Church at the Tipping Point

Reawakenings cd 3 track 12

Inspired by Kol Nidri

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kol_Nidre for an understanding of this emotive musical concept.

Rebuke and reproof

Reawakenings cd 3 track 13

Prayer J Stutschewsky

Kyrie - written and performed by Linda Entwistle

Reawakenings cd 3 track 14

Decontamination and Reawakening

Reawakenings cd 3 track 15

Maria es libre - guitar: written and played by David Booth

The powerful and much-loved hymn 'O sacred head so wounded' had already been around for centuries before Bach made it still more famous by harmonising it and incorporating it many times in his glorious Saint Matthew Passion. What depths it sounds and what heights it points to!

As we listen to Sue Perks singing it here, and to Jacqui Galvin then going on to read from Psalm 69, arguably the most poignant of all the supplicatory psalms, let's make this hymn and the psalm a starting point for identifying with people – and even nations – who are going through times of intense strain and stress.

The psalmist's prayers do not appear to have been immediately answered, for we find him crying out for the Lord to save him because the floodwaters had come right up to his neck.' Despite his physical and emotional agony, he continues to pray, confident that His cry for help will be heard.

Taken together, this hymn and psalm make a perfect platform for praying for people who are really going through the mill. See who and what come to mind as you listen, and bring these people and situations to the Lord! 

The music then plays on to another relevant track that exhorts us to 'Persevere to the glory beyond,' before concluding with the track 'Behold I am creating a new heaven and a new earth,' which celebrates the joy and power of music and much else besides.

Persevere to the Glory Beyond

Reawakenings cd 3 track 17

Cantique, Faure

New conditions call for fresh decisions -

and since we cannot urge others into situations we have not been prepared to face ourselves,

grant us grace to meet each new challenge as it comes along,

knowing that obedience must always precede understanding:–

and that means being willing to lay aside our desire to know the outcome

and to be in control before committing ourselves.

Be not hasty in the way you judge and make your decisions:

appearances can be misleading,

and our measuring scales are far too limited to make a full and fair assessment.

”Judge not that you be not judged – or rather, judge generously, and think and hope the best.”

Where you have raced on foot and have stumbled in safe country,

and are finding the thickets of opposition and rejection a much harder place to thrive.

(see Jer. 12:5-6)

May the Lord speak clearly to revive your hopes.

Use every tool to discern His will and to carve new paths through thorn-encrusted heaths, so that you will arrive neither ahead nor behind God’s own schedule:

exactly where you ought to be when you are most needed there.

Our flesh and heart may fail, but You are the strength of our inmost being and our portion forever.

Jo Foote plays the accompanying recorder sonata for us by Handel.

'I am recreating all things'

Reawakenings cd3 track 19

Track 25 The Fallout from Loss and Change – and not letting the enemy hijack the process

Schop Variations on Dowland’s Lachrimae; Cello and strings. Loeillet Oboe Sonata. (Thomas Herzog and Christiane von Albrecht)

Track 26 Patmos flushes hidden things to the surface.

Continuing the theme of yielding to the Lord, Patmos experiences flush hidden things to the surface. This is opportunity to allow the Lord to track down things that have been set in motion in the past and to bring them to the Cross.

The gentle background music is an exquisite sonata for harpsichord by Scarlatti K85 played for us by Christiane von Albrecht.