Hymn: We strain to hear the voice of God
We strain to hear the voice of God,
this God who knows us inside out,
a whispered voice of gentleness
that never seeks to force or shout.
Christ's voice was heard in Galilee
by those who had the ears to hear,
he challenged hypocrites with truth
while sinners, sensing love, drew near.
His crazy, crafted way of life,
gave little hint where it might lead,
and yet the people followed him,
each word of Christ met hidden need;
for he addressed with present sense
a desert way of wilderness,
or else the intellectual task
within the city's busyness.
'Come follow me', hear Jesus say,
to those who answered to his call;
and in our present time and place
may we respond and give our all. Amen.
Andrew Pratt 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
Metre: 8 8 8 8
Tune: GONFALON ROYAL
Second Sunday after Epiphany, 1 Samuel 3: 1-10 (11-20), Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; John 1:43-51
Tag: vocation
The children would follow the peal of your piping – Hymn – Matthew 11: 16 – 17
A hymn inspired by Matthew 11:16-17 Jesus said, “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn'”. The children would follow the peal of your piping, the ring of your reason, the joy of your love, the children would follow, and none would deter them from plateaus so barren to mountains above. And those who are childlike still follow your calling; a calling to suffer, yet dusted with hope. The way to fulfilment, to peace and to plenty. is fissured and rutted but still we will cope. God's joy is the centre of all that we hope for, a calling for everyone, not just for some; the music is moving, can't stop ourselves singing, still Jesus is piping and still people come! Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2006 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: 12 11 12 11 Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO
New Year hymn, a resolution, perhaps – Infectious faith
1 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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 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. 5 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 (born 1948) 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
Wrestling with God – Genesis 32: 22-31 – a hymn
Genesis 32: 22-31 Tells the story of an enigmatic stranger wresting with Jacob by a brook called The Jabbok. It is a story of crisis and decision, of Jacob a meeting with God, finding his vocation. Charles Wesley told the story in the hymn ‘Come, O thou traveller unknown’. It runs to 12 verses! You may not have sung it in its entirety.
This hymn is somewhat shorter…
1 Wrestling stranger met with Jacob,
struggled onward till the morn,
struggled by the brook of Jabbok,
heralding a different dawn.
2 Jacob met the task with courage,
and it seemed he would prevail,
but the stronger, wrestling stranger,
made him limp, God could not fail.
3 What the struggle? Why the wrestling?
Was it real or human doubt?
Jacob gained self realization,
how he’d work his purpose out.
4 Nameless God now blessing Jacob,
Israel went on from that place,
Holy ground, for this was special,
here he’d met God face to face.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
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
Metre: 8 7 8 7. Tune: ALL FOR JESUS
The calling of Jesus bids us to build peace – vocation
The calling of Jesus bids us to build peace,
the time is this moment, to cease to deride
the weak and down-trodden the world might despise,
to bury our prejudice, pack away pride.
The people are waiting God’s offer of love,
the different, disfigured, untutored or poor.
The grace of the God-head should not be confined,
how could we discard those who wait at our door?
While failing together we follow the Christ,
with ones deemed as worthless, as cruel or unkind,
as carrying our neighbours we cease to condemn,
while finding the heaven to which we’ve been blind.
Andrew Pratt 18/10/2019
Words © 2019 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://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.
Tunes: DATCHET
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