INCLUDED
1. Included,
you and me and everybody comprehensively embraced by
the love of the unrestrictive God of all.
With Jesus
we are wanted, we're accepted. We are never segregated or hated; we're all incorporated in him.
But they say they don't want her to be here, she's trouble,
she gets on their nerves.
She speaks a different language, she's noisy, an ethnic.
What's more, she's got a daughter who's possessed by a devil!
2. But we're included
in the new improved creation.
We are Jesus' renovations; he's fixed us, and we're completely overhauled.
With Jesus
we're no longer out of order.
We're no longer on the border,
we're inside the most amazing land of all.
But we say we won't share it
with strangers;
they make us feel so insecure.
It doesn't matter if they're hungry, or lonely, or desperate.
Why don't they find a place
of their own where they can go?
Included, you and me.... incorporated in him.
|
1990. Written for the St Stephen's student service in September, where the theme, based on the story of the Syro-Phoenecian woman, was 'Send her away'. Jesus is not for a cosy, inside club, but for every and any outsider in society. Often easier to acknowledge than to practise, it's the essence of the good news: God becomes a human in order to gather in all of us outsiders. For me 1990 marked a new phase in my songwriting, where I much more consciously sought fresh images, usually making use of both a thesaurus (Macquarie's) and a rhyming dictionary. 'Included' was one of the first songs to emerge from this process. |
30.9.24
Back from a Break
During September, Dorothy and I travelled
to Norway and the UK.
After long flights
- Adelaide to Melbourne,
Melb to Dubai (14 hrs),
Dubai to Oslo (7 hrs) -
we did Norway in a nutshell
from Oslo to Bergen, then
the Hurtigruten Cruise
up the west coast of Norway
and back again.
Then an 8 day Trafalgar tour
and 4 days in London,
before taking the direct flight
(16 3/4 hrs)
from Heathrow to Perth.
We're a bit tired (!) but we'll still be a part
of the LWA convention and the
General Convention .
See some of you there.