Oh Lord, faithful unto Your people in all ages and worlds
Faithful even unto those that forget Your faithfulness and discard You
And once more, here I am remembering not Your faithfulness
Your body has been desecrated and all but defeated and destroyed
For Your people use words as weapons for ****** and spite for means of destruction

Oh Lord, Your body has torn itself to shreds, and someone is going to die
That someone is going to be the Body of Christ
Disagreements and differences need not to lead to hatred and malice
We have been saved and united unto You by Your great love
Can we not be united to one another as to You through Your love?

When children become involved in immature entanglements, adults laugh and ignore
But when grown adults fight in the streets, the fight must be stopped
And now Your body is pulling punches and weapons
There is bitter hatred over language and style, awful things to cause blood
Oh Lord, might this soon come to an end?

Oh Lord why do You allow for Your people to tear one another down?
Day by day, year by year, generation by generation, Your Body falls deeper into dismay
Your people, oh Lord, war against one another over small issues and differences
How long must we persevere through bitter hate and rejection from brothers and sisters?
Oh Lord might we have unity and love as you have always called for us to come to?

Oh Lord, our knees are bruised from years of kneeling
Our minds are wounded from generations of dealing
Our necks are sore from all our lives spent looking heavenward
Our eyes are reddened and swollen from lives spent crying for our beaten and murdered brothers
And our souls are decomposing from being cast out by the powerful in Your Body

Oh Lord, heal our bruises, mend our wounds, take away our sores
Lord, take away our tears, and resurrect our souls into Your great love
Lord, defeat our adversaries and bring us all back into unity with each other and You
Bring us back into Your love and remember us who have been cast out and forgotten
Oh Lord, deliver us from our adversaries, our very brothers in Christ

But for those who show love to our brothers, and have unity in Your love
For those who call all sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ ‘brothers and sisters’
As for us, we bring forth unity in a fractured and all but defeated body
We call upon those who bring forth dissonance, and plead that they show Christian love
And though many do not listen, still we call in Your name

Still we commune in the Sacrament of Your Body and Blood with them
Still we refer as brothers and sisters, our very body
Even through pain, and hate, and torment, through tears, and blood, still we love on
Still we worship beside them, pray with them, and partake in the ministry of the Word with them
Still we participate in and out of liturgy in the work of the Church, for they are our brothers

So we cup our hands as if waiting for bread, we set our gaze toward the heavens
We pray for Your blessings to fall into our open palms daily
And here come I, on my knees begging that You deliver us from this hell
That You might intervene and put this broken body back together
That You might breathe new life into this seeming dying body

Your Son was murdered, broken, and crucified for our transgressions
His broken body lay in the ground for three days before He rose again into new life
So too might this body, the Body of Jesus Christ, resurrect into new life
And we read that Lazarus’ came back into life after passing unto death
So this body, which has yet not passed unto death, might be mended and healed

You, who have come to make all things new
Who have come to make all sad things come untrue
You can mend these wounds that seem unhealable
And we know that You will, for You are faithful unto Your children
Faith, which we so often lack, we will not lose

You have mercy upon us, forgiving us all our sins, through Your Son
You strengthen us in all goodness by the power of Your Holy Spirit keeping us in eternal life
So we lift our hearts to You, giving You thanks and praise always and everywhere
We sing songs to You and give our whole hearts to You
From the first breath we breathe in new life, to the last breath on earth, be our praise with You

This is the prayer from the oppressed in Your body
The prayer for those who have dwelt beneath the foot of the body
Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon our enemies
Give us Your grace, and bring the body back into unity, oh Lord
And more of all, grant us Your peace

Oh Lord, You accept the fervent prayers of your people
With Your many mercies, look with compassion upon us
Hear our prayers, oh Lord to whom we turn for great help
You are most gracious, you lover of souls
Hear, accept, and intervene on our behalf by Your Son, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Simon, son of Jonah
You sailed the waters seeking fish
You were called from your boat to walk upon dry land seeking men
You were called by the Lord, God of Israel
You were beloved by the Lord of Ages

Oh Simon, denier of the Lord
Simon, you claimed Him to be the Messiah, the Christ
That He was the Son of the Living God, and He gave you a new name
For upon you, Peter the rock, He would build His Church
And like Simon’s father Abram, you became like Abraham a patriarch with a new name

Oh Peter, you saw who He was
Not by flesh revealed
But because the Father above revealed it to you
Peter, how might you ever forget that He loves you?
Oh Peter, how might you forget what you have seen?

Immediately taken up by Satan
For you focus on the things of earth
Oh Simon, have you forgotten who you are?
Have you forgotten, Simon, that He made you new?
Simon, have got forgotten that you are a rock, made not for a boat?

Peter, with faith to move mountains, you served the Living God
But when you walked upon the sea, Simon sunk like the rock Peter was to be
Oh Simon, hadn't you the faith?
Hadn't you known, Simon, that you had the faith to walk on water?
But Simon, you sank fast from the weight of your unbelief

Peter, you sat as the Lord washed your feet
Not understanding why the God of all would wash old Simon's feet
And you broke bread together in the room with the betrayer
Peter, did you know that He would go to die?
Did you know, Simon, that you would deny the Lord?

Oh Simon, He prayed in the garden
And in His last hours with you, could you not keep awake?
For but an hour, Simon, could you not keep awake for the Lord?
Simon, was sleep more precious to you than the life of the Lord?
Oh Simon, such a low place to which you had sunk like the rock Peter was to be!

Then came the soldiers to arrest the Son of Man
Oh Peter, you could not bare for your master to be taken from you
But Simon, must you have cut the ear from a soldier's head?
Must you have, Simon, resorted to such violence and vengeance?
Oh Simon, you could attack a soldier for the Lord, but could you not confess Him?

Oh Simon, a servant girl came and asked of your master
And you denied Him as if you never knew Him
Oh Simon, would you deny the Lord in His time of need?
Simon, saying you never knew the man, God Himself
As if He had never called you Peter, or declared that you were HIs rock to build upon

Oh Simon, would you deny your Lord during the very trial for His death?
Would you, oh Simon, deny that He was the savior to all?
And when the rooster crowed, oh Simon, you knew
Peter, your eyes opened to the sins of Simon
That you awoke a rock sunk by the weight of unbelief gasping for air in the depths of the sea

Then the Lord died, and Simon, you forgot the profession of Peter
That He was the Christ, that He would rise again, Simon wept with the world
But when the girl came, that the body was gone, Peter, you ran
Peter, you hiked up your robe and ran to the tomb
The other disciple may have won the race, but it would not matter

Simon, you went into the tomb, and your blindness kept you
You saw emptiness, and darkness, Simon
How could you not remember the words of His prophecy?
Simon, why did you not laugh with joy at what the scriptures foretold?
Oh Simon, you went home never remembering what even you knew!

Simon, you went upon a ship to seek fish, the treasure of the sea
Oh Simon, have you forgotten who you are?
Have you forgotten that you are Peter, the rock
Simon, remember that rocks belong not on boats
But upon the ground, Simon, that the Church may be built upon you

Simon, you locked yourself in a room with your brothers
Hiding away from the world to which you were to serve
Oh Simon, what did you fear?
Oh Simon, why did you hide away?
Simon, oh Simon, how had you forgotten the promise He made?

Yet still He came in and brought for you peace
Oh Peter, He breathed His breath upon you and indwelled His Spirit within you
Simon, you left and came not back, and were never missed!
And Peter awoke never to give way to Simon ever again!
Oh St. Peter look back on the life you led
Born Simon, a sinner, a lowly sinner
Born again St. Peter, the rock, the patriarch
Oh St. Peter of the Rock, on you has our Church thrived

Scarred from beating and flogging
Left for dead by the tyranny of an Emperor  
But gifted life by the love of the King
In unmarked graves like poor peasant slaves
These people of God left only a forgotten story of heroism

They suffered for the cause of the Savior
Losing eyes and limbs for a cause greater than themselves
Persecution at the highest stakes
Death here on earth to attain love after
Martyred for all that is good and that is Holy

These saints, the ancient followers of the Messiah
Went unto their death for the sake of the Church
They were nailed to trees, burned while yet still breathing
They were eaten by wild animals, skinned alive
And still yet, the Church marched forward into Persecution

It was high time that the Church begun mourning
That the people of God began to cry out to God
Begging for His mercy, crying for justice
Requesting intercession from the great pain of their brothers and sisters
Praying the prayer of the Church; ‘Come Lord Jesus’

The citizens of this tyrannical empire became saints of Jesus Christ
Rome became the center of the Church of Christ
The people of God looking unto the Holy Father of Rome
To find good teaching of the Word of the Lord
Misled though they had become, the center of the Church on Earth lies in Rome

For two millennia saints of the Lord Christ have been martyred
By those who claim names other than the Lord
And by those who claim even the name of Christ
But the days of suffering have yet to end
And they will not end until we see the very face of God

For even on the very day of the feast of the Resurrection of our Lord
Twenty-one men, saints who had proclaimed the name of Christ
Served their purpose to give light and life to a darkened world
Even unto their deaths and the days and years following
For they saw the face of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ

We see on foreign shores our brothers in chains
Suffering for the cause of the Savior
For His Bride, the Church of Jesus Christ
We can see the suffering saints in chains and behind bars
And we can see them dying without food or water

We watched as our brothers bound by chains knelt on a seashore
Kneeling before the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and obedience to Him
But standing behind them the very hands of Satan
Attempting to dismember the Body of Jesus Christ
Oh what a pitiful, futile effort to dethrone our Risen Lord

The saints had their throats slit and heads removed from their very bodies
Their earthly lives ended for their faith in our Lord
What an absurd attempt to defeat the risen Christ
These hands of Satan vow to dismember the Church of Christ
But they will not be victorious over our Risen Lord

The lifeless bodies of these saints lay upon the sand of the shore and their souls lifted up
As if taking the heads of the saints of Christ brings upon more darkness
Only giving more truth and more life and light to darkened dying world
They may take the heads from individual saints
But they will never take the Head of the Body Of Jesus Christ

These murdered and martyred saints of Jesus Christ
Their blood pouring into the sea turning the ocean to blood
South of Rome, the city these hands of Satan vow to overthrow
The center of the Church on earth against whom they wage war
But attempt to overthrow our Lord, and you will be defeated

Is now not the time to lament?
Is now not the time for the Body of Christ to rise
And with one voice cry out to the heavens; ‘Come Lord Jesus!’
For now, just as all days past and to come,
The people of earth need the Savior

Perhaps the time has once again come to mourn
Perhaps the time has come for the Body of Christ to once again lament
To the east and the west, we hear terrible cries of terror
To the north and the south, we can see tears of despair
For once again, it has become ever-so obvious of our need of the Savior

Come Lord Jesus!

I stand on a sandy shore overlooking a mighty ocean
Dreaming of the goings one of the foreign Shores
And the far away places across the open seas

There may be lands with new creatures
Creatures more beautiful than any other
Creatures even more wonderful than the angels of the heavens

These foreign Shores of far away lands might be deceiving
From beautiful shores to pits, canyons, and dark places of the lands
The possibility that what lies across this ocean might be the very pit of hell

Then I remember something beautiful
A memory like that of one from a dream
But as quickly as the beautiful thing comes into my mind, it passes

So we set sail on our mighty sheepish ship
And we set out to find these lands of which we’ve only dreamed
These wonderful, terrible, heavenly lands of our dreams

Leaving behind the land that we called home
To find these new lands that we might call our own
We land on a shore and find the very object of our intent

We, in leaving our home;and, we found something much much greater
The great land of which we had only dreamt
Was the very land which we had found

A few away shore so familiar to the land of our minds
The great object of our very best dreams
The Far Country for which we had sailed

And found we, the Land of Our Fathers
The old way which we had so long ago abandoned
The history that we had left behind in the dust

The Land of Orthodoxy, the great land of our fathers
A new adventure in a familiar land
The great land of our fathers, our true earthly home

Suffocation; the torture of life without breath
Debt; the torture of being trapped without way of getting out

We signed away our souls and our very livelihoods
So that we might find treasures deep into the earth
In vain we gave ourselves to this cause
We became bankrupted and we became slaves to our toil
We inhaled our work and it poisoned our bodies
We owed our souls to the company for which we worked

We dig deep into the earth
In search of ancient treasures formed long long ago
Seeking to find riches beyond belief and beyond compare
Beginning a noble crusade for good things
But then continuing on to become a misadventure where there is little redemption
Oh what an ignorant odyssey we had begun!

In a manmade cavern, we dig for riches
Our faces becoming covered with black soot
As we invest into the dreams of the treasures for which we dig
And yet then further and further falling into debt
Until we are not only suffocated merely by the soot of coal but also by our debts
And as if the danger of this mine were not enough before the the mines began to fall onto our very heads

We toil for years upon years in this dark mine of coal
Losing all we knew and all we were for the sake of unsatisfying treasure
Our friends die day after day suffocated by the matter of our toil
We inhale our work and our lungs become so filled and poisoned with the soot of the coal
Many could no longer breathe or bear the pain of the poison in their lungs
And then they die in the depths of the dark caves searching for treasure in vain

Not knowing we had signed a death wish
To toil deep into the depths of the mantle of the earth searching for forsaken treasure
Believing that we were searching for good things
That we truly were in the midst of a noble crusade
Not even knowing of the reality in which we stood
That there truly was a terrible hell in which we were living

To this point we knew not of the soot slowly suffocating our lungs
And we knew not of the blood pouring out of our wounds
We knew not of the utter blackness that covered our faces
Or that no oxygen flowed to our ever so needy lungs
We knew only of the importance of our mission
And the necessity to find the treasures for which we were sent out

But the reality of this deep and dark quarry was a hell never before known
And the unknown need of fresh air was as heavy as a newborns need for his mother's milk
Yet we knew not of the need for fresh air
For our eyes were set on the prize
To mine the treasure for which we had so long toiled
And we forgot of our need to live and seek good things

Not knowing the depths of our manmade cavern and our lostness
Our faces so covered with dried soot and blood
Longing for new air to freshen our dying lungs
And longing for Holy Water to wash clean our coal-filled and coal-covered bodies
Yet we knew not any of this
And we knew not of the depths of our pain and our suffering

Yet then one day we break through the surface of the earth
We see the light of the sun, and we see good things
The light of day shines onto us
And a cool breeze blows onto our faces
Then we take a collective breath of the new air
A breath of fresh air more satisfying than a thousand breaths in the depths of the horrid coal mine

We see something we had not seen in years, freedom
And as our eyes set upon the world which we had nearly forgotten
We see the beauty that we had indeed forgotten
We realize the hell that we had clearly been enduring
And in a moment it all becomes clearer than ever before
The treasure of the coal mine had so deceived our hearts and our judgement and our very sanity

For we knew not of the depth and gravity of the terror of the hell we were in
We thought we were simply searching for gold, but we had truly sold our souls
Digging deep into the depths of the planet toward the core
And we lost ourselves in the darkness and depravity of the shaft
Suffering in blindness and lostness, unable to find any good things
Until finally we found the Light from above

Our debts had been cleared and our bodies had been made new
How sweet the wind was upon our sweaty, soot-covered, bloodied faces as we emerged from the cave
And then we were washed clean of all of our pain and suffering
The blood was washed from our faces, and our wounds were healed
The soot from the thick coal was scrubbed from our flesh, and our poisoned lungs were healed
And we were freed from the terror of our suffering

For out of the depths of the earth with squinted eyes and limp limbs
We emerged into great Light never before seen
And as our eyes adjusted, so did our understanding
The understanding of just how lost we had been
And just how close to death we came with each and every day
But the breath of fresh air, and the sight of new light resurrected us

From the great horror of our past we were healed
And from our ever-growing debts we had been released
We were freed from our self-imprisonment and given new life
And not on our own accord in the slightest
But by the great love of Christ Jesus
For Jesus is our great deliverer

There is something greater to which we are called
A greater purpose and a greater calling
For we live on this side of a great barrier
But over, across, and through the barrier
There lies the place for which we were made
The heavenly country, a far away land

How might we enter into this wondrous land
If not for one to bring us there
A savior promised to carry us there
We wait for this promised savior
Coming forth to carry us home
To that land past the barrier
That far country for which we were created

Out of the dark of night
In the chill of the winter
In the midst of a silent night
The wait ended
The terrible wait for redemption
For a savior from wholeness to come to brokenness
God from God to come to humanity
Light from Light to come into darkness
True God from true God to come to redeem us
And He came in a way unprecedented
Incarnate by the power of the Holy Spirit
Becoming man, the very creature He had come for
From the womb of a peasant woman
Into a feeding trough
An entry to this world fit for no king
Yet an entry into this world made by God on High

We know not of this savior who has come
For how might we know of one which we know not we need?
And how might we know of your need in our strength
We believe we can make it across the barriers
Into the new life, the far country

So we venture across those deserts
And we wander through those forests
We travel through the vast wilderness
And sail across these seas
We wade across these rivers
And trudge through these swamps
Too, we fight through sickness
And suffer through poverty
We push through the pain
And finally, we fall for we are not enough

Then the promised savior God on High
Come down to be a man, comes to our side
Descended to the lowest of men
Picking us up out of our filth
And taking it on as His own
Then He carries us home

We then see the Holy City on the horizon
For Christ carries us to our home, to His love
From the darkest and lowest places of Earth
Into the brightest, highest places of Heaven
Into the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Where we will dwell for all time

We readied ourselves for the coming of the promised king
We threw off the garments of peasants
And dressed ourselves in clothes of royalty
To impress the king that was coming
To work for the redemption of this god

When a mere child came from the womb of a peasant girl
We never recognized Him as the Lord Christ
For we expected one much different from ourselves
Not a peasant boy born in a barn
From a family of a carpenter

We waited for years upon years for the savior
Like a bride waits upon her groom
While He comes down the aisle to meet her
Redeeming the world as He passes in their midst
To find His bride and make her holy

Out of Jacob came a star
A star that has risen and shines bright in the night sky
Nations and kings come to this great light
For the wait has ended
And God has come to this place

Out of Israel has come a scepter
A ruler for all nations and people
Splendor has come by this peasant descended from the Throne
The Lord Almighty bringing light to this land in darkness
Fulfilling the prophecies for His people

A light is cast from high atop the city
A star leads the way for wise men to find the King 
God on High to bring light to a darkened world 
Like the bright north star brings light to a dark night 
For the Lord has come, and remaking of all things has begun

Kings from the east journeyed for months so see the promised boy
Escaping the wrath of a pagan king to see the child
Not a mere child, but the very Son of God
Who has come to deliver a people
And deliver an entire world

An old man recognized this child
Knowing Him to be the Christ
Then the man could depart in peace
Having seen our salvation
The light of the world

Now listen to this night
Full of angels singing in the sky
And kings bringing gifts to God Incarnate
Hear the new refrain
And never feel the same again

For God came to us in a manor like the rest of us
As a child like the rest of us
From His mother's womb like the rest of us
Born into a world of sin like the rest of us
Born into sinful flesh like the rest of us

Born to a ****** like no one else
Born by the very work of the Spirit of God like no one else
Born to redeem a world in darkness like no one else
Born for the life of the world
Born God on High in flesh like no one else

For God became man
And out of great love took on Hell
Yet always overflowing with joy
Taking on all burdens, all pains, all anxieties
And giving to us His joy, His love, and His peace

It is by this boy that we find our peace
Through His death and resurrection
Taking our sins and defeating them in death
Then defeating even death itself
And defeating Hell and it’s ravages

Then Hell passes
By Jesus Christ we have found good things
Being perfect, complete, lacking in nothing, overflowing with joy
As His glory becomes our glory, His joy becomes our joy
His perfection becomes our perfection, and His Father becomes our Father

Trials bear down and defeat us
But through the promised Savior
The trials mold us to who we have become
They make us joyful and perfect
Through the love of Lord Jesus

Through all rough things
The Messiah is no longer merely an idea
He is the bruised, beaten, murdered savior
Putting to death all old things
And resurrecting new things to life

Now standing upon the shores of a new country
A land far to the north of our own land
Jesus waits for us to come to the shores of this Far Country
Where His redeemed children will come
And live with Him for all time, and everything after