In Nazareth it happened, folk heard with bated breath, the good news Jesus offered of life instead of death. This was the manifesto: a charter for the poor, a welcome for the stranger who’d waited at the door. Within a cell the captive would hear the freedom call, and those who felt injustice know healing was for all. Oppression would be banished. Yet hypocrites recoiled, drove Jesus from their presence, but he would not be foiled. And in this time and context will we still have to wait, or dare we risk and follow, before it is too late? Andrew Pratt 17/1/2022 Words © 2022 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 Tune: THE CHERRY TREE CAROL (repeat last two lines of each verse) Based on Luke 4: 14 – 30 (the Lectionary for this coming Sunday is Luke 4: 14 – 21) An alternative version below follows a slightly different rhythm. Alternative words: In Nazareth it happened, the folk held their breath; the good news Jesus offered was life instead of death. And this was the promise: a gift for the poor, a welcome for the stranger who’d waited at the door. Within a cell the captive would hear freedom call, and those who felt injustice know healing was for all. Oppression would be banished, hypocrites recoiled, drove Jesus from their presence, but he would not be foiled. And in this time and context we still have to wait; or dare we risk and follow, before it is too late? Andrew Pratt 17/1/2022 Words © 2022 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,
Tag: calling
The calling of Jesus bids us to build peace – vocation
The calling of Jesus bids us to build peace,
the time is this moment, to cease to deride
the weak and down-trodden the world might despise,
to bury our prejudice, pack away pride.
The people are waiting God’s offer of love,
the different, disfigured, untutored or poor.
The grace of the God-head should not be confined,
how could we discard those who wait at our door?
While failing together we follow the Christ,
with ones deemed as worthless, as cruel or unkind,
as carrying our neighbours we cease to condemn,
while finding the heaven to which we’ve been blind.
Andrew Pratt 18/10/2019
Words © 2019 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://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.
Tunes: DATCHET