A Voice Crying In the Wilderness

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,'” as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. John 1:19-28 

One Single Voice

Often lost in loud conversations
over talked by anxious others
no word gotten in edgewise
yet still a clarion call to change.

Ever resounding through the years
the outsiders voice, the rejected tone
rings loud and clear in our day
our ways have become tangled paths.

The voice invites us to go to the river
to the edge of all that we hold dear
to strip off all that hides our humanity
sink deep in the waters of truth and love.

We would rather stay hidden and deaf
to the clarion voice that call us today
from the light of truth that has no shadow
we would run from the love that is offered.

Come, sit and listen to the wilderness
hear the lone voice that teaches ad instructs
find a new path of love and redemption
and you will be found whole again.