Wednesday 24 June. Song 82 ‘Mallaig sprinkling song’
Words: Helen Kennedy © St Mungo Music / Music: Margaret Martin-Hardie © Panel on Worship
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRrRGUrOHcA
Featured image: A bishop sprinkling the congregation © Pascal Deloche

I picked this hymn for today, the feast of John the Baptist, because of the (slightly obscure) connection with baptism. As the editors’ note explains, the odd title refers to ‘the sprinkling rite of the Roman and Anglican churches, which involves the congregation being reminded of their baptism by having water sprinkled on them’. The rite is also known as ‘asperges’.

On this, the hottest day of the year so far and one when the UK June temperature record looks set to be broken with 37C in Southern England, a sprinkling of cold water would be very welcome. It is cooling and refreshing, helping get our bodies under control.

In the same way, we ask in this song for the refreshing of the Holy Spirit – the opening line of the hymn is ‘Spirit of God, come dwell within me’. Just as our bodies become hot and dry and in need of water, so our souls become withered over time with the selfishness that is at the root of all sin. At baptism, we have the guilt of our sins removed ‘once for all’, but we all know we continue to sin, and that still makes our souls dirty again. In the words of the hymn, ‘Lord, how I thirst, Lord, I am weak.’ A regular cleaning is needed, like a cool shower on a hot day. And the Holy Spirit is the way that refreshing comes.

The last line of each of the three verses is ‘O fill me with living water’. The reference there is to Jesus’ promise in John chapter 4, to a woman drawing water from a well on a hot day, that he can provide ‘living’ (running) water for ever. To her that was a very welcome prospect in a literal sense, but he also meant it spiritually: she was dried out from what seems to have been a complicated life, and needing his living spiritual water.