This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
Jesus - the Force of God
Jesus, coming to save us
Jesus, coming to save us,
conqu'ring the grave
to free us from sin;
Jesus, you are the Force and
you are the source of
new life within.
For in you the fullness of the
Godhead was pleased to dwell,
you're the firstborn over all creation,
when you came you rescued us from
empires of sin and hell,
and transformed us to your pure and holy nation.
Jesus, coming to save us,
conqu'ring the grave
to free us from sin;
Jesus, you are the Force and
you are the source of
new life within.
Now in you we've strength and skill
and courage when clones are near:
We're your army for your truth and justice.
By your Force within us we will
light-sabre drones of fear,
and we're confident of vict'ry if you lead us.
Jesus, coming to save us,
conqu'ring the grave
to free us from sin;
Jesus, you are the Force
we welcome you close
to come within.
Copyright © John Hartley 2005.
Story behind the song
The song was written hurriedly at the request of a colleague: St Cuthbert's Wrose were having a family service at the conclusion of a month in which the children had been looking at the Star Wars themes of good and evil, having the force of God in our lives, fighting on the side of truth and righteousness, standing up against being a clone of the world, and so on ... and they wanted a song to go in the service. So here it is.
But actually, the theology behind this song came to me a long while ago. Theologians argue that St John's use of the word "Word" to open his gospel (chapter 1 verses 1-18) was tailored to the two cultures for whom he was writing. The Jews thought of God's Word as his agent in creation (from Genesis - God said ... and it came to be). The Greeks thought of the Word as the divine power in the universe - the logic on which it all hangs. It has always seemed to me that if St John had been writing his gospel in the Galactic Empire, the obvious word he would have used is "Force". The Force is the divine principle in the movies. But the good news of Christianity is that the divine principle - the Force - became flesh and lived among us - in Jesus. That's who he was.
Evolution of the song: Following a helpful comment from August Mosco (a friend from Christian Songwriting Organisation) I have made a change to the wording of verse 2 line 6 to make a near-rhyme with line 3 and to add a syllable so that it fits the rhythm of verse 1. This change was posted up late in the evening on 21.6.05.
John Hartley
Note on the tune
The Star Wars theme tune is available to download on the internet, but I do not know what the copyright position is. It has been very slightly modified to make it fit these words: an extra note has been added for "when" (half-way through the verse), another for the final syllable of "nation" (end of the verse), and the original triplet before the final "Jesus" in the last chorus has been omitted. The original tune itself doesn't have an ending, as it modulates into the next part of the film - so a new ending has been provided. Perhaps most seriously it's in the wrong key for singing, and really needs transposing from B-flat up to D - but this spoils the authentic feel of the music, so I've left it as it is.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.