A challenge to the church to change – ‘When the church, afraid of changing’
Hymn writers sometimes ask questions of the church and then flesh out the consequences of the actions they have described. Fred Pratt Green’s - ‘When the Church of Jesus shuts its outer door’ is one such hymn (perhaps too challenging, or near to the bone, to be in Hymns & Psalms or Singing the Faith?) As we live out the time through lectionary readings from resurrection to Pentecost we have a chance to reflect on what the church is, and what it might be expected to be. Remember that Jesus death was partly a consequence of his challenging people to change their perspectives of faith.
When the church, afraid of changing, clings to glories of the past, holding fast to long lost memories, sure that it will always last, lost in time, devoid of spirit, know this truth, its fate is cast.
When the church no longer welcomes people other than it's own, when it thinks its understanding stands complete, is fully grown, love is rarely seen in action, grace is only, thinly, sown.
Jesus challenged expectation, turning tables upside down, those who once were thought as holy he confronted with a frown. When, then, will we learn the lesson, own that cross, that thorny crown?
1 Persistent God, your gracious understanding returns the love that often we with-hold. When met with our resistance and denial you greet with peace and draw us from the cold.
2 Three times you challenged Peter's frail commitment, that stemmed from reasoned nervousness and fear. Three times he answered that he really loved you, you held him though he'd seemed so insincere.
3 You see beyond our actions and our motives, you read the hope that's written in each heart, and in this knowledge welcome home your children by showing each and all a place and part.
1 Doubt, composed in whispered voices, nailed their thoughts through waiting days: days of shattered expectation, days devoid of love or praise. Boulders blocked imagination like the stone that sealed the tomb, startled, frightened, apprehensive, shut inside an upper room.
2 At the point of desolation, when their conversation stilled, in the midst Christ stood before them, Christ abandoned, tortured, killed. 'Peace be with you', words now spoken, words of grace to cut the air, but those words would burn each conscience, branding hurt already there.
3 Jesus eyes and body language, spoke of boundless love and grace, but disciples, eyes averted, hardly looked into his face. Yet his voice still echoed softly till his friends began to see love renewing, reconciling, love rebuilding, setting free.
Easter morning hymn - Such shock had greeted women
1 Such shock had greeted women arriving at the tomb; the place was stark and empty. Was this a stone-cold womb? A second life had beckoned the body, come and gone. Yet Mary stood there weeping, warmed by the rising sun.
2 Long shadows greeted mourning, the light could trick and turn; a gardener was waiting, she struggled to discern; reality was breaking, denying common sense, for Jesus offered greeting, there, in the present tense.
3 And others met this Jesus, each heard a different call, two thousand years thereafter God seeks to meet us all. The spirit is God’s presence, that spirit meets our need as love is planted in us, a quietly growing seed.
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