Come and Dine

This old country hymn by Charles B. Wid­mey­er was written in 1906 and it is a pretty good fit for a sermon on this Sunday's lectionary reading from Isaiah 55:1-2. I can still hear the pianist in the little church I served early in my career giving this song the honky-tonk treatment.

Jesus has a table spread Where the saints of God are fed, He invites His chosen people, “Come and dine”; With His manna He doth feed And supplies our every need: O ’tis sweet to sup with Jesus all the time!

Refrain “Come and dine,” the Master calleth, “Come and dine”; You may feast at Jesus’ table all the time; He Who fed the multitude, turned the water into wine, To the hungry calleth now, “Come and dine.”

The disciples came to land, Thus obeying Christ’s command, For the Master called unto them, “Come and dine”; There they found their heart’s desire, Bread and fish upon the fire; Thus He satisfies the hungry every time.

Refrain

Soon the Lamb will take His bride To be ever at His side, All the host of Heaven will assembled be; O ’twill be a glorious sight, All the saints in spotless white; And with Jesus they will feast eternally.

Refrain

Wid­mey­er was a Nazarene, and I suspect that he had a non-sacramental view of the Lord's Supper. None of the stanzas explicitly allude to Holy Communion, but where would it be more natural to dine with Jesus? So, let me offer a new stanza in, I believe, the Wesleyan spirit, to be inserted prior to Wid­mey­er's final stanza.

At the table of the Lord, In the promise of his word, We know the presence of a love divine. To our Savior we will cleave, When, in faith, we all receive, His body and his blood in bread and wine.

Refrain

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