Isaiah 40:3 A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God”.
1 Where the jackals scratch a living,
in this wild, deserted place,
springs will bring refreshing water,
grass and reeds will sign God's grace.
2 Here our God will build a highway
striding out across the land,
bringing hope to what was barren,
once again the people stand.
3 Once again a smile is dawning
on the face of every man,
all the children play together,
women talk, it's time to plan.
4 As we tell, recount the story,
in this present time and place,
may we build in recollection,
room for hope and gracious space;
5 Space where God can offer comfort
through our human words and lives,
love that shows in every instance
faith can live and hope survives.
© 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: 8 7 8 7
Tune: ALL FOR JESUS
Category: Poems
If he had come – a poem for Advent and Christmas by Marjorie Dobson
If he had come …
If he had come as a king with a robe and jewels
and a crown of gold,
he would have been impressive.
But there would have been those
who envied him his wealth,
tried to steal his jewels,
or attempted to rob him of his crown.
If he had come with a sword and shield
and a following army,
he would have demanded obedience.
But there would have been those
who feared his sword,
claimed he was hiding behind his shield,
or accused him of using military force to conquer them.
If he had come as a priest with elaborate vestments,
sanctimonious speeches and zealous religious rituals,
he would have commanded respect.
But there would have been those
who found his vestments ostentatious,
suspected him of hypocrisy in his speeches,
or felt unable to live up to
the impossible regulation of his religion.
So, when Jesus came as a vulnerable baby,
grew up in a carpenter’s workshop
and walked around in everyday clothes,
meeting and talking to people about God,
it really was a revelation.
Jesus brought no threat of wealth, or force of might,
or blocking of the pathway to God.
He was a man and of the people
and though his robe was stained with blood,
his crown made of thorns
and his death an ignominious execution,
the power of his life has everlasting authority.
Marjorie Dobson © Stainer & Bell Ltd published in Unravelling the Mysteries
New Advent hymn – A quiet chill that freezes expectation
A quiet chill that freezes expectation, the hope of love seems distant and remote as war and hate are whirling all around us, we wait for light of which the prophets wrote. There is no peace, no reconciliation as factions fired by hatred seethe and kill, when will it end, this constant devastation, when will we learn to listen, to be still? [When will we listen to each other, share one will?] This advent season, dawn of love’s foundation is born in darkness of eternal night, and yet a flicker bids us hasten onward, as purple shadows hint at morning light. And in this moment in our preparation let’s put aside our fripperies and fear, to make new space for gracious re-creation. Come God, in love at last, come now, draw near. [Come God infuse your love in us, O come, draw near.] Words Andrew Pratt © 2023 © 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 Tunes: INTERCESSOR, [LONDONDERRY AIR] Note: Using the tune: INTERCESSOR sing as a four verse hymn. Ignore words in [square] brackets. Using LONDONDERRY AIR combine verses 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 to make a two verse hymn using the use the words in [square] brackets for the last line of each verse.
Body Bag, Body Bags
22 years old, dead in a bag.
‘Just down there’ casual words from a ‘reception’ desk.
Cold.
But, then, a mortuary is a chilling place.
‘Chill out’, we say.
Then rows of babies follow where my son has gone.
He departed by train at night.
Limp hands, recognisable like my own.
Cold, lifeless.
An accident.
None to blame.
But these babies, gone before time?
No excuse.
Death by choice, of the vulnerable and truly innocent.
Few are truly innocent.
Time compounds circumstance and reason
to churn us into who we are.
Some curdle, I suppose.
But death at birth has no rhyme or reason.
Don’t multiply your guilt by pointing fingers.
Don’t seek to assuage hell
by washing your hands of your complicity.
Wringing your hands won’t dry the blood of your hypocrisy.
But remember also, neither will it erase the all encompassing love
of the God you claim to worship,
yet who through obscene action you blaspheme at every turn.
Copyright Andrew Pratt 19/11/2023
Lament for Palestine and Israel – unknowing babies sleep now
A Lament for Palestine and Israel
Unknowing babies sleep now,
exhausted without food,
while mothers cry in anguish –
this lottery is crude:
when missiles, ‘with precision’,
seek targets, hid, unseen,
as leaders point the finger
so consciences are clean.
Amid this dust and carnage
where human life is cheap,
where body parts are scattered
we turn our heads and weep,
yet this is soon forgotten,
the image fades, has gone,
another channel chosen
we sing a soothing song.
In this we are immersed now,
our pain will soon be lost,
the anguished cries diminished,
we need not bear the cost.
A distant drum is beating,
we’re deaf to hear its sound
a tiny body buried ,
in seared, unhallowed ground.
And mothers still are sobbing
while fathers shed salt tears,
and lives are marked by hours now,
yet mem’ries seethe for years.
How long, O God, can terror
be harboured in a mind?
How long before Your children
are nurtured to be kind?
© Andrew Pratt 14/11/2023
Words © 2023 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.
Tune: NYLAND H&P 478II, REJOICE AND SING 529
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