God hung and died upon the cross

God hung and died upon the cross
 
        God hung and died upon the cross,
 	and there he suffered wild abuse,
	the ones who held religious power
	had offered an oblique excuse:
	denying love their greatest crime.
	We see this echoed in our time.
	 
	For when we worship week by week
	while poor are trampled, made more poor;
	when those in need are turned away,
	or sent off to another shore;
	our silence signs complicity
	and signals our iniquity.
	 
	But if we walk beside the ones
	that others curse, berate and blame,
	share in their stark reality,
	their ridicule, pernicious pain;
	then know that God has walked this way,
	with them we'll live another day.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) based on 1 Peter 2: 19-25
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Metre: 8 8 8 8 8 8
Tune: ABINGDON