Hymn: Hidden mysteries amaze us June 16TH Lectionary Mark 4: 26 – 34
Hidden mysteries amaze us,
seed is sown then grows up high,
swelling seas form mighty mountains,
stars adorn the evening sky.
Jesus saw in life a story,
parables of love and grace,
things of God and revelation,
rooted, grounded in each place.
Yet for some the grace stayed hidden,
clouded, shrouded from their eyes,
others read the words more clearly,
God unmasked, not in disguise.
Here in Christ they saw the God-head,
emptied now of all but love;
God now grounded, standing with them,
not in cosmic space above.
© Andrew Pratt 31/5/2012
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.
Tune: GOTT WILL’S MACHEN
Metre: 8.7.8.7
Tag: grace
Abram set out on a journey – the call of Abram/Abraham – Genesis 12 and onward…
Abram set out on a journey – Inspired by the call of Abram
1 Abram set out on a journey,
joined this new, uncertain, game.
Challenges bring new excitement,
no two days will be the same.
Life was settled, now it's shaken,
preconceptions turned around,
every day a new beginning,
every place uncommon ground.
2 Now it felt God moved the goal-posts,
playing by some other rules,
life and work had been uprooted,
staying home seemed just for fools.
Still today God calls the dreamers,
those with visions charged by grace,
those who move and travel onward,
bringing hope to each new place.
3 Will you join this pilgrim people,
finding new and different ways;
trusting God will walk beside you
now and in your future days?
Will you walk into the darkness,
trusting God and trav'ling light,
setting out to live the gospel,
always keeping God in sight?
Andrew Pratt (born 1948) based on Genesis 12 vs 1-4
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.
8 7 8 7D
Tune: BETHANY
Hymn: Who’s my mother, sister, brother – Inspired by Mark 3:20-35
Who's my mother, sister, brother - Inspired by Mark 3:20-35
1 Who's my mother, sister, brother,
when the odds are piled up high,
when the allegations clatter,
when the insults sing and fly?
Will you stand in strength beside me,
or will you deride, deny,
calling me the prince of devils,
will you hide behind a lie?
2 Or can I depend upon you,
trust your every word and prayer,
knowing that our bond, unbroken,
is love's sign that you are there?
Jesus knew his friends' betrayal,
knew his family's disbelief,
found his way through scorn and scourging,
dying like a common thief.
3 Yet though feeling God-forsaken,
grace would never lose its hold,
love as strong as death would keep him,
though abusers thought him sold.
And if in this present moment,
hope seems shattered, comfort gone,
know that love has sought and found us.
God gives grace to carry on.
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 7 8 7 D
Tune: BETHANY
As an election approaches a hymn (poem,song) – If love is foremost in our faith
If love is foremost in our faith
we have a choice to make
on this and every other day,
for all else is at stake;
we see a world that’s broken down,
where poverty and fear
are trampelling the weakest ones,
with hatred lurking near.
‘Today’, God said, I give a choice
where life and death compete.
The chance is now for us to take,
to finish, to complete,
the turning of the tables here
as Christ, one time, had turned
the temple tables, scattering greed,
to free those power had spurned.
Where selfishness can cripple lives,
or love can set them free,
what happens from this moment on
rests now with you and me:
if our audacious words of grace
can frame what we would pray,
then from this moment, in our time,
let love infuse each day.
Andrew Pratt 22/5/2024 on the announcement of a General Election
Words © 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
Metre: CMD
Tunes: ELLACOMBE; COE FEN; KINGSFOLD
Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate – a hymn inspired by a text suggested by Gordon Taylor
Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate Words inspired by a text suggested by Gordon Taylor at a hymn workshop of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland in Lincoln July 2023. The theme is a response to the Government’s Illegal Immigration Bill. Can perfect love cast out the fear and hate that festers in a hardened, ravaged heart, when lives abandoned to a savage sea, have hope denied, grace drowned out from the start. As cold officials act with callous power we sing the words that plead and pray for care, to see humanity in each new face to wipe away the tears of rank despair. How long, O God, will we discard the lives, that you have birthed that we should seek to save, who caught by circumstance, or course of life, we destine to a swirling, watery grave. Yes perfect love can cast out fear and hate that festers in each hardened, ravaged heart, when we reach out to others in their need. Through gracious words, new hope has power to start. © Andrew Pratt 19/7/2023 Words © 2023 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: 10.10.10.10 Tune: YANWORTH
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