The earth pleads for justice, the harvest is wanting - While Matthew 9: 37 speaks of a harvest of people, perhaps it is also pertinent today if we think of a harvest of the earth and its care?
The earth pleads for justice, the harvest is wanting,
in fire, flood or tempest our crops are destroyed;
the Spring, once predicted, is desolate, silent,
excuses are hollow, we’ve done all we can?
The mountains have echoed, or is that God’s whisper,
the quiet consternation of one in distress?
A prompting, a question that answers our calling,
is that your defence, that you’ve done all you can?
While continents crumble and ice caps are melting,
you sit on your hands, you do nothing at all.
Wake up to the danger still growing around you,
and do all you can till your passage is through.
And now in the present let’s work for the future,
still others will follow, they wait in the wings:
this planet, its future, its people our neighbours,
join hands, sing our anthem: ‘We’ll do All We Can!’
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2021 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: 12 11 12 11
Tunes: LAREDO; ST CATHERINES COURT
Created by HymnQuest.com
Tag: mission
A hymn reflecting on Luke Chapter 10 appropriate for a divided world.
Jesus sent out his disciples in pairs to places where he would go. Where they were greeted with hospitality, there they were to rest. Hospitality of welcome was the key hope. I wonder who would welcome us today – if we arrived with ‘no purse, no bag, no sandals’ – destitute? And who, like this, would we welcome? 1 We cannot make an easy, safe distinction, all people are our neighbours, none denied; the voices of all nations heard beside us: all sisters, brothers, none we should deride. 2 The wall between the peoples has been broken, in love of God divisions disappear; as seen in Christ we recognise our neighbours We greet unusual faces without fear. 3 We celebrate each difference God has given; each nation, black and white, both straight and gay; the able and the challenged God has offered that we might share together, learn and pray. 4 We meet with those who paint a different picture, who value God in words not yet our own, in dialogue we offer one another a vision we could never find alone. 5 This God we seek is greater than each difference, the source and ground of all variety, the centre and the soul of all creation erasing hate with love to set us free. Andrew Pratt, Words © 2008 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. Metre: 11 10 11 10 Tune: INTERCESSOR
Jesus calls us to the chaos – hymn – ministry outside the camp
Jesus calls us to the chaos
that our hearts would fear to own,
places that are fraught and tortured,
only hurt and hatred known.
Jesus calls us to the desert,
wilderness of mental pain,
all perception seems distorted,
will we risk this stress and strain?
Jesus calls us out to meet him,
homeless, restless, lost alone,
all the future rung with sadness,
empty, heartless, cold as stone.
Jesus calls beyond the comfort
will the church stand still, or go?
Will we risk it, yet he beckons,
leave the safety that we know?
Andrew Pratt 21/3/2019
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.
Written for Peter Barber
We dedicate ourselves to exploration – science/worship compared in a hymn
We dedicate ourselves to exploration,
to sound the height and depth of Godly love,
but if we lock ourselves within our churches
what worth is it to raise our hands above?
Like those who seek in scientific research,
behind closed doors committed to their task,
we find ourselves as lost to human pleading
until we hear the things that others ask.
Each theory bears its fruit in application,
our praise makes sense when others feel God’s grace;
until that time our search, it seems, is wasted,
a stark, unholy vacuum fills this place.
Andrew Pratt 19/2/2019
Tune: INTERCESSOR
After ‘When the church of Jesus shuts its outer door’, Fred Pratt Green, and Jim Al-Khalili’s interview in The Life Scientific of Sir Gregory Winter.
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.
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