THEY WENT TO THE GARDEN

1. They went to the garden, one less than before;
he tried to prepare them for what was in store.
Maybe they suspected and maybe they guessed
the soldiers were coming to make their arrest.
They went to the garden, they sang an old song;
last orders were over, last supper was gone.

2. We hear how it happened, again and again,
do we try to step back from now into then?
How would we have acted? What would we have said?
Would we have been Peter or Judas instead?
each one by the fire, just warming our hands,
we hear ourselves saying, ‘I don’t know the man’.

3. They went to the garden, how could they have known
we’d still tell the story two thousand years on?
They said they’d defend him, they promised to stay,
but sleep overcame good intentions that day.
They went to the garden, of course he was scared —
he knew death was coming. He prayed to be spared.

4. Betrayed for some money that never got spent,
no angels to save him from Pilate’s consent.
And though we would never have done it this way,
God reclaimed the world from the Devil that day.
They went to the garden, the day had begun
when evil was beaten, and goodness had won.

5. O Jesus, we act as if nothing has changed,
like heaven and earth haven’t been rearranged;
pretend that we’re better, and bigger, and more
— we seem to forget no-one’s keeping a score.
Help us to love bolder and freer like you;
to see and to hear and to speak and to do.
May all that you’ve given us keep coming through.
Goodbye to the old world — hello to the new.

ALWS 29/5/24

In May 2023 we travelled to the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia, seeing work supported by Australian Lutheran World Service. Dorothy and I are Ambassadors for the ALWS programme, Lives You Touch. We are encouraging people to leave money in their will for the work of ALWS. We committed to leave a third of our will many years ago and hope many others can touch lives in this way.

Last year we visited churches in SA, Vic, Qld and WA with Jonathan & Julie Krause promoting the cause of ALWS.

Coming up soon:

* Nuriootpa (St Petri) Saturday June 22, 4 pm

To be confirmed:
Bordertown July 28,
Everton Park (Qld) August 17,
Canberra August 24 

Looking forward to seeing you at one of these events