John 3: 1-17
Poem: God so loved …
No complicated creeds,
or self-righteous rituals.
No holy huddles,
or raw judgements.
No insistence on conformity.
Only a call to turn around
to find forgiveness waiting.
For at the heart of all creation
and the core of our existence
there is the love of God
for errant people.
And one special human,
whose presence in the world
changed all our perceptions
of our relationship
with the God who loves us
so much that he gave …
Marjorie Dobson - from Unravelling the Mysteries © Stainer & Bell Ltd 2019; London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns where appropriate. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd
John 3:14-21
Hymn: Trust that God, who lit the cosmos
Trust that God, who lit the cosmos,
source and ground of all we are,
demonstrated love's dimension,
dying like the evening star,
softened, shaded, so diminished,
then extinguished, gone from sight,
yet the third day rose in glory,
bringing hope and shedding light.
From that day the crisis beckoned,
those who saw that light must choose
where to stand: with Christ in suffering?
To accept or to refuse?
Still that challenge stands before us,
God has given love and grace.
Will we take the love that's offered
or deride God in this place?
All our songs are crass and empty,
all our worship hollow praise,
if we do not love our neighbours
that we live with in these days.
Simple acts of loving kindness
signal where we place our trust;
faith without these simple actions
slowly moulders, turns to dust.
Andrew 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.
8 7 8 7 D
Tune: DIM OND IESUS
Poem: Light came …
If light is good
and darkness is bad,
why do we have such a longing
to run to the dark
when we see the light of God
entering the world?
Could it be
that we need to hide
and the darkness
is our only refuge?
Yet God persists
in flooding the world with light
and focusing its intensity
through Jesus.
Is it any wonder
that a new flame
burns in our hearts
and fires our enthusiasm
when we emerge from the shadows,
as we finally recognize
how much God loves us?
©Marjorie Dobson
Ephesians 2:1-10
Hymn: Into darkness and disaster
Into darkness and disaster,
swept along by what we’ve done,
making choices that determined
things we’ve lost and things we’ve won,
sometimes we reflect and wonder
at the people we’ve become.
Sometimes lost, sometimes despairing,
feeling there is no way back
to the way we wish we’d taken,
knowing all the things we lack,
we can feel so God forsaken,
prayer is dry, resolve is slack.
Yet within the depths of sorrow,
when there is no way ahead,
God will reach us, grace will show us
life beyond the tears we’ve shed;
God will lift us, heal, forgive us,
shield us from the things we dread.
God will build a bright tomorrow,
light a dawn of wider scope,
where our human strength has faltered
God will sow the seeds of hope.
Know that, even now, God holds us,
and will show us how to cope.
Andrew 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 © Stainer & Bell Ltd
Tune: TRIUMPH (Gauntlett); ST COLUMBANUS
Metre: 8.7.8.7.8.7
hymnsandbooks 