We walk beneath an open heaven

In 1984 I wrote a song under this title.The name & theme comes from a sermon by one of my favourite Christian writers, Helmut Thielicke. I felt privileged to meet him and hear him when he visited Australia in 1979, invited by the Lutheran Student Fellowship for its 25th Anniversary celebrations. His books of sermons were an inspiration for me, both for my daily life and for my songwriting. He, along with John Sabel, helped me to understand that Jesus sets us free, and that we have nothing to be afraid of.

I've added a bridge today, & taken out a verse

We walk beneath an open heaven,
step by step on holy ground.
Since God became a man among us,
earth is full of heaven's sound.

And he says, "Don't be afraid,
I am here, don't be afraid,
I am with you, I'll be with you forever."

We walk beneath an open heaven,
underneath a cross of stars.
For Christ has come to walk beside us:
in our chains, behind our bars. And he says...

I’ll be with you on the street at night
and in the midday sun.
I’ll be with you when you feel all right
and when your hope is gone.

We walk beneath an open heaven,
Christ has changed the life we're in.
For when we start to serve our neighbour,
we shall then be serving him.

And he says...

Multiple Sclerosis

All weekend we did music at Blackwood Uniting. Well, I did workshop sessions Friday night & Saturday morning, but then Dorothy joined me for 2 services on Sunday morning & a singing time after lunch. It all went pretty well, I think.
Tonight at 5.30 D & me were at the gym. I usually do 5 minutes of cycling & then weights, but tonight I decided to join Dorothy in a class of cycling, running & gym machines. 15 minutes of cycling went well, better than I thought it would. But then during running my eyes started to play funny tricks & my balance felt dodgy. Instead of doing the last part of the session, I left, walked home & started making tea.
MS strikes again! Maybe just the rising temperature, but possibly also the vigorous exercise causes some of the symptoms of MS to surface. While I was diagnosed with the disease only in 2006, I’ve probably had it since the mid-90’s. Primary Progressive MS strikes later, in the mid-40s, & as many men as women are likely to get it, unlike the more common forms which afflict far more women. It tends to be slower, less severe. But of course, it never goes away & you don’t recover from it. The nervous system continues to get more & more scars. (Multiple Sclerosis = Lots of Scars)
I’m hoping that as I start my 62nd year it will continue to make slow progress in me. Maybe I won’t be wheelchair-bound. And maybe I’ll learn to deal with it more gracefully & more graciously.

Let us pray

I like writing prayers for services. These were for last Sunday:

God of wealth & abundance, you give us everything we are, everything there is: all the colours & all the shapes, every breath & every heartbeat. Nothing exists apart from what you make possible. Fill our mind with constant wonder. God of wealth & abundance Hear our prayer

God of peace and order, thanks for Australia, for its beauty, stability & prosperity. We pray for our politicians, for all who are standing for election to our federal parliament. Thanks for the privilege of living in a country where we can choose our leaders. God of wealth & abundance Hear our prayer

God of life & love, thanks for your gift of baptism for Amelia today. May your love grow strong in her. Bless her parents & all who care for her. Be with all who are witnesses to your love in Australia. May every Christian grow to be more like you. God of wealth & abundance Hear our prayer

God of every mountain & every plain, every plant & every creature, may our appreciation be expressed in our lives. May we cherish your world through words & action. God of wealth & abundance Hear our prayer

God of health & healing, we ask you to heal those we love, to be with those who are dying, to change the hearts of those who destroy others. We know that dying is part of life, that there is scarcity & abundance. Still we ask you to make good where there’s evil, peace where there’s war. God of wealth & abundance Hear our prayer

Jesus, give us peace

I sang Sadako at Concordia yesterday. It works best for me on my acoustic guitar. The first time I’ve played my Maton Coolabah at Concordia for years. Usually it’s my pink electric Schechter. Some kids wondered where it was. Next time!
I also sang an older prayer-song. (Like Sadako, capo on 5th fret.) When I was preparing the day before, I noticed again that the words in AT For Good, word edition, first printing, have several errors. Just one remains in the second printing. In v.3, line 3, it should be ‘knowing everyone as a friend’. Instead of ‘knowing’ it has ‘picture’. That latter word is just not as personal. It’s a bit removed.
It’s a prayer song, with v.1 & 2 describing situations (we pray for peace but the war goes on … we make our vows & we break them too ..), before the chorus takes us into direct conversation (Jesus, give us peace, in our hearts & lives …). v.3 is also direct prayer (So touch our eyes so we see again … knowing everyone as a friend …). The song was written back in the ‘80’s but for one reason or another it wasn’t included in an earlier collection.
Enough of technicalities! Jesus promises to give us peace. We need to embrace it, pray for it, & be courageous enough to make it part of every aspect of our life. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ — let it also be true of our lives!

Sadako from Hiroshima

At the beginning of August, I always think of Sadako, & hope I have the opportunity to sing about her somewhere. Tomorrow morning (Aug 4) I’ll sing the song I wrote about her at Concordia College (Highgate, SA).

1. She saw the Thunderbolt in the sky
like a million suns, it prickled her eyes;
she saw the Thunderbolt in the sky -
two years old, it prickled her eyes.

But now she sits making paper cranes,
paper cranes, paper cranes.
Now she sits making paper cranes -
Sadako from Hiroshima.

2. She was a runner, swift and strong …

5. This is our cry, this is our prayer,
"May the crane of peace fly everywhere!"
This is our cry, this is our prayer,
"Crane of peace fly everywhere!"

Our kids brought the book home in 1984 (via the book club) when they were in primary school. Our Kristin was turning 11 that year, the same age as Sadako when she went to hospital.
On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. ‘Sadako And The Thousand Paper Crane’, a book by Eleanor Coerr, tells the story of a 2 year old girl called Sadako, who survived the bomb, apparently unscathed, along with her family. When she was 11 years old, however, she became ill with a form of radiation illness. She had to go to hospital. Her best friend came to visit her with a gift. She brought Sadako a folded paper crane, and reminded her of an old Japanese belief: if a sick person made a thousand paper cranes and made a wish on each one, she would get better. Sadako made 642 before she died, but her friends and classmates made the rest and she was buried with a thousand paper cranes. Her statue is in Hiroshima Peace Park — she stands holding an origami crane — and it is her story that has made the folded paper crane a symbol of peace the world over. The song was inspired particularly by a short prayer that Sadako’s mother whispers one night as she leaves the hospital bed where her daughter is sleeping: “O flock of heavenly cranes, cover my child with your wings”.
(We recorded the song for ‘God. Version 1.0’ in 1998, & we’re doing a fresh recording for a collection for kids we hope to have out early 2011)