Choice

ARE WE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS?

Tune:

LUX EOI 8787D
Arthur Sullivan 1842-1900
MYSTIC PROPHET 8787D
Melody: William L. Wallace
Harmony: Robyn A. Goudge
 

1. Are we followers of Jesus
   Or disciples of Saint Paul?
   Are we like the first apostles
   Or do churchy ways enthral?
   Those first followers of Jesus
   Dreamt a liberating dream
   To hold everything in common
   And with mutual self esteem.

2. Jesus taught his first disciples
   Oneness with God’s mystery
   Through the one who dwells within us
   Seen in human history.
   Jesus unmasked institutions
   Of religion and of state
   But Saint Paul birthed those church structures
   That at times are less than great.

3. Ardent Paul changed Jesus’ teaching
   Bidding us “obey the state”,
   To support each form of slav’ry
   And leave women’s needs to wait.
   Church and state then formed a bonding
   In what seemed a godly tie
   But the prophet’s voice was silenced
   As were all who questioned why.

4. Climate change now threatens world-wide
   Placing us in eco-debt
   So this world needs mystic prophets
   Changing how our sails are set.
   They bid us to follow Christ’s Way
   That once flourished long ago.
   Then with Babel towers collapsing
   Christ will show us where to go.

Text and Melody for “Mystic prophet” © William Livingstone Wallace
Harmony ©Robyn Allen-Goudge
 
Click Here for Sheet Music – Lux EOI
Click Here for Sheet Music – Mystic Prophet
 
Click Here for MP3 – Lux EOI
Click Here for MP3 – Mystic Prophet
 

Click Here for Full Index to William L. Wallace’s Series

Hymns “Cosmic Mystery”

 
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William (Bill) Livingstone Wallace is a retired New Zealand Methodist Minister and one of our most prolific contributors. Bill says that his work springs from communicating with the fire in his gut and his observation of both the internal and external aspects of the Cosmos. Since an early age, he has been both sympathetic to and critical of the church, announcing at the age of 13 his belief in evolution. In his youth, he struggled with the disconnection between art and spirituality in his own and other denominations and with the way in which all of the liturgies prior to the sermon were regarded as preliminaries and longer sermons were viewed as superior to more concise ones.

He holds a B.A. in philosophy and a Dip. Ed. and is the author of nine published collections of his hymns as well as other resources on our website. His aim is to help people be empowered by the divine within them and the Cosmos and to work to overthrow the forces of personal and institutional greed which destroy both the ecosystem and human society.

Click Here for a Full Biography of William L. Wallace

Click here for a complete list of his work on ProgressiveChristianity.org