Notes from the Balcony

Ongoing comment and dialogue on being a new church in a new world - A Blog by John Montgomery

[The Bible] is not, for a start, a list of rules, though it contains many commandments of various sorts and in various contexts. Nor is it a compendium of true doctrines, though, of course, many parts of the Bible declare great truths about God, Jesus, the world and ourselves in no uncertain terms. Most of its constituent parts, and all of it when put together (whether in the Jewish canonical form or the Christian form), can best be described as story. This is a complicated and much-discussed theme, but there is nothing to be gained by ignoring it. - N.T. Wright

Saturday, April 7, 2007

God Weeps - Holy Week Saturday

This provocative poem was recently forwarded to me by a friend. Pray for peace!

John

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God Weeps
By Shirley Erena Murray
God weeps
at love withheld,
at strength misused,
at children's innocence abused,
and till we change the way we love,
God weeps.


God bleeds
at anger's fist,
at trust betrayed,
at women battered and afraid,
and till we change the way we win,
God bleeds.


God cries
at hungry mouths,
at running sores,
at creatures dying without cause,
and till we change the way we care,
God cries.


God waits
for stones to melt,
for peace to seed,
for hearts to hold each other's need,
and till we understand the Christ,
God waits.


From the Internet --

SHIRLEY ERENA MURRAY (b. 1931) is a hymn text writer and a former editor with the New Zealand Hymnbook Trust. Her work has appeared in more than 100 collections worldwide and been translated into several languages (Taiwanese, Swedish, German, Spanish, French, Estonian, Portuguese, Korean and Braille print.) She has also worked with Dr. I-to Loh, musical ethnologist from Taiwan, in paraphrasing Asian hymns into English. ...

The themes of her hymns range from social justice, peace and human rights to the sacraments, the Church year, eco-theology, and the voice of women. ….

She is married to the Very Rev. John Stewart Murray, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa/New Zealand. They have three sons and six grandchildren, and live on the coast near Wellington, New Zealand.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This was sung in St. Francis of Assisi this Sunday and it moved me. Thanks for posting!

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