Sunday 7th December - 2nd Sunday of Advent; Peace

The second candle on my Advent wreath;

And voces8 singing these verses to the tune Finlandia;

 TEXT

Vv1&2 by Lloyd Stone, v.3 Blake Morgan

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is,

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine.

But other hearts in other lands are beating,

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,

And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.

But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

*This is my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for their land and for mine.

So let us raise this melody together,

Beneath the stars that guide us through the night;

If we choose love, each storm we’ll learn to weather,

Until true peace and harmony we find,

This is our song, a hymn we raise together;

A dream of peace, uniting humankind.

*modified from Stone’s original poetry

Back in the days when I used to lead the 5-8 year olds in Junior Church, the activities I embarked upon occasionally (often) had unforseen (completely foreseeable) consequences. 

I think one of my most conspicuous one was based on the words of the book of Isaiah chapter 2, verse 4;

He will judge between the nations
    and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into ploughshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war any more.

I had the bright (stupid) idea that we would all make swords from rolled up newspapers and then turn them into spades to illustrate the verse. Most of the children (boys) never got beyond the sword construction phase and then set about challenging each other to sword fights, which continued, at an admittedly reduced volume, as we went back into the church...

John 14;27 would have been a safer verse to teach them;

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.