The Summons

For a few weeks now in Sunday worship we have sung the song "Will You Come and Follow Me" (The Summons) by John Bell (Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymn #798). It is a wonderful song. Like "Here I Am, Lord," it is captivating because most of the lines are God singing to us. The line that has haunted me (in a good way) is this one: "Will you kiss the leper clean... and do such as this unseen?"

For me, this captures Lent: being enfolded into God's work, crossing all human-made boundaries and kissing the leper... and doing such things as these unseen (cf. Matthew 6). Christ has called us--yes, us!--the Gentiles, the lepers of this world, made unclean by our own sin and rebellion against God. Drawn near and kissed by this same Jesus in the waters of Baptism, we are sent as his body to do that same work. The trick is that we are told to do this humble work unseen.

May God place many lepers at your feet this week, in whatever guise modern-day "lepers" come, and may you kiss and tend to them... and do all of it unseen.

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If have pasted the lyrics of "The Summons" below. If you would like to see (hear?) more of John Bell's work, I highly recommend the site of the Wild Goose Resource Group and both of his books on congregational song: The Singing Thing and The Singing Thing Too. I also have a CD of a lecture he gave a few years ago... if I can find it.

Here is the song:

1. Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

2. Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

3. Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

4. Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you've found to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

5. Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In Your company I'll go where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I'll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

Text: John L. Bell b.1949.
© 1987, Wild Goose Resource Group, Iona Community, GIA Publications, Inc.
Tune: Scottish traditional, Kelvingrove. Arranged by John L. Bell.