Common Ground Song 148 ‘Will you come and follow me?’
Words / Music: John Bell © WGRG / Iona Community
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Bq1YtpQL8
Featured image: Jesus calling his disciples. Original artist unknown.
This hymn has an alternative title, ‘The Summons’. That word is nowadays associated with a legal requirement to appear in court. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as ‘an authoritative and urgent call to do something’, which would certainly cover that. Its ultimate derivation, the dictionary tells us, is the Latin verb summonere (sub-monere)‘to warn secretly’.
What has that to do with this modern and popular hymn? John Bell’s text consists of a series of challenges, by implication spoken by Jesus, to one or more of his disciples (the English ‘you’ can of course be either singular or plural, as you wish to take it). When Jesus calls, it is certainly authoritative, for those of us who believe in him as the Son of God and Risen Lord. It may also be urgent, if he is asking us to respond to an immediate need. But the original concept of ‘warning secretly’ is also found in the Gospels, where he tells his followers that he teaches using parables in order to ensure that only those truly committed to him will understand what he is really saying. Which is a warning that with the imminent end of their current culture (imminent in historical terms that is, with Jerusalem being sacked by the Romans around forty years later) there is an urgent need to learn and remember his teaching, to wait in Jerusalem until after his resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit, and then go out into the world to spread that good news before it is too late.
Here in early 21st century Europe, some people are increasingly realising that we face just the same kind of ‘civilisational erasure’ that the Jewish people of Jesus’ day did. Within forty years we certainly face a degree of climate change that will severely disrupt established patterns of weather, agriculture, transport and so one. Add in the as yet unknown effects of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (these blogs, by the way, are entirely my own work and not written by AI!) and the threat of war with Russia, and there is a sense of urgency building. What should be the Church’s response?
I believe that Jesus is saying to his Church today what he said to his followers then. Study the scriptures, believe in his saving power, pray for the enabling of the Holy Spirit, and then Go. Go to carry out whatever he tells you to do, as individuals or as communities. Do it in his name, in the power of the Spirit, and do it as soon as possible. So that when the shit hits the fan (to use a non-Biblical, but well understood phrase) we will have passed on the Gospel message to enough people to ensure that God’s kingdom remains established on earth through whatever tribulations are to follow.
What, then, are we called to do? These verses give us some examples. We are, first, to ‘leave ourselves behind’. Christ and his Church come first in our lives. We should pray, expecting an answer, and be willing to face opposition (‘risk the hostile stare’, at least) in what we do for him. That might include, literally or by way of example, ‘letting the blinded see and setting the prisoner free’ (as Jesus described his own mission). It will include ‘using the faith we’ve found to reshape the world around’ and maybe ‘going where we don’t know and never being the same’.
The final verse is the disciple’s response: ‘Lord, your summons echoes true when you but call my name. Let me turn and follow you, and never be the same’. Pray, then, that Jesus will show you how he wants you, and your church, to respond to the multiple crises coming upon us, and be ready to be empowered to act. With his authority, and with urgency.