DOCTRINES >> COMMUNION
SDAH 396
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.
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For Worship Leaders
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Hymn Spotlight: Lord God, Your Love Has Called Us Here
Written by Brian Wren as a modern reflection on God’s redemptive love, this Communion hymn reminds us that grace reaches even into the structures of brokenness and silent suffering. With poetic depth and startling imagery—like Christ kneeling at our feet—it calls worshippers to receive both humility and hope. Set to the tune RYBURN by Norman Cocker, it’s a moving invitation to experience God’s love at the table of grace.
📖 Reference: Feel free to share but please cite hymnsforworship.org when reproducing.
Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
This hymn was published in Faith Looking Forward, 1983, with the heading “And Can It Be?” which refers to the opening line of Charles Wesley’s hymn at SDAH 198. Brian Wren (1936-; see Biographies) says he wrote this as a “restatement in contemporary terms, but not a replacement, of Wesley’s hymn.” The hymn sees God’s gracious love in the context of sin built into socioeconomic structures, but also of Christian hope.
Each of the five stanzas brings some fresh, new thought to make the Communion service vivid. At the end of the third stanza notice the surprise of “We strain to glimpse Your mercy seat, And find You kneeling at our feet.” Wren calls this one of his favorites among the more than 40 hymns he has written, and says, “It’s not an easy hymn to sing, but I wanted to express what Christ can do for emptiness and desolation, which is really suffering in silence. There was a lot of me in writing that hymn. Not that this was my personal experience, really. It became clear to me that it was the personal experience of quite a few people.” Try singing the stanzas, one or two at a time, in appropriate parts of the service.
The tune RYBURN was first written by Norman Cocker for the British Broadcasting Company Hymn book. He was born in 1889 at Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, England. At the age of 20 he became organist and choirmaster of St. Philip and St. James, Oxford. From 1912 to 1915 he served as music master for Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was conductor of the Light Music Orchestra. From 1914 to 1918 he was a soldier in World War I, and then began, in 1919, a long association with the music of Manchester Cathedral, as suborganist until 1943, and then as organist for 10 years; he died November 15, 1953. He was recognized as a first-class trainer of choirs and was very creative as a keyboard improvisor. He left very few compositions and hymn tunes, the best known being TUBA TUNE for the organ. RYBURN is in the form of ABABCD.
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
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.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) John 13:1 (d) John 13:4; Luke 22:19; John 15:14 (e) John 8:32; Rom 8:21
Author
Brian A. Wren (1936-)
Copyright
Words copyright 1977 by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Music by permission of Oxford University Press.
Hymn Tune
RYBURN
Metrical Number
8.8.8.8.8.8.
Composer
Norman Cocker (1889-1953)
