A hymn for when our certainty is shaken: Sometimes our grasp of life is frail
Prior to one of the Gospel readings for this Sunday (Matthew 17:1-9) Jesus had spoken to his disciples:
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? (Matthew 16)
Every so often our faith can be shaken and we need something to reassure us…hence this hymn which also reflects on what life today is like when our certainties are challenge:
1 Sometimes our grasp of life is frail,
yet through it all love will prevail.
And when it seems things can't get worse,
we feel that every step is cursed.
2 In spite of all, we keep our faith,
held, more than holding onto grace,
we whisper prayer and hope for praise,
we live through grey exhausting days.
3 God's word reminds of how we're held,
when love is hidden, faith is felled;
retelling narratives of pain
from which God's people rose again.
4 This is the hope to which we cling,
when life is raw, we sense death's sting;
yet on beyond this time and place
may we be kept within your grace. Amen
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2011, 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 8 8 8
Tune: GONFALON ROYAL
Created by HymnQuest.com
Tag: doubt
A hymn for Ascension referencing Matthew, Luke and Acts
A hymn for Ascension
1 Doubt and worship, mixed emotions
shimmered through their troubled minds;
gathered near the mountain's summit,
each remembered words and signs.
2 Jesus spoke with calm assurance,
brought to mind all that had past
poignant mem'ries, talk and laughter,
treasured thoughts, yes these would last.
3 All his words held their attention
as they listened to their friend:
they would teach the way of Jesus
to the world's remotest end.
4 Then one final contradiction as
he moved to leave earth's stage:
'I am with you, always ever,
to the limits of this age'.
5 Now we stand and offer worship,
proof that Jesus' words were true:
God is here, will never leave us,
timeless Spirit ever new!
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2011 Stainer and 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
Tune: CROSS OF JESUS
Click here to see a this previous post - toward Ascension
When life juggles with our learning – musing on … art – doubt – faith
When life juggles with our learning – musing on … art – doubt – faith
1 When life juggles with our learning,
with the things we thought secure,
then it seems the artist’s palette
spins and faith becomes obscure.
In the wash of different colours,
as we seek for shape and form,
others paint their faith by numbers
forcing God to fit some norm.
2 But when life has torn the canvas,
when the numbers twist and slip;
then we need to find an image
that will help our hope to grip:
Holding us, when we’re past holding,
grounding when we’re insecure,
till we find a faith, not drifting,
still dynamic, free, yet sure.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2011 © 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 Tune: NORMANDY (Bost)
Peace – a hymn reflecting on Jesus’ words to his disciples
Peace… Easter seems long past, but at a time when our minds are still being drawn to Ukraine, and politics at home feel uncertain, my thoughts have drifted back. When Jesus come to his disciples after his crucifixion he came, not with condemnation, but with peace. Perhaps we still need that assurance of peace in our own, our present time. But step back for a moment to that upper room… He speaks of peace while all inside disciples' minds are churned about; their memories haunt their waking time, while day and night are fused by doubt. He speaks of peace while all the world will clamour at our open door, while shards of music sing and break with light in discord on the floor. Into this chaos spirit spills, a calming notion, 'God is good', and real as life, the Christ was there, the Christ they'd hammered to the wood. This God it is who offers peace to bound disciples held by fear, who breaks impossibilities, who makes the clouded way seem clear. Into this calm we'll step and stay, in love's assurance find God's peace with those whose feet had turned to clay, we'll find that fear will stop, will cease. And in this moment, in this time within a world so torn by death, again we'll try to live out peace, with every lasting, living breath. Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) 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 8 8 8 8 D Tune: YE BANKS AND BRAES
Poets struggle, sculptors risk…
One gospel (Mark) doesn’t mention the birth of Jesus. The other three relate it in different ways. This has led me to reflect on the way in which different arts attempt to give expression to the nature of God. Poets struggle with the language, words both mystic and absurd fail to frame the incarnation, giving flesh to living Word. Art constrained by expectation will not let the colours go, only spreading, mixing media emulate the Spirit’s flow. Sculptors sometimes risk the fracture, letting stone dictate the form, giving rise to new creation chance God shattering our norm. Even music caged in bar lines lacks the freedom to expand, till in jazz, through improvising, rhythms stretch to new demands. Nothing ever fixed or final, way beyond the human mind: mystery and imagination… all that we will ever find… © Andrew Pratt Written 17/12/2022
Incarnation – Watercolour © Andrew E. Pratt
hymnsandbooks 