Oh, Canada



Oh, Canada
Publicly presented, at YWAM/JEM Canada’s
2014 Rendezvous in Pinawa, Manitoba

Sea-crossing Euro-powers, pawns of principalities
Colonial outposts of warring Christendom
Immigrant alliances misaligned in forgotten treaties
Clans and tribes, wanderers, adventures and scoundrels
Deafly resistant to Creators’ visionary myth
Straining to co-exist without nerves of compassion
In peril, but oblivious to mystic rescue
If “We stand on guard for Thee”
No longer will patriotic passion hold our gaze,
Nor global affection for being fair,
If “We stand on guard for Thee”
Neither our multi-cultural mosaic without a gardener’s care,
Nor cosmic favour in abundant natural resources
Naked reality -we worship Thee from Here
A northern/western land, not eastern, nor southern
Land-locked forests. mountains and prairies
Divinely bounded from Sea to Sea to Sea
Dominion decreed by a distant Crown’s Law,
A-drift today in a tide of globalized currents
And shape-shifting multiculturalism
Skewing our national self this way and that
Wait! Our gardens grow in this glaciered soil,
Long stewarded by countless generations before the plow
Awaiting cosmic re-creation in patient hope
Un-praying fans we sing
“God keep our land glorious and free”
A thin-spirited and patriotic veneer,
Hiding colonial injustice with political apologies
Masking fear of the other in feigned politeness
The Incarnate One heals all through an adoption gift
Opening cataract-blinded eyes to see clearly the unseen
And deafened ears to hear Earth’s moaning
Soul yielding to the laser scalpel of Tri-une Grace
God Save this Land!
God Save Creation!
God save Us and All-Our-Relations!
Metis nation unsure of any power of benevolence
Bowing stiffly in awe of the Shining One
Yielding to receive the Resurrected King
Who held us all in Friday’s crucifying cauldron
Silently harrowing Holy Saturday’s darkness
Knowing new Sabbath’s-joy would come in atomic power
(Enduring the Cross, absorbing our Shame)
Triumphing in shocking cosmic coronation
LORD of all the Nations, Grace is with You!
LORD of All, Shalom is from You!
LORD  of True North’s patchwork of Nations
“We stand on guard for Thee”!


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