Tag: challenge

A hymn for a time of decision – Two ways or more – Written for Comberbach Methodist Church

Two ways or more to risk or rupture faith, 
this pearl, this gift, entrusted to our care, 
Which way to take, the smooth way or the rough
a challenge and a question hover there.

We wonder and we wander through our thoughts 
as all seems foreign, different from our hope. 
The ground is shaken, all seems insecure, 
where can we sow a seed that fosters hope?

Help us, good God, to see the way ahead, 
to take the risk that leads us from the night.
To plant while not yet knowing what might grow, 
surprising, thrusting, blindly into light.

Andrew Pratt 12/3/2024 For Comberbach Methodist Church at a time of decision.

© 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
Metre10.10.10.10
Tune: MORECAMBE

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?

Christ the King? What sort of king? And a hymn…

The Sunday before the First Sunday of Advent is recognised in some churches as the Feast of Christ the King. We might sing ‘King of Kings, Majesty’. But what a strange King, his crown, a crown of thorns…Luke 23: 33-43.

1	A carpenter hung on a cross, 
	a rough-hewn cross of wood, 
	while people satisfied by rage 
	had never understood.
	This man had met the arguments 
	of those who sought to rule 
	with kindness, gentleness and love: 
	they marked him as a fool.

2	He challenged values, long held rites, 
	that bound the world they knew, 
	he sought to point them back to God. 
	For this they'd curse and sue.
	The trumped up charges that they brought, 
	designed to bring him down,
	resulted in this spectacle, 
	this cross and thorny crown.

3	And through the centuries that passed 
	the ones who called him 'good', 
	have tried to make some sense of this, 
	have rarely understood.
	And now we stand again to mark 
	the passing of this day, 
	to struggle still to understand, 
	love's sacrificial way.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 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
CMD
8 6 8 6 D
Tune: SOLLS SEIN
As published in Seedresources http://www.theworshipcloud.com .  Art: iPad Art © Andrew Pratt 2022  





	


	
	






	
	

		
Lent 2 – Two poems and two hymns
	


	

		

 Mark 8: 31-38
  
 Challenge
  
 ‘You don’t need to do that! 
 Why do you put yourself through it? 
 It’s totally unnecessary!’
  
 Wise advice?
 Maybe – in some circumstances. 
 Self-inflicted suffering 
 doesn’t seem to make sense 
 in the everyday world.
  
 But there are times 
 when we have to face the facts – 
 ‘no gain without pain’, 
 is the old saying.
  
 Yet Jesus, 
 making his future clear to his followers, 
 discovered that even the best of them 
 had no idea of what he had to face.
 And, for all the best possible reasons, 
 Peter wanted to spare his friend 
 the horror of the predictions 
 that were being set before him.
  
 ‘Don’t tempt me, you devil!’
 What a response to give. 
 One that rocked Peter on his heels 
 and made him feel hurt and guilty.
  
 Only time would heal that wound, 
 but only as the wounds that Jesus suffered 
 were made evident to them all.
  
 The challenge to suffering for the faith goes on.
  
 And when asked, 
 ‘Why do you put yourself through it?’ 
 is our answer tinged with the temptation 
 to turn and creep away in another direction?
  
©Marjorie Dobson, This may be used personally or for local worship, but not published elsewhere without permission.
  
  
 All the pain and hurt and horror 
  
 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.
  
 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.
  
 Death was now the final payment,
 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 E Pratt 
Words © 2012 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: 8.7.8.7D
Tune: LUX EOI
  

 Determination
  
 Nothing could deter him.
  
 Not religious opposition.
 Not the wily Herod. 
 Not the prophetic predictions. 
 Not the Pharisees with their plotting, 
 nor the teachers with their testing, 
 nor the disciples and their doubting.
  
 Nothing could stop him.
  
 For as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, 
 saw their persecution of prophets 
 and their future of desolation, 
 he saw his own destiny of death 
 at the hands of those 
 who set out to destroy him.
  
 Yet he moved on.
  
 And those who walked with him 
 could only fear for his life 
 and try in vain 
 to shield him from his enemies, 
 but knowing deep within their hearts
  
 he was determined to go on.
  
©Marjorie Dobson, This may be used personally or for local worship, but not published elsewhere without permission.
  
  
 Infectious faith 
  
 Infectious faith we demonstrate by action,  
 when words are lived and people feel God's grace,  
 when platitudes are kept in quiet abeyance,  
 and love expressed through every human face.  
 
 
 This is the witness we are called to offer: 
 the smile of welcome and the touch of care,  
 when every neighbour frames the Christ we honour,  
 the angel that we're greeting unaware. 
 
 
 My friend, we cannot claim to grace the Godhead 
 when those who stand in tatters at our door 
 are turned away without a moment's notice,  
 while others sleep upon a stone cold floor.  
 
 
 Our faith and love are nothing, simply empty,  
 just words we fling against a cloud filled sky,  
 when those we see derided, disregarded, 
 are left, without our protest, just to die. 
 
 Are we to be just noisy, clanging cymbals,  
 or signs of hope upon this cold, dark earth?  
 Ours is the calling now to re-imagine 
 the love of God, to sign each person's worth. 
 
 
Andrew E Pratt 
Words © 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: 11 10 11 10
Tune: INTERCESSOR
  
   

	


	
	






	
	

		
Up! Up and away! – Ascension Hymn
	


	

		
Up! Up and away! Was it really that crazy?

Seems too much like magic, so hard to believe.

His ministry ended. The cross was behind him.

Disciples commissioned, so much to receive.


The Spirit was coming, the mission beginning,

the world was their parish to love and to hold.

Disciples went on in the strength of that Spirit,

a Spirit of power to inspire and enfold.


But that would come later, for now they were waiting,

in hiding, reflecting on all they had seen;

on all Jesus taught them, in words and through wonders,

in all they had heard, of whom Jesus had been.


This Jesus had promised, had challenged, encouraged,

had offered them peace that the world could not give.

And soon all the earth would be spun on it’s axis,

and we share that Spirit, in Christ we will live!


Andrew Pratt (born 1948)

Words © 2011 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: STREETS OF LAREDO

Metre: 12 11 12 11

As published in The Seed – http://www.seedresources.com <http://www.seedresources.com&gt;