Tag: history

Easter hymn – We cannot speculate, or glance

An empty tomb is just empty. It took a meeting with Jesus to convince a woman, then a group of men that Jesus, who had died on a cross, was alive. It is still difficult to believe. Yet after two thousand years, whatever we believe, as Geoffrey Best has written on Facebook, ‘…in this (hi)story is the revelation of the very nature of God, a God who takes all that we throw and absorbs and transforms the dead and deadly into life abundant .... if we let it!’ Amen!

1	We cannot speculate, or glance 
	into the well of history. 
	Nor can we look beyond this time 
	with any sense of certainty. 
	We only have our faith and hope, 
	to make us stand, to help us cope.
	
2	Great God we grasp at straws of faith,
	of things we hope will point to you. 
	We read the ancient texts and scan 
	those distant myths to make them new. 
	And all the time we live between 
	these metaphors and what is seen.
	
3	The past is gone, we cannot hear 
	more than an echo down the age. 
	And what is still to come we fear; 
	we see each other's pent up rage.
	Yet what we need is close at hand, 
	your present love in every land.
	
4	True resurrection brings to bear 
	the things that heal, create, unite. 
	Love launches its triumphant praise 
	and builds on joy and will delight.
	The former things are passed away, 
	dead night transformed to brightest day.

Metre: 8 8 8 8 8 8 Tune: ABINGDON
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.

Art © Andrew Pratt 2022

	


	
	






	
	

		
Life now with Covid-19 – We cannot see the future (hymn/poem)
	


	

		
We cannot see the future,

nor live as in the past,

our time the present moment,

yet know this will not last.

But can a human construct

give answers or make sense

as everyone will struggle

with this, the present tense?


Our understanding staggers,

but what can history prove?

What scripture has a message

to help us rest or move?

The wilderness was testing

a place to learn and think,

a sudden unthought action

might push us to the brink.


So in this present moment

the greatest gift is time,

a time of recollection

before life’s upward climb.

And can our faith sustain us?

Or simple human love?

While waiting in the valley

we lift our eyes above.


The heavens will not answer,

but through each silent night

the stars might make us wonder

at their insistent light.

We live within an instant,

as finite as our breath,

suspended in a moment

between our life and death.


What matters in this moment

is how we love and live,

is how we treat each other,

of how we share and give;

to speculate is pointless,

this is the earth we know,

this edifice of living:

what will OUR loving show?


Andrew Pratt 5/5/2020

Words © 2020 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.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.

Tunes: THORNBURY; CRUGER

	


	
	






	
	

		
When evil gathers in the wings – Bad things happen when good people do nothing…hymn
	


	

		
Bad things happen when good people do nothing…


When evil gathers in the wings

the time of crisis offers choice:

to rise with courage and resist

or keep our silence, still each voice.

What shall we do when chaos reigns,

act out God’s love? Submit to chains?


As history echoes from the past,

while memories can tend to fade,

‘lest we forget’ let us recast

the hard decisions others made:

to live the love that Christ had shown,

self sacrificial, Spirit blown.


Words © 2019 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.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.

Tune: ABINGDON


 

	


	
	






	
	

		
Holocaust hymn
	


	

		
As we remember holocaust,

in horror disbelieving

the history of the human race,

we share each other’s grieving;

God purge us of hypocrisy,

of all our self–deceiving.


Our language is inadequate,

unfit for the expression

of hatred that we visualise,

humanity’s confession;

we hurry headlong into hell,

we witness love’s regression.


The deepest, distant agony

that throbs through all creation,

the silent tears that quietly fall

in every generation,

are signs of our humanity,

our need for re–creation.


God give us strength to make a pledge

to move beyond contention,

to see, in each, humanity.

Through greater good intention,

God, move us toward a purer love,

a gracious intervention.


Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) © 2003 Stainer & Bell Ltd

No tune has been suggested for this hymn – if you know one please post.

	


	
	






	
	

		
Christmas – The God of cosmic question – quasars, quarks, pulsars
	


	

		
The God of cosmic question

Surprises by a birth,

Not in some new dimension

But on this ravaged earth!


In quasars, quarks and pulsars

We seek the cosmic truth:

The ground of our existence

That set creation loose,


And human senses lead us,

Through all they analyse,

From arrogance to wonder,

To spiritual surprise.


But senses have their limits:

Unanswered still there lies

The single, deepest question

Our intellect supplies.


Yet history proffers insight:

The Christ of time and space

Speaks of a God incarnate

Born in a squalid place.


Alive within our compass,

Upon this ravaged earth,

The God of cosmic question

Surprises us in birth!


Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) (amended 2019 by author)

© 1991 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.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.