Christ is the one who calls

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is ‘Christ is the one who call’ by Timothy Dudley-Smith. The tune set in the book is ‘Love unknown’ but John chose to sing it to ‘Harewood’ (‘Christ is our cornerstone’). 

In its five verses the hymn explores Christ’s relationship with us. Firstly he calls us as “the one who loved and came” – we believe that Jesus is God, and God is love.  Then he seeks us as the one “to whom our souls are known” – he is intimately within our very being, as well as at work in the world. Then he is “the one who died forsaken and betrayed”, for we must never forget the price he paid for saving us.  Yet he is “the one who rose in glory from the grave” – the promise of forgiveness of sin through the cross is inextricably connected with the promise of eternal life through the resurrection. Finally he is “the one who sends, his story to declare” – the gospels end not with the resurrection but with the disciples being commissioned, whether by their fishing boats or on the mountain, to go and tell others this story of God’s saving love.

There are of course other words to each of the verses besides those I’ve quoted, and the full text is online here. The hymn was new to me, but as a concise summary of the work of Christ and our response to him, it is worth remembering for another occasion.

All-creating heavenly giver

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “All-creating heavenly giver” by Michael Saward. It’s in the section of the book headed ‘The Church’s mission and ministry” but in fact it is a fairly standard hymn to the Trinity: one verse each addressed to the Creator/Father, one to the Lord and Saviour, one to the Holy Spirit and one to the threefold God.  The words ‘church’, ‘ministry’ and ‘mission’ don’t appear at all.

So what are we singing about? The second half of each verse begins “We…”, so this is a corporate hymn of the Church (even if not named as such). “We your children lift our voices singing gladly of your love”; “We your servants … in your kingdom are united by that mighty sacrifice”; “We whose talents widely differ now restore to you your own”; and “We your people … now and ever, in thanksgiving to your praise and glory live”. 

Overall, I’m not very inspired by this hymn. Saward has certainly written better: his “Christ Triumphant, ever reigning” is one of my favourites, although we don’t come to that one until Christ the King Sunday in November.

We are marching in the light of God

Image on a t-shirt made in Zimbabwe and supplied through the
Diocese of Southwark as part of a Diocesan twinning scheme

Today’s song from Sing Praise is one that has achieved widespread popularity across the denominations: “We are marching in the light of God”, attributed to Anders Nyberg as an adaptation of a Xhosa traditional hymn.  It’s really a simple chant, the original words translated as the title.  It’s described variously elsewhere as “a protest song from South Africa sung by those protesting against apartheid” or as “a Zulu folk song written down by Andries Van Tonder in 1952, translated into English around 1984”.  The meaning of ‘Siyahamba’ is also interpreted differently – does it mean ‘marching’ with military overtones, or simply ‘walking’ with a purpose?

Whatever the origins of the chant, or its use as a protest song in its country of origin, it’s now used widely to add a hint of the international Church to ecumenical gatherings or local acts of worship.  Verses are often added – “living in the love of God”, “moving in the power of God”, “dancing in the joy of God” etc. Perhaps the point is that the Holy Spirit not only brings us the light of God but moves us to respond joyfully to it in both literal and figurative movement, and to do so together with our brothers and sisters locally and across the world. 

Behold the lamb who bears our sins away

A chalice (shared cup) and paten (plate for the broken bread)

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Behold the lamb who bears our sins away” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend. Unlike many of their hymns, this is a straightforward four-verse hymn with no chorus or bridge. The opening words are of course from the traditional communion prayer “Agnus Dei” (O Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us).

The repeated words common across the four verses are ‘remember’ and ‘share’.  This is significant, because firstly in the communion we remember what Jesus has done for us: “we remember the promise made that all who come to faith find forgiveness at the cross … remember the wounds that heal, the death that brings us life … remember he drained death’s cup that all may enter in … remember our call to follow in the steps of Christ as his body here on earth”.

Secondly we share in the broken bread: communion by one person alone is not normally allowed (although in the Catholic church the priest can say mass alone on behalf of others in certain circumstances).  The chorus of the first three verses is “So we share in this bread of life, and we drink of his sacrifice, as a sign of our bonds … around the table of the King”.  But the ellipsis there represents differing phrases: the sharing is as a sign “of our bonds of peace”, “of our bonds of love”, “of our bonds of grace”. The fourth chorus is different, looking to Christ’s coming again.

The communion is a time to remember the past but also to acknowledge our shared life in Christ and to commit ourselves again to following him “until he comes again”.

Send me, Jesus

Today’s song from Sing Praise is “Send me, Lord”, a translation of a South African chant with additional English verses.  The structure is simple, with a series of calls on the Lord Jesus to act with us in different ways: Send, Lead, Fill (and John added ‘Use’).  Each then takes the same format: “Send me Jesus, Send me Jesus, Send me Jesus, Send me Lord” etc.

As I commented on another hymn on 3 June  the key is that each verse starts with a verb, making this very much a call to action, or rather asking Jesus to rouse us to action. Being sent out, we need him to lead us; to serve him in this sometimes hostile world we need the filling of the Spirit, and at the same time the humility to let him use us for his purposes, rather than just assuming we are being useful in whatever we do.

At the risk of over-generalising, as with any song coming from Africa, it is best sung unaccompanied, if possible in harmony, and with enthusiasm.

Now with the strength of your Word

Today’s offering from Sing Praise is a short canticle or acclamation, “Now with the strength of your Word” by Fintan O’Carroll and Christopher Walker.  It’s essentially the same as both “Father we praise you as Lord” on which I commented on 14 February, and “Now he is living, the Christ” (17 April), with the same ‘Celtic’ fourfold Alleluia as a refrain, but different words for the cantor’s verse. In this instance it is “Now with the strength of your Word, send us to be your disciples, to bring all the world to the joy of your Kingdom”.

The words are a reminder that the purpose of the Christian life is to share in Christ’s redemption of the world.  How we do that is another question: while some have the gift of an evangelist or a charismatic personality, most of us struggle to find opportunities to share the good news in our daily life.  But perhaps it isn’t just a matter of ‘telling people about Jesus’; the phrase ‘bring all the world to the joy of your kingdom’ reminds us that Jesus said he came not that we should conform to some uniform idea of perfection but that each in our own way should ‘live life in all its fulness’ while loving God and our neighbours. To bring others into that joyful life may mean just saying something that brings a smile to their face, or doing some act of kindness that relieves them of their burden for a short while.

The trees of the field shall clap their hands

Today’s song from Sing Praise is “You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace” by Stuart Dauermann. I’ve given a different phrase from the song as a title to the blog post to avoid duplicating one used previously.  In terms of ‘modern’ worship songs this is now a golden oldie, dating from 1975 but still popular in some churches as a rousing way to round off an act of worship. The tradition has become to start slow and sing it three or four times getting faster each time, clapping at appropriate points in the words and ending with a shout of some kind.

The text is from Isaiah 55:12, the part dealing with the restoration to Israel after exile. So it’s really not so much about going out into the world, as coming back into God’s presence after a period of exile. The picture language of mountains singing and trees clapping their hands is perhaps meant to remind us that the holistic nature of God’s creation takes in the whole world, not just the fortunes of mankind.  If humanity is at peace with God and neighbour, the whole creation rejoices in that.  So maybe this song should fit better as a response to confession and absolution, or after the sharing of the Peace, rather than at the end of the service?

Sent by the Lord am I

The song I chose for 8 June (with a slight delay in posting my thoughts on it) was “Sent by the Lord am I”, with words by Jorge Maldonado and a tune arranged by John Bell.  It’s a short, straight-through song, although the second pair of lines is a repeat of the first, so it is usually sung more than once.

The message conveyed by the words is that ‘my’ task (actually that of all of us, to a lesser or greater extent) is to “make the earth the place in which the kingdom comes”, the reason being that even the angels are unable to do so.  While it’s always good to be motivated to play our part in bringing about God’s Kingdom, this seems to me to portray God as an absentee landlord who has just told us to get on with things.  In fact, the Gospel message is surely that God has sent the Holy Spirit to bring about the Kingdom following Jesus’ victory over evil on the Cross, but that we play our part by being open to the Spirit working in us and giving us the gifts needed for the task.

Veni, venie, Sancte Spiritus

Today’s selection from Sing Praise returns us briefly to the feast of Pentecost, with a cantor-and-refrain chant on the invocation ‘Come, Holy Spirit’, or rather the Latin version ‘Vene, Sancte Spiritus’.  We have sung the refrain by itself, in the 4-part harmony, in our church music group, but here Peter Nardone has added four short verses for a cantor.

The first verse is “Come make our hearts your home, give us grace, Spirit, come”, followed by “Come, come thou well of life, come thou fire of love”. Fire and Well (i.e. water) seem to be opposites, one extinguishing the other, but then the Spirit’s ways are so diverse that sometimes they do seem contradictory.  But he responds to the individual’s need: at one point in my spiritual life I may need the deep refreshing water, ant other times to be fired up. At another I may just need to feel the love or peace of God, as the last two verses put it: “Come, fill our hearts with heavenly love, come, strengthen from above … Come, keep us all from danger free, come, peace that dwells in thee”. 

The two-line verses are seemingly intended to rhyme, except verse 2 doesn’t at all (life/love) and rhyming home/come (verse 1) also misses the mark.

Before I take the body of my Lord

First, a word of explanation to anyone else who is reading these in conjunction with joining in Morning Prayer from Eccleshill on YouTube. I went through the book before the start of the year allocating hymns to days and seasons, and it seemed sensible to have the many Communion hymns allocated to Sundays. So after going through the various church seasons from Christmas to Trinity, for the next few months, my blog posts on Sundays will be on hymns in the Sing Praise hymnbook that are set for the Communion / Mass / Eucharist.  As there are fewer hymns in the book (330) than days in the year (365) most Saturdays weren’t allocated a hymn What I didn’t know at that stage was that John would join the project by playing these hymns in Morning Prayer, which is set for six days a week excluding Sundays (or rather, Morning Prayer on Sundays has a different liturgy and set of readings). That explains why we end up with communion hymns on Saturdays, and sometimes (as today) I end up posting the ‘Sunday’ blog a day early.

A priest hears a boy’s confession informally.
Photo (c) paullew on Flickr; Creative Commons licence.

This one is “Before I take the body of my Lord” by John Bell and Graham Maule.  It’s about preparation for the Communion, which means taking time to put aside (or in the words of the last line of each verse, ‘lay down’) the things that distract us from prayer: sins we regret having committed, the self-centredness that stops us doing good for other people, failings in relationships. These are described in ore detail in the first three verses.

Verse four is about forgiving others and asking their forgivensss of ourselves. In the Communion service this is the intention of “sharing the peace” although in practice this is often reduced to merely a friendly greeting.  Verse five turns to Christ himself, coming with empty heart and open hands, recognising that our laying down of these things is only a poor response to his own laying down of his life for us.

Singing this on Saturday, and perhaps again on Sunday morning, gives time for reflection on how this applies to me personally before receiving the bread and wine in the service itself.