Common Ground Song 22’ Come let us seek’
Words / Music: Tom Colvin © Hope Publishing Co.
Recording: see note below.
Featured image: Mary Magdalene meeting the risen Jesus. Mosaic in the Resurrection Chapel in Washington National Cathedral, by Rowan and Irene LeCompte, 1972.
This song, in antiphonal form for cantor and congregation, is based on Psalm 40, perhaps more closely so than the one about which I blogged on 13 June, although the naming of Jesus in the chorus (see below) makes it clearly a Christian, not a Jewish, one. I also wrote about that psalm in a more recent sermon. I will therefore not comment further on the text, which here is paraphrased in ten brief phrases from the cantor.
The response of the congregation to each of the biddings from the psalm is ‘Yesu sets us free to love and serve. Yesu sets us free’. The use of ‘Yesu’ for the name of Jesus (and probably much closer to the Aramaic original) immediately tells us this is not a song originating in England. In fact it is from Malawi, and the notes in Common Ground suggest it is intended as a ‘teaching song’ to root the goodness of God in the people’s hearts and minds.
The choice of words for the congregational response is telling. ‘Yesu sets us free to love and serve’. This is a one-sentence summary of liberal Christianity. I have seen several pieces on social media recently arguing that some strands of evangelical Christianity (by no means all, but certainly including the sort of Christian nationalism associated with the MAGA movement) have focused so much on morality and personal salvation, that they have lost sight of the way Jesus set people free from whatever prevented them from living life “in all its fulness”, whether that was physical illness, spiritual bondage or being victims of others’ hatred and discrimination. And being set free to love, they usually desired immediately to follow and serve him. Of them all, Mary Magdalene is probably the best example. From ‘having seven demons’ she becomes Jesus’ closest female follower, giving up all her previous life to devote herself to his service, and rewarded with being the first direct witness of his Resurrection.
This dynamic of hearing Jesus’ call, being set free, filled with the Spirit, experiencing fullness of life for ourselves, and then joyfully responding by willingly serving him, is a very different one from that driven by moral demands, pressure to donate to the Church, and the fear of hell. Let us not forget this message of freedom that runs through the Gospel.
Once again I have not found a recording of the whole piece online, nor the whole of the lyrics. Here is a recording of just the first few biddings and the response, sung much faster than I would expect, but it perhaps gives an idea of the way it might be sung in Malawi. https://music.churchofscotland.org.uk/hymn/487-come-let-us-seek-our-gods-protection