Mothering Sunday (Tune: Quem Pastores)

1

Lord, we thank you for our mothers,

for our sisters and our brothers,

fathers, children and all others

who make up the family.

2

Father, thank you for all carers,

those who strive to be the sharers

of all burdens, and the bearers

of your love in family.

3

Lord, we know when love is dying,

parents hear their children sighing;

let them never cease from trying

to find peace in family.

4

Father, Mother, ground of being,

you sustain beyond our seeing,

still in Christ our brother freeing

us to be your family.

5

Lord, we thank you for all mothers,

for all nephews, aunties, brothers,

nannies, neighbours, grandads, others

who build up the family.

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Live in the life of Jesus (Mark 1.29-39) (Tune: Morning Light)

1

Live in the life of Jesus,

disciples of today;

be true to his example,

rejoice in Jesus' way.

But let love not be shallow

and grace made all too cheap,

for those who will not fathom

his love both broad and deep.

2

Live in the love of Jesus,

disciples here and now;

test out his words and actions,

and he will show you how.

He came to bring a kingdom

where God is all in all,

not power of place or people,

but love to great and small.

3

Live in the strength of Jesus,

Disciples old and young;

let him decide your choices,

the words upon your tongue.

As he himself was homeless

and lived on trustful prayer,

so do not worship things which

you own and eat and wear.

4

Live in the power of Jesus,

disciples gathered here;

do not forget his promise

that he will still be near.

He healed the troubled people

by simply being there,

and we can mend the world with

our quiet attentive care.

Hymn for St Andrew's Psalter Lane LEP Anniversary (Tune: Greensleeves) (18th June 2006)

1

How shall we sing God's kingdom here,

portrayed for human knowing?

It's like a tiny mustard seed

within the garden growing.

This seed, so hard to see,

can grow into a spreading tree.

Here all can find a home,

like birds with nests protected.

2

What image shows us God's domain

as Jesus once described it?

It's like a giant bowl of flour,

a little yeast inside it.

This mixture, as he said,

can raise up many loaves of bread.

We'll all be lifted up,

like dough which always rises

3

How can we understand ourselves

as those whom Christ can nourish?

We're like the salt cast on the ground

to make the garden flourish.

But it will be a waste

if we should ever lose our taste.

We'll strive to salt the earth,

unseen, but very useful.

4

What picture tells us who we are

with Jesus our example?

We're like the lamp set on a stand,

illumination ample.

Our deeds must be so fine

they make Christ's love and mercy shine,

So all who see rejoice

and praise our heavenly Father.

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The Syro-Phoenician Woman (Mark 7.24-30) (88.88.88 metre)

1

What causes our perverse delight

in finding strangers bad or wrong?

Do we deny the other's right,

to reassure that we belong?

Why is the human world unkind?

What makes it hard to change the mind?

2

We dread asylum seekers' flood;

we blame the ‘undeserving' poor;

The alien of face or blood

may not come closer to our door.

Why are we humans so unkind?

Why can we rarely change our mind?

3

A woman of Phoenician stock

whose daughter had a mind possessed

once turned to Christ in need and shock

and was sent packing as a pest.

Why were Christ's followers so unkind?

What would have made them change their mind?

4

And Jesus said that Jewish ‘bread'

should not be given to Gentile ‘dogs'.

What was his tone when this was said?

Was humour in his dialogue?

How could our Lord have been unkind?

Surely he knew he'd change his mind.

5

The woman spoke, with sudden wit,

of crumbs that fall, from table piled,

for ‘dogs' whose faces do not fit.

Now Jesus smiled and healed her child.

O God, you cannot be unkind:

as human once, you changed your mind.

6

As human too, but not divine,

we're tied to culture, language, place.

Lord, give us Jesus' Spirit fine

to welcome strangers in our space.

Stop us when we would be unkind;

Help us each time to change our mind.