In an upstairs room, a parable

Is just about to come alive.

And while they bicker about who's best,

With a painful glance, He'll silently rise.

Their Savior Servant must show them how

Through the will of the water

And the tenderness of the towel.

Chorus:

And the call is to community,

The impoverished power that sets the soul free.

In humility, to take the vow,

That day after day we must take up the basin and the towel.

In any ordinary place,

On any ordinary day,

The parable can live again

When one will kneel and one will yield.

Our Saviour Servant must show us how

Through the will of the water

And the tenderness of the towel.

Bridge:

And the space between ourselves sometimes

Is more than the distance between the stars.

By the fragile bridge of the Servant's bow

We take up the basin and the towel.