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 hymn
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
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