SONGS WE SANG

Great Are You Lord by All Sons & Daughters

How Beautiful by Mosaic

Dirt by The Collection

How He Loves Us by John Mark McMillan

INVOCATION

"Be Opened" by Malcolm Guite

Be opened. Oh if only we might be!
Speak to a heart that’s closed in on itself:
‘Be opened and the truth will set you free’,
Speak to a world imprisoned in its wealth:
‘Be opened! Learn to learn from poverty’,
Speak to a church that closes and excludes,
And makes rejection its own litany:
‘Be opened, opened to the multitudes
For whom I died but whom you have dismissed
Be opened, opened, opened,’ how you sigh
And still we do not hear you. We have missed
Both cry and crisis, we make no reply.
Take us aside, for we are deaf and dumb
Spit on us Lord and touch each tongue-tied tongue.

TEXT

Luke 1:39-45

1 Samuel 16:14-18, 23

TAKEAWAYS

1 What am I hearing that I need to stop hearing?

2 What am I not hearing that I need to start hearing?

3 Listen to the birds of the air

4 Listen to music without words

5 Listen to a voice that you wouldn't ordinarily

BENEDICTION

May your listening be attuned

To the deeper silence

Where sound is honed

To bring distance home

Amen.

(John O'Donohue)