Isaiah 40:3 A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God”.
1 Where the jackals scratch a living,
in this wild, deserted place,
springs will bring refreshing water,
grass and reeds will sign God's grace.
2 Here our God will build a highway
striding out across the land,
bringing hope to what was barren,
once again the people stand.
3 Once again a smile is dawning
on the face of every man,
all the children play together,
women talk, it's time to plan.
4 As we tell, recount the story,
in this present time and place,
may we build in recollection,
room for hope and gracious space;
5 Space where God can offer comfort
through our human words and lives,
love that shows in every instance
faith can live and hope survives.
© Andrew Pratt Words © 2010 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
Tune: ALL FOR JESUS
Tag: faith
Shaken confidence dismembers
A hymn inspired by Matthew 16: 21 perhaps, also useful in difficult times and when faith is tested.
‘From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and
undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed,
and on the third day be raised.’
Shaken confidence dismembers
faith that once had seemed secure,
things that frighten in this moment,
at one time had seemed demure.
Love is fractured, hope is fettered,
grace obscured from sight or sound,
while we cry in desperation,
'where is safe and solid ground'.
Through the mist a form is shaping,
living sign of love and grace,
God embodied, present, human,
seen in every neighbour's face.
Hold the truth when doubt is raging,
when our lives are insecure,
fold in love each friend and neighbour,
till that love feels safe and sure.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2015 Stainer and Bell Ltd.
Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) © 2015 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England,
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: 8 7 8 7
Tune: STUTTGART
Easter hymn – We cannot speculate, or glance
An empty tomb is just empty. It took a meeting with Jesus to convince a woman, then a group of men that Jesus, who had died on a cross, was alive. It is still difficult to believe. Yet after two thousand years, whatever we believe, as Geoffrey Best has written on Facebook, ‘…in this (hi)story is the revelation of the very nature of God, a God who takes all that we throw and absorbs and transforms the dead and deadly into life abundant .... if we let it!’ Amen! 1 We cannot speculate, or glance into the well of history. Nor can we look beyond this time with any sense of certainty. We only have our faith and hope, to make us stand, to help us cope. 2 Great God we grasp at straws of faith, of things we hope will point to you. We read the ancient texts and scan those distant myths to make them new. And all the time we live between these metaphors and what is seen. 3 The past is gone, we cannot hear more than an echo down the age. And what is still to come we fear; we see each other's pent up rage. Yet what we need is close at hand, your present love in every land. 4 True resurrection brings to bear the things that heal, create, unite. Love launches its triumphant praise and builds on joy and will delight. The former things are passed away, dead night transformed to brightest day. Metre: 8 8 8 8 8 8 Tune: ABINGDON Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) 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.
Art © Andrew Pratt 2022
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
Creator God: in lightning, clouds and thunder – a new hymn
Creator God: in lightning, clouds and thunder,
I hear your voice, I sense the mountains shake.
But love is greater, causes me to wonder,
and in this moment faith begins to wake.
So I will sing in praise of all I see,
and in God's grace, I place my trust;
and through our lives may love confound our fear.
Sing praise to God, for God is love.
I look to stars, foundations of creation,
reflections gleam from streams as I pass by,
from mountain pass to shingle by the ocean,
the breath of God is moving with each sigh.
Within this world a human once embodied
a depth of love beyond what had been known,
a love that gave forgiveness once in dying,
that we could find in life, that all could own.
And when my breath is ceasing as I’m dying
may grace confirm the hope that faith has given,
this human love that I have known in living
grows firmer, deeper in the love of heaven.
© Andrew Pratt 29/9/2022
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