How can God, condemned, be hanging? – the test of all that deserves to be called Christian… (See Jurgen Moltmann The Crucified God)
How can God, condemned, be hanging?
False messiahs meet such ends,
and the ones then testifying,
have no need to make amends.
Educated folk were laughing,
they foresaw what was to come,
saw disciples hiding, crying,
feeling both distraught and numb.
But that early Easter morning
brought another scene to bear,
Jesus mission had not ended,
he was risen, standing there.
Still the story, more than foolish
soon gave rise to talk and doubt.
‘Surely God could never suffer?’
taunting people tease and shout.
Signs and wisdom are confounded
by that stumbling block, the cross.
Things that we once saw as wisdom
now dismissed as foolish dross.
God had shown such strength in weakness.
Those who shared Christ’s dying breath
now at last could claim dominion,
love defeating hate and death.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2012 © 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: 8 7 8 7 D Tune: CALON LAN
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