What Goes into a Hymn?

Many strands of one’s life experience are woven together in the writing of a hymn. An example is my hymn text, Come and Feast, for All Are Welcomed, that was informed by experiences from my childhood and beyond.

A hymn is a poem of faith that succinctly and creatively expresses the author’s theologies and ideas. When sung by a congregation, a hymn provides worshipers an expression for praise, contemplation, prayer or proclamation. As an invitation to and a calling from the table, Come and Feast is a proclamation. It offers my words for worshipers to collectively preach. I find fulfillment in this mode of prophetic ministry – of creating sermons in hymn-form that congregations amplify through their singing at various times and in many different places. The video above presents an exclamation of the hymn by South Main Baptist Church, Houston, Texas.

Below are the four stanzas of the hymn with information on the personal experiences that inspired them.

Stanza 1:
Come and feast, for all are welcomed
at God's table spread with love.
Come proclaim God's grace and goodness
in, around us, and above.
Come and feast, for all are welcomed
at God's table spread with love.

In my childhood church the “Candy Lady” would often pass me a peppermint during worship though the communion elements were always passed by me until after the time I was baptized. This practice of offering the bread and cup only to the initiated was an unfortunate practice that is continued by some churches today. (Considering the very tiny “chiclet” of bread and “thimble” of juice that was offered, the Candy Lady’s peppermint was a much tastier communion anyway!) The exclusion of individuals from the Lord’s Supper as it was called, was also practiced by the church I attended as a teenager. Not only were the unbaptized excluded, but, propagating ideas of “Landmarkism,” only the baptized members of our local church could partake. I was grateful to learn from my mother that my maternal grandmother did not agree with this exclusion from the table. Fast-forward to the church I presently serve, and communion looks very different. Young children, the unbaptized, first-time visitors are all welcomed to the table along with persons of other faiths or no faith, and of every description. These varied experiences are the reason Stanza 1 proclaims the welcome of all.

Stanza 2:
Here we nurture and encourage
as we share this common meal,
while we foster deep communion
and our inner-selves reveal.
Here we nurture and encourage
as we share this common meal.

In seminary I became aware of the Christian “Love Feast” – a communal meal where early followers of Christ would combine their food as an offering and freely share it. From my experience as a churchgoer, I envisioned these ancient Love Feasts to be like potluck dinners-on-the-ground. Or perhaps they were like the first fellowship meal my wife and I attended at our church in Walterboro, South Carolina, where we sat around newspaper-topped picnic tables on which a “Beaufort Boil” would be dumped, and we’d eat with our hands. At the same congregation, I instituted periodic Love Feasts when the congregation would gather on a Sunday night in the fellowship hall for a simple meal. Tables were connected and set up in a long rectangle, and participants sat around the outside so that everyone could see each other. Those who came to the feast brought all kinds of delicious finger foods to share family style as we reconstructed the Love Feast tradition. Together we ate, conversed with those beside us, sang simple refrains, and viewed the entire experience as communion. These Love Feasts provided the imagery conveyed in Stanza 2.

Stanza 3:
See the chalice lifted upward;
smell the fragrant, broken bread;
taste the gifts from field and vineyard;
hear the words that Jesus said:
"Eat and drink, and in remembrance
touch your souls with wine and bread."

I am among many ministers who were privileged to study worship with Dr. Donald Hustad at Southern Seminary. He taught that “full-orbed” worship included a “Service of the Word,” a “Service of the Table” and engaged all of the human senses. Stanza 3 is a direct result of his teaching as I included the five senses in the text. In liturgical practice, this stanza also offers the “words of institution.” It can be sung freely by a choir or soloist while those serving communion lift the chalice and break the bread at appropriate points in the stanza. (Having this stanza sung by a choir or soloist allows the congregation to view the action.)

Stanza 4:
With the Spirit-blessed commission:
"Go and serve this meal to all,”
take its love and peaceful vision
into every banquet hall.
Go and serve as nourished people,
gladly feeding one and all!

Stanzas 1-3 can be meaningfully sung as a Call to the Table with Stanza 4 reserved for a Sending Out. As seen in the video below, First Baptist Church, Asheville, North Carolina, has dramatized this final stanza in a magnificent way. During the singing of Stanza 4, a family comes to the sanctuary communion table, places upon it a checkered cloth and replaces the communion set with an open picnic basket and ice chest with water. Then, as the congregation sings “Go and serve…feeding one and all,” the family rushes down the central aisle, leading the worshipers out to minister. This dramatization transforming “formal” communion into a “common” experience offers the perfect visualization of this stanza. I’ve heard hymn poet, Brian Wren, tell the story of serving communion to a young person who, being literally hungry, broke off a large chunk of the communion loaf to eat. This story forever changed the way I think of communion and inspired me to include the “feeding of all” in this final stanza. It presents communion as a justice-call to feed the hungry and as a vision of peace to be replicated wherever we go.​

A hymn search sponsored by Orange United Methodist Church, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was the catalyst for the writing of this hymn (which was named winner of the search). The hymn was later included in the Celebrating Grace Hymnal and may be reprinted and streamed through ONE LICENSE or CCLI. The text has also been set as a choral anthem, Feast and Remember, by Tom Fettke, and published through Celebrating Grace, Inc.

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