See the children of God

Refrain:

See the children of God, and of Christ the body living!

See the Spirit among them in receiving and in giving!

See the children of God!

 

When the people share Christ's work with no barriers stood between them, 

Neither age, race, nor gender can keep any servant from him.

 

Refrain

 

(See the church of early Rome, women, men, enslaved and noble;

From such humble beginnings see the church flung wide and global.)

Refrain

 

Country roads or city streets, anywhere that lives are troubled,

May the church be the bearer of Christ's love and joy redoubled.

 

Refrain

 

Can we be such church today, in the world with joy and flavor?

Siblings all joined together, all alike in God's true favor?

 

Refrain

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, September 2023, ref. to Romans 16:1-16.

MUSIC: Tune WILD MOUNTAIN THYME, Irish melody. 

(note: tune is public domain but arrangements or harmonizations are likely copyrighted)

I am the weirdo who tries to extract a sermon out of Romans 16:1-16, Paul's extra-long greetings to members of the church at Rome that, though he had not visited yet, he still somehow knew or at least knew about. It's an interesting bunch in these greetings, from evangelists and even apostles to possibly enslaved or formerly enslaved people. There's at least a tiny little lesson for the church today in all of these names Paul calls out; if nothing else, this church and other similar congregations of the era are our ancestors in the faith, well before anybody was building cathedrals or megachurches.

On the other hand, if one isn't taking in that scripture, leaving out verse 2 should still hopefully be a useful hymn for the church, maybe even an aspirational one?