In An Age of Twisted Values a Hymn by Martin E. Leckebusch, 1995
(Tune: Church United)
In an age of twisted values, we have lost the truth we need.
In sophisticated language, we have justified our greed.
By our struggle for possessions, we have robbed the poor and weak.
Hear our cry and heal our nation; your forgiveness, Lord, we seek.
We have built discrimination on our prejudice and fear.
Hatred swiftly turns to cruelty, if we hold resentments dear.
For communities divided by the walls of class and race,
hear our cry and heal our nation; show us, Lord, your love and grace.
When our families are broken, when our homes are full of strife,
when our children are bewildered, when they lose their way in life,
when we fail to give the aged all the care we know they need,
hear our cry and heal our nation; help us show more love, we plead.
We who hear your word so often choose so rarely to obey.
Turn us from our willful blindness; give us truth to light our way.
In the power of your Spirit come to cleanse us, make us new;
hear our cry and heal our nation till our nation honors you.
It was in the early 1980’s when a young man named Martin E. Leckebush started attending a Methodist Church in Birmingham, England. The congregation was quite socially minded and in their building they were hosting a government training program designed to help people find employment. During the lunch hour, the church also sponsored a preacher to read from the book of Isaiah and to address some of the contemporary issues facing society. They also asked Martin to write a hymn for the occasion. In An Age of Twisted Values, was the result.
Even though this hymn was written in the 1980’s in England, it’s words still deeply challenge us here in the United States today. All of these pervasive issues are very common in our post modern society. Today, we have many families with broken relationships. We have elders who need costly care that we cannot afford. We have neighbors who have to choose between buying their prescriptions or groceries. Yet instead of opening our hearts and hands to those who need us, we instead willfully choose blindness. We close our eyes and our ears to the cries of those who are hurting that surround us.
Yet, despite all of our brokenness, there is hope. These issues of greed, discrimination, prejudice and fear are all walls that Christians need to tear down in order live out God’s commandments to love God and our neighbor while loving ourselves. The love of God, the power of the Holy Spirit and the work of Jesus Christ can heal all of us and turn us toward a new path. May we all work for justice and peace in each of our lives, everyday. So be it. Amen.
Article Published in Rockford Squire Newspaper 2/18/2020.
