Two very different items for Mothering Sunday
God, you hold me like a mother – inspired by Psalm 131
God, you hold me like a mother,
Safely on her knee;
God, you hold me like a mother,
Close to you but free.
God, you watch me when I wander,
Keep me in your sight.
God, you watch me when I wander,
Hold me day and night.
God, you hold me like a mother,
Teach me to be free.
God, you hold me like a mother,
Show your love to me.
Words Andrew Pratt © 1995 Stainer & Bell Ltd & The Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes 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. Published in Big Blue Planet (1995)
Metre: 8 5 85 Trochaic
Tune: GOD YOU HOLD ME (George Bexon)
Vulnerable presence of God in creation
Vulnerable presence of God in creation,
fragile, yes broken, in order to be;
cracking the egg of existence in birthing,
mothering God who is setting us free.
Vulnerable God source of nature, will nurture,
sharing our pain in the process of birth;
bloodied, yet beautiful, changed, yet unchanging,
passionate partner of love on this earth.
Vulnerable God found in human relations,
held as a baby, yes, suckled and fed;
yet an enigma, creating and feeding,
God is our parent, while being our bread.
Words Andrew Pratt © 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: 11 10 11 10
Tune: STEWARDSHIP
Category: Song
A Hymn for Lent 2 – All the pain and hurt and horror
Mark 8:31
8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Hymn: All the pain and hurt and horror
1 All the pain and hurt and horror,
loss, denial and mistrust,
hovered round as Jesus waited
for his friends to re-adjust.
Lost within misunderstanding:
thought that love was just a dream,
knew that it would be so easy,
they're confounded by Love's scheme.
2 Jesus taught that love would conquer
only through integrity,
that the way his life was pointing
tested his humanity.
Jesus felt that Peter's challenge
undermined his purpose here,
spoke quite harshly, underlining,
made his need both plain and clear.
3 Death was now the final action,
Jesus spelt out to his friends.
To them this was not expedient,
not the way Messiah ends.
Love would be denied if actions
led to violence or defence,
Jesus, lamb led to the slaughter,
death the cost of Love's expense.
Andrew Pratt 8/2/2012 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
Tune: LUX EOI
Metre: 8.7.8.7D
A laser like tongue – A hymn inspired by Jesus baptism which might be used as a dramatic reading
A laser like tongue – A hymn inspired by Jesus baptism which might be used as a dramatic reading.
A laser like tongue used when speaking God's word,
an arc-light to shine through the crass or absurd.
The prophet had spoken of just such a voice,
embodied in John who would offer God's choice.
A preacher from Galilee joined in the crowd,
not hidden, John pointed and called him out loud.
The lamb, God's anointed, Messiah had come,
the Spirit confirming that this was God's son.
The world and God's people spun round by this man
discovered that grace had a limitless span;
and this, while offending the pious, the priest,
brought joy to the ones once regarded as least.
Some soon caught the essence, the crisis, the power,
the challenge of Jesus to twist or devour
their present conceptions, their life-long deceit,
to turn them, re-focus, and make them complete.
And so those around heard both challenge and choice,
the sense of authority rang through his voice.
The call to leave everything seemed so absurd
and yet they responded to Jesus's word.
That word is still rippling, extending through space,
it reaches through time and it tells of God's grace;
it sharpens perception, it rings in each ear,
the spirit is moving, the Kingdom is near.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948) based on Isaiah 49 vs 1-7; Mark 1: 9 – 15; John 1 vs 29-42
© Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: 11 11 11 11
Tune: PADERBORN (Paderborn Gesangbuch 1765) Perhaps this text could be read dramatically rather than sung?
The Space Shuttle Columbia remembered – a hymn
The Space Shuttle Columbia – a hymn written at the time of its launch and explosion – remembered BBC 2 12/2/2024 - They reached for stars, beyond our grasp… written 4th February 2003.
1 They reached for stars, beyond our grasp,
they rode beyond the clouds,
we gazed in wonder, seized by awe,
now friends grasp empty shrouds.
2 A thousand searing fiery shards
had flared across the sky,
as crowds looked up in disbelief,
and framed the question 'Why?'
3 Can God be found amidst this loss?
Is love a present fact
when torn by pain, in misery,
we lack the power to act?
4 O God make known your presence now,
yes, show your boundless love
as through the tears and loneliness
we/they search the skies above.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) written 4th February 2003. Words © 2003 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: CM
Jesus casts out an unclean spirit from a man in a synagogue – Mark 1: 21 -28 – a new hymn
A man convulsed and crying
was turning to and fro’,
but Jesus reached to meet him
to bid the spirit go.
The language of this story
sounds foreign, to our speech
yet still our health can test us,
when faith seems out of reach.
Great God, in Christ you show us
that love can cast out fear,
the fear that can assail us,
or those that we hold dear.
In times of desolation,
or times of deep distress.
mid loneliness bring friendship
bring love to lift and bless.
If hearts and thoughts are twisted,
when nothing is secure
may ones like Christ stay near us,
to show that love is sure,
to hold us through disturbance,
as we will hold them too
when shadows cloud your presence
we’ll see each other through.
Andrew Pratt 20/1/2024
Words © 2024 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: 7.6.7.6.D
Tune: CRUGER; PENLAN
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