1 No royal robes, but donkey riding,
the Christ, our King, had come to town,
Jerusalem came out to meet him.
Would gold or thorns compose a crown?
2 The people spread their palms before him,
they wondered what this day would bring:
as Jesus, humble, riding quietly
brought contrast to the praise they'd sing.
3 The ones who'd shared these years had answers,
but even they could get it wrong.
So many tensions, tangled, threaded
brought notes of discord to their song.
4 But soon the world would be confounded,
the tables turned, the structures torn,
till only those fired by God's spirit
could meet this crisis, be reborn.
5 And if within imagination
we walked within that crowd today,
would we withstand the world's derision,
to stay with Christ, or turn away?
Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) © 18 August 2012 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, 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: 9 8 9 8
Tune: ST CLEMENT
Tag: Palm Sunday
Hymns for Palm and Passion
Here we're watching from the side-lines – a hymn for Palm Sunday
1 Here we're watching from the sidelines,
yet we bring ourselves to bear
on the picture, on the action:
now it feels as though we're there.
Deep within the crowd we're cheering,
yet our doubt is all too near.
Is it safe to follow Jesus?
Then this doubt is fuel to fear.
2 Now the crowds shout out hosanna!
Feeling one, we join their call.
Carried by the celebration,
know that we could give our all.
Doubt has been repressed, and hidden,
for a time our fear is small.
Yet, if we could only know it,
Christ is heading for a fall.
3 On beyond this acclamation,
crowds would find a reason why
they could change these glad hosannas
to a raucous, angry cry.
And are we as faulted, fickle,
just as likely to deny
all the things we once held firmly,
call for God to hang and die?
4 We are human, if we're honest
we will own that we can fail,
change and spin our understanding,
recognise that we are frail.
God we need your gracious loving,
deep forgiveness to assail
things that hurt and leave us broken.
God enable and prevail.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
© 2011 Stainer and Bell Ltd., London, England, 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: 8 7 8 7 D
Tune: CONVERSE
Created by HymnQuest.com
Here terror stripped our Lord of hope – a hymn of the Passion
1 Here terror stripped our Lord of hope,
the sweat of blood, the fear of death,
the shadow of that fearful cross,
that dries the throat, that quickens breath.
2 Alone and desolate he waits
and prays that God might take away
the cup that signals human dread,
while friends have slept, or left the fray.
3 And, strange enigma, this is God
and here God shares mortality,
within the garden, on the cross,
at one with our humanity.
4 And now our deepest fear and loss,
condensed to pain of mind and heart,
are met within God's human frame,
within God's science and God's art.
5 And in our lost humanity
when hope is drained and faith has gone,
when desolation dwells within,
God holds our hurt and love goes on.
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
© 2015 Stainer and Bell Ltd., London, England, 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: 8 8 8 8
Tune: FULDA
Created by HymnQuest.com
How soon Palm Sunday prayers and praise – a Palm Sunday hymn
How soon Palm Sunday prayers and praise – a Palm Sunday hymn
1 How soon Palm Sunday prayers and praise,
that could have held love's fusion,
were spun around: the same ones cried
aloud for execution.
2 Such loud hosannas! Yet our praise
has many different faces;
how soon our love is turned around,
we lose our airs and graces.
3 And see how those who waved their palms
with shouts of exaltation
at once had changed both minds and ways
to bless annihilation.
4 How soon commitment melts or fades,
and hope becomes illusion;
and so our love transmutes to hate,
our order to confusion.
5 God help us at this present time
to act without pretension,
to hold on fast to gracious love,
to live out your intention.
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
Palm Sunday hymn – No royal robes
No royal robes, but donkey riding
1 No royal robes, but donkey riding,
the Christ, our King, had come to town,
Jerusalem came out to meet him.
Would gold or thorns compose a crown?
2 The people spread their palms before him,
they wondered what this day would bring:
as Jesus, humble, riding quietly
brought contrast to the praise they'd sing.
3 The ones who'd shared these years had answers,
but even they could get it wrong.
So many tensions, tangled, threaded
brought notes of discord to their song.
4 But soon the world would be confounded,
the tables turned, the structures torn,
till only those fired by God's spirit
could meet this crisis, be reborn.
5 And if within imagination
we walked within that crowd today,
would we withstand the world's derision,
to stay with Christ, or turn away?
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: 9 8 9 8
Tune: ST CLEMENT
A hymn for Holy Week – Rising gloom surrounds the story
Rising gloom surrounds the story, Jesus moves towards the cross, here Jerusalem is waiting, favour swings from gain to loss. Crowds had swarmed in adulation, many came infused with hope. Every person sought an outcome, nothing seemed beyond his scope. Zealots called for liberation, sinners waited on his word, children ran with palms to meet him, felt affirmed by what they heard. Other people simply bustled, thought their lives beyond reproach, when the Lord came riding humbly, hardly noticed his approach. In the temple, tables turning, those in power were disabused as he showed the way to worship for the poor, despised, abused. Choices faced him in the garden, prayer was dry, betrayal lurked; while his closest friends were sleeping, human evil waited, worked. What is left? some trumped-up charges? Self-conceit? Religious hate? Here the Christ still stands before us - time for judgement ... crosses wait. Andrew E. Pratt (born 1948) Words © 2006 © 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. 8 7 8 7 ADORATION (Hunt)
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