Today I'll be conducting the Thanksgiving Service for a special friend. We met forty years ago and I was her minister for some years, and have been informal minister ever since.
It's always difficult to reduce the rich complexity and complex beauty of a life to words, however well chosen. My friend was neither forward nor outspoken about her faith. Her ways were gentle, patient, generous, practical and in all her dealings with others, compassion and understanding were default responses.
She kept two well worn and often read books by her bedside, one of which was The Prayers of Peter Marshall, the C of S Minister from Coatbridge, who went to the US and became chaplain to the senate.
One of his prayers echoes her favourite hymn which we won't be able to sing, but which will be played at the service. Here is the prayer, followed by the hymn. There is much to be said for a spirituality that refuses to make faith a means of self-assertion, and instead enables the person to listen, understand, come alongside, and share the journey as companion. When it comes to quietly spoken, and sometimes unspoken support of other people, my friend was a gifted natural.
“In the name of Jesus Christ, who was never in a hurry, we pray, O God, that thou wilt slow us down, for we know that we live too fast. With all of eternity before us, make us take time to live, time to get acquainted with thee, time to enjoy thy blessings, and time to know each other. Amen”
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.
In simple trust like theirs who heard
Beside the Syrian sea
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word
Rise up and follow Thee.
O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity
Interpreted by love!
With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of Thy call,
As noiseless let Thy blessing fall
As fell Thy manna down.
Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm.
Blessings Jim. We watched S Man called Peter last week. A great film and a wonderful story.
Posted by: Murie Knox | July 13, 2020 at 09:24 AM