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.

 

ALWS 5/10/23

To say I've been inactive on my website is a serious understatement! I've written nothing here since early 2021. 

So, does this mean the world has stopped for us, that nothing is happening?
A major event for us in 2022 was moving house in October. We had been in Modbury Heights since July 1993.Now we're back in Klemzig.

In May 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.
Since then we have visited Box Hill & Loxton with Jonathan & Julie Krause as part of the Asante presentations, promoting the cause of ALWS. Still to come this year are Asante events in Toowoomba & Rochedale (Nov 26 & 27) and Perth (Dec 10)

Looking forward to seeing many people on these occasions.