Category: Theology

Beyond where light can image (The God of cosmic question) – in the ‘light’ of the first image from the James Webb telescope

Beyond where light can image,
can infra-red probe truth:
dark matter that might harbour
what set creation loose,

where human senses lead us,
through all they analyse,
from arrogance to wonder,
to spiritual surprise?

But senses have their limits:
unanswered yet there lies
the single, deepest question
our intellect supplies.

Yet faith can proffer insight:
the Christ of time and space
speaks of a God incarnate
born in a squalid place.

Alive within our compass,
upon this ravaged earth,
the God of cosmic question
surprised us once in birth!

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) (amended 2019 & 2022 by author)

Originally The God of cosmic question
© 1991, alt 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.

The Good Samaritan …and then some…a hymn

The parable of the Good Samaritan points us to an unexpected neighbour (Luke 10:25-37). Elsewhere Jesus explains that whenever we greet the least of our neigbours we welcome him. And what if instead of seeing the Samaritan as the model of Jesus we turn the parable around…that it is Jesus in the person of the one left injured? It is not just angels that we entertain unawares…

1 Anonymous you come among the nations,
outside the door of synagogue or church,
and what you say will shake the world’s foundations,
will make the sinner sing, the righteous lurch.

2 You come with grace, not seeking any favours,
except a cup of water for your thirst,
and those dismissing you with other ravers
will find that they are last and others first.

3 The ones who offer you a share of shelter,
or visit you when you are locked inside,
who pause a moment on life’s helter-skelter,
will be rewarded for their lack of pride.

4 The ones who care, not simply for your beauty,
who hold you in the sickness of your age,
who walk with you beyond the call of duty
are ones who share the true Messiah’s stage.

5 ‘You clothed me in my nakedness and squalor’,
said Christ to those who fully understood
that love cannot equate with pound or dollar,
is found in acts of simply doing good.

Andrew Pratt, Words © 2015 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.
Metre: 11 10 11 10
Tune: INTERCESSOR

Amos 7: 7-17 A pertinent passage… a pertinent hymn… a Prophet and a plumb-line

1	The prophet saw a plumb line simply hanging 
	to sign God's love amid the sons of men, 
	then, with the women, everyone is singing
	that God will never turn away again.
	
2	Yet Amos blew the whistle on God's people, 
	a prophet in a time of greed and need, 
	self-righteousness as high as any steeple, 
	spoke of abandonment of law and creed.
	
3	The powers that be would have him leave the country, 
	yet Amos stood as firm as any rock, 
	the words that he had spoken, quietly, humbly,  
	had power to break the proud, to shake and shock. 
	
4	The judgment was quite plain, for God had spoken, 
	a time for present challenge and for choice; 
	and as words echo through a world still broken, 
	we hesitate to praise or to rejoice.

Andrew Pratt, Words © 2015 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.
Metre: 11 10 11 10
Tune: INTERCESSOR




 


Used By Permission. CCL Licence No. 0000
Copied from HymnQuest: Copyright Licence Users' Edition
HymnQuest ID: 14320
CCLI#: null

Rwanda and Asylum and the Methodist Church

If you should wonder at the response of the Methodist Church to the deportation of people to Rwanda please read this letter from our President and Vice-President in April – https://www.methodist.org.uk/about-us/news/latest-news/all-news/response-to-the-government-s-plans-to-offshore-asylum-seekers-in-rwanda/?fbclid=IwAR0UM-UYjX4zHqMX9o8eZzykTS2aCyKzK6xeA_AmUFbkiH2caEkzG-X9Zjc