Here’s a contemporary hymn for Advent from Dan Damon. The song is set to a tune called SWEETWATER
(see it here). Or—if your congregation would prefer to
use a tune they already know, you might sing it to one of the following
traditional tunes (or any other tune in 8.7.8.7. meter):
PEACE
(Peace is flowing like a river)
CROSS OFJESUS (Cross of Jesus, cross of sorrow)
GILLARD
(The Servant Song)
If your congregation would prefer a more contemporary musical setting, you might
consider using Brian Doerksen’s The River
tune instead. If you decide to try that, you might make the last
stanza the refrain.
Welcome, Jesus, You Are Welcome
Welcome,
Jesus, you are welcome
in this
world made hard by fear;
loving
reach us, living teach us,
Jesus, you
are welcome here.
Welcome,
Jesus, you are welcome
in the
ghettos we have made;
give the
tattered, bruised, and battered
winter
shelter, summer shade.
Welcome,
Jesus, you are welcome
with the wealthy
and the poor;
give the
broken love unspoken,
open wide
each prison door.
Welcome,
Jesus, you are welcome.
Let your
loving light appear.
In our
seeing, in our being,
Jesus, you
are welcome here.
~ written by Daniel Charles Damon, in Fields
of Mercy. Words copyright © 2005 Hope Publishing Company. If you use this hymn in
worship, be sure to report it on your CCLI license. Text reprinted here by permission.
For many other new song texts for Advent, visit Hope Publishing Company’s
Online Hymnody website.
