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Meditation/poem/prayer: Please, God
Meditation/poem/prayer: Please, God
by Marjorie Dobson
Meditation/poem/prayer: Please, God … When I’ve messed things up again, when I’ve made one too many mistakes, when I’ve felt thoroughly ashamed of my behaviour, when my life feels dirty and my heart is heavy with regrets and I can’t see the way out of the troubles I’ve caused – w…
Being him - a reflection on Matthew 10: 40-42
Being him - a reflection on Matthew 10: 40-42
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Being him – a reflection on Matthew 10: 40-42 Second Sunday after Pentecost Matthew 10: 40-42 How weird is that? Did Jesus really mean that if I walk into a room, he walks in with me? And if I speak, he speaks? ... 26 June 2011, Second Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 10: 40…
Hymn: A handsome lad, but who would choose
Hymn: A handsome lad, but who would choose
by Andrew Pratt
A handsome lad, but who would choose the shepherd of the sheep, away at work up in the hills, might even be asleep? But Samuel asked, and Jesse called, and David came back home. A King, he hardly looked the part, more one who'd like to roam. Verses 3-4 follow Tune: BARCHESTER FAI…
Hymn: Always looking for a sign
Hymn: Always looking for a sign
by Andrew Pratt
Always looking for a sign, never seeing what is there, people searching for some proof fixing Jesus with a stare. Standing lost and so bemused, hoping for some broken bread, Jesus meets their ignorance, people needing to be fed. Verses 3-4 follow Tune: BATTISHILL Metre: 7.7.7.7 …
Hymn: How could God love against the grain
Hymn: How could God love against the grain
by Andrew Pratt
How could God love against the grain, to offer love we don't deserve; to meet us when we lose our way, to hold us when we twist, or swerve? This gracious, fulsome, steadfast love is more than we can comprehend, it offers hope when all seems lost, resists, survives beyond life's e…
Hymn: Look: fantastic celebration
Hymn: Look: fantastic celebration
by Andrew Pratt
Look: fantastic celebration, thirty thousand gathered round, in the midst the ark is lifted, this would now be hallowed ground. Listen: tambourines are ringing, this would be the day of days. Songs and lyres and harps resounding form a framework for their praise. Verses 2-3 follo…
Hymn: Passion can distort our judgment
Hymn: Passion can distort our judgment
by Andrew Pratt
Passion can distort our judgment, twisting love, distorting fate. Is this Adam's sin returning as endearments turn to hate? In the cold light of the morning, looking back on what we've done, even at the new day's dawning, feeling chill in morning sun. Verses 3-4 follows Tune: MER…
Hymn: We trust in one we name as God
Hymn: We trust in one we name as God
by Andrew Pratt
We trust in one we name as God, above all else we see; the ground of being, God of love, will hold and set us free. And all our worship, praise and prayer, can't magnify the grace that God is pouring all the while on us, within this place. Verse 3 follows Tune: BELMONT Metre: CM …
Hymn: Within a crowd where we’re alone
Hymn: Within a crowd where we’re alone
by Andrew Pratt
Within a crowd where we’re alone with nothing left to say; when fear has traced our every step and love has gone away; God give us courage, help us step beyond this cage of time to find again the freedom steps to dance with heaven’s rhyme. Verse 2 follows Tune: KINGSFOLD Metre: D…
Hymn: Crooked wall and crooked people
Hymn: Crooked wall and crooked people
by Andrew Pratt
Crooked wall and crooked people, Amos pointed out the fact, called by God to hold a plumb-line, testing thought and word and act. Were they upright, understanding? Did they live by love and grace? Were they fair in all their dealings? Had God's loving left a trace? Verse 3 follow…
Hymn: Self-important, over-bearing?
Hymn: Self-important, over-bearing?
by Andrew Pratt
Self-important, over-bearing? God has chosen us alone? Chosen us to be his people? Chosen here to raise a throne? Verses 2-3 follow Tune: CROSS OF JESUS Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 28/6/2012 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, www.stainer.co.uk. Please include any reprod…
Hymn: Sinews of hope hold creation together
Hymn: Sinews of hope hold creation together
by Andrew Pratt
Sinews of hope hold creation together, we are created for life, not for death; love is our source and the end of our living, God’s consummation beyond final breath. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: BEDE Metre: 11.10.11.10 Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 14/6/2012 Stainer & Bell Ltd, Lo…
Hymn: We are the ones! The mirror gives the proof
Hymn: We are the ones! The mirror gives the proof
by Andrew Pratt
We are the ones! The mirror gives the proof, each one of us has need to face the truth. To say we do not sin obscures the fact, and now in honest prayer we need to act. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: QUEDLINBURG; TRISAGION Metre: 10.10.10.10 Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 11/7/2012 …
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith that Looks Beyond Death
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith that Looks Beyond Death
by SPCK - N T Wright
Faith that Looks Beyond Death Hebrews 11.13-22 ‘Dad, will you walk on ahead just a bit?’ They were going into the middle of town on a Saturday morning. Why would his 14-year-old daughter ask him to walk ahead, rather than beside her as he had been doing? He meekly obeyed. (Always…
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah
by SPCK - N T Wright
Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah Hebrews 11.7-12 ‘The starry heaven above us’ was one of the two central facts upon which the great philosopher Immanuel Kant based his view of God. (The other was ‘the moral law within us’.) From the earliest recorded times, humans have …
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Third Sunday of Easter Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Third Sunday of Easter Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Third Sunday of Easter Zephaniah 3.14–20 Acts 9.1–20 John 21.1–19 This final chapter of John’s Gospel is a chapter full of echoes, back to the earthly ministry of Jesus and forward to the life of the Church after the ascension. For example, compare the story of the miraculous…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How to Recycle Your Killer Instinct
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How to Recycle Your Killer Instinct
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Recycle Your Killer Instinct 1 Samuel 17: 1- 54 It was the Oscars last weekend (I went to a great jazz concert two blocks away, though I was nearly late because of the road closures in Hollywood), and against the odds, The Hurt Locker beat Avatar (which grossed fifty times…
Poem: Passion can distort our judgment