Archives: Sing Justice! Do Justice!

New Hymn & Song Texts to Familiar and New Tunes

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AUDIO

Hope Is a Candle (Advent candle lighting hymn)
O Baby Born in Bethlehem
God of Justice Everflowing (Advent hymn)

Diana Wooley, soprano; Richard Steinbach, piano

Foreword by Walter Bruegemann

Hymn Texts

Contest Winner

Brief biographies are given for the contest winner and the four runners-up.

Introduction to this collection

The following texts are for your personal inspiration. If you want to perform any of these hymns/songs in public, i.e., a worship service, secure copies from Selah Publishing Co., Inc. The booklet contains words and music. You may not sell these texts in any form. Thanks for your cooperation.

Sing Justice! Do Justice!
New Hymn & Song Texts to Familiar and New Tunes

Contents (of booklet)
Cover
Legal
Table of Contents
Foreword: Walter Brueggemann
Statement on Justice
About Alternatives; Message from National Coordinator
About Hymn Society; Message from Executive Director, Carl Daw
About the Contest
About Copyrights [CCLI]
Judge Biographiess
More Alternatives Resources
More Hymn Society Resources
More Selah Resources
Four Winning Hymns with brief bios
Honorable Mentions
Indices: Tune name, first line, topical, Biblical reference, season
Plans for use throughout the year, hymn sing/festival, e.g. New Nine Lessons & Carols

Foreword

From its very earliest days, the church has sung its faith. Indeed, even its great doctrinal formulations that eventually became flat intellectualism were originally lyrical, poetic assertions done in defiance of worldly logic. There is good reason that the church -- this Easter people -- sings faith in times of persecution and in times of seduction. The singing is a sustained refusal to submit faith to the logic and reason of the world. Thus in its lyrical, imaginative utterance, the church has always insisted on its own peculiar discourse, ready TO SUBVERT what seems settled and ready to imagine what the world thinks impossible.

It is clear that the hymnic repertoire of the church is endlessly open, dynamic, and generative. That is why there is no end to the making of new music in the church, the publishing of new hymnals. The characteristic hymnal of the church is always doing two things to situate worship in the long history of the church. First, the hymnal is a way THE CHURCH REMEMBERS its most treasured cadences of mothers and fathers in faith. Every hymnal committee either reiterates or echoes old tunes and old phrases in its singing, and this hymnal is no exception to that practice. The church goes deep into its past and keeps that past available and powerful to the present.

But second, the church that faithfully remembers is also the church that HOPES in God's future and OBEYS in the present. And because God's summons to the church is always immediate and fresh, so there are hymns generated in the present tense.

The present hymnal represents an astonishing effort by a large company of people with energy and imagination and faith, ready to be singing afresh. It is a new hymnody of justice, for God's justice is an urgent matter in an unjust world. In singing justice in these hymns, the church engages in an act of lyrical obedience. Justice, however, is not a fad in the church. That accent, rather, is very old in the church's repertoire. It was the theme of Mary in her primal utterance in which she echoes mother Hannah:

He has filled the hungry with good things,
He has sent the rich away empty. (Luke 1:53; see I Sam. 2:5)

And behind Mary is the Psalter of Israel that endlessly sings of the God of justice:

who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the stranger;
He upholds the orphan and the widow. (Ps. 146:7 - 9)

None of us, I suspect, would have expected that the invitation of ALTERNATIVES would evoke such a rich and daring response as this collection reflects. The response is a measure of the insistence of the church in our time, to preserve and enact its own discourse, its 'mother tongue,' a refusal to flatten faith into manageable, technological categories.

I anticipate that this hymnal will take its own important place in the worship life of the church, for many will discern here that God's own restless spirit is on the lips of the faithful. Given these hymns, we may wish, with Charles Wesley, for more tongues -- at least a thousand -- to sing our dear liberator's praise.

Walter Brueggemann
Columbia Theological Seminary
August 19, 1997

Return to Table of Contents

SING JUSTICE! DO JUSTICE!

Hymn Texts

1. Children from Your Vast Creation

Contest Winner

1. Children from your vast creation, gather here for guidance, Lord;
we of every tongue and nation yearn to see your Earth restored.
You have shown that your intention wills a world kept free from strife;
open us to love's dimension filled with true abundant life.

2. We have grasped for more possessions, wanting things we do not need;
help us, Lord, lest our obsessions soon consume us in our greed.
Cure our tendency to plunder - scarring forests, wasting ore;
come, and turn our schemes asunder; take away our lust for more.

3. We are learning how much damage spreads throughout the world from greed;
though you made us in your image, we are less than you decreed:
wanting ease and pleasure strongly, craving things your love deplores,
asking not, or asking wrongly, we resort to waging wars.

4. Lord, we come as sisters, brothers, seeking your redemptive touch.
Let unselfish love for others triumph, lest we want too much.
Come to us amid life's scrimmage, help your people live as one:
recreate us in your image; speed the day your will is done!

David A. Robb (born in New York City in 1932) is a pastor, music teacher, and minister of music. A graduate of the High School of Music & Art, he has studied at Carnegie Hall and the Julliard School, and holds a M.Div. and M.Ed. degrees.
Pastoral and volunteer experiences (such as the Family Crisis Center and Bread for the World) have made him conscious of hunger and homelessness issues. An awareness of 'justice concerns' is seen in almost all his texts.
His hymns are in more than ten denominational hymnals and supplements and other small collections, and his collected hymns are found in the book Heartsongs, published by Selah Publishing Co. His home is in Dalton, Georgia.

This hymn was written during the Rio de Janeiro Summit on the Environment in 1992 and revised in 1996.

Text: David A. Robb, 1996 © 1997, Selah Publishing Co, Inc.
Music: The Sacred Harp, 1844, attr. to Benjamin F. White: harm. Alfred V. Fedak, 1994. Harm ©1994, Selah Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
BEACH SPRING 87 87D

Show Grace at the Table of God -- Another hymn by David A. Robb (for the retirement of Gerald Iversen)

2. A Place at the Table

1. For everyone born, a place at the table, for everyone born, clean water and bread,
a shelter, a space, a safe place for growing, for every one born, a star over head.

REFRAIN And God will delight when we are creators of justice and joy; compassion and peace;
yes, God will delight when we are creators of justice, justice and joy.

2. For woman and man, a place at the table, revising the roles; deciding the share,
with wisdom and grace, dividing the power, for woman and man, a system that's fair.

REFRAIN

3. For young and for old, a place at the table, a voice to be heard, a part in the song,
the hands of a child in hands that are wrinkled, for young and for old, the right to belong,

REFRAIN

4. For just and unjust, a place at the table, abuser, abused, with need to forgive,
in work, to speak out, to witness and worship, for everyone born, a star over head.

REFRAIN

5. For everyone born, a place at the table, to live without fear, and simply to be,
to work, to speak out, to witness and worship, for everyone born, the right to be free.

REFRAIN

Shirley Erena Murray is a hymn text writer and hymnal editor from New Zealand, and a Presbyterian with strong ecumenical ties.
Her hymns address themes such as inclusiveness, non-violence and ecology, as well as personal faith, health, and the Church.
She has worked as a teacher, a Parliamentary researcher, and as producer of radio hymn programs.
The tune by Colin Gibson, also a New Zealander, was written specifically for this text.

Text: Shirley Erena Murray, 1996
Music: Colin Gibson, 1996
Text and music ©1996, Hope Publishing Co., Inc., Carol Stream IL. 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
MENSA 11 10 11 10 with refrain

3. When a Prophet Sings of Justice

1. When a prophet sings of justice like broad rivers flowing free,
let me clearly see the vision of an Earth that might yet be;
God's intention, human dreams, righteousness like mighty streams, waters teeming with salvation to wash clean the whole creation.

1. When a gospel speaks of hunger for the Word and for the bread,
let me hear how with each feeding of the hungry, Christ is fed;
how as we attend their cry loaves and fishes multiply in a eucharist of sharing, in a sacred meal of caring.

2. When an old song can remind us of how simple gifts can be,
God, you let us come together, from our selfish selves set free,
from pomp and circumstance, free to join in Christ's own dance, turned round right, and in the turning your own will for us discerning.

3. As you grant us better insight with the vision your grace gives,
help us make the wiser choices, simplest of alternatives;
stripped of empty act and talk we may take a humbler walk, justice, kindness no abstractions, but made real in words and actions.

Born in 1951, John Core is a graduate of West Virginia University, where he currently serves as Supervisor of the Music Library. He is a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and a Life Member of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.

Scriptural references include, stanza 1: Amos 5:24; stanza 2: Luke 4:4; Matthew 25:35a etc.; Matthew 14:16 - 21; stanza 3: 'post - Scriptural' (Just having a little fun with the ubiquitous Shaker hymn, with a sidelong glance a Shakespeare and/or Elgar along the way.); stanza 4: Micah 6:8.

Text: John Core, 1996 copyright 1998, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401
Music: Trente quatre pseaumes de David, Geneva, 1551
FREU DICH SEHR (Psalm 42) 87 87 77 88

4. Your Spirit, God, Moves Us to Pray

1. Your Spirit, God, moves us to pray for children in the world today
whose only home may be the street, who never have enough to eat,
who fear the night, and dread the day, and cannot go outside to play:

Refrain: God, bless the children, let them live. Teach our hearts and hands to give.

2. Your Spirit, God, moves us to pray for children in the world today
whose tongues must learn new ways to talk, who cannot see or hear or walk,
who toil in shops 'til hands are sore, who mourn their loved ones lost in war:

Refrain: God, bless the children, let them live. Teach our hearts and hands to give.

3. Kind, gentle God, this is our prayer; That we might learn to love and share
the blessings that you shower down, a loving home, a friendly town,
good food to eat, warm clothes to wear, and when we're sick, a doctor's care.

Refrain: God, bless the children, let them live. Teach our hearts and hands to give.

Mary Nelson Keithahn was moved to write this text after watching a live broadcast of the Stand for the Children March in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 1996. The hymn reminds us that the spiritual gifts we receive as Christians should make us sensitive to the needs of children and willing to share God's blessings with them. It is appropriate for children's Sabbath/Sunday or any time when justice for children is addressed.

Text: Mary Nelson Keithahn, 1996
Text © 1996, 1997, music @ 1997 Abingdon Press (Administered by the Copyright Company, Nashville, TN) All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission
Music: John Horman, 1996. The original tune CABIN JOHN by John D Horman was written for this text.
CABIN JOHN 88 88 88 with refrain

5. Once Jesus Loved a Rich Man

1. Once Jesus loved a rich man with a question in his heart.
He sought to find eternal life and wondered where to start.
He asked and Jesus answered, saying, 'Listen well and hear;
just keep the ten commandments and the Kingdom will draw near.'

2. The rich man was delighted, saying, 'These I've always kept.
If that's the work I need to do, I'll gain the kingdom yet,'
and Jesus loved him dearly and the faith that he had shown,
then said, 'There's one more task for you; Go sell the things you own.'

3. 'For you have many treasures and have lived a life of ease
while poor and hungry neighbors begged for morsels on their knees.
To sell your great possessions, give the money to the poor,
Come follow me and you will have the Kingdom evermore.'

4. Now Jesus hoped the man would choose God's path of love that day.
Instead his face fell sadly and he turned and walked away.
He thought about his riches and God's Kingdom and the call
and suddenly the Kingdom did not look so good at all.

5. The rich man Jesus loved could not accept that love enough.
When it came time to choose, he could not bear to lose his stuff.
Will we be like the rich man, storing treasures up on Earth,
or will we trust in God and choose the treasures of true worth?

Amanda Udis - Kessler is a member and lay musician at the Arlington Street Church, Unitarian Universalist, in Boston. A songwriter, composer, choral arranger and pianist (as well as a writer and sociologist), Amanda intends to become a Unitarian Universalist minister, and plans to make a creation of religious and spiritual music a cornerstone of her ministry.

Text and music: Amanda Udis - Kessler (based on Matthew 19:16 - 22).
@1998 Selah Publishing co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401. All rights reserved.
LISTEN WELL
Irregular

6. We Are Stewards of God's Grace

1. We are stewards of God's grace, called to share his gifts with others,
for throughout our human race, all are neighbors, sisters, brothers.
To Earth's nations, then, be friends, thankful for each joy God sends.

2. We are stewards of God's land, and respect, preserve, and farm it,
helping others understand we must never waste nor harm it.
To all nature, then be friends, thankful for each joy God sends.

3. We are stewards of God's seas, marveling at their constant motions,
and dare not the Lord displease by the spoiling of our oceans.
To its creatures, then, be friends, thankful for each joy God sends.

4. We are stewards of God's skies; faced with problems of pollution,
we seek leaders, strong and wise, who will work for each solution.
To heaven's wonders, then, be friends, thankful for each joy God sends.

5. We are stewards of God's Word, to its witness brave and daring,
so that, when the gospel's heard, all will seek the Christ we're sharing.
To all peoples, then, be friends, thankful for each joy God sends.

Text: Rae E. Whitney, 1987 © 1994, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401
Music: Katholisches Gesangbuch, 1686.
GROSSER GOTT 78 78 77

See a gathering at Rae Whitney's church. Scroll to Post #81.

7. Let Justice Roll on Earth

1. Let justice roll on Earth bringing new hope to birth until wrongs cease.
We who have known God's care, now hear the call to dare to live out everywhere God's way of peace.

2. That we may meet this hour renew in us the power your grace imparts;
wisdom to recognize injustice and its lies, ears tuned to hear the cries of broken hearts.

3. Transform the way we live, enlarge our hearts to give and give again;
proclaiming liberty, setting your people free to live with dignity, free from their pain.

4. In evil's fear filled night, O God, let there be light, let justice roll!
Life giving Trinity, you call your church to be agents of jubilee; a world made whole.

Text: Rosalind Brown, 1996 ©1998 Selah Publishing Co., Inc, Kingston, N.Y. 12401.
Music: Felice Giardini, adapt. Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1875

8. Come, Join with Others

1. Come, join with others, dance to the music. Sisters and brothers, move to God's voice,
calling for healing, calling for justice. What will we answer? Ours is the choice.

2. How can we dance when we have forgotten that we together share time and space,
when we've forgotten to tend and nurture gifts of creation? God, grant us grace.

3. Only the dance that Jesus has taught us can help us live the love we would share;
to dance with outcasts, sing with the hopeful, lift up the fallen, show them we care.

4. Joining together, we would be faithful. Trusting in love's power, dance toward Shalom;
take steps for justice, stoop to show mercy, till God, Our Caller, welcomes us home!

Text: Edith Sinclair Downing, 1997 © 1998 Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston N.Y. 12401
Music: Gaelic melody; harm. Jeffrey Rickard, 1994
Harm, @1994, Selah Publishing Co, Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401. All rights reserved.
BUNESSAN 55 54D

9. O God, Your Justice Towers

1. O God, your justice towers above our human plane,
while nation vies with nation in restless search of gain.
Where lust for wealth corrupts us, God, turn our hearts again.
Let justice roll like waters, a mighty cleansing stream!

2. O God, your eye, unsleeping, beholds inequity, while we,
replete with riches, grow blind to poverty.
Correct our darkened vision until the truth we see.
Let justice roll like waters, a mighty cleansing stream.

3. O God, your heart is breaking where wretched millions lie,
where people wander homeless and famished children die.
Renew in us compassion and teach our hearts to cry:
'Let justice roll like waters, a mighty, cleansing steam!'

4. Where evil still is coursing, a foul, defiling steam,
fulfill among Earth's people your prophet's ancient dream!
God, stir us with your passion; this wayward world redeem,
till justice rolls like waters, a mighty cleansing stream!

Text: Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr., 1996 © 1998, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Eingston, N.Y. 12401
Music: The Southern Harmony, 1835; harm. Margaret Mealy, 1977 (From Songs for the People of God). Harm. @ 1994, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401. All rights reserved
COMPLAINER 76 76D

10. We Walk Today in Darkness

1. We walk today in darkness, each waiting for the light
of Love that works for justice and seeks to make things right.
We wait, sometimes forgetting we do not wait alone,
that others long for justice and blessings yet unknown.

2. We walk today in darkness, our purpose unfulfilled.
We do not do for others the good that God has willed.
We do not offer kindness to those who wait in need,
nor justice to our neighbors in every word and deed.

3. We walk today in darkness, our vain hearts filled with shame.
We follow our own footsteps, and not the Spirit's flame.
Self-love bedims our vision, self interests cloud our sight,
and good intentions vanish like shadows in the night.

4. Lord Jesus, light our darkness, with joy dispel our gloom.
Prepare us to receive you, and in our lives make room
for humble, loving kindness, for just and honest ways,
that we might walk together in Love illumined days.

Text: Mary Nelson Keithahn, 1996 © 1996, 1997, Abingdon Press. (Administered by the Copyright Company, Nashville, TN) All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission. Music: David Ashley White, 1983 © 1991, Selah Publishing co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y.12401
HOMAGE 76 76D

11. O Baby Born in Bethlehem | AUDIO |
Another use of TEXT | Yet another use of TEXT

1. O baby born in Bethlehem, we sing about your birth;
you came to bring abundant life and justice to the Earth;
to bring the gospel to the poor, to help the blind to see;
you came to heal the broken heart and set the captive free.

2. O baby born in Bethlehem, injustice still is strong;
and we who strive to do your will must learn to fight the wrong.
The greedy still oppress the poor, the hungry cry for bread;
and countless weary seek, in vain, a place to lay a head.

2. O baby born in Bethlehem, you grew to change the Earth;
so may we grow in heart and mind, respecting human worth;
all Earth's resources let us share, rejecting waste and greed,
that we may find, as love demands, enough for every need.

3. O baby born in Bethlehem, we bring this gift to you;
We pledge to stand for right and good as you would grow to do;
to speak for those who have no voice, to shield the poor and weak,
to bring good news about your birth to all who justice seek.

Text: Beth Rice Luttrell, 1997 Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401
Music: Gottfried W. Fink, 1842.
SERAPH CMD

12. Let Streams of Living Justice

1. Let streams of living justice flow down upon the Earth;
give freedom's light to captives, let all the poor have worth.
The hungry's hands are pleading, the workers claim their rights,
the mourners long for laughter, the blinded seek for sight.
Make liberty a beacon, strike down the iron power,
abolish ancient vengeance; proclaim your people's hour.

2. The dreaded disappearance of family and friend;
the torture and the silence; the fear that knows no end;
the mother with her candle, the child who holds a gun,
the old one nursing hatred; all seek release to come.
Each candle burns for freedom; each lights a tyrant's fall;
each flower placed for martyrs gives tongue to silenced call.

3. For healing of the nations; for peace that will not end,
for love that makes us lovers, God grant us grace to mend.
Weave our varied gifts together; knit our lives as they are spun;
on your loom or time enroll us till our thread of life is run.
O great Weaver of our fabric; bind Church and world in one;
dye our texture with your radiance, light our colors with your sun.

4. Your city's built to music; we are the stones you seek;
your harmony is language; we are the words you speak.
Our faith we find in service; our hope in other's dreams,
our love in hand of neighbor; our homeland brightly gleams.
Inscribe our hearts with justice; your way, the path untried;
your truth, the heart of stranger; your life the Crucified.

Text: William Whitla, 1989, © 1998 Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401.
Music: Gustav Holst, 1921.
THAXTED 76 76 76D

13. O Justice Giver, Make Us Just!

1.O Justice Giver, make us just, though roaring all around us
are floods of sorrow and mistrust and woeful ways confound us!
God, give us your ability to treat the world with equity and banish what had bound us!

2.O Mercy Granter, make us kind, though everywhere flows rancor,
for bigotry drowns heart and mind and chaos spills to anger!
God, grant us wisdom, make us good, to treat each other as we should, your kindness as our anchor!

3.O Humble Servant, help us serve, though everyone is preening;
may boastful lose all its nerve; in simple truth, find meaning!
God, help us care for those in need, till all distress is done indeed, upon your justice leaning!

Text: John A. Dalles; 1996 @ 1998 Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401.
Music: Bohemian Brethren's Kirchengesange, 1566; harm. Maurice F. Bell, 1906
MIT FREUDEN ZART 87 87 887

14. God, You See Your Loved Creation

1.God, you see your loved creation tortured, torn by violent hands,
watch unsleeping, while we ravage peaceful homes and fruitful lands.

2.God, you hear your peoples' groaning, crushed beneath oppression's weight,
listen where their cries for mercy rise to you from flames of hate.

3. God, you know in deep compassion all Earth's sorrow, all its pain,
suffer with your wounded children long as want and fear remain.

4. God, come now with power to save us, as you came in Christ your Son.
Call us, send us in your service till your kingdom's work is done.

5. Grant us eyes that see with pity, ears that hear your children's cry,
hearts that ache for other's anguish, hands your gifts of love supply.

Text: Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr © 1998 Selah Publishing Co., Inc.
Music: The Southern Harmony,1835; harm. Alfred V Fedak, 1993 Harm.@1994 , Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401. All rights reserved.
RESTORATION 87 87

15. The Way to Heed God's Holy Call

1. The way to heed God's holy call,
is doing justice unto all,
to love the cause of tenderness,
and walk with God in humbleness!

2.To know who we should aim to be
we see a world community
that has a wealth of worth to give,
to show the way that we might live!

3. We nurture people patiently,
for none are yet what they will be
as God within makes all things new,
and acts to work within us, too!

4. We cherish every natural thing,
from fertile fields and birds that sing,
to surging seas and skies above:
they all disclose their Maker's love!

5. Unto this world be not conformed,
for God a better realm has formed!
By doing justice unto all,
we hear and heed God's holy call!

Text: John A. Dalles, 1996 @ 1998, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401
Music: Thomas Tallis, ca. 1567
TALLIS' CANON LM

16. O Who Will Speak for Justice

1. O who will speak for justice and who will act for peace?
Let all join in the struggle 'til wars and bloodshed cease.
The enemy is warfare and heats aflame with hate.
God, lead us in your ways of peace before it is too late.

2. Our hearts go out to homeless ones adrift and in despair.
In every land they search in hope for roots and folk who care.
O God of love and justice, show us what we must do
to ease their pain and lead them home to havens safe and you.

3. Still some who spoke for human rights are languishing in jail.
Make us their key to freedom that justice may prevail.
Help us to change the systems so all may work for bread
and Earth's great bounty may be shared 'til everyone is fed.

4. While children toil at bench and loom we look the other way
and buy the goods for which they give their childhood's time for play.
God, give us hearts courageous to end these awful wrongs
until we hear not stifled cries but children's carefree songs.

5. Let justice flow, a living stream, to heal all ethnic strife
and bring to all your people your true abundant life.
Help us to live more simply that we may freely share
your reign of love and justice with people everywhere.

Text: Betsy Phillips Fisher, 1996, © 1998, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401
Music: Welsh tune.
LLANGLOFFAN 76 76D

17. Hope Is a Candle | AUDIO

1. Hope is a candle, once lit by the prophets,
never consumed, though it burns through the years.
Dim in the daylight of power and privilege -
when they are gone, hope will shine on.

2. Peace is a candle to show us a pathway,
threatened by gusts from our rage and our greed.
Friend, feel no envy for those in the shadows -
violence and force their dead end course.

3. Love is a candle whose light makes a circle,
where every face is the face of a friend.
Widen the circle by sharing and giving -
God's holy dare: love everywhere.

4. Joy is a candle of mystery and laughter,
mystery of light that is born in the dark;
laughter at hearing the voice of an angel,
ever so near, casting out fear.

5. Christ is the light that the prophets awaited,
Christ is the lion, the lamb, and the child.
Christ is the love and the mystery and laughter -
candles, make way! Christ is the day.

Text: Richard Leach, 1994
Music: Rusty Edwards, 1996
Text and music © 1996, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401. All rights reserved
SIMPLY PERFECT 11 10 11 8

18. When We Give Ourselves the Privilege

1. When we give ourselves the privilege of reducing our excess
we release a heavy burden, and more freedom we possess.
We can live more with less.

2. When we sit down to the table and consume more than our share
we can think of millions starving, and eat less to show we care.
We can live more with less.

3. When we're faithful to our calling to preserve our planet, Earth,
we can use resources wisely that we honor nature's worth.
We can live more with less.

Text: Edith Sinclair Downing, 1997 © 1998, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401.
Music: Roy Hopp, 1988. Music © 1990, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston N.Y.12401. All rights reserved.
REINLYN 87 87 6

19. God of Justice Everflowing: Advent | AUDIO

1. God of Justice Everflowing, Righteousness beyond Degree. Breath of Mercy ever blowing through our world to set us free - you have lifted up the humble and the thrones of power cast down. Caused the proud of heart to stumble. Sent a child to wear a crown.

2. Coming as a tiny baby, giving up your power and might; so in tenderness we may be moved to justice, love and light - help us see in every child that the Christ Child dwells within. Calls us to be reconciled, leads to justice, frees from sin.

3. Some may celebrate with presents, some may greet the day through tears, still in all, your Holy Presence gladdens hearts, casts out our fears. Teach us how to live more simply, that we all may simply live, caring for the poor and lonely, in Christ's name our live to give.

19. God of Justice Everflowing: Lent

1. God of Justice Everflowing, Righteousness beyond Degree,
Breath of Mercy ever blowing through our world to set us free -
let your justice roll like waters, goodness like the living stream,
so that we, your sons and daughters, catch the vision, dream the dream.

2. Scales are still unjustly weighted, children sold to make new shoes,
while our appetites are sated and we turn from troubling news.
Cleanse our hearts, give us compassion to respond in Jesus' name,
offering love through prayer and action, peace with justice to proclaim

3. Some may live in ease and pleasure, others, suffering, slave away.
Some have luxury and treasure, others struggle day to day.
Teach us how to live more simply, that we all may simply live,
caring for the poor yet worthy, in Christ's name our love to give.

Text: Kathleen R. Moore, 1996. @ 1998. Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401.
Music: Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813.
NETTLETON 87 87D

20. All the Sleepy

1. All the sleepy should have a place to sleep.
All the hungry should have a place to eat.
All the mourning should have a place to weep.
Does not every child of God deserve a home?

REFRAIN: Make love happen by God's grace and by God's power.
Let God move you on this day and in this hour.
New creations will then blossom like a flower,
for together we can be the hands of God,
for together we can be the hands of God.

2. All who suffer should have a place to heal,
and compassion to ease the pain they feel.
Talk is easy, but who will make love real?
Does not every child of God deserve some peace?

REFRAIN

3. The forgotten should be remembered too.
Lonely people might need a friend or two.
Who would be there if it were me or you?
Does not every child of God deserve some care?

REFRAIN

Text: Rusty Edwards, 1993
Music: Wayne L. Wold, 1993
Text and music © 1997, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401. All rights reserved.
PITNEY 10 10 10 11 with refrain

21. If the Prophets Lived Today

1. If the prophets lived today, what would their warning be?
Recall the path that you were shown! Your passion to consume and own has turned idolatry.

2. You plunder Earth and rob the poor for comfort, greed, and gain.
God's gifts were meant for all to share: abundant life in holy care, set free from fear and pain.

3. But you choose death instead of life. Your vision has been blurred
by endless goods in endless stores, by hearts that cast away the poor, by debts that you've incurred.

4. So those without, who God holds dear, grow poorer every day,
while air and water, wood and farm, the whole creation bears the harm of poisoned work and play.

5. Repent, come give your hearts to God and build a righteous land
where all have food and home and love and in this way your worship prove with mind and heart and hand.

6. Oh, let the prophets live today in all our words and deeds
that rich and poor may join as one until God's will is wholly done and all have what they need.

Text and music: Amanda Udis - Kessler. © 1998 Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston N.Y. 12401. All rights reserved.
PROPHETS Irregular

22. Dream a Dream

1. Dream a dream, a hopeful dream as children do on Christmas eve,
imaginings, surprising things to hold and to believe.
Dream a time this Christmas time when no one's hungry or afraid;
that weapons go and harvests grow, that friends are met and made.

2. Dream a peace, our planet's peace, the greening of the Earth at play
the holy ground where life is found, where God has touched the clay.
Dream a gift, the Christmas gift that changes ev'ry thing we see:
the shimmering of angel wing, the Child, the Mystery.

Text: Shirley Erena Murray, 1996 © 1997, Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Music: Rusty Edwards, 1996 © 1997, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401. All rights reserved.
SALESTROM 78 86D

23. Hear the Strains of Peace and Justice

1. Hear the strains of peace and justice bringing hope from far and near;
come, O people, swell the chorus, sing of living free from fear.
Showing trust and understanding sing of pain and human need;
blending voices, lending talents, sing forgetting race and creed.

2. Feel the power of all Earth's people bound as one in fervent song;
gone are harmful words of malice, silenced, too, are blame and wrong;
giving God, who knows our Babels, Lord of Earth and sky and sea,
honor, praise and lives once broken joined in hope and harmony.

3. Sing of light in eyes of children learning arts that grace each land:
sing of youth maturing wholly knowing ways of war are banned;
sing of nations sharing bounty - gold and grain Earth holds in store;
hear our song, O God, and grant us peace with justice evermore!

Text: Jean E Garriott, 1996. @ 1998 Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401.
Music: The Southern Harmony, 1835; harm. Margaret Mealy, 1980 (from Songs for the People of God). Harm. © 1994 Selah Publishing Co., Inc.
HOLY MANNA 87 87D

24. Proclaim the Acceptable Year of the Lord!

1. Proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord! Sing tidings of glad jubilee!
Let all who have labored be granted their rest; let all the oppressed be set free.
Let all the indebted their debts be forgiven; let all who are hungry partake of Earth's grain.
Proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord that justice and mercy may reign.

2. But how shall we honor the year of the Lord, how raise up the song of the blessed,
when debt, grain and labor bring profit it those whose wealth so surpasses the rest?
Will debts be forgiven by those with the power to offer true freedom and hope to the poor?
Oh, how shall we honor the year of the Lord and justice and mercy restore?

3. Begin by proclaiming the year of the Lord, then live so God's vision comes true
by feeding the hungry, releasing the slave, forgiving the debts you are due,
that all who have suffered may sing jubilation and songs of great praise fill the Earth, sky, and sea.
Begin by proclaiming the year of the Lord, then bring with your life jubilee.

Text and music: Amanda Udis - Kessler. @ 1998, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston N.Y. 12401. All rights reserved.
JUBILEE Irregular

25. What Can I Do?

1. What can I do, I asked my Lord, to feed every throng of hungry and poor?
Then my Lord spoke with compassion and care: have you but one loaf to share?

2. Give me the strength, I yearned within, to combat a world of hatred and sin.
Then, as a challenge, it came from above: turn first to your neighbor in love.

3. How can I speak, I humbly prayed, to hearts of the wounded, captive, and stray?
Patient and certain, my Teacher I heard: always begin with the Word.

4. What shall we do, I posed my Lord, with countries that waste and stockpile and hoard?
Cutting and personal was the reply: do you need all that you buy?

5. I want to live, I cried aloud, where justice is prime and nations are proud!
Then came a whisper, so simple and true: live as my Son died for you.

Text and music: Susan C. Gardstrom. ©1998, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401. All rights reserved.
WHAT CAN I DO? 8 10 10 7