An Anniversary Missed - the final part

I put a video of myself singing "Brother, Sister Let Me Serve You" up on Youtube.
("http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL3vStmoMDw")
and had this comment left by someone I know:
"I'm watching this and thinking "Gee this guy sounds like Richard Gillard" then it clicked (senior moment). But why didn't you use the original lyrics?"

I responded thus:

"These are the original lyrics!! insofar as they communicate the original spirit and intent of the song which was to speak of and to the entire christian family. 'Brother' in the original was shorthand for 'brother and sister' and also shorthand for family. Go figure!"

A few year's after this song was published and had become well known around the world some of the ladies in the church started calling for 'inclusive language' not only in the songs we sang but in the liturgies we used and in our conversations about all things spiritual. The patriarchal language had to go. We were not to talk merely about the sons of God, or Jesus coming to save all men. God had daughters too and women needed almost as much saving as we blokes. And our songs and liturgies began to reflect this new awareness.

Two lines of the song in question came under scrutiny; the opening line,"Brother let me be Your Servant" and the line in verse two saying "we are brothers on the road." The sisters wanted to serve and be served too and have their place in the community of faith recognised.

The first I was aware that the lyrics were going to be different form those I had originally written was when the Fisher Folk under Betty Pulkingham recorded it and a complementary tape arrived in my mail box. They sang "Won't you let me be your servant" and "we're companions on the road." I don't know if they negotiated these changes with the folks at Scripture in Song or not. All I know is nobody ran it past me.

Maybe David and Dale felt badly that they hadn't run it past me or maybe Betty made the changes without consultation with them. I do know that later when someone else approached them to record an inclusive language version they did talk to me. I can't recall if the "Brother, sister..." rendering was my idea or not. I know I preferred it to "Won't you..." I may have suggested the "we are family on the road" rewrite in verse two. Certainly these are my preferred changes. I like it that the idea of family is under-scored and re-enforced. I always understood that it is within the family of faith that we learn the lessons of servanthood, and learn to be tender with and supportive of one another, and where we learn to forgive as we have been forgiven.

I agree with a certain English bishop that this is not a hymn. A hymn speaks more directly of and to God and seeks to praise Him. This song is addressed to one's fellow pew-warmers. I never called it a hymn - to me it was always a song - though others do. All I ever wrote were songs. Hymns were written by other people.

Is the sentiment of this song overly humble (the same bishop referred to Uriah Heep the character from Dickens, not the rock band)? Is it 'very 'umble' in a sickly, obsequious kind of a way? In the second part of verse one I was making reference to those in 'the family' who though happy to serve could never allow themselves to be served - they thought they had to be worthy of another's service and were not. They failed to see that we were all equally unworthy in the face of Christ's gracious service toward us, from the mightiest king to the lowliest slave. "As I have washed your feet, so must you wash one another's feet" said Jesus in the upper room the night before he died. What is my brother or sister supposed to think if in my false modesty, my false humility I refuse to let him wash my feet.

On Maundy Thursday, while I'm not the first to get my shoes and socks off and have my feet washed, I'm certainly not last.

And I agree, I could have written a more interesting melody. These though were the notes immediately beneath my fingers as I plucked my guitar in the 1st position (relatively speaking for I had a capo on at the 4th or 5th fret) looking for the tune that was looking to be born. It has similarities, someone pointed out, to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" melody - scales with small variations.

I'm only sorry I wasn't able to teach the melody to Ann and Mike's cockatiel, Tana (after All Black Mr Umaga) while he was in my care.