Common Ground Song 2 ‘Abundant Life’
Words: Ruth Duck / Music: Marty Haugen © GIA Publications Inc.
YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLZoFjqoFbk
Featured image: Churchyard conservation volunteers, St Edmund & St Mary, Ingatestone (Essex).

Three in a row! Like the last two songs I have commented on, this is a ‘third-person’ hymn, expressing Christian theology rather than praising God directly. Also like the last one, I found no video including the lyrics on screen. But the singing is clear in the linked performance.

The editors’ comment in Common Ground is that this is a good example of linking the three themes of ‘Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation’ (their capitals), and I would agree. The first verse, appropriately for this first day of the ‘Season of Creation’, addresses creation, whether sun and moon or river and flowers. The environmental movement has gone mainstream in recent years, and although most churches were not ‘early adopters’, they have come on board, with many seeking to gain ‘Eco-church’ status for achieving certain levels of sustainability in energy and land use, and including the environment in their teaching and worship. This often gives the opportunity to connect with the local community in new ways, as many people unwilling to come to a church service will happily help to plant trees, make bug hotels or chip in to the cost of solar panels.

The second verse takes Peace as its theme, with moving descriptions of the horrors of war. We are told that ‘God calls humanity to wake, to join in common labour’. Ending war is not within the grasp of the individual who has no connection with the military or politics of the combatant nations. But we can all pray for peace, root out prejudice and hatred from our own lives, and use every democratic tool we have to work for peace. The third verse is on Justice, calling us again to work as partners, looking to ‘a future free from want or fear’.

All three verses, though, share a penultimate line: ‘that all may have abundant life’. This is a direct reference to John 10:10 (the phrase ‘abundant life’ is translated differently in some versions e.g. ‘fullness of life’). There are altogether 48 references to ‘Life’ in john’s Gospel. For him what mattered was less the miracles that Jesus did, or the ethics he taught, and more the way that he demonstrated a completely whole way of living: body, mind and spirit. Yes, we should seek justice and peace, and care for creation. Anyone who lives free from the fear of persecution, war and hunger is much more likely to enjoy life. But Jesus primarily calls us to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, through whom he gives us the ‘living water’ that he also spoke of, the life of God within us. That is what abundant life’ is really about.