Flood

You spoke, O God, and all was made;
the evening came, and then the day,
and someday all will be made new—
a day that no one knows but you.

You drew the vapor off the land
and oceans gathered in your hand.
You shut within its doors the sea,
and with a word you set it free.

The stormcouds thundered back again:
You looked upon the works of men
and sent the raging of the flood
to wash the stones we'd stained with blood.

But in your day all floods recede
and sunlight touches soil and seed.
The shattered earth will yield once once;
the vintage of your love will pour.

'Til then, your altars deep are drowned,
and deep the sacrifice must sound.
So shall the deluge wash away
the sin that stains our hands today.

Let this flood reach our inmost parts
with tears to baptize wayward hearts.
Like the earth, let us be whole again;
like the earth, to yield your harvest then.

More details

Noah’s Ark (1846), by the American folk painter Edward Hicks 1780 – 1849 (1780 – 1849) – Artist/Maker (American)Born in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, United States. Died in Newtown, Pennsylvania, United States.Details on Google Art Project – aQFz9qNv8QS26Q at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21886421

Vulture

Before he sent the raven or the dove,
Noah unleashed a vulture from the ark
and there she waits, still circling up above,
unhurried as the beat of her own heart.

For all the secrets buried in the flood
she clears away for Noah and his kin.
They dig their fields on plots she has made good.
Where she has cleared a place, we start again.

And after our next great apocalypse
(and every cataclysm after that),
when all our songs have died upon our lips,
she will be there, her hunger just as vast.

But now she hangs, as silent as the grave,
as patient as the mountains wearing down.
Upon the heights or underneath the wave,
wherever we may go, we will be found.

We need not run—no, she will come to us.
In all the world, there's nothing else so sure
as vulture's wingbeats stirring up the dust
when she has come to make us clean and pure.

If man were meant to fly, he would have wings,
but flipperless upon the flood we rise.
She is no gentle dove, no olive brings,
but someday she will raise us to the skies.

American Black Vulture Coragyps atratus, Farallon, Panama, 2005 December; This individual was one of a large group of vultures (and circling frigatebirds) waiting for fish offal from local fishermen. By Mdf – first upload in en wikipedia on 21:55, 13 December 2005 by Mdf, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=704791

Save Us, O God

So the LORD said:
“I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created,
and not only the men,
but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air,
for I am sorry that I made them.”
But Noah found favor with the LORD.
Genesis 6:5-8, 7:1-5, 10

Save us, O God: The waters rise
to drown the earth in flood,
as thunder drowns the heartrent cries
of creatures you called good.

Relent, O God; have mercy yet—
Our lives are but a day.
What could it take to clear the debt
before we're swept away?

Bring back, O God, what we have lost
beneath this flood of tears.
Though we could never bear the cost,
redeem the squandered years.

Renew, O God, the world you made:
Split land from sea again.
Though all your works we have betrayed, 
we, too, come from your hands.

Forget, O God, what we have done;
remember not the past,
but bring your sons and daughters home
through storm and flood at last.

Restore, O God, all humankind,
and let the waters part.
Let earth rise up again to find
the mercies of your heart.

12th-century Venetian mosaic depiction of Noah sending the dove By Anonymous Master – basilica san marco, venice, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4147510

In the Days of Noah

Jesus said to his disciples:
“As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark,
and the flood came and destroyed them all.”
Luke 17:26-37

To the tune ST. THOMAS (“Down In Adoration Falling”):

As 'twas in the days of Noah,
in the hours of storm and flood,
with the seas of terror growing,
peace and comfort sunk in mud,
hope rose o'er the waters knowing
somewhere still the mountains stood.

When the lightning leaps from heaven,
when the earth is swept away,
we before the storm are driven
terrified upon the waves:
Mourn what we have lost forever;
grieve for all we could not save.

Yet above the sea there rises
once again the morning sun.
Still our hearts will beat inside us
when the storm of rage is done.
On the seas our hope will find us
even when all else is gone.

Then on wings of love descending
while the earth is wrapped in flood,
bearing mercy never-ending
as he bears the weight of wood,
comes the word of life befriending
all he made and still calls good.

We lift up our hands beseeching:
Come, O Savior!  Come, bright dove!
Hear our hearts and voices pleading:
Let your sign appear above.
Fill the empty hands out reaching
with your world-remaking love!

Noah

“But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son,^* but the Father alone. For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In [those] days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be [also] at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”
Matthew 24: 36:42

By Painters of Sultan Murad III – Zubdat-al Tawarikh (Illustrated manuscript)http://www.ee.bilkent.edu.tr/~history/Ext/Zubdat.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19900597

 Come look your last, my sons.
 We won't see it again:
 these fields, these hills, this earth, this sun
 will never be the same.
 And all that we have known
 God's rage is set to claim.
 Look once again, before it's done,
 before it starts to rain.
 
  What happens after this,  
 when all has been consumed?
 when we have laid one parting kiss
 on faces that are doomed?
 God's will: that's all there is
 to make the world anew
 and give us back what we have missed.
 Oh, let the rains come soon!

Karl Jenkins, Requiem, Introit.
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