Category: hymns

The Hope of our Calling

hymns

A friend said today that singing this hymn of mine spoke to them of where we find ourselves, as women priests, after ‘the vote’. Thank you, Emma, for choosing this hymn, and for sharing what it means to you. Thank you, too, for sharing your vocational journey with me, and for being willing to share mine. Here’s the hymn, which I wrote ages ago, but Emma’s right, it does sound fresh and different this week:

Hope of our calling: hope through courage won;
By those who dared to share all Christ had done.
Saints of today, Christ’s banner now unfurled,
We bring his gospel to a waiting world.

Hope of our calling: hope with strength empowered,
Inspired by all that we have seen and heard;
This call is ours, for we are chosen too,
To live for God in all we say and do.

Hope of our calling: hope with grace outpoured,
From death’s despair the gift of life restored;
Our call to serve, to wash each others’ feet,
To bring Christ’s healing touch to all we meet.

Hope of our calling: hope by faith made bold;
To sow God’s righteousness throughout the world;
Bring peace from conflict, fruitfulness from weeds,
The Kingdom’s harvest from the Kingdom’s seeds.

Hope of our calling: Spirit-filled, unbound,
Old joys remembered and new purpose found,
Our call refreshed by sacrament and word,
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

A harvest poem? Halfway through October? Isn’t that a bit late?

church resources, hymns, Other cool stuff, poems, random thoughts

Had a request for a harvest poem. Not sure this really works, but hey, it’s a work in progress.

We bring our gifts:
The first-fruits of our labour,
or perhaps the spare we do not need,
(an offering to mitigate against our greed).

To the church we bring them,
and into the hands of Christ we place them,
and we say, ‘Take this,
and do with it some miracle:
Turn water into wine again,
or multiply my loaves and fish
to feed a crowd again.’

And Jesus takes them from our hand,
this fruit of the ocean, this product of the land,
and blesses them, accepting back
what always was the Lord’s.
Our gifts will fill the lack
of hungry people,
putting flesh on words
of charity, and making folk
in our small corner of the world
more equal.

We know there is enough for everyone.
But once the leftovers are gone –
taken to the homeless, hungry poor –
what of those twelve empty baskets standing idly by?
Can there yet be more
that we can ask our Lord to multiply?

Into those baskets therefore let us place ourselves,
those parts of us that need transforming,
grace and strength and healing,
the gifts in us that need to be increased and shared
with a greater generosity than we may be prepared
to offer on our own account.

For we are God’s rich and splendid bounty,
seeds, sown and scattered by the Lord in every place.
the human race:
the crowning glory
of the ever-evolving creation story.
We thank the Lord
that he does not just separate wheat from tare,
but takes our very best
then turns us into far more than we are.

A Christmas poem? In October? Seriously?

church resources, hymns, Other cool stuff, poems, random thoughts

I can’t be the only one planning carol services already, can I?  I hate the fact that Christmas creeps in early, but in a fit or organisation (and knowing that I’ll be out of action for some of November having my tonsils taken out) I scheduled the planning meeting for the village carol service for 17th October. All of which meant that I was in a Christmassy mood as I waited at the level crossing, and found myself starting to write a Christmas poem.

I’ve never written a Christmas poem before, so be nice to it, even if it’s pants.
(In case it’s not blindingly obvious, it’s based on the additional collect for Christmas day).

In the visions of prophets since time began,
and long before God’s loving plan
was brought to birth
there has been talk of a glorious moment
when heaven would touch the dark and long-estranged earth.

In a half-made family,
and in a young girl’s womb
those ancient words began to be
in flesh and skin and bone unfurled;
and as the babe was born
so heaven stooped
to touch a fallen world.

Amongst the cows and camels
in a shed behind the inn,
the world’s true light
opened his eyes to a world of sin.
And yet he saw as his first sight
the love of a mother,
and heaven touched earth for each of them
in one another.

On a darkened hilltop
angels came to sing
to fearful shepherds and startled sheep
of a boy-king, the dayspring
from on High.
They came and saw the child,
and in him, all their hopes fulfilled
as the baby slept to a lullaby.
And in the tiny shoot that sprang from Jesse’s stem
heaven touched earth
for them.

A star high in the Persian sky was gleaming
to guide the long, long journey of the sages,
whose gifts were heavy with meaning;
Heaven touched earth in them,
and showed for all the ages
that there was no place or time
where heaven’s light could fail to shine.

And through the endless years of history
heaven has touched the hearts of young and old alike,
of all who long to enter in its mystery;
In suffering and joy we glimpse this hope
that nothing in the cosmos can destroy,
for there is no force in the universe
that can prevent heaven from touching earth.

Tonight we may arrive with burdens,
cares, and fears, and guilt;
And what of all those things for which we strive so hard?
we bring them to the stable yard,
or even lay them at the manger.
So let us join with choirs of unseen angels
and raise our voice
to cry for peace
goodwill to men,
and for God’s heaven to touch his earth again.

Presence

hymns, random thoughts

Someone on twitter raised the question of how the language we use (perhaps particularly in worship) might how God is present to us.  Reminded me about a hymn I wrote for the closing worship of a supervision course ages ago, about us being present to God and God being present to us. The tune is Tallis’ canon.

Be present, Lord, among us here,
And speak to drive away our fear,
And as a stranger seeking rest
Be with us now as host and guest.

Our mind and spirit, flesh and bone,
Our past and present, things to come:
To you, O Lord, we now present –
We gladly spend, are gladly spent.

Our presence, Lord, we dedicate,
This time is yours, and we will wait,
To friend and stranger may we give
The gifts to help each other live.

A hymn for the Easter Vigil

hymns

My last post was a hymn that I didn’t think would be much liturgical use. This one’s the exact opposite: it has a very specific liturgical use, because it’s a metrical version of the ‘Song of Moses and Miriam’ which tells of the crossing of the Red Sea, and is used during the Easter Vigil.  My own churches don’t actually *do* an Easter vigil, so as this hymn was feeling lonely and redundant, I thought I’d post it here to see if anyone else would like it either for use in worshiph or just to read.  The tune is ‘Kingsfold’ (that’s the one normally used for ‘I heard the voice of Jesus say’).

 

O sing aloud to God our strength
whose glory conquers all,
His mighty power has raised us up~
While horse and rider fall.
We sing in worship, for to God
All praise and thanks belong,
Our voices raise the melody
Of our salvation’s song.

This is our God, whom we exalt
Until the world shall end;
The Lord who saved our fathers will
To us his love extend.
He did not leave us in our plight
But to the rescue came,
Our strong defender in the fight,
Jehovah is his name.

His powerful hand has been our shield
And glorious is his might,
And all the hosts of evil now
are shattered at the sight.
The breath divine that gave us life
The mighty flood sets free,
And so the water’s swirling rage
Devours our enemy.

Almighty is the power of God,
His love will never end,
He has redeemed us, set us free,
and leads us by the hand.
And now he brings us to that place
Where we may dwell secure,
The holy house of God shall be
Our haven evermore.

All glory be to God on high,
The Father, Spirit, Son,
To whom we raise the melody
Of our salvation’s song.