Rock-a-bye Norah and I am just a Little Lamb

December 10 was a very special service at St. Andrew's Hespeler. It was Family Sunday, a service designed for kids of all ages, and we celebrated the baptism of a beautiful baby girl. There was no sermon per se, but the kids did present the following two poems.

Hespeler, 10 December, 2017 © Scott McAndless – Baptism, Family Sunday

Rock-a-bye Norah

Rock-a-bye Baby,
laid in a trough.
You are God’s chosen,
a gift from aloft.
Because of your coming,
the mighty shall fall,
The lowly be lifted
and rule over all.
Some wise men are traveling,
foll’wing a star
They’re coming to worship you
for who you are.
They’re bringing you frankincense,
gold and some Myrrh,
For you are the sort of
a king they prefer.

When you first arrived,
King Herod was mad.
He thought you would threaten
the kingdom he had.
The kingdom that you’ll preach
is better by far,
But people in this world
think it’s bizarre.

Rock-a-bye baby,
you’ll grow to be friend
To outcasts and sinners.
And the sick you will mend.
You’ll tell people good news
and show them the way
To be right with their Maker
and never to stray.

And when someone asks you
what he should do
To gain life eternal,
you’ll tell him he’s too
Attached to possessions
and must give them away.
Then he’ll be free and can
walk in your way.

Your words and your actions
all will defy
The way that the world works
and that is why
They’ll see you as only
a problem to solve.
Yes, they will eliminate
you with resolve!

Rock-a-bye Baby
up on a cross
That’s where they’ll end it
to their own loss
For when they defeat you,
it’s you who will win
Out over the power
of death and of sin.

Rock-a-bye baby,
please now don’t cry
That’s all ahead,
for now you must try
To sleep and find hope
in your Father above
Who through you pours out on
the world all his love.

Rock-a-by Norah,
we’re thankful to you
For showing us God’s love
is ever made new.
You remind us of Jesus
and how when he came
He promised us new life
and freedom from shame.

Rock-a-bye Norah,
we wish you God’s peace
And remember the one who
brought captives release.
Sleep and remember:
your Saviour loves you
And will never fail you.
He’ll always be true.

 I am just a little lamb

I am just a little lamb,
Little lamb, little lamb,
I am just a little lamb who lives near Bethlehem,

The shepherds take good care of me,
Care of me, care of me,
The shepherds take good care of me out in the fields at night.

The shepherds try to count us all
Count us all, count us all,
The shepherds try to count us and then they fall asleep.
 we know, yes we know,
t we know,
 out in the fields at night.

I saw it all that fateful night
Fateful night, fateful night.
I saw it all that fateful night there was a shining light

The heavenly angels all did sing
All did sing, all did sing,
The heavenly angels all did sing of joy and peace on earth.

They said they’d come to bring good news
Bring good news, bring good news,
They said they’d come to bring good news about a happy birth.

Mary had a child, they said,
Child, they said, child they said,
Mary had a child they said who had been born for all.ght
cence, gold
izing long passages.
ular education, in the time of the Reformations. Catechisms wer

Go and see him. You will know
You will know, you will know
Go and see him. You will know. You’ll find him in a manger.

The shepherds went and I did too,
I did too, I did too.
The shepherds went and I did too to see the baby Jesus.

But if Jesus came for me
Little me, little me
But if Jesus came for me, he came for everybody.

I am just a little lamb,
Little lamb, little lamb
I am just a little lamb but Jesus is my saviour.

Jesus came to save you too
Save you too, save you too
Jesus came to save you too. To God be all the glory!

Hallelujah, baa, baa, baa,
Baa, baa, baa, baa, baa baa,
Hallelujah, baa, baa, baa, we praise God with all creatures!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Hymn for Canada Day

Image
At St. Andrew's Hespeler this Sunday (which is Canada Day) we are planning to sing the following as a hymn (not an act of patriotism but an act of prayer within worship). This was not conceived of as an addition to Canada's National Anthem but as a way of lifting up our nation in prayer and being open to acknowledge the contribution of those who went before. 1. O Canada, our home and native land, true patriot love in all of us command. With glowing hearts, we see thee rise, the true north, strong and free; from far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free; O Canada, we stand on guard for thee; O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. 2. We, as we stand, acknowledge those who knew This place before and from its waters drew. They honour the Creator and, with drum and sacred song, They find the Divine Presence in the herbs and winds so strong. Let us, with them, make hope increase. Keep Kanata*
Read more

Honoured to have been in the room where it happened

Image
As I left the meeting of the General Assembly today there were many of the beautiful hymns and songs that we sang during Assembly still ringing in my ears and in my heart. But I also found myself singing another song to myself – one from the musical Hamilton: Now, in the musical, Aaron Burr is not singing about the exact experience that I feel that I had over the last few days. In his song he is actually lamenting the fact that he is shut out of the room where a significant decision was made and also the obscurity of what happened and the mystery of the give-and-take negotiations. That is not what I experienced at assembly. But I think I did experience the power of being part of a significant event where significant decisions are being made. I have blogged on each of the meeting days when we have discussed matters of human sexuality and would suggest that, if you haven't read those posts first, you could read my previous posts before this one before reading this one.
Read more

Why we really need to stop harmonizing the two stories of the birth of Jesus.

Image
Copyright © 2013 by W. Scott McAndless       The Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew have a great deal in common. They share much of the same material on the life and sayings of Jesus though they organize it somewhat differently. As far as we can understand from a study of the two texts, both Gospels were written independently (with neither making any reference to, nor apparently even having any knowledge of, the other) towards the end of the first century ce or perhaps even later.       Both gospels were written anonymously—with no names attached. It didn’t take the church very long to decide that they must have been written respectively by Matthew, one of Jesus’s twelve apostles, and Luke, an associate of Paul. But that is just tradition. The truth of the matter is that we really have no idea who might have written these books. All we have to help us to understand the interests, concerns and theological agendas of these two authors is what we find in the words they wr
Read more