"THE WHOLE EARTH SHALL CRY GLORY"

Posted: 02.06.21 in Articles category

This month we remember George MacLeod, who was born on 17 June 1895. George was founder of the Iona Community and one of the most remarkable Scottish Christian leaders of the past century. He was a man of deep faith who worked tirelessly both for social justice on behalf of Glasgow's poor and for nuclear disarmament until his death at the age of 94. He was also an inspirational and 'larger than life' character, blessed with great skills of oratory, sharp wit and vivid imagination as a storyteller and poet. His biographer Ron Ferguson likens him to a 'Seannachaidh' - the Gaelic term for a Celtic bard. One of his loveliest poems is this powerful prayer, 'The Whole Earth Shall Cry Glory':

 

Almighty God, Creator:

the morning is yours, rising into fullness.

The summer is yours, dipping into autumn.

Eternity is yours, dipping into time.

The vibrant grasses, the scent of flowers,

the lichen on the rocks, the tang of seaweed.

All are yours.

Gladly we live in this garden of your creating.

 

But creation is not enough.

Always in the beauty, the foreshadowing of decay.

The lambs frolicking careless:

so soon to be led off to slaughter.

Nature red and scarred as well as lush and green.

In the garden also: always the thorn.

Creation is not enough.

 

Almighty God, Redeemer;

the sap of life in our bones and being is yours,

lifting us to ecstasy.

But always in the beauty:

the tang of sin, in our consciences.

The dry lichen of sins long dead, but seared upon our minds.

In the garden that is each of us, always the thorn.

 

Yet all are yours as we yield them again to you.

Not only our lives that you have given are yours:

but also our sins that you have taken.

Even in our livid rebellions and putrid sins:

you have taken them all away

and nailed them to the Cross!

Our redemption is enough: and we are free.

 

Holy Spirit, Enlivener: breathe on us, fill us with life anew;

In your new creation, already upon us, breaking through,

groaning and travailing, but already breaking through, breathe on us.

Till that day when night and autumn vanish

and lambs grown sheep are no more slaughtered:

and even the thorn shall fade and the whole earth shall cry Glory

at the marriage feast of the Lamb.

In this new creation, already upon us, fill us with life anew.