Love Is the Touch
Love is the touch of that makes you feel you matter,
"Love Is the Touch" moves through a careful theological arc that is deeply congruent with Lutheran sacramental and incarnational theology. The hymn opens in phenomenological territory — naming love through its tangible, sensory manifestations in human experience: touch, voice, warmth, hands. This approach is not reductive sentimentalism but rather an incarnational methodology: love is known through bodily, creaturely experience, which Lutheran theology affirms as the proper locus of divine presence. The theology of the cross insists that God is known in and through the concrete and particular, not above or beyond it, and Bell and Maule honor this instinct from the first stanza. The theological movement accelerates in the third stanza, which is explicitly Trinitarian in structure: love is named as the touch of God who brought creation into being, the name of Christ who came to save, and the gift of life whose power overcomes the grave — a clear pneumatological reference to resurrection life. This stanza grounds all the prior human expressions of love in their divine source and ultimately Christological center. For Lutheran preaching and worship, this movement from human experience to divine grounding reflects the classic Law-to-Gospel trajectory: the human longings named in the earlier stanzas find their answer and foundation in the saving love of God in Christ. The fourth stanza then moves to the ethical and doxological: love becomes the law we live by, the hope we orient toward, and the truth that teaches prayer, suggesting a post-Gospel response of transformed living. The hymn functions well in Lutheran ecumenical contexts as a meditation on the First Article (creation and creaturely love) leading through the Second Article (Christ as the name of love) and touching the Third Article (the gift of life and resurrection power). It is particularly suited to sacramental occasions — baptism, communion, and marriage — where the embodied, tactile language of love as touch, warmth, and belonging resonates with Lutheran sacramental realism. Its Law/Gospel character is best understood as 'Both': the early stanzas name human love and implicitly its insufficiency or giftedness (a Law function), while the third stanza announces the divine love that grounds and redeems all human loving (Gospel).
History & Background
"Love Is the Touch" was written by John L. Bell and Graham Maule and first published in 1989 by the Wild Goose Resource Group of the Iona Community, Scotland, appearing in the collection 'Love from Below.' The text emerged during a period of intensive liturgical renewal at Iona, when Bell and Maule were deliberately crafting accessible, singable texts that could articulate core Christian doctrines in vernacular, contemporary language without sacrificing theological depth. The hymn was designed to introduce congregations — particularly those unfamiliar with traditional hymnody — to a meditative, cumulative exploration of love as both human experience and divine reality. The text spread rapidly through ecumenical networks in Britain and then internationally, carried largely by Wild Goose Publications and the Iona Community's network of associate communities and workshops. Its structure, which moves from horizontal human expressions of love to their vertical theological grounding in the love of God and Christ, made it adaptable across a wide range of worship contexts, from informal small-group settings to larger liturgical celebrations. It found particular use in Celtic-influenced worship, ecumenical gatherings, and retreat settings throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. The hymn has been included in several ecumenical hymnals and supplements, gaining broad ecumenical currency particularly in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and parts of the United States. Its tune, also named LOVE IS THE TOUCH, composed as an integral partner to the text, contributes significantly to its meditative character and its accessibility for congregational singing without prior rehearsal.
Bulletin Note
Text and music by John L. Bell and Graham Maule, © 1989 WGRG, Iona Community, Scotland. Distributed by GIA Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Preaching Connection
This hymn traces the same arc as the First Letter of John — from the love we have known in human flesh to the declaration that 'God is love' and that love's ultimate name is Jesus Christ. A sermon on incarnation, on the sacraments as touch and taste, or on the community of love the church is called to embody will find a natural partner in these stanzas.
Themes
love of God incarnation community belonging resurrection creation Christology human experience sacramental life justice and welcome hope