Category: Communion

1
Lord God, Your love has called us here,
As we, by love, for love were made.
Your living likeness still we bear
Tho’ marred, dishonored, disobeyed.
We come, with all our heart and mind
Your call to hear, Your love to find.

2
We come with self inflicted pains
Of broken trust and chosen wrong,
Half free, half bound by inner chains,
By social forces swept along,
By powers and systems close confined,
Yet seeking hope for human kind.

3
Lord God, in Christ You call our name,
And then receive us as Your own,
Not thro’ some merit, right, or claim,
But by Your gracious love alone.
We strain to glimpse Your mercy seat,
And find You kneeling at our feet.

4
Then take the towel, and break the bread,
And humble us, and call us friends.
Suffer and serve till all are fed
And show how grandly love intends
To work till all creation sings,
To fill all worlds, to crown all things.

5
Lord God, in Christ You set us free
Your life to live, Your joy to share.
Give us Your Spirit’s liberty
To turn from guilt and dull despair
And offer all that faith can do,
While love is making all things new.

396

1
An upper room did our Lord prepare
For those loved until the end:
And His disciples still gather there,
To celebrate their risen Friend.

2
And after supper He washed their feet,
For service, too, is sacrament.
In Him our joy shall be made complete
Sent out to serve, as He was sent.

3
A lasting gift Jesus gave His own:
To share His bread, His loving cup.
Whatever burdens may bow us down,
He by His cross shall lift us up.

4
No end there is! we depart in peace.
He loves beyond our uttermost:
In every room in our Father’s house,
He will be there, as Lord and host.

397

1
Bread of the world in mercy broken,
Wine of the soul in mercy shed,
By whom the words of life are spoken,
And in whose death our sins are dead;

2
Look on the heart by sorrow broken,
Look on the tears by sinners shed;
And be Thy feast to us the token
That by Thy grace our souls are fed. Amen.

398

1
I come with joy to meet my Lord,
Forgiven, loved and free,
In awe and wonder to recall
His life laid down for me,
His life laid down for me.

2
I come with Christians far and near
To find, as all are fed,
Our true community of love
In Christ’s communion bread,
In Christ’s communion bread.

3
As Christ breaks bread for us to share
Each proud division ends.
That love that made us makes us one,
And strangers now are friends,
And strangers now are friends.

4
And thus with joy we meet our Lord.
His presence always near,
Is in such friendship better known:
We see and praise Him here,
We see and praise Him here.

5
Together met, together bound,
We’ll go our diff’rent ways,
And as His people in the world,
We’ll live and speak His praise,
We’ll live and speak His praise.

400

1
By Christ redeemed, In Christ restored,
We keep the memory adored,
And show the death of our dear Lord,
Until He come.

2
His broken body in our stead is here,
In his memorial bread;
And so our feeble love is fed,
Until He come.

3
His fearful drops of agony,
His lifeblood shed for us we see;
The wine shall tell the mystery,
Until He come.

4
And thus that dark betrayal night,
With the last advent we unite
The shame, the glory, by this rite,
Until He come.

402

1
O God, unseen, yet ever near,
Reveal Thy presence now
While we in love that hath no fear,
Before Thy glory bow.

2
Here may Thy faithful people know
The blessings of Thy love,
The streams that thro’ the dessert flow,
The manna from above.

3
We come, obedient to Thy Word
To feast on heav’nly food,
Our meat, the body of our Lord,
Our drink, His precious blood.

4
Thus may we all Thy words obey,
For we, O God, are Thine,

405