Walk on Water

The stranded cry, the great sea swells

Two boats sound their warning bells

Two boats bound for shores divergent

Keels pulled hard to catch the current

Brother swims to the eastern ship

As slaves row hard to drum and whip

Sister seeks the western vessel 

Where corpses hang from mast and trestle

Father cries as mother swims

To the ship where lives are trimmed

At their start and then tossed in

The sea to pray for kindly winds

Deep inside this great ship’s bowel

Where the weary exiles cow’

Mother swears that Christ is hid,

Her captain does as he once did

Father swears that Christ has chose

To remain with all of those

Who on the other ship now toil

For their promised blood and oil

In the middle, we remain

Still afloat, we watch in pain

Two great ships with mast and oar

Barrel toward the rocky shore

From the water, it grows clear

It is toward doom that both ships steer

For Christ stands not on either deck

Christ presides o’er neither wreck

Christ instead is present there

Where the waters drag and tear

Reaching out a guiding hand

Calling on the lost to stand

Take the hand he offers now

Let the ships shred stern to bow

Trust in Christ, O Son, O Daughter

Forsake the boats; And walk on water