Lives like yours and mine, contorted – as we live in a world contorted by war and hatred, during a week remembering Hamas action of 7th October 2023 and living with Israel’s response, together with war and carnage in so many places on our planet.
1 Lives like yours and mine, contorted: Genocide has been reported, Wrong seems right, it's all distorted; Christ! What would you do?
2 Seeing babies starving, bleeding, Hearing mothers' desperate pleading, Would you wring your hands, unheeding? Christ! What would you do?
3 Watching buildings ruined, burning, Hearing tank tracks rumble, churning, Would you walk on by, not turning? Christ! What would you do?
4 Sensing fear that chills the city, Families threatened without pity, Would you pray your prayers, so pretty? Christ! What would you do?
5 We have seen it, all the sorrow, We will see the same tomorrow, Must this pattern always follow? Christ! What should we do?
John R. Kleinheksel Sr has composed the following tune which may be used with acknowledgement. This tune is now to be acknowledged as Copyright Stainer & Bell Ltd address as for the text. An audio file of the tune is at the link below.
A sacramental union that none can put apart, and those who sought to fudge the law, were challenged from the start. The Pharisees were undermined, the laws would stay in place, with subtle ways of subterfuge destroyed without a trace.
Then learning from this interchange should we condemn and judge, or take a wider view of Christ, his spirit and his touch? When questions of adultery were set to catch him out, he turned a mirror on the crowd and none were left to shout.
Hypocrisy and judgment were things that Christ condemned, and so we need to judge ourselves before we charge a friend. To love as we would love ourselves a child can understand, and we must unlearn prejudice, give grace the upper-hand.
Mid laughter and derision, with mocking, mournful cry, see evil's quiet corruption, as people wander by. All dignity is fading, and life will ebb away, the Christ is hung on Friday, the powers have had their say.
The women still stand watching, the men in fear have gone, the sky is cut with darkness, the sun will not shine on. In childlike resignation the Christ gives up his last, indignity is finished, his suffering is past.
A soldier still stands silent, then falling to his knees, in quiet acclamation, adores the Christ he sees. While Mary leaves unnoticed, a broken, crippled soul, the shadows hide her anguish, her grief will take control.
We sing the story sadly, we act the story well, but now we leave forgetting the truths it has to tell. God give us sense to grapple with powers that would defame the Christ in one another, the hope we long to name.
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.
The Beatitudes are enigmatic – blessings for those who seem least blessed (Luke 6: 17 – 26). I’ve often thought that part of our calling as Christians is to embody and enable those blessings by our love in action. Jesus shows us how. This hymn was inspired by this theme
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.
hymnsandbooks 