The hymn I chose for 1 May (but blogging briefly about it a day late) was “God of Freedom, God of Justice”, the next in a short series in this theme of justice. The words are by a hymn writer whose name is new to me, Shirley Murray.
Looking at the words, the tune that came to mind as fitting them well is ‘Regent Square’. John in his video went with the tune suggested in the book, ‘Picardy’, better known to the words ‘Let all mortal flesh keep silence’. That hymn’s associations with Advent, and the coming of Christ both as incarnate Jesus and in future as sovereign Lord, necessarily colour the singing of these words, but it’s an appropriate association. In the first half of this hymn we call on this God who is eternal yet suffered pain in his incarnation as a man, to “touch our world of sad oppression with your Spirit’s healing breath”. In effect, as we recite a litany of what is wrong with the world (including here prison and torture), we invoke the Advent refrain of “Come, Lord Jesus!” knowing that he is the only one who can truly right these injustices.
But in the second half of the hymn the focus is on ourselves. We call on the “God who shed both tears and blood” to “move in us the power of pity, restless for the common good”, and in the last verse, ask him to “Make us … quick to hear, to act, to plead”. In Teresa of Avila’s famous words, Christ has no hands or feet on earth but ours, and until Jesus returns in physical form we rely on his Spirit within us to help us get on with the task of righting injustice in his name.