Jesus' open love would lead him
The unexpected healing by Jesus on a Sabbath of a crippled, and hence alienated, woman inspired these words:
1 Jesus' open love would lead him
into conflict with the law.
People then, and now, believing,
they know wrong, of this they're sure.
2 Such aggressive condemnation:
not the way we should behave,
we have rules and regulations
plotting how our God can save.
3 These are rules that God has given,
rules that we must strive to keep,
yet it seems that Jesus challenged
norms that made the path too steep.
4 Rules he offered changed perceptions,
moved from punishment to grace,
showed a way of loving, living,
we might risk within this place.
5 Love beyond imagination,
love to heed and to enthral,
love not bounded by rejection,
love that reaches out to all.
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
Metre: 8 7 8 7 Trochaic
Tune: ST CATHERINE (Jones)
Category: Theology
The Song of the Sea – a hymn related to Global Warming – reposting
The Song of the Sea – a hymn related to Global Warming
I usually post a hymn on a Monday or Tuesday each week. On Monday morning 11th August, the Today Programme on radio 4 announced that The UK's seas have had their warmest start to the year since records began, helping to drive some dramatic changes in marine life and for its fishing communities. Read more…
In 2021 Dr Tim Gordon Marine Biologist, Exeter University spoke to Bramhall Methodist Church about the death of coral reefs around Australia. Again, today there are reports of the deterioration of the Great Barrier Reef. During his seminar, in response, I wrote these words…
The song of the sea, once melodious, is dying,
that song is essential, the calling of home;
Great God, we lament, yet the sound of our crying
is quieter than breakers, the wash of the foam.
What work must we do to restore what is broken,
how can we encourage the choir of the sea?
The spirit is moving, the waters are wounded,
the oceans are anguished for life to be free.
You enter our suffering and love in our grieving,
you join us in weakness, when frailty is near,
God holds us, enfold us when hell overcomes us,
stand near to the tomb of our folly and fear.
You promise a covenant, both gift and promise.
Creation is groaning, still coming to birth.
Bring newness, renewal, a hope that is living,
from suffering bring joy for the whole of the earth.
We treasure the symphony, yet we are grieving,
we long for the chorus, the song of the sea,
bring light in the darkness and sound in the silence,
Great God, co-creator, let all life be free.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2021 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: 12 11 12 11
Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO
You can read more about this at Tim Gordon
Hear this sung by Gareth Moore here
If love could be the centre of the lives we seek to live – a hymn inspired by Luke 11: 4 (The Lord’s Prayer)
If love could be the centre of the lives we seek to live – inspired by Luke 11: 4 (The Lord’s Prayer) - 'forgive us our debts' Lectionary 26-7-2025
1 If love could be the centre of
the lives we seek to live,
if we could learn to measure wealth
by debts that we forgive;
then Christ would be incarnate in
all love that we could give
2 Our lives would then be measured by
our depth of love and grace,
the way in which we looked on Christ
in one another’s face.
Then Love would come to live again
within this time and place.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2014 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 6 8 6 8 6
Tune: SHELTERED DALE (used in the Methodist Hymn Book[1933] to set 'Awake, awake to love and work')
Reflecting on the Good Samaritan – hymn – ‘All the power that fuelled creation’
Reflecting on the Good Samaritan – ‘All the power that fuelled creation’
1 All the power that fuelled creation,
cosmic force that fired the stars,
still leaves people in the darkness
when we grasp for 'us' and 'ours'.
All the emptiness and sorrow
we dispel with just a glance,
eyes averted from our neighbours
giving them no second chance.
2 All we cling to, all we cherish,
stands as nothing in God’s light,
yet our attitudes deny it
holding all as if by right.
All the wealth at our disposal
could bring hope, transfigure care;
even candles lit in darkness
bring new hope when none is there.
3 All we need is love and kindness,
costly kindness to dispel
fear and poverty, while bringing
deepest love to counter hell.
All God’s love, when shared among us
shatters poverty with grace,
even now transfiguration
could be felt within this place.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2016 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
Tunes: SCARLET RIBBONS; ABBOTS LEIGH
For another text relating to the Good Samaritan click here
Reflection for 2025 – Pentecost
Reflection for June 2025 – Pentecost – Andrew Pratt – originally written for the Mid- Cheshire Circuit
An image of fire in darkness
As Pentecost dawns the central image is of tongues of flame. But wait a minute.
To many people fire equates with fear, can be a trigger to post traumatic stress. Think Grenfell Tower, or the plethora of images of recent times of war torn, tumbled towns and cities or ravaged countryside.
How can we use this image of power and destruction for good? As part of our Christian celebration?
Think for a moment of giant redwood trees, apparently decimated by annual infernos. Witness the regrowth which follows – enlivened, fresh new growth, impossible without this devastation.
‘Deep within the trees are stored sugars from photosynthesis. They can use it for growth or metabolism … or they can store it for later. They have these really old, 50-to-100-year old carbon reserves that have accumulated for many decades that they can draw upon to build new leaves and do new photosynthesis.’[1]
Hold that image for a moment.
The prophet Joel looked forward to a time when God’s spirit would be poured out on all people. The expectation was a universal one. It was rooted in the understanding that at creation God’s Spirit moved over the face of the waters, that it had always been present. Joel sought to open people’s minds to this.
And now, at this time of Pentecost, we reflect on dispirited disciples being anointed in such a way that it seemed that flames came down among them, not of destruction, but of renewal, releasing possibilities deep within them which had been dormant, ever-present, and believe it, this same Spirit is within us.
And what was the new growth? A realisation that God’s Spirit was not exclusive, but inclusive as Joel had anticipated, would be poured out through them for all creation.
But all this is metaphor, pictures to open our minds. Our painting moves from darkness to fire and light. And, at best that illuminates the truth of the sacred worth of all humanity, and all creation. Yet to realise this our selfish inclinations must be destroyed to be replaced by the seeds of love such as we see in the person of Jesus which, if we have eyes to see, is there before us in every living person,
God, open our eyes to see with your eyes of love, warm us with the fire of your love, until we love one another as you have always loved us. Amen.
[1] https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-redwoods-recover-fire-sprouting-1000-year-old-buds (accessed 28/5/2025)
Image © Andrew Pratt 2025
hymnsandbooks 