Pentecost signalled a time for a new start? A time of change for the disciples. For us? – a hymn ‘Is this a void, or just a time of challenge?’
Is this a void, or just a time of challenge,
a new found joy, beginning or an end?
Yet God has travelled with us on this journey
along with each acquaintance, neighbour, friend.
And will God leave us as we travel onward,
abandon us to all the future holds?
But God, is here, behind us and before us,
as every chance is greeted and unfolds.
So God, we offer thanks for every blessing,
for times of care and gifting, now long past,
and hand in hand we seek a common purpose,
assured that love and grace are sure to last.
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:11 10 11 10
Tune: INTERCESSOR
Created by HymnQuest.com
Tag: challenge
A time to reconsider – a hymn inspired by Matthew 4:12-23
A time to reconsider – inspired by Matthew 4:12-23
1 A time to reconsider,
to pause, to reassess;
when crisis comes with challenge,
how can God come to bless?
And yet a light is shining,
we cannot understand
that at this time of turning
God sharpens what we planned.
2 As Jesus felt the tension,
while John slept in a cell,
the challenge was beginning
and he would sound the knell.
Now in our time the echo
reverberates with fear,
and will we face our challenge
of bringing justice near?
3 To face the grief and sorrow,
to live with scorn and hate,
to live love undiluted
before it is too late?
A time to reconsider,
to pause, to reassess;
when crisis comes with challenge,
how can God come to bless?
Andrew Pratt (born 1948) based on Isaiah 9 vs 1- 4 and Matthew 4 vs 12-23
Words Andrew Pratt © 2010 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.
v.2 l.8 alt by the author 2026
Metre: 7 6 7 6 D
Tune: CRUGER
Created by HymnQuest.com
Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet – hymn on John the Baptist
Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet – John the Baptist
Crazy, ragged, ranting prophet,
least that’s how some people saw him,
eating locusts and wild honey,
sweeping hypocrites before him.
Standing by the raging river,
raging at unrighteous forces,
calling weak and powerful to him,
sending them on different courses.
This is one the prophets spoke of,
one to clear the way for Jesus;
humble, man of God proclaiming
judgment, grace and mercy for us.
Would we wander to that river?
Hear that vagabond still preaching?
Or would we not want that judgment,
plug our ears to his beseeching?
And today and yet tomorrow
will we take that path and follow,
one who lived through joy and sadness
who would suffer pain and sorrow?
Would we shirk the call of Jesus,
tied to selfishness or borrow,
his audacious loving kindness,
setting free to build tomorrow?
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: 8 8 8 8 D
Tune: CLONMACNOISE
A Local Preacher once asked me what hymns there were relation to John the Baptist. Since than I have written a number. This sees John as the forerunner to the Messiah referred to in Hebrew prophecy.
As summer ends a hymn to challenge us – The Christ was a vagabond
As we begin (for Methodists, a new Methodist year this hymn challenges us, not to look at others, but to be honest about our own faithfulness to the example of Jesus.
The Christ was a vagabond, penniless stranger,
or so some would style him, deriding his call.
And those who would follow, were they any nearer
the total self-giving, of giving their all?
And we at this moment, are we any better?
Our silver excuses, have we got it right?
The poor are still with us? Then love of our neighbour
is vacuous, meaningless, blinding our sight.
The wealth of this nation is at our disposal,
yet few hold the purse strings, have power to decide,
while others are crippled. Iniquitous ‘sharing’
will leave them impoverished, nowhere to hide.
With wages and taxes we barter for people,
define what is poverty, pity the poor,
but then, when the homeless and helpless come knocking,
we bar them from pavements while locking the door.
We bathe in hypocrisy, claim to be righteous,
great God will you open our eyes to the plight
of those we have damaged, derided, diminished:
the Christ in the other, still hid from our sight.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2017 Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Words © 2017 © 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: 12 11 12 11
Tune: STREETS OF LAREDO
A challenge to Christian commitment – at ordination perhaps – In places where there is no church
1 In places where there is no church,
where hope is hard to find,
we touch the hands made rough by life
to seek a common mind.
We go where others would not go,
perhaps would fear to tread,
to go beyond our walls and ways
wherever we are led.
2 Where commerce rules we ply our trade,
our currency is grace,
and all we have to offer is
God's love to fill this place.
In prisons where we sit with those
whom justice has condemned,
we seek to mirror Jesus' love
that fear might have an end.
3 And while a person lives in pain
a quiet voice can say,
this time will pass, love holds you still,
we'll see another day.
In searing heat or arctic cold
where lives are ripped and torn,
or where a family waits in fear
we share another dawn.
4 And is it arrogant to say
we look with Jesus' eyes?
We seek to see his face in all,
to hear him in their sighs.
And so our calling is to serve,
to go where Christ has led,
go out, go all, go to the world,
God's people must be fed.
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: CMD
Tune: WORKING FOR CHRIST (by Camilla Cederholm who I met in Finland – see More than hymns, No.70)
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