Tag: Hymn

Transfiguration – hymn – Three disciples saw God’s glory

TRANSFIGURATION

Three disciples saw God's glory, 
sunlight pouring from Christ's face, 
shielding eyes are almost blinded, 
shaken by God's present grace.
Was it just imagination, 
was that Moses there as well?
Then Elijah stood before them; 
honoured men! Nowhere to dwell!
	
Seize the moment! Peter babbled, 
'should I build a place for you? 
Place of shelter, place of refuge? 
Moses and Elijah too?'
All at once the vision vanished, 
left them all alone again. 
Stunned disciples cowered in horror, 
wondered were they mad or sane?
	
Jesus came and gently touched them, 
'never breathe a word,' he said;
hinted at his human suff'ring 
hope, yet hell were both ahead.
From the mountain's awesome grandeur 
they went stumbling to the town, 
with their friend, this God incarnate, 
set to wear a scornful crown.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
© 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 D
Tune: AUSTRIA

iPad art © Andrew Pratt

Advent 4 – A hymn – ‘Like many children’

Advent 4 A hymn - Like many children - God with no throne 
(inspired by Matthew 1: 18-25)...away in a manger?

Like many children, 
mother unmarried, 
born into hardship, 
yet not alone
Jesus, was valued, 
Mary and Joseph, 
nursing the Godhead, 
God with no throne.

Others would name him 
king of a kingdom, 
yet God incarnate 
lay in the straw, 
God in a manger? 
Fodder for cattle?
Parents uncertain, 
no sign of awe?

Soon they would struggle, 
hounded to exile, 
night brought no comfort, 
only one star; 
moment of wonder, 
quietly, no thunder, 
angels would whisper, 
heard from afar.

Andrew Pratt 11/12/2022
Words © 2022 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: 5.5.5.4D
Tune: BUNESSAN (Morning has broken)

Advent 2 – John the Baptist – a Hymn based on Matthew 3 vs 1-12

3:5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,
3:6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

1	Searching, seeking, people clamoured,
	heard the noise and saw the crowd. 
	Saw the baptist by the river, 
	calling clear and calling loud. 
	First attracted, then confounded, 
	John would challenge all they knew. 
	Those who listened sensed a crisis, 
	change would question what they do.
	
2	This would be a time of turning, 
	spinning churning, whirling round. 
	John would point to new beginnings, 
	to the God that he had found.
	No deceit would go unchallenged, 
	hypocrites were undermined, 
	each foundation here was shaken, 
	here the love of God defined.
	
3	Fruitful trees would flourish, nurtured, 
	barren branches be cut down. 
	Now our generation hears him, 
	now this God has come to town. 
	How will we respond through living, 
	change our ways, transform our lives? 
	One by one, as minds are turning,
	signs are here that love 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: BETHANY (Smart)

Advent 1 – hymn – This is the time of waiting

Advent – a time of waiting – more than a calendar with sweets, more than an extra candle lit each Sunday, perhaps a time to move from darkness into light, from penitence to praise?

A hymn inspired by Isaiah 2:2

2:2 In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.

1	This is the time of waiting,
	the calm before the storm,
	the time of Advent judgement,
	the coming of the dawn;
	a time of recollection,
	of Christ's audacious hope,
	beyond imagination,
	outside our human scope.

2	The nations will be gathered,
	the age will be fulfilled,
	the judgement be enacted,
	as Christ had hoped and willed.
	But for this consummation
	such birth-pangs will be felt, 
	like rupturing of wine-skins, 
	the earth will heave and melt. 

3	For love to be exalted, 
	for hatred to be banned, 
	our human goals must shatter,
	division must be spanned. 
	A change of mind is needed 
	as we are turned around, 
	to move from desecration, 
	to find love's solid ground. 

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: 7 6 7 6 D
Tune: AURELIA

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