The hymn I chose for 2 July from Sing Praise (but commenting a day late) was “One is the body and one is the head” by John Bell, with words based on Ephesians chapter 4. Unlike the psalm setting I mentioned on 1 July with a difficult tune to pick up, this one in Bell’s usual Scottish folk style is very easy.
It’s a song of unity in mission: the unity between God the Father, Jesus Christ and the holy Spirit; unity between the earthly Jesus and the eternal Christ; unity between the members of the Church with our different gifts and callings, and unity between the Church as body of Christ, and the threefold God whom we serve and worship.
I enjoyed this brief romp through part of Ephesians 4. Actually the text of the bible doesn’t say “one is the head”, and in the hymn it sounds a bit of an odd thing to say. I’m not sure that it is the person who is setting the gospel before a hearer is the one who “converts” them – isn’t that the Holy Spirit who “converts” them? And the modern theory of “the church witnesses through its worship” (i.e. if we get the worship right, this will attract people in to services and they will be converted by what they sing rather than by what they hear in sermons) hasn’t exactly led to church growth in our generation! But these are all minor points – the hymn is still an enjoyable romp.
The demands of rhyme are very tight in this kind of song, and I found John Bell’s approach here very refreshing – in each verse the last word does rhyme with something, but the position of the word with which it rhymes is not fixed. Nice one, John!