Tag: rich

Magnificat challenges the status quo in a  topsy–turvy, upturned world

Magnificat challenges the status quo in a  topsy–turvy, upturned world

A topsy–turvy, upturned world, 
where values are distorted, 
the first is last and last is first 
with everything contorted.
The rich are begging at the door 
while ones they were despising
are given charge of Godly wealth, 
in stature they are rising.
           
Magnificat has come to stay,
the proud have been extinguished; 
the humble poor are lifted high, 
their poverty relinquished. 
The reign of God has come to pass 
rebutting our world’s choices, 
each one that we would count as last 
within this time rejoices.
           
And will we ever find a place 
with pride and wealth rejected, 
or will hypocrisy deny 
our need to be accepted? 
The choice is ours, the crisis dawns, 
the time to make decisions, 
to stand with God or walk alone 
within this world’s divisions.

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 D Tune: CONSTANCE (Sullivan)

Advent 3 Magnificat has come to stay – inspired by the Magnificat

A topsy, turvy, upturned world, 
where values are distorted, 
the first is last and last is first 
with everything contorted.
The rich are begging at the door 
while ones they were despising
are given charge of Godly wealth, 
in stature they are rising.

Magnificat has come to stay,
the proud have been extinguished; 
the humble poor are lifted high, 
their poverty relinquished. 
The reign of God has come to pass 
rebutting our world's choices, 
each one that we would count as last 
within this time rejoices.

And will we ever find a place 
with pride and wealth rejected, 
or will hypocrisy deny 
our need to be accepted? 
The choice is ours, the crisis dawns, 
the time to make decisions, 
to stand with God or walk alone 
within this world's divisions.

Andrew Pratt 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: 8.7.6.7 D
Tune: CONSTANCE

Rich and poor – So sad that this poem is still pertinent after 174 years?

"How little can the rich man know
Of what the poor man feels,
When Want, like some dark dæmon foe,
Nearer and nearer steals!

He never tramp'd the weary round,
A stroke of work to gain,
And sicken'd at the dreaded sound
Telling him 'twas in vain.

Foot-sore, heart-sore, he never came
Back through the winter's wind,
To a dark cellar, there no flame,
No light, no food, to find.

He never saw his darlings lie
Shivering, the flags their bed;
He never heard that maddening cry,
'Daddy, a bit of bread!'"

William Gaskell (in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton, 1848)