The Radical Now

Written on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the baptisms in Zurich of some early founders of The Radical Reformation. The first portions of this where developed from prayer work done at The Invitation event in partnership with Ronn DeLemos and Eli Sapp.

Why would you pine for the past,

wallow in the immediacy of flesh, 

or lust for the future,

when you can have the radical now?


You think you’re weak,

But I will teach your weeks:

Seven sabbaths of years plus one,

Is my Jubilee, multiplied by the covenant.

This is your score of years.

See how rich you are?

I offer you a renewed covenant,

On that day I will return all that was taken,

Your inheritance in your hand,

Or running soon to your door,

So you may taste it,

Or hang weeping in joy on their necks.


Oh, Radical Reformers!

See I have given you both roots and wings.

What does radical mean, but from the root?

So I made you throw off chains by the root of my Word.

And I gave you wings of fire to confront metal Eagles.

Both came from knowing me,

The Eternal Now of your life.


Look! Coming on the wings of this dawn,

A revolution of fire awakens,

And calls to the roots that have slumbered in long winter.

All the sugar and substance you have gathered is needed,

For the nourishing of many branches,

Turning myriad leaf after leaf to the Sun!

And blossoms unfolding in fragrance,

Causing an eruption of new life in the forest.


See now, the fields white with harvest.

Your waiting is coming to an end.

Gather and gather to plant again.

But know you are a people,

Accustomed by me to hard farming.

So you will make fertile the waste,

The margin, the edge, and the thicket.

As a sign of my glory among disbelievers,

And the marketers of gospels of fashion.


Be radical now!

Believe now this radical Word,

It is my Son, the Word that is the root among you.

It is my Spirit, the wings of remembrance and dreaming forward.

And now, in this moment, I am your Father.

Nothing remains but to join our voice,

To set our hands together to our work.

And to be One, the last prayer and it is Finished.