We Wring Our Hands in Hopelessness

Words by Andrew Pratt, 2012
Music: tune, KEDRON, attr. Elkanah Kelsay Dare, 1799
Scripture: Matthew 2:16-18
Topics: Slaughter of the Innocents; Herod; children; care; compassion

British Methodist pastor and hymn writer Andrew Pratt has composed this unsettling text related to the Slaughter of the Innocents text of Matthew's Gospel, with reference also to the tragic slaying of young children and their teachers at an elementary school in Connecticut on December 14, 2012. As is often the case with Pratt's texts, they are honest, perhaps even brutal, embracing the full range of human emotion and experience, including tragedy and suffering. But as is also the case with Pratt's texts, they never leave us in despair – there is always the hope and promise of God's compassion, grace and love.

"We Wring Our Hands in Hopelessness" (Sibelius)

"We Wring Our Hands in Hopelessness" (pdf)