This is it, the stark beginning,
all that follows will be new,
lightening dims before the glory,
God is coming into view.
Now the wilderness will blossom,
rock strewn roads be leveled out;
and if you would mask the message,
even stones will rise and shout.
Shaken to the earth’s foundations,
like the genesis of old,
God is speaking, who will listen?
Now the story must be told:
rough-hewn, ragged, John is standing
in the centre of the stage;
looking like a mighty prophet,
mortal from another age.
First attracted, then astonished,
people come to see the sight,
heard the challenge of conviction,
some preferred the dark to light.
Others came out from the shadows,
self exposed to human stare,
ridicule or resurrection,
hate and hope prefigured there.
Verse 4 follows
Tune CALON LAN; ODE TO JOY
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 18/11/2011 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, www.stainer.co.uk.
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