All the praying, all the pounding inspired by Luke 18: 1-8
1 All the praying, all the pounding,
all the crying at God's door
cannot make God more attentive,
cannot make God love us more.
2 Here through our persistent waiting
we will find a present grace,
grace for patient expectation,
till we meet God face to face.
3 Then our God will meet and greet us,
understand our every need,
change our heartache into gladness,
wake to life faith's dormant seed.
4 See the covenant on offer,
God will write it in our hearts,
from now on we are God's people,
this is when our new life starts.
5 All that's broken will be mended,
all that's fallen be set right,
God will honour every promise,
lead us onward into light.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2010 Stainer and 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
Tune: ALL FOR JESUS
Category: Bible
Lament: When anger is our highest creed
Lament: When anger is our highest creed
Our news invariably seems to have images of war. For those who grieve, on whatever ‘side’, Psalm 137 may give them, or us, voice. It is often missing from our worship. Some may remember ‘By the rivers of Babylon’ by Boney M. Halfway through the song they change to Psalm 19: ‘May he words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight…’. Perhaps Psalm 137 is seen as too violent, not Christian. But when we have suffered at the hands of others, when we grieve, lament is legitimate. Then it is understandable to use Psalm 137 in its entirety. And so I want to sing in solidarity with people in places of war and degradation…these words were inspired by the spirit of that Psalm.
1 When anger is our highest creed,
revenge the motivating force;
God, understand our depth of hurt,
our need for action, not just thought.
2 Ejected from what makes us safe,
familiar ground and well-known names,
we sicken for the things we've seen,
all sense of hope and courage drains.
3 We cannot celebrate our faith,
and faith lacks meaning, all is lost;
for nothing is as it once was,
we cannot ever bear the cost.
4 So, God, what should we do or say?
What is there left of love or life?
What mitigating cause or plea
will rid us of this pain of strife?
5 Amid our sense of grief and loss
where nothing now can be the same,
stand in the midst of shattered faith;
rebuild, renew, and raise again.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2001 Stainer & Bell Ltd
Words © 2001 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: LM
Tune: PLAISTOW
‘Jesus’ open love would lead him’ – a hymn inspired by a healing on the Sabbath
Jesus' open love would lead him
The unexpected healing by Jesus on a Sabbath of a crippled, and hence alienated, woman inspired these words:
1 Jesus' open love would lead him
into conflict with the law.
People then, and now, believing,
they know wrong, of this they're sure.
2 Such aggressive condemnation:
not the way we should behave,
we have rules and regulations
plotting how our God can save.
3 These are rules that God has given,
rules that we must strive to keep,
yet it seems that Jesus challenged
norms that made the path too steep.
4 Rules he offered changed perceptions,
moved from punishment to grace,
showed a way of loving, living,
we might risk within this place.
5 Love beyond imagination,
love to heed and to enthral,
love not bounded by rejection,
love that reaches out to all.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2013 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 Trochaic
Tune: ST CATHERINE (Jones)
If love could be the centre of the lives we seek to live – a hymn inspired by Luke 11: 4 (The Lord’s Prayer)
If love could be the centre of the lives we seek to live – inspired by Luke 11: 4 (The Lord’s Prayer) - 'forgive us our debts' Lectionary 26-7-2025
1 If love could be the centre of
the lives we seek to live,
if we could learn to measure wealth
by debts that we forgive;
then Christ would be incarnate in
all love that we could give
2 Our lives would then be measured by
our depth of love and grace,
the way in which we looked on Christ
in one another’s face.
Then Love would come to live again
within this time and place.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2014 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 6 8 6 8 6
Tune: SHELTERED DALE (used in the Methodist Hymn Book[1933] to set 'Awake, awake to love and work')
A hymn inspired by the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42)
Hymn: inspired by the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) - Sometimes when all our busyness
1 Sometimes when all our busyness
is just too much bear
remember Jesus kindly words
with Mary sitting there.
2 The words that Martha felt unfair
gave leave to stop and be,
and those who need the peace of God
have reason to feel free.
3 So when for any one of us
the pressure is too great,
then stop, take stock, and rest awhile,
it never is too late.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2013 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: CM
Tune: BELMONT
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