Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet – John the Baptist
Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet,
least that’s how some people saw him,
eating locusts and wild honey,
sweeping hypocrites before him.
Standing by the raging river,
raging at unrighteous forces,
calling weak and powerful to him,
sending them on different courses.
This is one the prophets spoke of,
one to clear the way for Jesus;
humble, man of God proclaiming
judgment, grace and mercy for us.
Would we wander to that river?
Hear that vagabond still preaching?
Or would we not want that judgment,
plug our ears to his beseeching?
And today and yet tomorrow
will we take that path and follow,
one who lived through joy and sadness
who would suffer pain and sorrow?
Would we shirk the call of Jesus,
tied to selfishness or borrow,
his audacious loving kindness,
setting free to build tomorrow?
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2018 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 8 8 8 D
Tune: CLONMACNOISE
A Local Preacher once asked me what hymns there were relation to John the Baptist. Since than I have written a number. This sees John as the forerunner to the Messiah referred to in Hebrew prophecy.
Category: Poems
A hymn written for World AIDS Day and used nationally by CTBI when first published
1 When life's crippled, flawed or faulted,
Filled with fear, with folly strewn;
God is here, yet never thwarted,
Loving in dark sorrow's womb;
God is in each widow's anguish,
God is queuing unemployed,
God will in the prison languish,
God will love, not be destroyed.
2 When work's clamour, noise and chaos
Brings the stress that drags us down;
God is here identifying,
Praying with us as we groan.
When our love and life are battered,
When our strength is all but sapped,
When the way ahead is shattered,
Still within God's love we're wrapped.
3 Love and folly, cross and kindness,
Echo all we know within;
Jesus challenges the blindness;
Penetrates deception's din;
Builds again where all seemed shattered,
Holds us when we fear or fall,
Takes what's left of life, though tattered,
By His love renews it all.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 1991 © 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.
8 7 8 7 D Trochaic
Tune: BETHANY; ABBOTS LEIGH; COMFORTER
The sound of history humming – ‘a thief within the night’?
The sound of history humming – but what next, ‘a thief within the night’?
Matthew 24: 43
1 The sound of history humming,
as light and matter form,
as galaxies are clustered
within a cosmic storm;
philosophers imagine
while science gathers facts,
we reach for understanding,
yet what we know contracts.
2 We delved beyond the present
through interstellar gas;
we fathom, seek to measure,
a sub-atomic mass.
The God that we conceive of,
a thief within the night,
we cannot gauge this treasure
beyond the scale of light.
3 As yet the mystery blinds us,
confined by birth and death,
but human exploration
will not discard the quest;
as yet we live in tension:
the only earth we know
is where all skill and science
must help our love to grow.
Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2006 © 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: 7 6 7 6 D
Tune: AURELIA; VICTORY PARADE (Ian Sharp)
A hymn in anticipation of Advent – The crash of constellations
A hymn in anticipation of Advent - The crash of constellations
1 The crash of constellations,
where prejudice divides,
where love is torn and broken,
where hatred still resides,
is where we meet as equals
and share what God has given,
diversity in concord,
a foretaste of God's heaven.
2 This is the time for praying,
yet prayer is not the end,
for reconciliation
needs grace that God will send.
And in that grace our vision,
our eyes are opened wide,
to see Christ in the other,
and then we must decide:
3 Is love of God yet greater
than human words and creeds?
Is love of neighbour furnished
by human loving deeds?
And can we live together
or must we be apart,
because of human diff'rence
though we are one in heart?
4 God give us grace to fathom
the riches of your care,
and then the strength to shoulder
the ministry we bear;
that working with each other
acknowledging the worth
of love we share together
we'll spread your peace on earth.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2009 © 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: 7 6 7 6 7 6
Tune: THORNBURY
The tentacles of wealth and domination words responding to David Olusoga’s ‘Empire’
The tentacles of wealth and domination
On the 9th November 2025 at 00:33 I wrote these words in response to David Olusoga’s first episode of his series on BBC television – Empire – where he tells the story of the British Empire, from its origins under Elizabeth I to the establishment of colonies in America, the Caribbean and India.*
The tentacles of wealth and domination
exploit the poor and elevate the rich,
the seats of power are turning in an instant
are sliding, twisting, now about to switch.
We mirror history in each word and action,
again we turn our values upside down.
If this is love we're cynical and empty,
the face of God is creased into a frown.
God's people what has happened to the gospel,
the grace that we accepted, now refused,
the love in which God holds us lies polluted,
the neighbours with Christ's face we have abused.
When will we turn again toward the beauty,
accept the loving kindness of God's care,
before us lies the world and all its riches,
sufficient for our needs if we would share.
© Andrew Pratt 9/11/2025
*https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002hytj
Christians may compare what Olusoga has depicted with the
Magnificat -
Luke 1: 51-53
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
hymnsandbooks 