Kirkepiscatoid

Well, now that it's Advent, I have taken to my annual "listening to Advent music on live365.com" habit. Of course, the tried and true "John the Baptist Sunday" hymn in Advent, even back in my LCMS childhood, was "On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry," which the station was playing during my lunch.

As a kid, I thought they were talking about Baptists like Baptist church Baptists in the hymn and always wondered what in the world Baptists had to do with liturgical churches. So, now that I'm Episcopalian, and the rank-and-file Baptists probably have even LESS to do with me, I started having my usual flood of slightly naughty lyrics pop out of my head...with apologies to John the Baptist, John Chandler, Charles Coffin and whatever medieval Germans originally penned the music...

On Jordan's bank the Baptists cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh;
"You Piskies hark, and listen well
Your sorry hides are bound for Hell."

"You cross and kneel and think that's fine,
You share his blood with re-al wine,
The Bible is for you a tool
But not of God's inerrant rule."

The Piskies say, "We fear you not,
You Baptists are a silly lot,
We're not literal, we do admit,
But we don't buy that Hell bullshit."

The Eucharist, we do agree,
Means more to us than 'tis for thee
The wine's his blood, the bread's his head,
We just can't buy the wafer is bread!