Stanza One: Daybreak (Fall from Glory)

(based on The Bible, Genesis chapter 3)

Adam: It was just there – the voice,

The voice, the voice,
The voice, leading me, tempting me on
Well beyond the boundaries.

He was my friend, once.

I think he is still, but
The shared closeness – gone.
You see, the voice
Tempted me into territory not mine,
Away from him, my friend, my God,
And into hitherto unknown places.

I look at her with different eyes now.

I thought her beautiful not so long ago
Once she was partner, now she is rival.
Once she was close, now she is distant
Like God:
Distanced.
How I wish…

But time is time and won’t roll back.

And, rolling inexorably onwards
It bears the universal consequences of
Pride.

But Time also rolls forward

Towards the day of reconciliation,
Towards the day of the cross.

And towards a different voice

Requiring a different response.

And some laughed,

And some deferred
And some believed.
Stanza Two: The Heat of the Day

Adam continues…
There was no violence in my world once,
All was good
All was peace
Until that shuddering
As creation slammed into reverse.

So how has it come to this?

Systematised flogging, shouting, crowding,
Casually dicing with death?

One man mirrors me,

One I was created to mirror,
Taken…
Led away…
Crucified…

Taken, broken, given.

‫( ישוע הנצרי מלך היהודים׃‬Yeshua Natsoret Melech HaYehudim)

Iesus Nazarenus rex Iudaeorum
ιησους ο ναζωραιος ο βασιλευς των ιουδαιων (Iesous ho nazarenos ho baseleus ton ioudaion)

Jesus of Nazareth, King.

And some laughed,

And some deferred
And some believed.
Stanza Three: The Cool of the Day

The Father speaks with the Son:

“Here, where the depth of my love is displayed,
You are impaled on a crossbar of wood (karat berith)
Here is the place where life is remade,
You are the way that the promise makes good” (karat berith)

“Go to the end of the path we have set;

You are my gift to a world gone away; (karat berith)
Marking and matching humanity’s debt
Winning the battle in unseen affray” (karat berith)

“One day the story will end at its start

They will be back in the garden to stay
Listening and laughing without a regret
Walking again in the cool of the day.”

And some laughed,

And some deferred
And some believed.

BSA 2008