PASSION SUNDAY (May also be used on GOOD FRIDAY) Anointed, yet bartered, then beaten and hung Anointed, yet bartered, then beaten and hung, time tumbling on forward, Christ’s moment had come; the judgement was passing, hands washed of the crime the snare had been set, sure as rhythm and rhyme. We watch from the sidelines, we’re distanced by time, our culture is different, our actions a mime; yet, if we are open, we feel in each heart the stress of each moment, was God’s from the start. And as we rehearse all that we’ve heard before, we thank God for grace, yet anticipate more. God’s love undiluted, sustained will remain, refreshed, resurrected, again and again. Andrew 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:11.11.11.11 Tune NORMANDY; MY JESUS I LOVE THEE (note repeats on the last line of each verse); DATCHET The King’s cross ‘The King of the Jews’, Pilate called him. But his crown was of thorns that pierced to his skull and his cloak was the blood from his head and his flesh-torn back and his robe was a loin cloth, sweaty and stained and his gloves and shoes were hammered nails, holding him fast to his throne of a cross. A bloodied wreck of a king was Jesus. Yet in dying he became, not the King of the Jews, but the King of the Kingdom that God opens to all who follow the path of the cross. Marjorie Dobson © Stainer & Bell Ltd 2019, 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. From Unravelling the Mysteries, Stainer & Bell Ltd., 2019. Jesus the Carpenter Jesus the carpenter, hanging on Calvary, nails through your feet and your work-hardened hands – wood you have worked with and wood is your destiny - paying the price of our sinful demands. You came to our world as a part of a family, living and learning the carpenter’s trade. You followed your father’s instructions so faithfully, shaping and crafting the yokes that you made: Jesus the carpenter… You called other workmen to join in your ministry, laying rough hands on the sick and the lame. You taught of God’s love with such power and authority, people who knew you believed you insane: Jesus the carpenter… You faced with great courage the open hostility coming from those who believed they were right. They stripped you and beat you and laughed at you finally, thinking your death was the end of the fight: Jesus the carpenter… But we, who now know that you ended triumphantly working with wood till your task was complete, can come to your cross with our hope and humility, laying our pride at the Carpenter’s feet: Jesus the carpenter, hanging on Calvary, nails through your feet and your work-hardened hands – wood you have worked with and wood is your destiny - paying the price of our sinful demands. Marjorie Dobson © 2004, 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. From Multicoloured Maze, Stainer & Bell Ltd., 2004 (Tune: – Mission Praise 611 - Blow the wind southerly)
Tag: passion
An extraordinary new hymn for the Passion/Easter season by Graham Adams – The people wanted soldiers
This hymn, by Graham Adams, arose from an ‘Empire’ module at Luther King House in Manchester last week. Graham says, “feel free to use as you wish!’ It connects with the Passion/Easter season. It was particularly stimulated by a discussion around whether ‘the alternative realm’ (God’s basileia/kingdom/empire) is ‘a quaint dream’ or something more ‘threatening’ – and the destabilising language of poetry spoke to this”.
The people wanted soldiers so hope might come as curse, to smash the occupation – but change turned up as Verse: the poetry of yeasting, the parabolic sword, no match for Pax Romana* and yet this Lamb still roared. Although it claims possession of mind and heart and soul, the Empire’s grip has limits – it can’t control the whole: the surplus lives as Poem for those with ears to hear, resisting final closure, declaring what is near: This dream of re-creation, this threat of life set free, disturbing tame religion, confounding how we see: it won’t succumb to cliché where purities abound, but glimpsed in seeds’ potential, it ruptures solid ground. Where empires grow by violence, where systems blame the last and close down other futures by editing the past, the Poem can’t be silenced, though quietly it dies, and dances through the fissures to teach us how to rise! Graham Adams (2021) … prompted by the conversations during the Empire module Potential tunes: THORNBURY, CRUGER… *Pax Romana is ‘the peace of Rome’ secured through military violence; if it’s easier to replace this with ‘crucifixion’, the meaning still works.
Pentecost hymn – Come glimpsing, glancing lover
Come glimpsing, glancing Lover,*
ignite your spirit’s fire,
then fan the conflagration
and let the flame rise higher.
Inspire a dancing rhythm
till deep within each heart,
a spark will more than flicker,
a brighter light will start.
Fill every throat with music
to sing the spirit’s song,
till others come to join us,
to join this singing throng.
Dynamic dancing spirit,
give purpose to our flight
We leap into the future,
we break into the light.
Let love be born among us
and passion fired by grace,
until all those around us
will share a smiling face.
Till all the world is laughing
and laughter fills the earth,
to know that love is living,
new love has come to birth.
*Alternative first verse:
Come glimpsing, glancing Spirit
ignite your loving fire,
then fan the conflagration
and let the flame rise higher.
Inspire a dancing rhythm
till deep within each heart,
a spark will more than flicker,
a brighter light will start.
Andrew Pratt 15/4/2014
Words © 2020 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: 7.6.7.6 D
Tune: TYROLESE (Junior Praise, Book 1/Combined, 207/253; Carol Praise)
The Spirit blows where it will © Andrew Pratt 27th May 2020