perhaps?
Copyright Andrew Pratt 2023
January – a poem at the turning of the year by Marjorie Dobson
January
(the month is named after the Roman god, Janus, whose two faces looked in opposite directions and who was the god of doors, or openings.)
At the turning of the year
that two-faced Roman god
looks longingly back,
yet urges us forward
into the unknown.
We stand at the threshold,
knowing we must face
the unknowable,
yet lingering and clinging
to what we leave behind.
The changing pace of time
may fill us with dread
when anxieties overwhelm,
or danger threatens,
or the future has predictable limitations.
There may be hope in days ahead,
promises to be fulfilled,
vows to be made,
new life and new directions
glittering with expectation.
But the two-faced god
pays no regard to pain or pleasure,
simply stands like stone
gazing impassively
in both directions.
Thank God, the God we know,
holds past and future
in living, loving hands
and takes on flesh
to prove the truth of that involvement.
Marjorie Dobson © Stainer & Bell Ltd 2019 from Unravelling the Mysteries
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