This hymn focusses on the Wedding at Cana in Galilee (John 2: 1 – 11)
where Jesus turned water into wine.
1 No magic, but a simple need was met when Jesus joined a feast, a wedding was well underway until the wine ran low, then ceased.
2 While Jesus never looked for fame his mother called him to her side to ask that he would help them out, assuming grace would now provide.
3 He wasn't such an easy touch he didn't want to do her will, it seemed he wasn't ready yet. Was this a misuse of his skill?
4 Great jars of water were at hand. Was this a miracle or sign? He simply told the stewards to draw. This water now had turned to wine
5 The wedding feast was now replete, and God surprises people still, through word or miracle or sign God still amazes, always will.
Andrew E Pratt 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: LM Tune: NIAGARA
Category: Hymns
The Baptism of Jesus – a different hymn
The Sunday after Epiphany, when we mark the coming of the Magi to Jesus, is traditionally used to remember Jesus’ Baptism by John the Baptist. This hymn tells the story:
God is not partial: calls all the people, builds up the broken, comforts the frail, raises the fallen, walks with the outcast, loves without limits, love will not fail.
God joined the people: crowds John was calling, crowds by the river, turning around; turned by his preaching, turned by a conscience, turned by a gospel, suddenly found.
Humbly God joined them: Jesus John's cousin, strange, enigmatic, why would he come? John asked the question, Jesus was forthright, 'You must baptise me. This must be done'.
One with the people, Jesus was rising, out of the water, mission begun; light to the nations, eyes to the blinded, prisoners find freedom, 'this is my son'!
Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2010 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: 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 4 Tune: BUNESSAN
Harassed, haunted child of Mary – hymn/poem for Epiphany/Holy Innocents
1 Harassed, haunted child of Mary
[Haunted, harassed child of Mary]*
ran before he learned to crawl,
filled with horror, those who loved him,
those who gave to him their all,
tore him from his bed and birth place,
blown before the sudden squall.
2 Doubt and danger dogged each footfall,
normal sounds now raised their fear;
noises in a cobbled courtyard:
Herod's minions drawing near?
Or the waking sounds of morning?
Nothing now is safe or clear.
3 Out of this endangered childhood,
rootless, no asylum found,
grew the strength of God to greatness,
yet with thorns his brow was crowned:
clothes divided, scourged, derided,
suffering without a sound.
4 Dare we beautify the image
when Christ's heirs still walk this earth,
when our children, harassed, hounded,
suffer death before their birth,
while their parents' haunted hunger
speaks of their discarded worth?
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
*Alternative first line suggested by Alan Gasser via Facebook to enable the rhythm to be better caught. Thanks Andrew.
Words © 2000 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 8 7 Trochaic
Tune: PICARDY
Hymn in commemoration of Desmond Tutu
This day we have witnessed a man for all people,
a man who was human, held fast what is right,
for this he has lived with profound dedication,
he shone in the world, don't extinguish that light.
And we who are human stand now in remembrance,
frail shadows of all he has shown we can be.
He not only preached, but embodied the values
that showed through his living that all can be free.
The man we remember has died, will be buried,
yet while we live justly his theme will not fall.
His spirit is living, will not be extinguished,
the love he embraced will be ever for all.
Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) text originally written for Nelson Mandela alt by the author © 2013/2021 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, www.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.
At the census in the city – We welcome Christmas Day
1 At the census in the city,
at the crossing place of life,
where the homeless and abandoned
share the scars of human strife;
mid the rubble and the ruins
shedding God's prophetic light
see, a star is softly shining
through the horror of the night.
2 In the cross of shifting shadows
see a mother and her child,
see the wetness of his features,
freshly born, so not yet filed.
In a world of cold statistics
yet another mouth to feed,
for the parents' love holds tension
with a calling, crying need.
3 So from Bethlehem in history
to this present place and time,
God has entered human anguish,
sung in tune to human rhyme;
yes, the baby that we welcome,
yes, the Christ of Palestine,
are as one, we seal remembrance
in a feast of bread and wine.
[signature of love's design.]*
4 For the ruin of the manger,
this prefig'ring of the cross,
offers Christ as our relation
in our chaos and our loss,
puts the Christ into the present,
places God in human hands,
tests our loving and our living
here in this and every land.
*for use when there is no communion
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2003 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
Tunes: BETHANY (Smart); ABBOTS LEIGH
hymnsandbooks 