Poems – Page 31 – hymnsandbooks

Hymn: It seemed as though the Lord lived still

It seemed as if the Lord lived still

It seemed as if the Lord lived still,

expressed his will, the lame could walk,

and all assumed the blind would see,

the silent ones would start to talk!

Yet all they saw when looking round,

were Galilean fisher folk,

a zealot and some other men,

some hazarded it was a joke.

So Peter had to put them right,

the crucified, the buried dead,

the very Christ, their God was raised,

yet now they acted in God’s stead.

And everywhere the spirit blows

the living Christ and God’s own grace

is manifest by human means

in every later time and space.

Plain ignorance and human zeal,

had nailed their God, had knocked love down,

but that could never be the end,

and love still lived to wear the crown.

So everywhere God’s people meet

through prayer and action God is there,

and even in this time and place

our lives can tend and bring God’s care.

Andrew Pratt 17/3/2012

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

Tune: BEFORE THE THRONE StF 717

Metre: DLM

An ill found peace – Jesus meets the disciples

An ill found peace disturbed the quiet 
the room was locked and shuttered.
The Christ himself had now appeared, 
a wind-blown candle guttered. 

His words, a knife, cut through their fear, 
anticipation shaken, 
no more condemned, a word of peace, 
was quietly, surely spoken.

Yet fear and doubt conspired to foil 
what joy might sweep a nation, 
such peace as might spread through the world 
to shatter consternation.

And so he breathed those words again, 
that peace might sign acceptance 
of those who had denied their Lord 
and now feared his rejection.

The sign he gave, he loved them still, 
a lasting affirmation, 
that those who loved would do his will, 
until love's consummation.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2015 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
Tune: DOMINUS REGIT ME

In simple, suffering love – Easter Vigil

In simple, suffering love

a man looks down, on all the world

  as empathetic tears drench cheeks that child-like,

  once had filled with laughter.

 

The shadows lengthen,

heighten the beam’s intersection,

as muscles, taut with strain crack, as a whip,

and feel the course of pain.

 

Finished? Is it finished?

But still the thunder grumbles

and lightning slashes dark and cloud.

     A drift of rain disperses yet a diminishing crowd.

© Andrew Pratt 2024

Resurrection Hymn – Here on the crest of the wave of creation

Here on the crest of the wave of creation

Here on the crest of the wave of creation,
roaring and rolling beyond time and place;
God is transforming through quiet resurrection,
challenging hopelessness, offering grace.
	
Now we will follow the steps that will lead us
on through the horrors and hatred of life,
on through the angst ridden pain of bereavement,
on through the cross to the ending of strife.
	
Here at faith's edge where our peace is beginning,
God soaring free through our chaos and pain,
here is the meaning of loving and living,
here is the place of our rising again.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2008 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: 11 10 11 10
Tune: EPIPHANY HYMN

The Way to the Cross – from Bethlehem to Calvary and Beyond – A Hymn

When Jesus came to Bethlehem there was no harsh a day, 
they say a census had been called, there was no place to stay;
this baby who would shake the world, would first lay down his head, 
not in a royal house or hall, but in a manger bed.
	
When Jesus went to Nazareth his father had a trade, 
a carpenter now had a son and business plans were laid;
but soon within the temple courts, this lad would have his way, 
dissenting from his parents' wish, they'd looked for him all day.
	
The path that he set out to tread from Jordan's crowded bank
would take him him through a wilderness with neither power nor rank; 
returning he would scourge the ones and verbally deride
a viper's brood, these hypocrites, who dressed themselves in pride.
	
Returning to Jerusalem, but not in regal dress, 
he's seated on a donkey's back, not here to rule or bless;
the temple tables were upturned, but more disturbing still, 
his challenge to authority would cause the air to chill.
	
That chill was in Gethsemane when he knelt down to pray, 
and all the pain of all the world  seared through him on that day; 
the time of crisis had arrived to turn from what was right,
or walk with soldiers on to what now looked like endless night.
	
The trial came and ones that he had scourged with words scourged him, 
and this was brutal vengeance now, not wondrous, simply grim:
his flesh was ripped, his sinews torn, his body hung to dry, 
and as the darkness gathered round the whole world seemed to sigh.
	
That ragged child that Mary bore was taken from the tree, 
the women waited through three days, covertly went to see:
they found the tomb was empty now, the one they sought had gone, 
and as they raced in fear away, the mystery lingered on.  
	
Yet through two thousand years and more the influence of that man
has rippled down through history from where it first began; 
his spirit stills inspires a faith that trusts to what is right, 
to seek for truth, to live in love, keep justice burning bright.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2015 © 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: 14 14 14 14 
Tune: THE LINCOLNSHIRE POACHER
Written at the request of the Rev’d Dr John Parry