A Clarion Song for Justice

 

 Recently Sojourners magazine reposted a hymn written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, a Presbyterian pastor in the US. She wrote this hymn based on Micah 6:8 in 2012 after attending Bread for the World’s Lobby Day. I've seen her hymns over the decades and used them in worship during my congregational ministry days. 

This one speaks boldly and with clarity to many of the daunting issues we are facing in this moment, even though it was written 11 years ago.

               O God, You Call for Justice

AURELIA   7.6.7.6 D   ("The Church's One Foundation")

O God, you call for justice—for goodness, never greed!

You seek a world of fairness where all have what they need—

Where all have food and water and homes in which to thrive,

Where all have hope and laughter and joy to be alive!

 

O God, you call for kindness instead of keeping score;

You seek a world that welcomes the hungry and the poor.

Lord, where there is injustice may we work to protect

The struggling ones, the voiceless that others would reject.

 

You call us to walk humbly, for we are not our own;

We all are poor and needy; we need the grace you’ve shown.

May we respond to others reflecting what you give—

Compassion, kindness, justice— so all may gladly live.

 

O God, may our great nation seek justice, as we should,

and work with dedication to seek the common good.

We’re blessed to be a blessing; may we within our law

Seek justice and compassion that reaches out to all.

 Biblical Reference:  Micah 6:8 Tune: Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864.

Alternate tune:  ANGEL’S STORY  7.6.7.6.D  (“O Jesus, I Have Promised”), Arthur Henry Mann, 1888.

Text: Copyright © 2012 by .  All rights reserved. 

A complete list of the hymns by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, many with peace and justice themes, can be found at www.carolynshymns.com  

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/from-shootings-to-hurricanes-pastor-turns-news-into-hymns/

Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, co-pastor of Overbrook Presbyterian Church, sings one of her hymns as her husband and co-pastor, Rev. Bruce Gillette, listens in their office at Overbrook Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)