She felt just like a ragged dog - inspired by Mark 7: 24-30
1 She felt just like a ragged dog
that scratched around for food,
denied, despised and kicked aside
and never any good.
2 Yet now she stood inside the door
and pleaded with this man,
for each taboo had little weight,
her grief had wider span.
3 Her child had need of healing help
and she would make Christ hear,
the urgency of anguished need
had overcome her fear.
4 And in that moment he would learn,
audacity would teach
that human laws and well worn creeds
put no-one out of reach.
5 Compassion ruled and love compelled
to action on that day,
and Jesus' reach was broadened as
he learnt that grace held sway.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2012 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: CM
Tune: ST PETER (How sweet the name of Jesus sounds)
Tag: Hymn
Christ saw a way so clearly – a hymn inspired by Mark 7: 1-8
Christ saw a way so clearly – inspired by Mark 7: 1-8
1 Christ saw a way so clearly
that others feared to tread;
with those who were discarded
he deigned to rest his head.
2 The poor he suffered gladly,
at hypocrites he’d rant;
his vision was not clouded
by sanctimonious cant.
3 He died, but still those faces
look on with mild disgust;
naivety that’s guileless,
the flaw they could not trust.
4 He’ll whirl and dance before them,
his song will fill the air;
we’ll join the dance he started,
in spite of our despair;
5 For he has spun a rainbow
of singing, shining light;
his leap to love and freedom
defies the darkest night.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2002 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: 7 6 7 6 Iambic
Tune: CHRISTUS DER IST MEIN LEBEN
An ill found peace – Jesus meets the disciples
An ill found peace disturbed the quiet
the room was locked and shuttered.
The Christ himself had now appeared,
a wind-blown candle guttered.
His words, a knife, cut through their fear,
anticipation shaken,
no more condemned, a word of peace,
was quietly, surely spoken.
Yet fear and doubt conspired to foil
what joy might sweep a nation,
such peace as might spread through the world
to shatter consternation.
And so he breathed those words again,
that peace might sign acceptance
of those who had denied their Lord
and now feared his rejection.
The sign he gave, he loved them still,
a lasting affirmation,
that those who loved would do his will,
until love's consummation.
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
Metre: 8 7 8 7
Tune: DOMINUS REGIT ME
Love inspired the anger – hymn
Love inspired the anger: Hymn for Lent 3 – John 2: 13-22
1 Love inspired the anger
That cleared a temple court,
Overturned the wisdom
Which their greed had wrought.
2 Love inspired the anger
That set the leper free
From the legal strictures
That brought misery.
3 Love inspired the anger
That cursed a viper’s brood:
Set on domination,
Self with God confused.
4 Love inspires the anger
That curses poverty,
Preaches life’s enrichment,
Seeks equality.
5 Love inspires the anger
That still can set us free
From the world’s conventions
Bringing liberty.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 1993 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 & The Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes
Singing the Faith 253 (also published in 4 other books)
Metre: 6 6 6 5 Trochaic
Tunes: NORTH COATES; TEMPLE COURT
Once transfiguration blinded – a hymn
Some of you will remember the hymn, ‘Stay, Master, stay upon this heavenly hill’.
As the disciples want to continue in the purer air of the mountaintop, to stay eternally, Jesus
rebukes them:
No, saith the Lord, the hour is past, we go;
Our home, our life, our duties lie below.
While here we kneel upon the mount of prayer,
The plough lies waiting in the furrow there.
And the disciples respond:
There we must do it, serve him, seek him still.
The following hymn continues this theme of being lost in such wonder that we forget the needs that
we are called to meet:
Once transfiguration blinded
1 Once transfiguration blinded
those who climbed to follow Christ,
seeing through a mist of glory,
just a glimpse at once sufficed;
just a glimpse of holy heaven,
earth and heaven neatly spliced.
2 Light can blind us to the sorrow,
to the pain of poverty,
light of holy exaltation,
or the light of being free:
free of fear of want or hunger
resting in complicity.
3 Lost in thunder, bathed in wonder,
hands uplifted should we praise,
while, in destitution, neighbours,
wait for weeks, not merely days,
for the crumbs dropped from a table
that austerity displays.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2018 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 8 7
Tune: WESTMINSTER ABBEY (Purcell)
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