No royal robes, but donkey riding
1 No royal robes, but donkey riding,
the Christ, our King, had come to town,
Jerusalem came out to meet him.
Would gold or thorns compose a crown?
2 The people spread their palms before him,
they wondered what this day would bring:
as Jesus, humble, riding quietly
brought contrast to the praise they'd sing.
3 The ones who'd shared these years had answers,
but even they could get it wrong.
So many tensions, tangled, threaded
brought notes of discord to their song.
4 But soon the world would be confounded,
the tables turned, the structures torn,
till only those fired by God's spirit
could meet this crisis, be reborn.
5 And if within imagination
we walked within that crowd today,
would we withstand the world's derision,
to stay with Christ, or turn away?
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
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.
Metre: 9 8 9 8
Tune: ST CLEMENT
Category: Song
A troubled soul – a hymn for Lent 5
A troubled soul, the Christ of God – inspired by John 12: 20-33
1 A troubled soul, the Christ of God,
humanity exposed,
with all the turmoil that we feel,
when choices are proposed.
The monumental choice he faced,
the crisis must be met,
to take the path of love to death,
or turn away, forget.
2 The riddle of the grain of wheat
was told with fear and dread,
yet mention of new fruit gives hope
that God might raise the dead.
The loss of life, the gain of life
are tangled in this game,
yet those who live in love of God
are held within love's frame.
3 So Jesus chose and we must choose,
which path we are to take,
the one which will deny God's love
or cause the earth to quake.
God give us courage to deny
the self that harbours hate,
to trust in your eternal grace,
before it is too late.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
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.
Metre: DCM
Tune: ELLACOMBE
Mothering Sunday – a hymn and a song (re-posting with a link to a tune)
Two very different items for Mothering Sunday
God, you hold me like a mother – inspired by Psalm 131
God, you hold me like a mother,
Safely on her knee;
God, you hold me like a mother,
Close to you but free.
God, you watch me when I wander,
Keep me in your sight.
God, you watch me when I wander,
Hold me day and night.
God, you hold me like a mother,
Teach me to be free.
God, you hold me like a mother,
Show your love to me.
Words Andrew Pratt © 1995 Stainer & Bell Ltd & The Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes 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. Published in Big Blue Planet (1995)
Metre: 8 5 85 Trochaic
Tune: GOD YOU HOLD ME (George Bexon)
Vulnerable presence of God in creation
Vulnerable presence of God in creation,
fragile, yes broken, in order to be;
cracking the egg of existence in birthing,
mothering God who is setting us free.
Vulnerable God source of nature, will nurture,
sharing our pain in the process of birth;
bloodied, yet beautiful, changed, yet unchanging,
passionate partner of love on this earth.
Vulnerable God found in human relations,
held as a baby, yes, suckled and fed;
yet an enigma, creating and feeding,
God is our parent, while being our bread.
Words Andrew Pratt © 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: 11 10 11 10
Tune: STEWARDSHIP
A Hymn for Lent 2 – All the pain and hurt and horror
Mark 8:31
8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Hymn: All the pain and hurt and horror
1 All the pain and hurt and horror,
loss, denial and mistrust,
hovered round as Jesus waited
for his friends to re-adjust.
Lost within misunderstanding:
thought that love was just a dream,
knew that it would be so easy,
they're confounded by Love's scheme.
2 Jesus taught that love would conquer
only through integrity,
that the way his life was pointing
tested his humanity.
Jesus felt that Peter's challenge
undermined his purpose here,
spoke quite harshly, underlining,
made his need both plain and clear.
3 Death was now the final action,
Jesus spelt out to his friends.
To them this was not expedient,
not the way Messiah ends.
Love would be denied if actions
led to violence or defence,
Jesus, lamb led to the slaughter,
death the cost of Love's expense.
Andrew Pratt 8/2/2012 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
Tune: LUX EOI
Metre: 8.7.8.7D
A laser like tongue – A hymn inspired by Jesus baptism which might be used as a dramatic reading
A laser like tongue – A hymn inspired by Jesus baptism which might be used as a dramatic reading.
A laser like tongue used when speaking God's word,
an arc-light to shine through the crass or absurd.
The prophet had spoken of just such a voice,
embodied in John who would offer God's choice.
A preacher from Galilee joined in the crowd,
not hidden, John pointed and called him out loud.
The lamb, God's anointed, Messiah had come,
the Spirit confirming that this was God's son.
The world and God's people spun round by this man
discovered that grace had a limitless span;
and this, while offending the pious, the priest,
brought joy to the ones once regarded as least.
Some soon caught the essence, the crisis, the power,
the challenge of Jesus to twist or devour
their present conceptions, their life-long deceit,
to turn them, re-focus, and make them complete.
And so those around heard both challenge and choice,
the sense of authority rang through his voice.
The call to leave everything seemed so absurd
and yet they responded to Jesus's word.
That word is still rippling, extending through space,
it reaches through time and it tells of God's grace;
it sharpens perception, it rings in each ear,
the spirit is moving, the Kingdom is near.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948) based on Isaiah 49 vs 1-7; Mark 1: 9 – 15; John 1 vs 29-42
© Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: 11 11 11 11
Tune: PADERBORN (Paderborn Gesangbuch 1765) Perhaps this text could be read dramatically rather than sung?
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