I chose this hymn for our first virtual worship service because I think it’s well-known and easy to sing--and for another reason that's explained below. More than anything, I think we are craving the means and determination by which we can stay connected with each other. Bind us together, Lord! Right now our web site is the main way we are trying to accomplish that. In fact, think of our web site, holytrinitymarshall.com, as the hub of our life together in place of the church building. Until we can meet again, this web site is our building. Enter through the front door, walk through, look around, open some doors, and see what you find. The content is always changing and expanding. It’s all there for you, to strengthen your faith and to encourage you to not only stay connected with each other but also with God.
But there’s no substitute for picking up the phone and actually hearing someone’s voice. Or for putting pen to paper and sending someone a handwritten note. If anything good comes out of all this, perhaps it will be that we recover the former means of interpersonal communication that the digital era had swept aside so unceremoniously.
In all the hymnals that I possess, “Bind Us Together” appears only in what we call the old purple hymnal, “Worship and Praise” (which I think was created as a contemporary supplement to the old green hymnal; we love our old hymnals, don’t we). It was written in England in the mid-1970s as part of the “House Church Movement,” which returned patterns of worship to the common 1st Century practice of being held in people’s homes. And this is exactly what we’re doing with our virtual services, thus this hymn for the first of these. Read the whole story of the song here.
In the worship video I used some additional verses that may not have been familiar. Let’s return to the ones we know:
1. There is only one God. There is only one King.
There is only one Body; this is why we can sing: (Refrain)
2. You are the family of God. You are the promise divine.
You are God’s chosen desire, you are the glorious new wine. (Refrain)
And the refrain, of course:
Bind us together, Lord, bind us together with cords that cannot be broken.
Bind us together, Lord, bind us together, Lord, bind us together in love.
That about says it all. And now you can sing it on your own!
May Christ go before you, behind you, in you, and above you,
Pastor Raabe