Let us talents and tongues employ
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Let us talents and tongues employ,
reaching out with a shout of joy:
bread is broken, the wine is poured,
Christ is spoken and seen and heard.
Jesus lives again,
earth can breathe again,
pass the Word around:
loaves abound!
Christ is able to make us one,
at the table he set the tone,
teaching people to live to bless,
love in word and in deed express.
Chorus:
Jesus calls us in, sends us out
bearing fruit in a world of doubt,
gives us love to tell, bread to share:
God (Immanuel) everywhere!
Chorus:
In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. Romans 7:4 4
You can hear the hymn here.
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Some years ago I was challenged to find a hymn to a certain folk tune; easy - it was “Wild Mountain Thyme”. There is something about folk tunes that provokes the response: “why must the devil have all the good music? “. The hymn tune called “Linstead Market” in Rejoice and Sing is a traditional Jamaican tune which cried out for non-traditional words. These are supplied by Fred Kaan, at the request of Doreen Potter, whose arrangement of the music we use. As an aside - those of you who use a Hymnal Plus might like to find the steel band option.
The immense joy of this tune coupled with these words express to me the great joy of earth waking up from winter rest “now the green blade rises …” and finding “Jesus lives again”. We wake from unbelief into the joy of belief - so reach out with a shout of joy. When life has been hard, dark, difficult, as it is for all Christians at times, then at this meal take a deep breath: feel as if you can breathe again.
As Christ sets the tone for our Christian life together, so this meal sets the tone for a sharing, loving, caring life. No matter how counter cultural a life teaching others to share and bless might be, that is the tone that has been set for us.
I will always remember the first time I preached in Thornbury URC. By deduction I know it was in 1990, and I have no idea what happened during the service. What I remember is that the duty Elder, not knowing anything about my background, took care to explain that she would carry the Bible in before me, the Word brought into church so that we could all learn from it (oo-er, what was I going to say!) and after the benediction she would carry it out so that we remembered to take the Word out into the world for our lives to, in the words of this hymn, “bear fruit in a world of doubt”.
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Creator,
you gave us life
and in Jesus give us new life.
May we be proud to be counter cultural
and express the life and love you give i
n the tone set for us.
Amen
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The Rev'd Ruth Browning is a retired minister and member of Thornbury URC in Gloucestershire.
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New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Bible: © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved
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