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The Leavening of Life Contemporary hymns for different times & seasons
Pat Bennett
www.ionabooks.com
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Copyright © 2021 Pat Bennett Published 2021 by Wild Goose Publications
Suite 9, Fairfield, 1048 Govan Road, Glasgow G51 4XS, Scotland www.ionabooks.com Wild Goose Publications is the publishing division of the Iona Community. Scottish Charity No. SC003794. Limited Company Reg. No. SC096243. ISBN 978-1-84952-749-1 The publishers gratefully acknowledge the support of the Drummond Trust, 3 Pitt Terrace, Stirling FK8 2EY in producing this book. Cover image © Fabiobalbi | Dreamstime.com All rights reserved. Apart from the circumstances described below relating to non-commercial use, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including photocopying or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher via PLSclear.com. Non-commercial use: The material in this book may be used non-commercially for worship and group work without written permission from the publisher. If photocopies of sections are made, please make full acknowledgement of the source, and report usage to CLA or other copyright organisation. Pat Bennett has asserted her right in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Overseas distribution: Australia: Willow Connection Pty Ltd, Unit 4A, 3-9 Kenneth Road, Manly Vale, NSW 2093 New Zealand: Pleroma, Higginson Street, Otane 4170, Central Hawkes Bay Printed by Bell & Bain, Thornliebank, Glasgow ®
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The Leavening of Life
Contents Acknowledgements Introduction
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Celebration, commitment and response Bread
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Gifts
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Love
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Celebration
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Commitment
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Affirmation Offering
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Pathways
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Speech
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Stories
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God’s place The Way
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Struggle, separation and silence Yearnings
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Creator God Psalm 23 Psalm 116
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36 37
In this darkness Remembrance Farewells Psalm 130
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38 40
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The Leavening of Life Where?
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Questions
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Marking the seasons Advent and Christmas Watching Telling
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Longing
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Incarnation
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Angels’ song Iona carol
58 61
Holy Week and Easter Easter windows Encounter
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The last journey Easter story Christ is here!
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70 72
Lord of Life and Resurrection Sources
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The Leavening of Life
Acknowledgements I am grateful to my colleague John L. Bell for writing the tunes ‘Bridge of waiting’, ‘Gillamoor’ and ‘Firth of Kelvin’ for the texts In this darkness, Longing and Gifts, for permission to use the tunes ‘Nafziger’ and ‘Laying down’ for the texts Bread and Remembrance, and for providing the harmonisation for the tune ‘Another place’. I am likewise grateful to Stephen Fischbacher of Fischy Music for permission to use his variation on the tune ‘Madrid’ for the texts Angels’ song and Christ is here!.
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The Leavening of Life
Introduction ‘[The Kingdom of God] is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ Luke 13:20–21 ‘Through all these elemental things your leavening power unleash: transform the textures of my life – the dough becoming flesh.’ From Bread Hymns have always been a significant part of my life: as a child I loved singing them and was captivated by the poetry and cadences of certain lines long before I understood their meaning. Later they would become one of the ways through which my own understandings about the Incarnation and its implications evolved – indeed I suspect most of us can trace a changing thread of hymns and songs that accompanies our pilgrimage of faith, some of which we might now struggle to sing. More recently, using the discipline of hymnodic form myself has been a fruitful way of exploring different dimensions of life, and of the way these can be transformed by the leaven of the Kingdom of which Jesus speaks. In all of this, my experiences have simply echoed the larger story of the role of hymns from the early church onwards. As we know from Acts (16:25), Ephesians (5:19) and Colossians (3:16) hymn-singing was a routine part of the personal and communal life of the early Christians. Some hymns were clearly used for praising God – Pliny the Younger, writing to the emperor Trajan around AD 112, describes Christians singing ‘antiphonal hymns to Christ’ – but others allowed early Christians to articulate their growing understanding of the significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We can see this clearly in the fragments of early Christological hymns in the Epistles (Philippians 2:6–11, Colossians 1:15–20, 1 Timothy 3:16) which are both economical in form but also thick and rich articulations of a profound mys-
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The Leavening of Life tery. As with all good texts, these early hymns do not spell out detailed answers but instead offer finger-and-toe-holds for getting traction on an idea, spaces for questions to be asked, and further depths to explore on return visits. The hymns in this book reflect different aspects of my own ongoing engagement with this ancient tool for exploration and expression. Some were written as responses to stories in the Gospels or for particular services in the liturgical cycle; some represent deliberate explorations of perennial Christian themes such as love and commitment; others have a different biographical trajectory beginning in specific events; where relevant I have shared some of these details alongside the texts. The resulting collection neither is, nor aspires to be, comprehensive in its themes or definitive in its theology. Pat Bennett Scotland January 2021
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Celebration, commitment and response
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The Leavening of Life
Bread
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Celebration, commitment and response
As once you served a waiting crowd when someone shared their bread, so still, through freely offered life, your hungry world is fed. For, having planted seed corn deep in every human heart, there, quickened by affirming grace, your Kingdom’s work can start. I open to your ripening power the pattern of my days: the salty sweat of daily work, my rest and leisure’s ways. I offer to your shaping hands the stories of my life: the hopeful lines of joy and faith, the darker words of strife. Through all these elemental things your leavening power unleash: transform the textures of my life – the dough becoming flesh. Then break me with the hands of grace, that living I may prove a generous bread of Kingdom life – of healing, peace and love. Text © Pat Bennett Tune: ‘Nafziger’ Music John L. Bell, copyright © 2000, 2002 WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland www.wildgoose.scot This hymn was written during a week on Iona in which guests reflected on, wrote about and made bread together. During the breadmaking I was particularly struck by the change in the texture of the dough as I worked and kneaded it –
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The Leavening of Life how it began to feel much more like a living thing. I was also caught by a remark made by the baker leading the week about how the dough takes up salt from the traces of sweat in the hands working it. The move to then thinking about the life of faith through the story of bread – its making and sharing – seemed a very natural one. This text works well as a communion hymn but would also be suitable for commitment services.
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Celebration, commitment and response
Gifts
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The Leavening of Life
As we tread out the paths of our lives, other trav’llers we meet as we go bring us glimpses and whispers and signs of rich worlds that we do not yet know. As we savour these gifts of the way may they nourish our lives so that we find the courage and hope to go on to the places God calls us to be.
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Celebration, commitment and response
As we read in the texts of our faith words long loved, and the ones we deplore, we find waymarks and pointers towards deeper patterns we’ve yet to explore. As we search out these gifts of the word may they nurture our lives so that we grow in wisdom, in peace and in love as the signs that God asks us to be. As we come to your table O God, drawn inside by Love’s urgent appeal, we find bread to give strength for the road; we find wine to refresh and to heal. As we share in these gifts of your grace, come and meet us in them, so that we through encounter might find ourselves changed into people you long us to be. Text: © Pat Bennett Tune: ‘Firth of Kelvin’ Music John L. Bell, copyright © 2021 WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland www.wildgoose.scot Verse 3 could be omitted for a non-communion service.
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The Leavening of Life
Love For Ellie and James Here as we gather, greeting this day’s gladness, we call to mind the love that sets us free: faithfully sharing all our joy and sadness, God’s love reveals how love is meant to be. So may love shape and shine through all our living, temper our actions, fill and warm our speech, make us in all things patient and forgiving – kindness and caring always in our reach. In all decisions may love guide our choices, show us the way to peace instead of strife, help us to silence selfish, grudging voices, lead us to live a generous open life. Then through the years may love grow ever brighter, nurture and keep us, always guide us home, heighten each joy, make every burden lighter – wellspring of grace, where hope and strength are known. Text: © Pat Bennett Tune: ‘Lord of the years’ (11 10 11 10) This text – based on the famous passage in I Corinthians 13 – was written for the wedding of young friends but would be suitable for other occasions too.
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Celebration, commitment and response
Celebration Refrain: Sing high praises to God, the source of all life and all loving; rock upon which we stand, vision that calls us on. This is the calling of God to all who will hear and embrace it: ‘Leave safety and self behind and follow where I lead.’ Sing high praises to God … So we give thanks on this day for those who, fearing but faithful, answered that summons and came bringing God’s life to this place. Sing high praises to God … This is the purpose of God for all who will answer his calling – that they build a Kingdom shaped by justice, peace and love. Sing high praises to God … So we give thanks on this day for those whose speaking and actions make of this place a house where God’s love is known. Sing high praises to God … This is the vision of God and all who are holding his purpose – that one day his Kingdom’s love will heal all life on earth. Sing high praises to God …
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The Leavening of Life So on this day, in this place, we pledge ourselves to that vision, off’ring our lives and our love to serve the Kingdom’s call. Sing high praises to God … Text: © Pat Bennett Tune: ‘Salva feste dies’ (irregular) This hymn was commissioned by St Luke’s Episcopal Church, Minneapolis, for their Centenary Founders’ Day celebration in Autumn 2014. While particularly suited to services of celebration/dedication/commissioning, etc., it need not be limited to these.
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Wild Goose Publications, the publishing house of the Iona Community established in the Celtic Christian tradition of Saint Columba, produces books, e-books, CDs and digital downloads on: l l l l l l
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