Take Me to the Water / Prayer

Take me to the water Take me to the water Take me to the water To be baptized Take me to the water Take me to the water Take me to the water To be baptized We gather here today to confess and be cleansed in the eyes of our creator We gather here to be washed clean of the sins of humanity We gather here to reject the greed of our forefathers Here, where dead sea meets withered land We see the jagged remnants of the old cities piercing the tops of the waves, and they pierce our hearts with the revelation: Yours and the earth's are all the glories that endure. And for all our toil, in the end We must submit to your judgment As they did. For it is the fate of all humankind to be judged. Our forefathers took without giving, took without need -- took things that they had neither desire nor use for, and threw them away. They covered the face of the ancient planet in newborn desert. They melted the ice at the ends of the earth, drowned the coast, Emptied seas and forests of life, Filled the very oceans with fire, And were judged. You see the verdict there, in yonder drowned city. We, their children, are cursed to wander, Deprived of land that can sustain us by our own ancestors. But we keep the stories. We remember what set man on the downward road.