Rev Dr Graham Adams, of the Luther King Centre, has written a book entitled Holy Anarchy. Graham summarises the book here. The heart of Jesus’ vision is a reality he called the kingdom of God - 'a realm in which all dynamics of domination, not least in the church, are subverted'. So this is Holy Anarchy of which Adams writes and in this hymn/poem I have been inspired by this vision. Out beyond our understanding Out beyond our understanding, holy ‘truths’ that have us bound, Holy Anarchy is waiting: shakes, disturbing what we’ve found. Strands beyond our human measure test what’s certain, where we stand, draw us out beyond our treasure to an unknown holy land. Far from what we thought was certain, bound by darkness, hid by light, dare we risk this strange adventure, dream-like drifting, endless flight? Might we yet glimpse sense and purpose, seeming distant, yet so near, here within our present context, such a love as casts out fear? More than we at first envisaged, broader than our widest scope, challenging our firm conceptions, thoughts on which we’ve placed our hope: this will strain imagination, take us from our comfort zone, seem like some incarnate chaos, nothing like we’ve ever known. Andrew Pratt Words © 2022 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.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: DIM ON IESU (a Welsh tune to reflect Graham's background) Words inspired by Holy Anarchy, SCM, Graham Adams (2022).
Category: Poems
Wrestling with God – Genesis 32: 22-31 – a hymn
Genesis 32: 22-31 Tells the story of an enigmatic stranger wresting with Jacob by a brook called The Jabbok. It is a story of crisis and decision, of Jacob a meeting with God, finding his vocation. Charles Wesley told the story in the hymn ‘Come, O thou traveller unknown’. It runs to 12 verses! You may not have sung it in its entirety.
This hymn is somewhat shorter…
1 Wrestling stranger met with Jacob,
struggled onward till the morn,
struggled by the brook of Jabbok,
heralding a different dawn.
2 Jacob met the task with courage,
and it seemed he would prevail,
but the stronger, wrestling stranger,
made him limp, God could not fail.
3 What the struggle? Why the wrestling?
Was it real or human doubt?
Jacob gained self realization,
how he’d work his purpose out.
4 Nameless God now blessing Jacob,
Israel went on from that place,
Holy ground, for this was special,
here he’d met God face to face.
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: 8 7 8 7. Tune: ALL FOR JESUS
Jesus heals a leper – a hymn
Jesus heals a leper – a hymn
One of this week’s lectionary readings Luke 17: 11-19 tells of Jesus meeting some lepers. He heals them…
17:14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean.
17:15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.
Only one offered thanks and so…
1 Strange how those, the least expected,
offer thanks for acts of grace;
while so many take for granted
costly gifts as common place.
2 Children take the care we offer,
never know what love has cost,
soon they grow in independence,
soon the bonds of birth seem lost.
3 But are our lives any better?
God has many things to give,
yet we also take for granted
all that feeds the lives we live.
4 Let us learn to grasp the treasure
that is given to our hands,
life and healing, joy and pleasure,
all that loving understands.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2013 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
8 7 8 7 Trochaic
Tune: LOVE DIVINE (Stainer)
For deeper love we share the bread – Jim Burklo
As Jim says, I share..
Words by Jim Burklo
(Use freely, with attribution)
Tune: O Waly Waly (Welsh folk tune) — also known as The Water Is Wide (listen to James Taylor’s performance of it)
Alternative tune:“Jerusalem” – an unofficial anthem of England
For deeper love we share the bread
I won’t be full till all are fed
Till every soul has home and bed
The rest of us can’t move ahead
For deeper love we share the wine
I cannot taste the love divine
Till every soul has walked the line
And you’ve had yours as I’ve had mine
Now Mary sings her birthing song
Till every voice can sing along
And voices weak will rise up strong
Her choir is one where all belong
No one’s saved till all are healed
As Jesus on the Mount revealed
Your life and mine forever sealed
Just like the lilies of the field
We follow where the Christ has led
To table that for all is spread
And no one’s sitting at the head
But deeper love in wine and bread….
JIM BURKLO
Senior Associate Dean, Office of Religious Life,
University of Southern California
Loving our Neighbours at a time of Harvest – Amos 6 – Luke 16 – Hymn
Loving our Neighbours at a time of Harvest
We are fortunate in this Country to either live in the countryside or to be relatively near to it – farming country. And now is the season of Harvest Festivals. This coming Sunday some of the Lectionary readings contain the following words:
From Amos – 6:4 Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall;
6:5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music;
6:6 who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
And from Luke – 16:19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
16:20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores…
We are bid, in the midst of our harvest celebrations, to love our neighbours. The hymn reflects…
1 If we claim to love our neighbours
while the hungry queue for food,
are we prey to self-deception?
Is perception quite so crude?
If we sit beside our neighbours,
begging for the things they need,
we might share their own injustice
in a world that thrives on greed.
2 If we punish those with nothing,
blaming them for where they stand,
is this love of friend or neighbour,
do we still not understand?
Love of neighbour is not easy,
cuts us till we feel the pain,
sharing hurt that they are feeling
till they find new life again.
3 Love of neighbour sets us squarely
in the place where they now sit,
till the richness God has given
builds a pearl around the grit;
till each person shares the comfort
of the love of which we preach,
till we live as fact the Gospel:
none can be beyond love’s reach.
Andrew E Pratt – From More Than Hymns published Stainer & Bell Ltd., 2015.
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: 8 7 8 7 D Tune: BETHANY (Smart)
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