RESPONSE

As beneficiaries of grace
Enrolled in the illustrious ranks
Of those who come before Thy face,
Our Father, we give thanks.

Initiates of love's design,
Acted upon in love's great ways,
Robed and secured in love divine,
Father, we give Thee praise.

As welcome to Thy residence
And liberated to explore
The splendours of its ambience,
Our Father, we adore.

COMING ONE

COMING ONE

(Mary)
A paean,
Eruption of soul and spirit,
Touching the King.

(Zacharias)
Bursting from silence
I prophesy the Coming One,
The Day Spring.

(Joseph)
Stolid, a craftsman, why
Choose me as trustee of
The Holy Thing?

(Magi)
Though the weather cuts
And stones abrade,
Nettles and thorns sting

We glory in our pilgrimage
More than in ease
Or governing

Glad to be encumbered ‑
Gold, frankincense and myrrh ‑
By gifts we bring.

(Shepherd)
More than an angel
Redeemed, directed, lightened,
I now can sing.

CREATION

CREATION

You know the mountains cragged with snow
And all the grandeurs which pervade them?
I know
The One who made them.

You know the tender flowers which grow
Through suns and winds which bloom and fade them?
I know
The One who made them.

You know the mighty rivers flow
Where human works cannot evade them?
I know
The One who made them.

SOUNDS

Seeing a man
Whose hearing and speech were bound
Jesus groaned.

Beside the grave of Lazarus,
Pained by the power of death on human lives,
He groaned in spirit.

Over Jerusalem,
His loved city, audibly,
He wept.

Upon the cross,
Before He died, He uttered
A loud cry.

Into His own,
A raised, risen Man,
He breathed.

We await
His coming, His triumphant
Shout!

WITNESSES

The cross of Christ, on which He bore
The sins of all who own His claim,
Displays that God, for evermore,
Has finished with the man of shame
And shows the fulness of God's grace
Which has secured our heavenly place.

The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son,
Propitiation for all sin,
Is witness that the work is done
Which makes us free to come within
The presence of a holy God
To know His love; to give Him laud.

The water from His smitten side
Is witness that His work's complete;
And in each mind that work applied
Ensures for us this world's defeat,
For we may be, while here below,
Made clean, by virtue of that flow.

BUILDING

He's a perfectionist, Uzziel:
Smooth stone clings to smooth stone,
Jointed together. He works slowly
Bringing to masonry
The goldsmith's carefulness.

You can smell it on his clothes,
He is not used to the dust of building,
Yet he works stolidly,
Hananiah the perfumer.
His muscles ache but grow firmer.

Strange to see Rephaiah,
Ruler of half Jerusalem,
Out of his council robes,
Grubbing among the rubble,
Hammer and chisel in hand.

With his house facing the danger
‑Storms and stones and arrows‑
Jedaiah (his wife and children
Cowering in the yard)
Has the greatest incentive to labour:
He builds for strength, not beauty.

I know little of Hattush.
He is a reticent man.
He structured this rampart alone.

Malchijah was not content
‑His own patch established‑
To lounge, watching his fellows
Still struggling at their tasks.
His energy and time
He spent on this wall and tower:
He had his friend Hasshub to help.

Look at those girls!
Shallum, the other ruler,
Having no son
Has his daughters labouring for him,
Measuring, chiselling, carrying:
They are forming a sturdy bulwark.

OH WHAT WILL IT BE TO SEE JESUS

Oh what will it be to see Jesus
The Man who enraptures my heart?
I'll gaze on His face
And drink in His grace
And know I will never depart.

In mercy and grace He has saved me
Enduring both darkness and pain;
In sorrow and loss
He died on the cross
That I might have pleasure and gain.

He gives me the sense of His presence
And cheers me with touches of love
But soon it will be
With joy I will see
My Saviour as with Him above.

Oh what will it be to see Jesus
And gaze on His face evermore
To find in that sight
Eternal delight:
To worship, admire and adore!

SOLDIER

By my feet my hammer;

At my side my spear;

Over me blood and water;

In my hand a treasure ‑
A seamless garment.