resurrection

Crafted from wood – a hymn on the cross – Luke 9:23

Crafted from wood - a hymn on the cross – Luke 9:23; 14:27

Crafted from wood, the grain of our decision,
where faith was hung, a challenge to God’s love,
the Christ had carried it to execution,
this then our choice – the wing of hawk or dove?

Some made the choice that led to their extinction,
their’s was a loss, but not of love or grace,
accepting in each place of human crisis,
this challenge that each Christian has to face.

Take up your cross each day was Christ’s suggestion,
if you would follow in the path he trod,
yet we would minimise the resurrection,
that love transcending death can lead to God.

Words 2025 © 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: O PERFECT LOVE (Barnby)

Some thoughts on this hymn to take us further.

I had in mind, as I wrote it:

Luke 9:23;14:27
23 Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised)

14:27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Also:

Søren Kierkegaard

In Kierkegaard's view, the Church should not try to prove Christianity or even defend it. It should help the single individual to make a leap of faith, the faith that God is love and has a task for that very same single individual. Kierkegaard identified the leap of faith as the good resolution. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard)

And

Dietrich Bonhoeffer ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ – Bonhoeffer stood against Fascism and was ultimately sent to a concentration camp and he was hanged on 9 April 1945 during the collapse of the Nazi regime.

All these point for me to Jesus’ words and how others have seen them and sought to live by them.

Hymn: It seemed as though the Lord lived still

It seemed as if the Lord lived still

It seemed as if the Lord lived still,

expressed his will, the lame could walk,

and all assumed the blind would see,

the silent ones would start to talk!

Yet all they saw when looking round,

were Galilean fisher folk,

a zealot and some other men,

some hazarded it was a joke.

So Peter had to put them right,

the crucified, the buried dead,

the very Christ, their God was raised,

yet now they acted in God’s stead.

And everywhere the spirit blows

the living Christ and God’s own grace

is manifest by human means

in every later time and space.

Plain ignorance and human zeal,

had nailed their God, had knocked love down,

but that could never be the end,

and love still lived to wear the crown.

So everywhere God’s people meet

through prayer and action God is there,

and even in this time and place

our lives can tend and bring God’s care.

Andrew Pratt 17/3/2012

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: BEFORE THE THRONE StF 717

Metre: DLM

True Resurrection – a reflection

This is the day of resurrection.

In our narrative, just three short days ago, hatred had free reign. And now, as the sun crept over the horizon on yet another day, change was in the air. Heralded by the sound of a voice, the calling of a name, the offering of peace, the breaking of bread, change was waiting in the wings.

Hatred has had free reign through this year since we celebrated this festival last. And now as the sun creeps over the horizon on yet another day change still pervades the air. Silence and fear mix with the calling of a name, candles are lit, peace is hoped for, bread is broken, people pray, change is in the wings.

What do you do after a death?

Lost voices echo over the gulf of death and shake us, for though silenced, they will never be lost.

Actions, simple actions, will make memories real. My father’s hands, those of your mother, the painted nails of your daughter, the knuckles of my son – all familiar – all echoed in our own hands, bringing us up short. And tears, unexpectedly, sometimes inappropriately, flow and we lose control.

Then someone points out the significance of words which still stay with us, the occasions when we heard them informing what we say and how we act.

This is the day of resurrection, of re-creation, of persistent love.

Some hold this as an historic event easily, a matter of faith. Others feel it is beyond belief. Yet what happened in those days, miraculous or not, is mirrored in our own experiences, yesterday, today, perhaps tomorrow. This was a day that changed lives, offered a new perspective. Mary heard her name being called and the disciples walked into a new future. All that Jesus had said and done lived on for and in them. He changed attitudes and informed actions. But he had died.

Love, however, had not been destroyed. If you can have faith in a literal bodily resurrection hold onto it, it is a gift of grace. But whether you can, or not, reflect with me for a moment on how the first disciples kept Christ alive even beyond crucifixion, resurrection, Ascension.

Acts 2

⁴⁴All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds^[^j^] to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home^[^k^] and ate their food with glad and generous^[^l^] hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.

Christ was raised and lived on in the love and kindness of ordinary people like you and me.

Love, real love, cannot be destroyed, for there is nothing in all creation that can separate us from God’s love. That’s what matters and our ongoing love, our persistent loving kindness, is evidence of resurrection NOW!

That is real:

When we greet with loving kindness those who have betrayed us;

When we make peace with those who have let us down;

When we meet apparent strangers, yet learn their names, and call them in loving kindness;

Then Christ is alive.

Christ is alive when persistent loving kindness is alive in your life and mine!

Resurrection Hymn – Here on the crest of the wave of creation

Here on the crest of the wave of creation

Here on the crest of the wave of creation,
roaring and rolling beyond time and place;
God is transforming through quiet resurrection,
challenging hopelessness, offering grace.
	
Now we will follow the steps that will lead us
on through the horrors and hatred of life,
on through the angst ridden pain of bereavement,
on through the cross to the ending of strife.
	
Here at faith's edge where our peace is beginning,
God soaring free through our chaos and pain,
here is the meaning of loving and living,
here is the place of our rising again.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2008 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: EPIPHANY HYMN