Common Ground. Song 130 ‘There’s a Spirit in the air’
Words: Brian Wren © Stainer & Bell Ltd / Music: John Wilson © Hope Publishing Co. © OUP
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNwfljTraFU    
Featured image: Street Pastors © Fulwood Free Methodist Church

The structure of the song is somewhat unusual. Each of the seven verses has four short (7-syllable) lines. The first two are different each time, except that verse 7 is a slight alteration of verse 1. The last two lines alternate: the odd verses (which the editors’ note suggests could be sung by female voices only) end with ‘Praise the love that Christ revealed, living, working, in the world’. The even verses (to be sung by male voices) end with ‘God in Christ has come to stay, live tomorrow’s life today’.

This is, therefore, another of those songs that makes a close connection between Christian faith and action. It also makes clear that the Holy Spirit is the link between them. In this Ascension season, we are reminded that Jesus told his disciples that when he was gone, they would need to carry on doing what he had done: spreading the good news of Jesus (verse 2), feeding the hungry (verse 3), acting for justice (verse 4), befriending strangers and housing the homeless (verse 5), and so on.

But Jesus also told them to wait for the outpouring of the Spirit before setting out on this never-ending mission. We are to ‘live and work in the world’ and ‘live tomorrow’s life’, but only in so far as we recognise the ‘spirit in the air’ (or rather, inside us) and that the Spirit is ‘God in Christ, come to stay’. As we look forward to Pentecost next weekend, together we pray, ‘Come, Holy Spirit!’