Category: Poems

Wounded Healer

I heard the term Wounded Healer attributed to Ahmed Hankir in a BBC Radio broadcast – Start the Week – today 8th March 2021. I am not sure where the term ‘Wounded Healer’ came from originally but I quoted it in a poem/hymn written before 1993 and published in 1997 in my book Blinded by the Dazzle.

1	Will you join the wounded healer,
	Crucified upon the cross,
	Rising to the human challenge,
	Offering love through utter loss?

2	Will you live for liberation,
	Or, if need be, will you die,
	Not deflected from God's purpose,
	All deceitful art defy?

3	Wounded healers, men and women,
	Offer their humanity,
	Share God's mission: living, loving,
	Lifting, holding, setting free.

3A	Wounded healers, men and women,
	Offer your humanity,
	Share God's mission: living, loving,
	Lifting, holding, setting free.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 1993, 1997 Stainer & Bell Ltd., London, England copyright@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. 
8 7 8 7 Trochaic

An extraordinary new hymn for the Passion/Easter season by Graham Adams – The people wanted soldiers

This hymn, by Graham Adams, arose from an ‘Empire’ module at Luther King House in Manchester last week. Graham says, “feel free to use as you wish!’ It connects with the Passion/Easter season. It was particularly stimulated by a discussion around whether ‘the alternative realm’ (God’s basileia/kingdom/empire) is ‘a quaint dream’ or something more ‘threatening’ – and the destabilising language of poetry spoke to this”.

The people wanted soldiers
so hope might come as curse,
to smash the occupation – 
but change turned up as Verse:
the poetry of yeasting,
the parabolic sword,
no match for Pax Romana* 
and yet this Lamb still roared.
 
Although it claims possession
of mind and heart and soul,
the Empire’s grip has limits – 
it can’t control the whole:
the surplus lives as Poem
for those with ears to hear,
resisting final closure,
declaring what is near:
 
This dream of re-creation,
this threat of life set free,
disturbing tame religion,
confounding how we see:
it won’t succumb to cliché
where purities abound,
but glimpsed in seeds’ potential,
it ruptures solid ground.
 
Where empires grow by violence,
where systems blame the last
and close down other futures
by editing the past,
the Poem can’t be silenced,
though quietly it dies,
and dances through the fissures
to teach us how to rise!
 
Graham Adams (2021) … prompted by the conversations during the Empire module   
Potential tunes: THORNBURY, CRUGER…
*Pax Romana is ‘the peace of Rome’ secured through military violence; if it’s easier to replace this with ‘crucifixion’, the meaning still works.

Lent 3 – Two hymns a Meditation and a Poem

Lent 3

 1 Corinthians 1: 18-25
  
 Poem: One Big Question
  
 When worldly wisdom 
 and superior knowledge 
 and intellectual snobbery 
 and informed atheism 
 have died the death 
 of earthly flesh 
 and fragile brain, 
 will God be quietly 
 weeping over the waste, 
 even as the cross blazes out 
 its triumphant foolishness? 
  
 © Marjorie Dobson. This may be used personally or for local worship, but not published elsewhere without permission.
  
 John 2: 13-22
  
 We play at church 
  
 We play at church, one long charade, 
 a trite religious game,
 and all the time the world goes by, 
 Christ dies again in vain.
             
 The down-and-out wish for our tithes, 
 the homeless plead and pray, 
 while we enact our sullen rite, 
 our crass religious play. 
             
 We watch defenceless ones denied, 
 the ones we should defend, 
 we keep the best place for ourselves, 
 self-righteous to the end.
             
 O God forgive our self-deceit, 
 hypocrisy and pride. 
 God, bring us down to dine with you 
 and those we would deride.
             
 God, give us hearts of gracious love,
 to look beyond our greed, 
 to live and love with those you call, 
 at one in hope and need.
 
Andrew E Pratt 
Words © 2015 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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: CM
Tune: AULD LANG SYNE
  
 Poem: Anger
  
 Whip in hand 
 and uncharacteristically angry, 
 Jesus swept through the temple courtyard.
 Tables were smashed, 
 money scattered; 
 pigeons found freedom in flight 
 and sacrificial animals fled to safety.
 His voice boomed 
 across the rapidly emptying space – 
 ‘this is desecration! 
 How can strangers worship here 
 in a place over-run with commerce and greed? 
 My Father’s house is for prayer, 
 not for profit! 
 How dare you do this to it?’
 And traders huddled in corners 
 and tried to keep their eyes on their vanishing possessions. 
 And priests flocked 
 to witness the devastation 
 and to gather in consultation 
 and to plot their revenge. 
 And strangers came out of the shadows 
 to wonder at the nerve of this man 
 who had said exactly what they wanted to hear, 
 but so powerfully 
 that he was bound to create new enemies for himself.
 And as Jesus turned to leave, 
 the accused robbers spat at his departure; 
 the opportunists gathered all the loot they could 
 and disappeared into the shadows;
 and the self-righteous Jewish believers 
 could only ask for proof of authority 
 for his actions. 
 They didn’t like his answer. 
 It was completely unrealistic. 
 But in the end it proved to be true, 
 although not in the way they were expecting.
 Three days they had succeeded in destroying him, 
 but in three days he was back. 
 Indestructible!
  
 © Marjorie Dobson. This may be used personally or for local worship, but not published elsewhere without permission.
  
 Our vulnerable God suffered pain and temptation 
  
 Our vulnerable God suffered pain and temptation, 
 rode lightly to wealth, saw the greedy as flawed.
 And we, as disciples, who walk in Christ's footsteps 
 are challenged to follow, to love, not defraud.
 
 Transparent in action, confronting injustice, 
 upbraiding the rich, while upraising the poor.
 He called us to welcome the outcast, the homeless, 
 by giving, not taking, by opening each door.
 
 Let taxes revalue the lost and discarded, 
 ensuring the powerful will equally share;
 until all the world is redeemed for all people, 
 until inequality ends as unfair.
 
 And now as we look to the world let us value, 
 each person, each neighbour of infinite worth,
 through sharing and stewardship to lift up the lowly, 
 to raise out of poverty all upon earth.
 
Andrew Pratt 
Words © 2019 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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 ©  Stainer & Bell Ltd
Metre: 12 11 12 11
Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO; ST CATHERINE’S COURT

Lent 2 – Two poems and two hymns

 Mark 8: 31-38
  
 Challenge
  
 ‘You don’t need to do that! 
 Why do you put yourself through it? 
 It’s totally unnecessary!’
  
 Wise advice?
 Maybe – in some circumstances. 
 Self-inflicted suffering 
 doesn’t seem to make sense 
 in the everyday world.
  
 But there are times 
 when we have to face the facts – 
 ‘no gain without pain’, 
 is the old saying.
  
 Yet Jesus, 
 making his future clear to his followers, 
 discovered that even the best of them 
 had no idea of what he had to face.
 And, for all the best possible reasons, 
 Peter wanted to spare his friend 
 the horror of the predictions 
 that were being set before him.
  
 ‘Don’t tempt me, you devil!’
 What a response to give. 
 One that rocked Peter on his heels 
 and made him feel hurt and guilty.
  
 Only time would heal that wound, 
 but only as the wounds that Jesus suffered 
 were made evident to them all.
  
 The challenge to suffering for the faith goes on.
  
 And when asked, 
 ‘Why do you put yourself through it?’ 
 is our answer tinged with the temptation 
 to turn and creep away in another direction?
  
©Marjorie Dobson, This may be used personally or for local worship, but not published elsewhere without permission.
  
  
 All the pain and hurt and horror 
  
 All the pain and hurt and horror, 
 loss, denial and mistrust, 
 hovered round as Jesus waited 
 for his friends to re-adjust.
 Lost within misunderstanding:
 thought that love was just a dream, 
 knew that it would be so easy, 
 they’re confounded by Love’s scheme.
  
 Jesus taught that love would conquer 
 only through integrity, 
 that the way his life was pointing 
 tested his humanity.
 Jesus felt that Peter’s challenge 
 undermined his purpose here, 
 spoke quite harshly, underlining, 
 made his need both plain and clear.
  
 Death was now the final payment,
 Jesus spelt out to his friends.
 To them this was not expedient, 
 not the way Messiah ends.
 Love would be denied if actions 
 led to violence or defence, 
 Jesus, lamb led to the slaughter, 
 death the cost of love’s expense.
 
Andrew E Pratt 
Words © 2012 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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: 8.7.8.7D
Tune: LUX EOI
  

 Determination
  
 Nothing could deter him.
  
 Not religious opposition.
 Not the wily Herod. 
 Not the prophetic predictions. 
 Not the Pharisees with their plotting, 
 nor the teachers with their testing, 
 nor the disciples and their doubting.
  
 Nothing could stop him.
  
 For as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, 
 saw their persecution of prophets 
 and their future of desolation, 
 he saw his own destiny of death 
 at the hands of those 
 who set out to destroy him.
  
 Yet he moved on.
  
 And those who walked with him 
 could only fear for his life 
 and try in vain 
 to shield him from his enemies, 
 but knowing deep within their hearts
  
 he was determined to go on.
  
©Marjorie Dobson, This may be used personally or for local worship, but not published elsewhere without permission.
  
  
 Infectious faith 
  
 Infectious faith we demonstrate by action,  
 when words are lived and people feel God's grace,  
 when platitudes are kept in quiet abeyance,  
 and love expressed through every human face.  
 
 
 This is the witness we are called to offer: 
 the smile of welcome and the touch of care,  
 when every neighbour frames the Christ we honour,  
 the angel that we're greeting unaware. 
 
 
 My friend, we cannot claim to grace the Godhead 
 when those who stand in tatters at our door 
 are turned away without a moment's notice,  
 while others sleep upon a stone cold floor.  
 
 
 Our faith and love are nothing, simply empty,  
 just words we fling against a cloud filled sky,  
 when those we see derided, disregarded, 
 are left, without our protest, just to die. 
 
 Are we to be just noisy, clanging cymbals,  
 or signs of hope upon this cold, dark earth?  
 Ours is the calling now to re-imagine 
 the love of God, to sign each person's worth. 
 
 
Andrew E Pratt 
Words © 2016 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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: 11 10 11 10
Tune: INTERCESSOR
  
  

Lent 1 – Three hymns and a poem

 He could have walked the easy road 
  
 He could have walked the easy road 
 to fortune and to fame.
 He knew he could work miracles, 
 to heal the blind and lame.
 He could have fed the starving poor 
 with fish as well as bread.
 But Jesus knew that life held more 
 and chose God’s word instead.
  
 He could have trusted angels’ wings, 
 up on that Temple tower. 
 To save him from a fall to death 
 was well within God’s power.
 The people would have marvelled then 
 and guessed this was God’s son.
 But Jesus would not take the test 
 to prove he was that one.
  
 He could have taken full control, 
 the world lay at his feet.
 He only had to say the word: 
 his rule would be complete.
 The mountain view had caught his breath..
 Power was a word away. 
 But Jesus turned back from it all 
 and God had won the day.
  
Marjorie Dobson 
Words © 2019 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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: CMDTune: KINGSFOLD
  
Poem: The time has come
  
 As John had said, 
 ‘the time has come.’
 So Jesus, 
 bowing to the Jordan’s waves 
 and rising to the words 
 ‘beloved Son’ 
 and ‘well pleased,’ 
 was willing to be made ready, 
 by desert trial, 
 to take his place 
 in the unfolding story 
 of God’s love.
  
 But John 
 was soon in prison 
 for speaking out 
 too loud and long 
 for the comfort of the king.
 And Jesus, 
 fresh from temptation 
 and life-changing choices, 
 set off for Galilee, 
 knowing that now was his time 
 to spread good news 
 and bring the kingdom of God 
 to the people for whom 
 it had always been intended.
  
 No more waitng.
 No more preparation. 
 Time to go …
 ©Marjorie Dobson
  
 Jesus met supreme temptation 
  
 Jesus met supreme temptation, 
 countered subtlety with skill; 
 ever faithful to one purpose, 
 still committed to God's will.
             
 With no food he soon was famished, 
 hunger racked him, filled his mind, 
 then a voice had come to taunt him, 
 'bread is there for you to find'.
             
 Each illusion he would parry, 
 each temptation run to ground; 
 all the world was for the asking, 
 yet his faith was strong and sound.
             
 Every miracle and wonder 
 he was tempted to perform
 he rebutted, held the tension;
 he would live beyond this storm.
             
 And when we meet with temptation, 
 save us from each trial and test; 
 strengthen faith, God, give us courage, 
 help us strive toward the best.
 
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2010 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@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: 8 7 8 7
Tune: LOVE DIVINE (Stainer)
  
 As glass will take the light – FOR COMMUNION
  
 As glass will take the light
 and focus all its heat;
 here in the water, wine and bread
 we find God's grace complete.
 
 We met God's presence here,
 our promises were sealed;
 but all is lost, is null and void,
 if love is kept concealed.
             
 So in God's peace we go,
 and in the Spirit's power,
 to offer love in word and deed
 in every coming hour.
 
Andrew E Pratt           
© Words © 1997 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, copyright@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: SM
Tune: CARLISLE