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It Has Come to This

A Rocha USA / December 21, 2013

By Dave Timmer, Director of NW Washington A Rocha

Why do you forget
What it is that I said
A blessing to my creation
But your self-interest instead

You strive for more power
And pile up rules to follow
But it’s your heart that matters
And you’ve made it so shallow

You’ve cursed yourselves
With law and oppression
Listen to my prophets
Who hint at redemption

Mercy and Justice
It is this I require
The revenge that you seek
Only thickens the mire

It has come to this
As I continually pursue
Even the rocks cry out
I will come to show you

In the darkness so heavy
Into an empire so strong
The light still flickers
But for a king you still long

Mary’s song – a revolution
And the mighty are stilled
But you still don’t understand
That the hungry will be filled

A new kind of kingdom
The blind they will see
The prophecy is fulfilled
Now come follow me

You are forgiven
Dropping their rocks you’ll see
Their names in the dust
Now it is just you and me

As you look forward today
Just remember this
Mercy and Justice
Were betrayed with a kiss

The curtain was torn down
Through a death so gory
It’s now time to come home to
The great redemption story

And some millennia later
The church still stands
But it has often forgotten
The work of My hands

You are so much like them
Through all humanity
You’ve made an idol
Of your own security

So another voice yells out –
If you believe he has risen
Stop waiting for something
That has already been given

My story is for everyone
Your piety will only hinder
And my Kingdom unfurls
Through Peace now consider

All creation is groaning
As you strive for more power
I am still with you
But you need to look lower

With the poor and the lowly
The good news is sent
The prisoner is set free
And the crippled are not bent

The Messiah incarnate
The crumbling mountains don’t miss
The wine flowing jubilantly
It has again come to this

A winter sunrise from the A Rocha (NW Washington) Field Study Center.
A winter sunrise from the A Rocha (NW Washington) Field Study Center.

Filed Under: Advent, Creation Care, Dave Timmer, NW Washington

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Monica Craver says

    January 25, 2018 at 4:32 pm

    Such beautiful poem. So many Christians forget that we are to care for His creation, not to “dominate” it, nor ignore it. So few Christian Churches ever bother to pay lip service to Creation care and protection of the environment. What message are we sending to those who do not believe in our God, but look after the Earth as good stewards. A environmental minded Christian is becoming an anomaly these days.

    I stand almost alone in my own Canadian city, as a Christian environmentalist speaking out against greed and selfishness from an extreme off road sport destroying our mountain watersheds and wetlands for a “cheap thrill ride”…

    I understand that the USA is fighting for the protection of Wilderness against the same greed and selfish mentality like it, right now. Prayers and blessings your way.

    Reply

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