When we gather at the table

When we gather at the table

            Eating what is true and real,

Fellowship with all God’s people

            Makes the blessing for the meal.

Love for Christ and one another

            Makes the feast a sign and seal.

            (Makes the feast a sign and seal.)

As we dine on all God’s bounty,

            Meats and grains and fruits God sows,

Never let us take for granted

            Everything that in Christ grows,

Creatures all of God’s own making

            And whose every breath God knows.

Let us not forsake the workers

            Who put food upon our plates,

Those who toil at grueling labor

            Yet for whom no justice waits;

May we strive that they see mercy,

            Not be callous to their fates.

Teach us, Lord, to eat with conscience,

            Knowing that in Your good will

What we eat and who we eat with

            With Your blessing You will fill;

Nourish us to feed each other

            All with good and not for ill.

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, 2012

MUSIC: Possible tunes:

CWM RHONDDA, John Hughes, 1907 (the repeated final line as shown in the first stanza would come into play here).

TRINITY, Peter Cutts, 1983 (I encountered this one to the text “God is One, unique and holy”; I particularly like the fit of this one but it's Copyright 1983 Hope Publishing Company).

REGENT SQUARE, Henry Thomas Smart, 1866.

A scene from a Coalition for Immokalee Workers action at a Publix supermarket in Florida; the third stanza was inspired by the work of CIW and other organizations seeking economic justice for the workers who perform the labor others won't, yet are often treated as less than human, with poverty wages and abuse as a regular part of their lives.  Learn what CIW is doing at ciw-online.org