Tag: resurrection

How can God, condemned, be hanging? – the test of all that deserves to be called Christian…

How can God, condemned, be hanging? – the test of all that deserves to be called  Christian… (See Jurgen Moltmann The Crucified God)

How can God, condemned, be hanging?
False messiahs meet such ends, 
and the ones then testifying, 
have no need to make amends.
Educated folk were laughing, 
they foresaw what was to come, 
saw disciples hiding, crying, 
feeling both distraught and numb.
             
But that early Easter morning 
brought another scene to bear, 
Jesus mission had not ended, 
he was risen, standing there.
Still the story, more than foolish 
soon gave rise to talk and doubt. 
‘Surely God could never suffer?’ 
taunting people tease and shout.
             
Signs and wisdom are confounded 
by that stumbling block, the cross. 
Things that we once saw as wisdom 
now dismissed as foolish dross.
God had shown such strength in weakness. 
Those who shared Christ’s dying breath
now at last could claim dominion, 
love defeating hate and death.

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: 8 7 8 7 D Tune: CALON LAN
Created by HymnQuest.com

A hymn reflecting on story of the road to Emmaus

A hymn reflecting on story of the road to Emmaus

This is the day when we confess our faith, 
dependant on our God and God’s good grace, 
we seek to take our cross, to follow Christ, 
while seeing Christ in one another’s face.

This is the time, there is no turning back, 
companion God you stand beside us still, 
walk with us through life’s twisting, winding way, 
and keep us always faithful to your will.

Help us to break your bread of life, then share; 
lift up the cup of blessing, drink your wine; 
when rising from this table go in peace, 
our life and living be a gracious sign. 

And so we stand to offer up our lives, 
not just a verbal sacrifice of praise, 
we offer freely all we have to give 
until your spirit sets the world ablaze.

Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © [pre-2026?] 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: 10 10 10 10
Tune: WOODLANDS

He stood with scarred and open hands – a hymn of resurrection

He stood with scarred and open hands - a hymn of resurrection inspired by John 20: 19-31

1	He stood with scarred and open hands, 
	their bloodied, but now risen, Lord, 
	incomprehension met his words, 
	their fear had tightened like a cord.
	
2	His word of peace rang in their ears, 
	yet they could hardly understand. 
	Bemused, unsettled, disbelief 
	meant that the fear they felt was fanned.
	
3	Yet here he stood, as flesh and blood, 
	a word of peace upon his lips, 
	but as they try to grasp at facts 
	their sense of meaning slides and slips.
	
4	He knew their need, for doubt and awe 
	was clouding each and every mind 
	but here was fish, he took and ate, 
	his human life was sealed and signed.
	
5	The path of pain that he had known 
	was grounded in necessity, 
	for perfect love was bound to face 
	self interest and hypocrisy.
	
6	And now they understood his words, 
	'come follow' echoed in their ears. 
	That self-same grace will call us all  
	and love will cancel out our fears.

Words: Andrew Pratt (born 1948) © 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: LM Tune: BRESLAU

Crafted from wood – a hymn on the cross – Luke 9:23

Crafted from wood - a hymn on the cross – Luke 9:23; 14:27

Crafted from wood, the grain of our decision, 
where faith was hung, a challenge to God’s love, 
the Christ had carried it to execution,
this then our choice – the wing of hawk or dove?

Some made the choice that led to their extinction, 
their’s was a loss, but not of love or grace,
accepting in each place of human crisis, 
this challenge that each Christian has to face.

Take up your cross each day was Christ’s suggestion,
if you would follow in the path he  trod, 
yet we would minimise the resurrection, 
that love transcending death can lead to God.

Words 2025 © 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: 11.10.11.10 
Tune: O PERFECT LOVE (Barnby)

Some thoughts on this hymn to take us further. 

I had in mind, as I wrote it: 

Luke 9:23;14:27
23 Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised)

14:27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Also: 

Søren Kierkegaard

In Kierkegaard's view, the Church should not try to prove Christianity or even defend it. It should help the single individual to make a leap of faith, the faith that God is love and has a task for that very same single individual. Kierkegaard identified the leap of faith as the good resolution. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard)

And 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ – Bonhoeffer stood against Fascism and was ultimately sent to a concentration camp and he was hanged on 9 April 1945 during the collapse of the Nazi regime.

All these point for me to Jesus’ words and how others have seen them and sought to live by them.

Hymn: It seemed as though the Lord lived still

It seemed as if the Lord lived still

 

It seemed as if the Lord lived still,

expressed his will, the lame could walk,

and all assumed the blind would see,

the silent ones would start to talk!

Yet all they saw when looking round,

were Galilean fisher folk,

a zealot and some other men,

some hazarded it was a joke.

 

So Peter had to put them right,

the crucified, the buried dead,

the very Christ, their God was raised,

yet now they acted in God’s stead.

And everywhere the spirit blows

the living Christ and God’s own grace

is manifest by human means

in every later time and space.

 

Plain ignorance and human zeal,

had nailed their God, had knocked love down,

but that could never be the end,

and love still lived to wear the crown.

So everywhere God’s people meet

through prayer and action God is there,

and even in this time and place

our lives can tend and bring God’s care. 

 

Andrew Pratt 17/3/2012

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

Tune: BEFORE THE THRONE StF 717

Metre: DLM