God hung and died upon the cross
God hung and died upon the cross,
and there he suffered wild abuse,
the ones who held religious power
had offered an oblique excuse:
denying love their greatest crime.
We see this echoed in our time.
For when we worship week by week
while poor are trampled, made more poor;
when those in need are turned away,
or sent off to another shore;
our silence signs complicity
and signals our iniquity.
But if we walk beside the ones
that others curse, berate and blame,
share in their stark reality,
their ridicule, pernicious pain;
then know that God has walked this way,
with them we'll live another day.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) based on 1 Peter 2: 19-25
© 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 8 8 8 8 8
Tune: ABINGDON
Category: Song
How soon Palm Sunday prayers and praise – a Palm Sunday hymn
How soon Palm Sunday prayers and praise – a Palm Sunday hymn
1 How soon Palm Sunday prayers and praise,
that could have held love's fusion,
were spun around: the same ones cried
aloud for execution.
2 Such loud hosannas! Yet our praise
has many different faces;
how soon our love is turned around,
we lose our airs and graces.
3 And see how those who waved their palms
with shouts of exaltation
at once had changed both minds and ways
to bless annihilation.
4 How soon commitment melts or fades,
and hope becomes illusion;
and so our love transmutes to hate,
our order to confusion.
5 God help us at this present time
to act without pretension,
to hold on fast to gracious love,
to live out your intention.
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
‘Right here in the presence of loving and grace’ – a hymn inspired by Mary anointing Jesus’s feet.
‘Right here in the presence of loving and grace’ – a hymn inspired by Mary anointing Jesus's feet.
1 Right here in the presence of loving and grace,
see Judas is scowling, a sneer scars his face.
Anointing with perfume is costly and rare;
this gift could be sold, giving substance to care.
2 What need this affection that Jesus received?
It seemed to go counter to all they believed.
The sale of the perfume could go in the purse,
some pieces of silver, not seen as a curse.
3 Yet this would foreshadow for Judas and Christ,
a scene of betrayal, for greed had enticed
this zealot to grasp for much more than his lot,
through misunderstanding, he'd scheme and he'd plot.
4 For Jesus, anointing would speak of his death,
as love of humanity took his last breath,
but now in this moment a woman knelt down,
her wisdom, perception, would lead to a crown.
5 This act of extravagance, worldly yet wise,
offensive to some, was now opening eyes
to love without measure, to infinite grace,
that minds cannot fathom, nor custom displace.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2015 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.
Metre: 11 11 11 11
Tune: ST DENIO
Myanmar earthquake made me remember this hymn…
1 Seeing death and desecration;
natural hazards, human fate,
is this part of God’s creation?
Will the horror soon abate?
Through a feeling, more than reason,
just a glimpse of fleeting grace,
we will hold on, for a season,
to our damaged, limping faith.
2 Making sense of devastation,
human grief and mental pain,
moves us to the age-old question,
makes us plumb the depths again.
Who to blame and who to challenge?
Where is God amid the loss?
Where, when people have to scavenge,
is there meaning in a cross?
3 So we wait, belief in tatters;
struggle to retain our faith.
Every resolution shatters.
Certainties destroyed apace.
Yet we reach to sisters, brothers;
creeds, divisions turn to dust.
Now we feel at one with others;
enmity transformed to trust.
Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)
© 2006 Stainer and Bell Ltd.
8 7 8 7 D
Come wake the dead- hymn
Come, wake the dead and raise the roof – a hymn with Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 in mind
1 Come, wake the dead and raise the roof,
we’ll picnic in the hills;
the day of God will come to pass,
when fear no longer chills.
2 Good wine is here to slake your thirst,
the hungry feast and rest,
the captives will be free at last,
the foreigner is blessed.
3 God formed us all and made us well
and God will bring us home;
the broken, beaten, lost, are found,
no longer need to roam.
4 So join the throng and raise your voice,
look round, look up, look well,
while all the heavens join our song,
ring every freedom bell.
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: CM
Tune: CAPEL
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