Epiphany Hymn 4: Put On Our Lord in the Water

Go down, my sealed brothers and sisters, put on our Lord,

and be joined again to his lineage, for he is the son of a great lineage,

as he has said in his Word.

Refrain: Blessed be he who blots out in water misdeeds that are beyond measure!

His nature is from on high, and his garment from below.

Whoever takes off his own garment, that garment is mingled

with his garment forever.

You too, in the water, receive from him the garment

that does not wear out and is not lost, for it is the garment that clothes

those who are clothed in it forever.

But the blessed Priest is the mediator between two:

the covenant will be made before him; he is the mediator for his Lord,

and the guarantor on our side.

The Godhead, look, has mixed his leaven in the water;

for that leaven raises up the creatures of dust,

and the Godhead joins them to himself.

For it is the leaven of the Lord, which can slip into the slave

and raise him to freedom; it has joined the slave to the lineage

of him who is the Lord of all.

For the slave who has put on him who makes all free in the waters,

though he is a slave on earth, is a son of the free on high,

for he has put on freedom.

The free man who has put on that Angel in the waters

is like a fellow servant, so that he may be made like the Lord,

who became a slave to slaves.

He who enriches all came down and put on poverty,

so that he might share out to the poor the stores that were hidden

from the treasure house of the water.

The lowly one, too, who has put on the Giver of all greatness in the water,

even if he is of no account in the eyes of fools, is great in the eyes of the Watchers,

because he is clothed in greatness.

For just as he who is great, who became lowly in his love,

was persecuted by the unbelievers and worshiped by the Watchers,

was made lowly and makes the lowly great,

so let the one who is great be lowly, so that in him the lowly may be great.

Let us be like him who is greater than all, who became less than all:

he was made lowly, and he makes all people great.

The meek man who has put on him who is great, in the water,

though his face is humble, his discernment is very great,

for he who is exalted above all lives in him.

For who could be found to despise the thornbush,

despised and humble as it was, in which the Majesty in fire

made its dwelling within?

Who again could be found to despise Moses,

meek and slow of speech,

when that surpassing glory

rested on his meekness?

Those who despised him despised his Lord. The wicked who despised him

the earth swallowed up in anger; the Levites who scorned him

the fire devoured in fury.

Of him Christ commanded, “You shall not call him Raca,”

of the one who is baptized and has put him on; for whoever despises the despised

despises the Mighty One along with him.

In Eden and in the world are parables of our Lord;

and what tongue can gather up the likenesses of his mysteries?

For he is pictured, the whole of him, in all things.

In the Scriptures he is written of; on nature he is stamped;

his crown is pictured in kings, his truth in prophets,

his atonement in priests.

He was in the rod of Moses, and in the hyssops of Aaron,

and in the crown of David; to the prophets belongs his likeness,

to the apostles his good news.

Revelations saw you; proverbs looked for you;

mysteries expected you; likenesses greeted you;

parables showed types of you.

The covenant of Moses looked forward to the good news;

all the things of old flew on and alighted

on the new covenant.

Look! The prophets have poured out on him their glorious mysteries;

the priests and kings have poured out on him their wonderful types;

they have all poured them out on the whole of him.

Christ overcame and surpassed the mysteries by his teachings,

and the parables by his interpretations, as the sea

receives all streams into its midst.

For Christ is the sea, and he can receive

the fountains and brooks, the rivers and streams

that flow from the midst of the Scriptures.