The Story of Benjamin the Shepherd Boy.

Here is the story I wrote for our very first crib service today. Please feel free to use it if you wish.

Ever since Benjamin was little, he always wondered what God looked like. People told him a lot of things about God. That he was powerful, that he made the world and all the beautiful things in the world. That he saved the Jewish people from slavery. Yes, but what did he look like. Benji asked his dad, Moshy.
“Dad. What does God look like?”
“I don’t know young Benji. No-one has seen God, and we’re not allowed to make pictures of him. Why do you keep asking?”
“Because I really really want to know.”
“Well why don’t you go and see Abraham the rabbi.”
So young Ben went to see him. Abraham was very wise, he taught all the small Jewish children stories from the bible. He was kind and smiley, and he had a very long white beard that went all the way down his chest.
“Rabbi. What does God look like? I want to see him.”
Abraham laughed. “Little Benji . You can’t see God. He is too big. Too amazing, too wonderful for us. We wouldn’t be able to cope with the brightness of his face, just like you can’t stare at the sun without hurting your eyes. God is even brighter than that. Even the holy prophet Moses only got to see God’s back, and afterwards his face shone so brightly that it gave everyone a headache and he had to wear a veil.”
Benjamin went home sadly. He had really hoped that the rabbi would be able to help him.
Many months passed. And still Benji wondered. Sometimes he looked up at the sky and tried to stare very hard past the stars. Maybe he would see God peeping around the corner of the star curtain of the sky, peeping from Heaven. But he never saw anything.

Until one night. Something amazing happened.
Benji was helping his father and his brothers mind the sheep on the hillside. It was a very cold night. They had wrapped up warm in fur jackets and they had lit a fire to keep their toes warm. Then suddenly a big white shiny person appeared. It was so scary at first that Benji hid behind a really fat sheep with fuzzy hair.
The shiny person was an angel - and the angel had a message.
“Don’t be afraid shepherds.
You can come out from behind that sheep Benji! I’ve got some really happy news to tell you. A baby has been born in Bethlehem. He’s the Christ who will make our sad world happy again. Look for the one wrapped in cloth in an animal’s feeding trough.”
Benji felt braver. In the sky he could hear beautiful singing. It was so beautiful that he came out, and while the others were listening to the song, he went right up to the angel.
“What’s your name?” 
Gabriel, the angel said.
“Have you ever seen God?’
“Oh yes. It was God who sent me here.”
“Then what does God look like?”
“I can’t tell you that. Its something you have to discover for yourself.”
And then the angel disappeared.
And the sky was very quiet once more.

Benji was sad that the angel hadn’t told him what God looked like. But he figured that if the angel was so bright and big and beautiful. Then God must be even bigger and brighter and more beautiful still.

And so the shepherds walked down the hill into Bethlehem, looking for a particular stable. In the end it was very easy to find, because a very bright star was shining in the sky, lighting up the way. There was a beautiful lady, looking very tired, and a man and a donkey and a cow. And a baby lying in a feeding trough, just as the angel had said. Benji bent over and looked closely at the baby. It was very very tiny. He looked deep into the baby’s eyes and as he looked the baby reached out a tiny little hand, grabbed his little finger and gave it a squeeze.

Then Benji heard a voice whispering in his ear. It was Gabriel, the angel. He had shrunk himself very small and was standing on his shoulder. “Look Benji. That’s what God looks like? Benji whispererd back. “I don’t understand. This is a baby. He’s so little that he can’t even sit up yet”

“Yes but he’s the Son of God. He’s the one who will grow up and say ‘If you have seen me, you have seen God our father’ Look again!”

And so Benji looked again, and deep inside the baby’s eyes he saw such love. The baby loved him so much that a little tear leaked out of the corner of his tiny eye. He loved him so very very much that he would do anything for him. Anything to make his world better, even if that thing was going to hurt him and make him sad.

And then Benji understood. In the little baby,Jesus, he had seen the face of God. And what did God look like? God looked like someone who loved him very very much.

Video Stock Footage Libraries.

I've just signed up for a free trial at videoblocks. I'm pretty impressed so far and on the free trial you can download 20 pieces of video a day. There are some really nice worship friendly ones in there too. Worth checking out and you can view the clips without buying them.

The other footage library I've been using lately has been showfootage. I got a voucher for some free videos from them when I bought the latest version of Arkaos. Per clip these are quite dear though at $11.99 for a single sale, but if you scout round and like them enough, you can get 75 clips for $1.49 each ($111.75,which at the time of writing translates as £70 which isn't too bad for a whole library load of stuff). Again you can view the clips before you decide whether its worthwhile or not.

A new Transfiguration Hymn

I'm going to sing this to Paul's stunning 'O little Town of Bethlehem" remix, but it should fit any 8686.
The usual rules apply. Feel free to use and tweak if necessary in a worship situation.

Transfigured Christ. Your presence here
Makes faith and sight combine.
Through incandescent clouds of white
God’s blazing Son, You shine.
Now to our feeble human minds
You’re veiled but not concealed
We see in You the Father’s face
The heart of God revealed.

We partly know, and dimly see,
As through a mirror’s gaze.
And yet Your words can make a world
And set our lives ablaze.
Our hearts are tinder dry and cold
We walk through sorrow’s night
And yet within our darkest hours
You say “let there be light”.

Transfigured Christ. We cannot stay
Upon the mountain peak
When evil screams and claws the earth
You call us “Go and speak.”
Come plant your footsteps in our world
And help us follow too.
To offer healing in Your name.
To all who cry for You.

Sue Wallace 2011
(inspired by John G Whittier’s
“O love O life”)

Angel Beach (The Second Wave)

I accidentally stumbled across this on itunes today. There are some really good tracks and I think you might recognise some of them (an ambient remix of Clocks for instance, or Bittersweet Symphony). I didn't buy the whole album though as I thought some of them were either a bit too cheesy or a bit too intrusive, but well worth checking out to see which ones you like.

Enjoy!

Sue

The Slow Wait

From time to time I watch CSI (all 3 of them), despite the fact that they are often a bit gory and depressing. Usually I half watch them, and am doing something on the laptop at the same time (thus missing the gore and keeping the storyline :-) But anyway, that's beside the point. The point is, while they are in the lab doing tests on something or other, they play some brilliant pieces of music. Last night was one of those occasions. And so I quickly looked on one of those sites that lists the pieces of music played, and discovered that the very nice piece of ambient music they were playing was called "The Slow Wait, Pt 1 by The American Dollar, from the album A memory stream. Its one of those still, blissful pieces that you could chant over, or just enjoy for its own sake.

While I'm at it, another artist I discovered recently (I think it was via itunes genius application) was M83. I particularly like "my own strange path", "Strong and Wasted" and "Sister, pt 1" but i haven't reall got around to listening to any of the other tracks yet.

Stop press: I've just been listening to a few other tracks by The American Dollar, and they are definitely worth checking out. So far I've also bought War on Christmas, Call, Anything you Synthesize, Signalling through the flames and DEA, and while I was at it I was recommeded "Dust Breeding" by Stars of the Lid (a 9 minute very ambient piece) and A City Lost by My Majestic Star.

Fragrance

You're probably really going to hate this idea, but I'm going to mention it anyway!

I was after a song about perfume, (as the gospel reading is about the woman anointing Jesus with perfume) and I really couldn't find one, which was annoying me a bit. Then reluctantly I wondered if there was anything at all I could do with "may the fragrance of Jesus fill this place". So I stuck it on top of "A letter from home" by Ulrich Schnauss and realised that it fitted beautifully and the reharmonisation stripped out the slightly twee feeling that the song had before for me. We are however, NOT having the men singing the first line and the women following meekly after, because that implies that women can't be worship leaders, which is extra bad in this particular context, because there is Mary of Bethany cheerfully pointing the way forward for the whole church in worship with the aid of a perfume bottle. Instead it will be LHS and RHS.

Wedding Songs - a challenge.

Last year the curates in our diocese were chatting about weddings and how difficult people find it to pick songs that their guests will know. They were commenting that it seems to get harder each year, as the repertoire of common songs suitable for singing in a service gets smaller and smaller. Then someone mentioned carols. At least people still know carols. "Someone should write some lyrics to carol tunes" they said. As I'm one to rise to such a challenge I thought "Must get around to doing just that!" Recently I was reminded of this conversation, because a friend was getting married, was trying to choose some songs and was giggling at some of the choices that were suggested to them. This (and the fact that we are surrounded by carols at the moment) spurred me into action.

Please feel free to copy, distribute and use in a worship situation....

To the tune of "Once in Royal David's city"
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This song is based on St Paul's famous letter about love, (1 Corinthians chapter 13)

It can be sung to the tune of once in royal.

If I speak in tongues of angels
Yes possess a loveless heart
I am like a crashing cymbal
Hollow words of abstract art.
Holy Spirit, fill our lives
With the love that unifies.

love is patient, full of kindness,
Lacking rudeness,envy, pride.
Love does not keep score of insults
Slow to anger, truth applied.
Holy Spirit, fill our lives
With the love that unifies.

Prophesy will have its ending
Gifts of languages will cease
Knowledge passes when the print fades
Faith, hope, love, will be released.
Holy Spirit, fill our lives.
With the love that unifies.

As a child my reasoning was childish,
Now my toys are packed away.
Now we see a poor reflection.
Then we shall see face to face.
Holy Spirit, fill our lives
With the love that unifies.