Common Ground Song 71 ‘Like the murmur’
Words: Carl P Daw Jr / Music: Peter Cutts © Hope Publishing Co.
YouTube recording:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbvHOTGypJE
Featured image: Superb Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus superbus) at Chester Zoo © Mike Pennington cc-by-sa-2.0

With its chorus of ‘Come, Holy Spirit, Come’ this song is ideal for the Pentecost season which began yesterday. It is a short and simple hymn, but the more I ponder it, the richer the symbolism becomes.

The first verse reminds us of the description of the way the Spirit arrives on the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2): ‘like the vigour of the wind’s rush, like the new flame’s eager might’.  As with so much else in the Bible, we need to understand references to Jewish scripture. Wind and flame are symbolic of God’s presence, which is what Luke intended to convey to his largely Jewish readers. Think Moses’ burning bush, Elijah’s ‘earthquake, wind and fire’ or the pillar of fire that led the Hebrews through the wilderness. Whatever our experience of the Spirit may be, he / she will give us a real sense of God’s presence. (This hymn writer chooses to refer to the Spirit as ‘she’, a modern trend to offset what is sometimes seen as a solely masculine view of God who ‘made male and female in his image’).

Some preachers, in explaining the work of the Holy Spirit, focus exclusively on what the individual receives: the ‘ninefold fruits and sevenfold gifts’ (I’m sure you can easily find these listed if you wish to look them up). The Spirit comes to make an individual more Christlike and to empower us for the particular calling that he has for us. But the Spirit also comes to the Church, corporately.

That is what this song focuses on, and what we particularly think of at Pentecost, often called ‘the birth of the Church’. The second verse describes a group of Christians in different ways: ‘members of Christ’s body’, ‘branches of the Vine’, ‘the Church in faith assembled’ (all images found in the New Testament). To these, she comes ‘as gift and sign’. Now we are in the realm of Christian symbolism, as that is a quote from the carol ‘Love came down at Christmas’: ‘Love for plea and gift and sign’. Reminding us that the work of the Spirit is inseparable from that of Jesus the incarnate Son of God, who promised that the Father would send her. But that is to anticipate Trinity Sunday, next week!

The third verse goes on to explain her role in the Church: ‘healing of division’, ‘ceaseless prayer’, ‘power to love and witness’, ‘peace beyond compare’.  A church that has not accepted the Spirit may indeed be divided, perfunctory in prayer, afraid of spreading the gospel, and not at peace. We need the Spirit’s power to change that. As with the other verses, it ends with the invocation ‘Come, Holy Spirit, Come!’

The dove, mentioned in the opening line, is not found in Acts. That reference is to the appearance of the Spirit at Jesus’ baptism. But it has become a go-to symbol for her. Doves are normally white, at least in the UK. But I found this photo of a very colourful exotic dove from Australia or Indonesia, living at Chester Zoo. Given the association of the Holy Spirit with joy, excitement and generally unexpected things, I reckon she probably looks more like this!