Tag: faith

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

Resurrection Hymn – Here on the crest of the wave of creation

Here on the crest of the wave of creation

Here on the crest of the wave of creation,
roaring and rolling beyond time and place;
God is transforming through quiet resurrection,
challenging hopelessness, offering grace.
	
Now we will follow the steps that will lead us
on through the horrors and hatred of life,
on through the angst ridden pain of bereavement,
on through the cross to the ending of strife.
	
Here at faith's edge where our peace is beginning,
God soaring free through our chaos and pain,
here is the meaning of loving and living,
here is the place of our rising again.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2008 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: EPIPHANY HYMN

Watercolour and Luminar © Andrew Pratt

A hymn in a shattering, divided world…perhaps?

Reflecting on the world in which we live, what can we, should we sing?

Hymns should at least allow for the expression of everything to which the Psalms give voice. And I am including those words over which we tend to be rather squeamish. This interpretation of Psalm 137 was attributed to John Donne but was probably written by Francis Davison (circa 1633-69):

        Happy, who, thy tender barnes

		From the armes

	Of their wailing mothers tearing,

	'Gainst the walls shall dash their bones,

		Ruthless stones

	With their braines and blood besmearing. 
[Donne, J., The Poems of John Donne, Edit. H.J.C. Grierson, Oxford 1912, p426].

And why should I want to sing this or anything even distantly emotionally related to it? Because sometimes that is how I feel and the Psalms testify to the fact that God can cope with us feeling like that.

Not finding such a hymn in my own denomination’s hymn book at the turn of the millennium, and reflecting on the plight of refugees, I wrote these words. And are they, perhaps, redolent of those of opposing opinions, experiencing hatred and fear, in our world, in our countries today?

1	When anger is our highest creed,

	revenge the motivating force;

	God, understand our depth of hurt,

	our need for action, not just thought.



2	Ejected from what makes us safe,

	familiar ground and well-known names,

	we sicken for the things we've seen,

	all sense of hope and courage drains.



3	We cannot celebrate our faith,

	and faith lacks meaning, all is lost;

	for nothing is as it once was,

	we cannot ever bear the cost.



4	So, God, what should we do or say?

	What is there left of love or life?

	What mitigating cause or plea

	will rid us of this pain of strife?



5	Amid our sense of grief and loss

	where nothing now can be the same,

	stand in the midst of shattered faith;

	rebuild, renew, and raise again.



Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)

Words © 2001 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: LM

Tunes: PLAISTOW; KEDRON(Dare)

Where the jackals scratch a living – hymn – prepare the way of the LORD

Isaiah 40:3 A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God”.



1	Where the jackals scratch a living, 

	in this wild, deserted place, 

	springs will bring refreshing water, 

	grass and reeds will sign God's grace. 

	

2	Here our God will build a highway 

	striding out across the land, 

	bringing hope to what was barren, 

	once again the people stand.

	

3	Once again a smile is dawning 

	on the face of every man, 

	all the children play together, 

	women talk, it's time to plan.

	

4	As we tell, recount the story, 

	in this present time and place, 

	may we build in recollection, 

	room for hope and gracious space;

	

5	Space where God can offer comfort 

	through our human words and lives, 

	love that shows in every instance 

	faith can live and hope survives.



© Andrew Pratt  Words © 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

Metre: 8 7 8 7 

Tune: ALL FOR JESUS