I recently read these words of hymn writer, Fred Pratt Green. He wrote them for his church during a time of stewardship emphasis. These lyrics continue to serve as important guidance to us as we seek to be faithful.
When the Church of Jesus
Shuts its outer door,
Lest the roar of traffic
Drown the voice of prayer:
May our prayers, Lord, make us
Ten times more aware
That the world we banish
Is our Christian care.
If our hearts are lifted
Where devotion soars
High above this hungry
Suffering world of ours:
Lest our hymns should drug us
To forget its needs,
Forge our Christian worship
Into Christian deeds.
Lest the gifts we offer,
Money, talents, time
Serve to salve our conscience
To our secret shame:
Let the world rebuke us
By the way it gives;
Teach us, dying Savior,
How a Christian lives!
Shuts its outer door,
Lest the roar of traffic
Drown the voice of prayer:
May our prayers, Lord, make us
Ten times more aware
That the world we banish
Is our Christian care.
If our hearts are lifted
Where devotion soars
High above this hungry
Suffering world of ours:
Lest our hymns should drug us
To forget its needs,
Forge our Christian worship
Into Christian deeds.
Lest the gifts we offer,
Money, talents, time
Serve to salve our conscience
To our secret shame:
Let the world rebuke us
By the way it gives;
Teach us, dying Savior,
How a Christian lives!
A number of Fred Pratt Green's hymns are in The United Methodist Hymnal. My favorite one is "When in Our Music God Is Glorified." Such words carry our hearts and minds to a greater understanding of worship. Maybe we need to sing more of his hymns?
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