Tangled in prejudice, lost in presumption – hymn inspired by John 9: 1-41

A hymn inspired by John 9: 1 – 41…As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned

Tangled in prejudice, lost in presumption, 
locked in our judgments, so sure of our ground; 
others are sinful, but we are the righteous, 
this is the truth we are sure we have found.
	
This is our blindness and now we must own it, 
owning suspicion of those we deride; 
painting them wrongly, unjustly with hatred, 
side-stepping honesty, trying to hide.
	
For like the Pharisees' we are self-serving,
gaining our wealth from the ones we oppress;
sometimes we bring down the ones who would challenge, 
this we have done and now this we confess.
	
In this confession we seek your forgiveness, 
God who has touched both the broken and frail. 
We were thought strong, but we plead for compassion, 
we, the successful, have found we can fail.
	
Yet you astound us, 'your sins are forgiven', 
words that have echoed down into our time.
How can we warrant such scandalous mercy?
Only through grace can you offer this sign.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2011 © Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: 11 10 11 10
Tunes: EPIPHANY HYMH; IN THE BEGINNING GOD PLAYED WITH THE PLANETS