LIKE AN ANGEL

1. She was in bed with a fever
when her son-in-law came with his friends.
She was embarrassed,
but she was too sick to pretend.
She was in bed with a fever
when he brought all his friends to her home.
Jesus took her by the hand
and the fever was gone.

And she served like an angel,
patiently served like an angel;
passionate caring - love is so daring -
just like the angels surrounding the
Lamb night and day.

2. He didn’t come as a ruler,
didn’t act like a Lord or a King -
helping and healing and foot-washing - that was his thing.
He didn’t come as a ruler,
didn’t seem like the God they’d expect -
being a lamb, not a wolf, didn’t earn their respect.

And he served like an angel,
willingly served like an angel;
passionate caring - love is so daring -
just like the angels surrounding the
Lamb night and day.

3. Are we like baffled disciples?
Do we argue for seats on the throne?
Don’t want to follow him,
not down the road that he’s on.
Save us from being so foolish.
Jesus, teach us that love is the way,
and that we gain the whole world
when we give it away.

So we serve like an angel,
joyfully serve like an angel;
passionate caring - love is so daring -
just like the angels surrounding the
Lamb - like an angel,
joyfully serve like an angel . . . night and day.


2000. This song, was written for the World Diakonia Assembly in July 2001. Like many songs, many things contributed to it. Rick Strelan, in ‘Crossing The Boundaries’, a commentary on Mark’s Gospel, writes, “But his death is not his only act of service. His whole life is a ministry of service to the unclean, the possessed, the poor, the outcasts, the blind, the deaf, the sinners.” I read this while preparing for a worship service on Feb 6, 2000, the 5th Sunday after Epiphany. The Gospel for the day was Mark 1:29-39, which includes the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. The Preaching Helps in ‘Currents’ (from Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago) included this: “There is something beautiful ... in the picture of Jesus and Simon’s mother-in-law. Here he is engaged, directly and intimately, with human need. He touches her; her hands become tools for service”. Even better, and what really laid the foundation for ‘Like an Angel’, came from Rick Strelan: “The word used here (diakonia) is the same as that used of the angels in 1:13 ... It is also the word used by Jesus in 10:45, to describe his own purpose in coming. The woman responds to the humanising, healing touch of Jesus by acting in the way that he acts. What is said here of this woman is never said of any of the male disciples. She becomes a miniature model of discipleship, of following in the way of Jesus.” Interesting that the word is so often connected to women in the gospels — Mk 15:41, the women who followed him served him after his death, Luke 8:3, the women serving him (Susannah et al). Then there’s John 12:26: ‘If a person wants to enter my service, (s)he must follow my way; and where I am, my servant will also be.’


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.