1 Promise of hopefulness, pardon and peace; Source of deliverance, blessed release; Ground of our being, of darkness and light, Love's possibility, enmity's night; 2 Cleave to the centre of selfish desire Bring to creation by earth, wind or fire All that is hoped for and all that's unseen: Goodness and glory are more than a dream. 3 In our absurdity, clamour and war Unseat our certainty, counter and floor All sense of prejudice, hatred and then Offer us strangers that we can befriend. 4 Give us the courage to enter this cleft, Healing the hurt of the lost, the bereft, Offering hope, though our love's crucified, Soaking up malice where peace is denied; 5 Love is the answer to vengeance and wrath, Going on loving in spite of the loss, Facing the depth of depravity's gain, Burning our hatred on love's sweeter flame. 6 Pour out your spirit, God, fill up our lives, Offering loveliness, love that survives, Then take and lift us and raise up our song: Love is yet greater than all human wrong. Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) Words © 1999 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. Metre: 10 10 10 10 Dactylic Tune: KOSOVO (Andrew Pratt) No.57 in Whatever Name or Creed also available in USA from Hope Publishing. Adrian Perry notated this tune and played it when it was first used in the Leigh & Hindley Circuit of the Methodist Church at the time of its composition.
Tag: war
Hymn – Martin Luther King – still for our time – a hymn for today – I have a dream…
I have a dream that on a day not very long from now, all war-like weapons will be banned; by grace, God, show us how. I have a dream that love will hear another's crying need, that justice will demand we act in spite of race or creed. I have a dream that everyone upon this far-flung earth will see the Christ in those around, affirm a common worth. I have a dream that peace will come and hunger cease to be; within this time, this present age, all people will be free. I have a dream that foolish dreams like this might come about if you and I go hand in hand, in trust instead of doubt. I have a dream, come take my hand, the risk is worth the chance, the world will spin, turn upside down if we join heaven's dance. Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2015 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. Hope Publishing in the USA From More than hymns Metre: CMD Tune: KINSFOLD
Poem for VE Day
My Father died 47 years ago. He had served in the 8th Army seeing action at El Alamein. This is not meant to be his story but reflecting, while there was sense in celebration when bombs stopped dropping on England, perhaps we might celebrate in 2020 with care. I guess my father, and others like him had not been demobbed. He didn’t talk much about his war. He had firm friends. Some had died. When he came home he had a nervous breakdown – post-traumatic stress? Some years later he was chronically and then terminally ill dying at the age of sixty. My mother died at the same age one year later. How much of this was an aftermath of war I’ll never know. I do know that in the fifties it was common to see men who had lost limbs not being lauded as paralympic athletes. Some things have changed…thank God…
They sent him home, a broken man,
each nerve and sinew torn or strained
and what was celebrated then
he recognised as little gained.
The trauma of that noise and strife,
the shattered buildings, tear torn lives,
with stunned, dismembered memories,
and, though he struggled, each survives.
The shell-shocked post-traumatic stress,
his past so vivid, sharpened, bright,
has left him stumbling through a void,
toward a mist enshrouded night.
*****************************
And now as we look back this day,
into a past that some have known,
may we revere the ones we see,
and recognise the grief they own.
And deeper truths must still be learned:
that no dispute is worth a life,
that peace and justice, kindness, love,
must bring an end to earthly strife.
© Andrew Pratt 4/5/2020
AUDIO – © Andrew Pratt 4/5/2020
I vow to love my neighbour, whatever race or creed – a hymn for love and unity
I vow to love my neighbour, whatever race or creed,
to join her in her suffering, to plead with him in need.
This love will always question, will search out right and wrong,
will give itself for justice, for those who don’t belong.
This love will never falter, till every soul is free,
till nations held in bondage can sing of liberty.
Through scenes of devastation, through famine, drought and war,
we’ll work in ways of gentleness, work hard till we restore
the vision of the people, the hope of human grace,
till nations dwell in peacefulness together in this place;
till all the world together can sing in joyful praise
till all have found communion together in our days.
Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2004 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.
13 13 13 13 13 13
Tune: THAXTED
Election, politics, loyalty and love (previously posted as Loyalty)
Love and loyalty hang together…
I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love:
the love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
that lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
the love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
the love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.
When people say that the Bible and politics don’t mix, I ask them which Bible they are reading. Loyalty in politics stretched to the limit is, at times, completely broken. Who can sing of a love for country that asks no question? Can anyone anymore, in this country or any other?
Soon, however things pan out politically in this country, and now we will need to choose how to vote, and I feel confused. It would be wrong use of this platform to tell you who to vote for and, in any case, I don’t know the answer to that question for any of us individually or corporately, but I’ve been thinking. And it relates to that word loyalty. Where do we place our loyalty?
Let’s think back, dig into history a little. My Grandfather, born in 1886, fought in the war to end all wars. Served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, became a captain. People who fought in that war hoped there would never be another such war. The League of Nations was formed. TocH started by the Reverend Phillip Byard (Tubby) Clayton offered fellowship to members of the forces. Step through the door and rank disappeared. All in it together would be a reasonable summary. My Dad joined TocH. Born in 1912 he was in the Eighth Army. Drove a water carrier at El Alamein. Royal Army Service Corps. Died when he was 60 in 1973. He and so many others fought against what they saw as ultimate evil in Nazism. Let us remember that the growth of Nazism took place in a Christian country through a democratic process.
Shades and colours of loyalty, interpretations of faith. A league of Nations that grew into the United Nations. In my lifetime Europe grew closer and distances seemed to shrink. Society has become global. We shudder at natural destruction in other parts of the world, at fire by the Amazon, but also at gun crime in America and knife crime in our own cities.
And now, that imminent election asks of us, against this back-drop of history, our varied and disparate experiences, our personal stories, our joy and our pain, where we place our loyalty.
Our faith and our doubt inform what we have become and put us where we are. Yet we each, as people of faith, ought still to ask ourselves ‘where do we place our ultimate loyalty?’ And if this is too political then Jeremiah, Amos, the prophets were too political. I think it was Desmond Tutu who said, ‘When people say that the Bible and politics don’t mix, I ask them which Bible they are reading’.
Where do we place our loyalty? Is it to our country? To our family? Our church? To our neighbours? My Dad or your Grandmother? Are we driven by self-interest?
The Hebrew scriptures say honour your father and your mother. In Luke Jesus is reported as saying, ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple’. We cannot just read scripture without engaging our brains, looking at what is being said and to whom. Sometimes the Cain and Abel situation is re-run; verbally if not physically.
But to go back to the Bible one thing shines through, from Amos and Hosea (read them, they’re short books), through the Magnificat to the story of the Good Samaritan, to the crucifixion and on beyond the resurrection, and that is LOVE. If we are not loyal to LOVE we are just like ‘resounding gongs or clanging cymbals’. We make a lot of noise but we are worth nothing at all.
It seems that in all things, not least our political choices and decisions, we must decide how to prioritise LOVE over and above anything else. And that may take us out of Europe or leave us in. It may join us with our families or separate us from them so distantly that sometimes it will be as though we hate them. But above all only ‘resounding gongs and clanging cymbals don’t care‘. They are not human, they do not think, they CARE for nothing AND COUNT FOR NOTHING.
In every choice, every decision, every vote if we see ourselves as Christians we will ask, does this choice, this decision, enhance or diminish the way those affected by it are LOVED. And those people may be our Jewish or Muslim sisters or brothers, or those of other faiths or none. They may well be vulnerable with less wealth or power than ourselves.
YOUR CHOICE…AND MINE…EVERY TIME…don’t point the finger, don’t blame the other person, the other party, the other side, the other nation… YOUR CHOICE…AND MINE…EVERY TIME…but lets us prioritise LOVE.
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