A hymn inspired by 1 Samuel 8: 4 – 11, 16 – 20
for Second Sunday after Pentecost perhaps still pertinent?
1 The warning went unheeded,
that power corrupts and fires
a need for domination,
that wealth and fear conspires
to elevate the powerful,
to subjugate the poor,
that those who have most riches
will always look for more.
2 The people pleaded loudly,
'most nations have a king',
and reason would not change them
from wanting such a thing.
As history unfolded
they learnt, as if in youth,
that kings are only human,
a long-forgotten truth.
3 So Saul was soon anointed
and feted by his peers,
his reign was sometimes blighted,
brought hurt and pain and tears.
That lesson we're still learning:
that power blinds to need,
and wealth is hoarded, hidden,
and selfishness a creed.
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: 7 6 7 6 D
Tune: AURELIA
Category: Song
As an election approaches a hymn (poem,song) – If love is foremost in our faith
If love is foremost in our faith
we have a choice to make
on this and every other day,
for all else is at stake;
we see a world that’s broken down,
where poverty and fear
are trampelling the weakest ones,
with hatred lurking near.
‘Today’, God said, I give a choice
where life and death compete.
The chance is now for us to take,
to finish, to complete,
the turning of the tables here
as Christ, one time, had turned
the temple tables, scattering greed,
to free those power had spurned.
Where selfishness can cripple lives,
or love can set them free,
what happens from this moment on
rests now with you and me:
if our audacious words of grace
can frame what we would pray,
then from this moment, in our time,
let love infuse each day.
Andrew Pratt 22/5/2024 on the announcement of a General Election
Words © 2024 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: CMD
Tunes: ELLACOMBE; COE FEN; KINGSFOLD
Audacious grace: a hymn for an Arminian, Wesleyan Pentecost
Audacious grace: to give without receiving,
to give expecting nothing in return
And through this grace, this moment still believing,
that love is something we can never earn.
This grace extends beyond our expectation,
for not a one is found outside its span,
this tender care, this steadfast loving kindness
has held the cosmos since all time began.
No word or action, prayer or contemplation
can lift us us from this earth to heaven’s height,
nor can the supernova’s startling brilliance
compete with God’s eternal, ceaseless light.
In faith we sing beyond imagination,
beyond the limits of our common sense.
We frame a vision out of time’s contention,
yet know its truth within our present tense.
Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2024 © 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: LONDONDERRY AIR
A hymn for this time and context -when a world calls out for healing – Christ’s Body has been broken
Toward Pentecost – when a world calls out for healing - Christ's body has been broken
1 Christ's body has been broken,
not bread but human lives,
each family has scattered,
just memory survives;
the parents cry in anguish,
the children cry in fear,
we label them as migrant,
not wanted over here.
2 These are our human neighbours,
relations from our birth,
each sister, child or brother,
as one on this wide earth.
If we claim God as parent,
'our Father' as we say,
when will we own the the meaning
of empty words we pray?
3 God, help us welcome others,
God break the barriers down,
that tears may turn to laughter,
and smiles displace each frown;
then may we live together,
forgiven by your grace,
the Pentecostal promise,
one Godly human race!
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: 7 6 7 6 D
Tune: AURELIA
God’s commandments link together – hymn for Easter 5
A hymn for the fifth Sunday of Easter – ‘God's commandments link together’
1 God's commandments link together
justice, mercy, love and grace;
elements to guide the framing
of our laws within this place.
Yet the laws and legal judgments
that we form through human thought,
all too easily diminish
values that the Christ had sought.
2 As we follow in his footsteps
as disciples, let us find,
ways to live in peace together,
ways that bring God's grace to mind;
ways of gracious peaceful living,
that might spread throughout the earth,
ways of God's audacious giving:
let the spirit find new birth.
Andrew E Pratt.
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 D
Tune: BETHANY
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