Lent 3 1 Corinthians 1: 18-25 Poem: One Big Question When worldly wisdom and superior knowledge and intellectual snobbery and informed atheism have died the death of earthly flesh and fragile brain, will God be quietly weeping over the waste, even as the cross blazes out its triumphant foolishness? © Marjorie Dobson. This may be used personally or for local worship, but not published elsewhere without permission. John 2: 13-22 We play at church We play at church, one long charade, a trite religious game, and all the time the world goes by, Christ dies again in vain. The down-and-out wish for our tithes, the homeless plead and pray, while we enact our sullen rite, our crass religious play. We watch defenceless ones denied, the ones we should defend, we keep the best place for ourselves, self-righteous to the end. O God forgive our self-deceit, hypocrisy and pride. God, bring us down to dine with you and those we would deride. God, give us hearts of gracious love, to look beyond our greed, to live and love with those you call, at one in hope and need. Andrew E Pratt 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. Metre: CM Tune: AULD LANG SYNE Poem: Anger Whip in hand and uncharacteristically angry, Jesus swept through the temple courtyard. Tables were smashed, money scattered; pigeons found freedom in flight and sacrificial animals fled to safety. His voice boomed across the rapidly emptying space – ‘this is desecration! How can strangers worship here in a place over-run with commerce and greed? My Father’s house is for prayer, not for profit! How dare you do this to it?’ And traders huddled in corners and tried to keep their eyes on their vanishing possessions. And priests flocked to witness the devastation and to gather in consultation and to plot their revenge. And strangers came out of the shadows to wonder at the nerve of this man who had said exactly what they wanted to hear, but so powerfully that he was bound to create new enemies for himself. And as Jesus turned to leave, the accused robbers spat at his departure; the opportunists gathered all the loot they could and disappeared into the shadows; and the self-righteous Jewish believers could only ask for proof of authority for his actions. They didn’t like his answer. It was completely unrealistic. But in the end it proved to be true, although not in the way they were expecting. Three days they had succeeded in destroying him, but in three days he was back. Indestructible! © Marjorie Dobson. This may be used personally or for local worship, but not published elsewhere without permission. Our vulnerable God suffered pain and temptation Our vulnerable God suffered pain and temptation, rode lightly to wealth, saw the greedy as flawed. And we, as disciples, who walk in Christ's footsteps are challenged to follow, to love, not defraud. Transparent in action, confronting injustice, upbraiding the rich, while upraising the poor. He called us to welcome the outcast, the homeless, by giving, not taking, by opening each door. Let taxes revalue the lost and discarded, ensuring the powerful will equally share; until all the world is redeemed for all people, until inequality ends as unfair. And now as we look to the world let us value, each person, each neighbour of infinite worth, through sharing and stewardship to lift up the lowly, to raise out of poverty all upon earth. Andrew Pratt Words © 2019 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 Metre: 12 11 12 11 Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO; ST CATHERINE’S COURT
Tag: Marjorie Dobson
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
Refugee hymn – Marjorie Dobson
Unravelling the Mysteries – new book – Marjorie Dobson
You may well know Marjorie Dobson as a hymn writer and contributor of material to https://theworshipcloud.com/ . Stainer & Bell say this about her:
Born and raised in the mining district of County Durham, Marjorie Dobson became a Methodist Local Preacher at the age of twenty, with a particular call to seek out new paths of meaningful worship. Her writings have been fed by her experience of leading worship in a wide variety of churches in Durham, Bristol, Bradford and Scarborough, and reflect her concern for those who feel disconnected from faith by their image of the church as being outdated and irrelevant. Her hymns have been included in several collections, including Singing the Faith, and hymns, prayers, poems and other writings have been published on The Worship Cloud website, in Worship Live and in many anthologies.
You might have a copy of her book of worship resources: Multicoloured Maze (https://stainer.co.uk/shop/b882/). She has just published a completely new resource: Unravelling the Mysteries. You can get this from Stainer & Bell at: https://stainer.co.uk/shop/b959/.
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