Lyrics
Come, all you vagabonds,
Come all you ‘don’t belongs’
Winners and losers,
Come, people like me.
Come all you travellers
Tired from the journey,
Come wait a while, stay a while,
Welcomed you’ll be.
Come all you questioners
Looking for answers,
And searching for reasons
And sense in it all;
Come all you fallen,
And come all you broken,
Find strength for your body
And food for your soul.
Come to the feast,
There is room at the table.
Come let us meet in this place.
With the King of all kindness
Who welcomes us in,
With the wonder of love,
And the power of grace.
The wonder of the love,
And the power of grace.
Come those who worry
‘Bout houses and money,
And all those who don’t have
A care in the world;
From every station
And orientation,
The helpless, the hopeless,
The young and the old.
Come all believers
And dreamers and schemers,
And come all you restless
Just searching for home;
Movers and shakers
And givers and takers,
The happy, the sad
And the lost and alone.
Come self-sufficient
With wearied ambition,
And come those who feel
At the end of the road.
Fiery debaters
And religion haters,
Accusers, abusers,
The hurt and ignored.
A vibrant celebration of God's inclusive love
This song was co-written with Mark Edwards and Phil Baggaley. The idea obviously is based on Jesus’ parable of the man who invites his wealthy friends to a party – and all of them give excuses for not coming. So he invites people in off the street instead – those without reputation, the vagabonds, the shady characters.
It seems a tragedy to me in the light of this parable that many people don’t see the church as welcoming – in fact just the opposite – we are seen as judgmental of others, unwelcoming to different social groups or lifestyles. And in so doing we are undermining the message of the gospel, that Christ didn’t come for the righteous but for the sinner.
Lyrically and stylistically we were looking for something inclusive as well – something that could be understood and embraced by people outside of church; and my hope is that this song would be as appropriate to a pub gig as a church service…
