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COMMENT: So Now We Go!

MUSIC

Metre: 10,10,10,10
Tune: Woodlands (by Walter Creatorex)
Woodlands is the fine tune often used for 'Tell out my soul' and 'Lift up your hearts'.
If you begin to sing it to yourself, you will know that its notes go like this - there's an extra note in the first line -

Tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum-di, tum, tum, tum!
Tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum!
Tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum!
Tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum, tum!

Unlike most hymn-writing, my words are written to fit the tum-di in the first line, so that each note of it has a word or syllable.

I was eager to use Scripture with the minimum of change, and this enabled me to do so. In particular Christ's command to the demoniac 'Legion' (Mark 5:19) -

'Go home and tell what good things the Lord has done.'

THEME

Christians come to Christ with discipline, love and regularity - and rightly so.
In marked contrast is the lack of enthusiasm or understanding of the need to be sent out by him!

Because of that, being sent-out forms part of most of the hymns I write, but I have made it the actual theme of this one.

Being sent out by Christ is not an optional extra, or dependent on the whim of the local Christian leader. It is essential and of the essence of the church. That is why I have contrived to incorporate in the hymn so much Scripture on the theme, and to indicate the Biblical quotations.

USE

I envisage this hymn being sung as a final hymn in worship.

By that time virtually everything that should have happened will have taken place. My words do not, therefore, pray that we might receive. Instead the hymn -

assumes that, in the previous worship,
God has given us all we need to serve him.

All that is now left for us to do is to GO OUT AND USE IT!

Note: There are enough verses to select just those most appropriate for the occasion if preferred.

BIBLICAL BASIS

The first six verses are based on each of the following incidents -

Verse 1	Jesus's healing of demoniac called 'Legion' Peter's healing of Aeneas	[Mark 5:1-20] [Acts 9:34]
Verse 2	Jesus's healings of the Woman who Anointed Him and the Woman in the Crowd	[Luke 7:36-50] [Mark 5:24-34]
Verse 3	Jesus's healing of the Man at the Pool Note: Jesus returns to him and says *Sin no more* (v.14). Given the story as it stands, Jesus seems to have regarded the man's failure to move (for 38 years) as sin. Jesus's unusual - but essential - question to him '*Do you want to be healed?*' (v.6) supports this view.	[John 5:1-15]
Verse 4	Jesus's healings of the Blind Man and the Ten Lepers	[John 9:1-7] [Luke 17:12-14]
Verse 5	The Risen Jesus appears to Mary at the tomb	[John 20:17]
Verse 6	The Risen Jesus sends out the Disciples	[John 20:19-23]

WORDS

The word 'leper' in the New Testament covers diseases wider than leprosy. The word 'leper' in verse 4 could be changed for 'leprous' by anyone who thought it better or necessary. (I do not; otherwise I would have used it.)

HYMN - SO NOW WE GO!
[Direct Bible quotations are in *bold italics*]
	1. '*Go home and tell what good things the Lord has done,' (Mark 5:19) Christ said to 'Legion' - whom he'd made at one! So now we go, delivered, for our role to tell our friends 'Christ Jesus makes you whole!' (Acts 9:34) 2. 'Go now in peace', were Christ's healing words to send (Mark 5:34, Luke 7:50) those sinful, fearful, or too long condemned. So now we go, forgiven and restored, to reconcile the world to God its Lord. 3. 'Take up your mat, go, start walking. Sin no more.' (John 5:9 and 5:14) Christ said to one who'd spent years on the floor. So now we go - released! No longer still! Fresh life we're giv'n to do the Father's will. 4. 'Go and obey.' The blind and the lepers learn (see John 9:7 and Luke 17:14) that going brings the health for which they yearn. So now we go. Our worship has sufficed to send us out, equipped to live for Christ. 5. 'Go. Cling no more!' Thus Christ redirects the love (John 20:17) of Mary prior to his ascent above. So now we go - God frees our love from chains - to tell his world its Risen Saviour reigns. 6. 'So I send you, as my Father has sent me!' (John 20:21) 'Receive the Spirit!* Take authority.' (John 20:22) So now we go, empowered by God's breath; to share Christ's victory over sin and death. 7. God's world awaits, in sin, darkness, and in strife, to hear of rescue and eternal life. So now we go; sent from our seats or pews to tell the world: *Jesus* is God's *Good News*! (Mark 1:1)
John Richards, 2004, Copyright waived for users of Help for Christians.co.uk