Tag: crisis

John the Baptist – a hymn

Related to Luke 3:7-18 – John the Baptist – The Third Sunday in Advent

1	This is the Baptist, unkempt and yet ready, 	
	calling the people to listen and act; 
	calling them down to the water for washing,
	talking of holiness, Godliness, fact.
	
2	This is the man who will call to repentance
	fisherman, Pharisee, zealot and priest; 
	here in the river the sinners will gather, 
	taking God's blessing and sharing God's peace.
		
3	This is the prophet announcing the crisis, 
	moment for turning for challenge and choice;
	quenching of hatred, demanding repentance, 
	giving a reason to praise and rejoice.
	
4	This is the man, in humility pointing 
	others to one who would soon take his place.
	Jesus is coming, the Spirit confirming, 
	this is my Son who will channel my grace.
	
5	Up from the waters the Christ is arising,
	up from our slumbering we will rise too;
	waking to love and to work every dawning, 
	each a disciple with Christ's work to do.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2009 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

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

Advent 3 Magnificat has come to stay – inspired by the Magnificat

A topsy, turvy, upturned world, 
where values are distorted, 
the first is last and last is first 
with everything contorted.
The rich are begging at the door 
while ones they were despising
are given charge of Godly wealth, 
in stature they are rising.

Magnificat has come to stay,
the proud have been extinguished; 
the humble poor are lifted high, 
their poverty relinquished. 
The reign of God has come to pass 
rebutting our world's choices, 
each one that we would count as last 
within this time rejoices.

And will we ever find a place 
with pride and wealth rejected, 
or will hypocrisy deny 
our need to be accepted? 
The choice is ours, the crisis dawns, 
the time to make decisions, 
to stand with God or walk alone 
within this world's divisions.

Andrew Pratt Words © 2011 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: 8.7.6.7 D
Tune: CONSTANCE

Wrestling with God – Genesis 32: 22-31 – a hymn

Genesis 32: 22-31 Tells the story of an enigmatic stranger wresting with Jacob by a brook called The Jabbok. It is a story of crisis and decision, of Jacob a meeting with God, finding his vocation. Charles Wesley told the story in the hymn ‘Come, O thou traveller unknown’. It runs to 12 verses! You may not have sung it in its entirety.

This hymn is somewhat shorter…

1          Wrestling stranger met with Jacob,
            struggled onward till the morn,
            struggled by the brook of Jabbok,
            heralding a different dawn.
           
2          Jacob met the task with courage,
            and it seemed he would prevail,
            but the stronger, wrestling stranger,
            made him limp, God could not fail.
           
3          What the struggle? Why the wrestling?
            Was it real or human doubt?
            Jacob gained self realization,
            how he’d work his purpose out.
           
4          Nameless God now blessing Jacob,
            Israel went on from that place,
            Holy ground, for this was special,
            here he’d met God face to face.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)

Words © 2011 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. Tune: ALL FOR JESUS