In the beginning God created:
The world was formless, chaos brooding.
And on the waters stirred a power,
The breath of God, the Spirit moving.
And God said, "Let the light exist!"
In dancing fragments, searing colour
It burst into the unformed blackness,
Its presence known in every corner.
Then God divided light and darkness,
The day and night in endless cycle.
He built the sky and gathered oceans;
The land appeared, the earth was fruitful.
Then God made sun and moon and stars,
The lights of heaven, ever-circling,
To give the seasons, mark their changing,
And set the limits of our striving.
And God then set the waters teeming,
And birds flew in the vault of heaven,
And earth brought forth its living creatures,
The cattle and the crawling reptile.
Then God made man in his own image,
Both male and female, and he blessed them
And gave the earth for their dominion,
To rule as its creator willed it.
But now we tell a different story,
Our God displaced by aimless forces:
The earth is man's not formed and given,
But taken in default of owner,
And, by the taking, his to plunder,
To ravish for this moment's pleasure,
As though the last sad butterfly
Were torn apart by reckless children.
The stars and sun look on in sadness,
Who know the truth of every story
And weigh them in the scales of wisdom,
Where science and the poet balance.
And heavens blaze their glory earthward,
A signal all creation echoes,
To call blind man to earth's creator,
Who waits for us to turn and know him.
In the beginning God created.
In the beginning God created.
(Alternative verse to replace verses 4 and 5 above, if desired)
The ancient truths still keep their meaning;
The earth is God's in all its wonder,
Is placed within our hands to rule it,
And for our rule we all must answer.
Then turn and heal us, God our maker,
Give life and fire, and love and vision,
So we may hear and share the carol
Of glory sung by all creation.