Tuesday 12 May. Song 16 ‘Brother, Sister, let me serve you’
Words & Music: Richard Gillard © Kingsway’s ThankYou Music
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttW9oQ-yiuU
Featured image: wedding banner from All Saints church, Leeds. Image © Stephen Craven
I allocated this song to the 12th May for a reason. Every 12th of the month, Linda and I mark the date in some way as our ‘monthiversary’. Not the wedding anniversary, but a little reminder each month of our commitment to each other. The banner pictured here came from a church in Leeds that was closing down, and now hangs on our bedroom wall.
This song was one that we had at our wedding. Along with a reading from Romans chapter 12, it reminded us and all those present that marriage is not just about the romantic occasions and happy holidays. It is about settling into the practicalities of living together, and supporting one another when bad times come. For come they will. That is why the traditional church marriage service contains vows to support each other ‘for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health’.
Richard Gillard’s song covers the same range of ideas. ‘We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load’. ‘I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear’. ‘I will weep when you are weeping, when you laugh I’ll laugh with you’. And so on. The last verse (apart from the repeat of the first verse at the end, as has become common practice) looks forward to eternal life, ‘when we sing to God in heaven, we shall find such harmony’.
Although ideal for a wedding, the song was probably not written with that setting in mind. It is for all Christians to sing, as a reminder that we commit ourselves to being part of a local and global fellowship. “There should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:25-26, NIV).
The song dates from the 1970s, and the original words were ‘Brother, let me be your servant’, perhaps inspired by monasticism. But in any hymn book of the last 30 years the first line has been altered to be more inclusive. It has become so popular that it appears in anything from ‘Songs of Fellowship’ to recent editions of ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’, which probably have very few entries in common. I found it in five of the hymn books I have, and the four of them that include music all use the same four-part arrangement by Betty Pulkingham of the tune titled ‘Servant Song’, but in different keys (D, E or E♭ major).