What would God make of this building? - a hymn about welcoming
1 What would God make of this building,
house of eloquence and praise,
God who walked the earth before us,
Christ of Galilean days?
2 He who left a home and family,
had nowhere to rest his head,
cast his lot with those derided
framed his life with what he said.
3 He who built a human temple
with the ones he sought to lead,
fended off each great temptation:
born of human power and greed.
4 Would he choose a place, more simple,
less ornate, of greater use,
where the hungry and the homeless
could be healed of their abuse?
5 If we follow in his footsteps
then this place must come to be
open to the poor, the homeless
where the richest grace is free;
6 Where our hope will glaze for glory
windows looking on the world,
where the broken will be welcome,
where love's given, never sold.
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: 8 7 8 7 Trochaic
Tunes: GOTT DES HIMMEL; RATHBUN
Matthew 10: 40-42 speaks of how we should welcome people. This hymn questions whether the church mirrors this example, and for ‘church’ you can think of a congregation, a parish, a circuit – buildings or people - or even a denomination…
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