Times and Seasons - Significant gifts for the child of the manger
Times and Seasons - Significant gifts for the child of the manger
by Andrew Pratt
Significant gifts for the child of the manger, the riches of ages we fathom and find. Imagine the scene, those who knelt are arising, the print of this moment ingrained on each mind. And where will they go now? And where will they wander, these seers who have followed a star thro…
Shattered people round a table
Shattered people round a table
by Andrew Pratt
Shattered people round a table, reaching out and taking bread, thinking thoughts that they’ll remember, some things thought, but left unsaid. Wine they drank was meant for sharing, Jesus spoke of his own blood, bread was broken, like his body. Could they fathom where he stood? Ve…
Sometimes our grasp of life is frail
Sometimes our grasp of life is frail
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: Sometimes our grasp of life is frail Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 119: 105-112 Sometimes our grasp of life is frail, yet through it all love will prevail. We feel that every step is cursed, believing things can not get worse. In spite of all, we keep our faith, hel…
Sometimes all justice seems a joke
Sometimes all justice seems a joke
by Andrew Pratt
1 Sometimes all justice seems a joke, we see love sink and drown, as anarchy and violence rule, the poor are trodden down. 2 And all is lost, audacious grace, seems vain, a hopeless thought; until we bring to mind again what Jesus lived and taught: 3 T…
Some king, who hangs as others taunt
Some king, who hangs as others taunt
by Andrew Pratt
Some king, who hangs as others taunt, and sling their insults fuelled with hate. Here love was nailed as blood was drained, this was no sordid trick of fate. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: ABENDS; WINCHESTER NEW Metre: LM Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 11/11/2013 Stainer & Bell Ltd,…
Sometimes convictions deep within
Sometimes convictions deep within
by Andrew Pratt
Sometimes convictions deep within can energise our action, to move us in another way, to find a new direction. God's spirit speaks within each mind, but like the sense of conscience is easy for us to avoid, a trick of our sub-conscious. Verses 3-5 follow Tune: BARBARA ALLEN; DOMI…
Some voice! it splinters beams of cedar
Some voice! it splinters beams of cedar
by Andrew Pratt
Some voice! it splinters beams of cedar, it flashes out in flames of fire, it thunders over mighty waters, it makes the theme of praise run higher. The shaking earth moves with that thunder, the ground is rattled, rough and raw; this quaking land disturbs the ocean, destructive w…
So many people, flawed and faulted
So many people, flawed and faulted
by Andrew Pratt
So many people, flawed and faulted, had come to Christ in hope of health, to be restored, to be accepted, was worth much more to them than wealth. Yet grace was free, as was forgiveness, God does not trade in things of need, but others said that Christ offended and undermined the…
Stirring, dancing, flaming Spirit
Stirring, dancing, flaming Spirit
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: Stirring, dancing, flaming Spirit Acts 2: 1 – 21 Stirring, dancing, flaming Spirit, ground of being, source of light; breathing at the world's creation, shining words through human night. Lives that once had been forsaken, shells of people, lost bereft, find the Spirit's re…
Sometimes we wonder at the work
Sometimes we wonder at the work
by Andrew Pratt
Sometimes we wonder at the work of God whose name we praise, for God is not bent to our wants, nor to our words or ways. Our thoughts and actions, every rite, contain no magic powers. We have to let the Spirit blow through other lives and ours. Verses 3-5 follow Tune: AULD LANG S…
Song/Hymn: See your brother in each man you meet
Song/Hymn: See your brother in each man you meet
by Andrew Pratt
See your brother in each man you meet, see your brother in each man you meet. See your sister in each woman you meet, see your sister in each woman you meet, See your neighbour, see your neighbour, see your neighbour in each one you meet. See your neighbour, see your neighbour, s…
Sometimes, O God, our weariness
Sometimes, O God, our weariness
by Andrew Pratt
Sometimes, O God, our weariness and pressure on our time can undermine our prayerfulness, our thoughts of the divine. We thirst and long to know your love, to hear your present voice, that in this void, this emptiness, we might, again rejoice. Verse 3 follows Tune: BELMONT Metre:…
Sometimes when all our busyness
Sometimes when all our busyness
by Andrew Pratt
Sometimes when all our busyness is just much too bear remember Jesus kindly words with Mary sitting there. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: BELMONT Metre: CM Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 5/7/2013 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, www.stainer.co.uk. Please include any reproductio…
Strange how deceit has run down through our hist'ry
Strange how deceit has run down through our hist'ry
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: Strange how deceit has run down through our hist'ry Proper 12 year A Genesis 29: 15-28 Strange how deceit has run down through our hist'ry, humans are human with frailty and faults. Strange that our stories still mirror the Bible, lives filled with compromise, sin still ass…
Stoned Stephen: martyr for the cross
Stoned Stephen: martyr for the cross
by Andrew Pratt
Hymn: Stoned Stephen: martyr for the cross Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A Acts 7: 55 – 60 Stoned Stephen: martyr for the cross, a witness to the grace of Christ; the love of God, the Spirit’s power; at one in Christian sacrifice. He spoke of love, and lived the life of one who cha…
Strange how those, the least expected,
Strange how those, the least expected,
by Andrew Pratt
Strange how those, the least expected, offer thanks for acts of grace; while so many take for granted costly gifts as common place. Children take the care we offer, never know what love has cost, soon they grow in independence, soon the bonds of birth seem lost. Verses 3-4 follow…
Strange holiness: the glory of the Godhead