Heidelberg Catechism – Lord’s Day 9

Gary Ware

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February 26, 2023

Heidelberg Catechism – Lord’s Day 9

26.
Q. What do you believe when you say: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth”?
A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth with all that is in them, who also upholds and governs them by his eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ his Son my God and my Father. I trust in him so completely that I have no doubt that he will provide for me with all things necessary for body and soul. Moreover, whatever evil he sends upon me in this troubled life he will turn to my own good, for he is able to do it, being almighty God, and is determined to do it, being a faithful Father.

So Send I You – Sunday Songs

Gary Ware

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February 26, 2023

It’s very unusual for me to visit a Presbyterian church and hear a hymn that I’ve never encountered before.
So, encountering So Send I You was a pleasant surprise.
It’s also unusual for a hymn to take the voice of Jesus, and for the content to be – so confronting.
Edith Margaret Clarkson’s lyrics are held by many as a great 20th century mission hymn.
As an invitation it a sombre challenge, but also a counsel of encouragement for those who respond.
.
Here’s a simple rendition.

This rendition by Kim Sledge is a lovely solo which features all five verses.

The lyrics:
1.
So send I you to labor unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing-
So send I you to toil for Me alone.
2.
So send I you to bind the bruised and broken,
O’er wand’ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,
To bear the burdens of a world aweary-
So send I you to suffer for My sake.
3.
So send I you to loneliness and longing,
With heart ahung’ring for the loved and known,
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one-
So send I you to know My love alone.
4.
So send I you to leave your life’s ambition,
To die to dear desire, self-will resign,
To labor long, and love where men revile you-
So send I you to lose your life in Mine.
5.
So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend, tho’ it be blood, to spend and spare not-
So send I you to taste of Calvary.

Young Death, a Poem by Tiffany (via Nick Cave – Faith, Hope And Carnage)

Gary Ware

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February 25, 2023

Still reading Faith, Hope, And Carnage.

Nick Cave describes the online interactions he has through his website and the Red Hand Files.
He mentions a letter from a woman named Tiffany who included a poem she wrote.

It’s breathtaking.

    young death

when young death shines a flash
on your
2am
the cop says takes the breath right
collapses your
stills your
stops the

your knees
and your brain

you drive in
and greet young death
he’s he’s he’s he’s
on a hospital
tube in his
on a
under the
in the
bedroom that marks his growth and
he was a baby here once
there’s his
height
see?
pencil marks on the
cosmo 2, 3, 4 and a half, 6, 7, 9¾, 10, 13,
and his precious
that filled the house with mute
sister’s drawings on the
chair where
there he lies
still
tube in his
grey pallor
it is your
it is not your
hold him for the last
small sob falls
frozen
want to
want to
forever
young death kisses
wraps you in cold
your son
watching
your son
wanting
reach out and touch
it’s ok Mum
it’s ok Mum
here
the light is beautiful
i’m happy
really
you kiss him one
you kiss him
last time and return
to his Dad
hold hands breathless
wait
for dread dawn to break
your sleeping daughter
to wake

Tiffany, Australia.

Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan, Faith, Hope and Carnage, The Text Publishing Company, 2022, pgs. 213-214

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