Carols in the Pub

 Not long home from a great session of Carols in the pub. Tonight 30+ of us from St Mark's joined regulars in the Canterbury Tales for a fantastic sing-a-long.

If you're free  ...  join us next Sunday evening in the Dog & Bone at 7pm.

A huge thank you and well done too, to Rob who gave a superb rendition of his own creative writing.

Who is Jesus in 2016?

In as tragic a year as there's ever been,

In a year of death ... of many a celebrity, 

He ain't no real hero like, Wogan,

       Prince or Bowie...

Who is Jesus in 2016?

A year where we couldn't believe

       what we had seen,

When Leicester city won the premiership,

Even he must have thought they'd have a blip!

Surely he's not relevant, 

       just some ancient dead bloke,

Who claimed to be the Saviour of some

       middle eastern folk,

But that was time ago and he was just a man,

Certainly not a God or part of some huge plan.

I mean, how could there be a God, right?

Cancer, Earthquakes and countries that fight,

That group Isis causing ruthless Devastation,

Plane crashes and Trump winning an election...

How could these things be allowed to exist,

If indeed there was a God-man 

       within our midst...

Wouldn't a God want to drive all this evil away?

If he was all powerful, it'd take less than a day!

No there can't be a God, not in twenty sixteen,

A year where for many, 

       what faith they had got lean,

Where Jesus was no hero, no source of safety,

No rescuer, no Saviour, where he set no one free.

Is that the truth then? I tell you, it's not,

That this bloke called Jesus has somehow forgot,

About people in crisis, people like me and you,

I tell you, he's been there, 

       he's seen it all through.

He's been beaten, and broken, 

       he's been down on his luck,

He was hated and lied to, his life really did suck,

He was embarrassed, dishonoured 

       and even betrayed,

And those that loved him saw his skin flayed,

For up on a cross, Jesus was killed,

And the eye of many of his buddies were filled

With tears for the man they had come to 

       call friend

But fortunately for them, that was not the end.

For he rose from the dead! 

       They couldn't believe it!

He had been through it all, including the pit,

Yet he overcame and came back to hang

With them for a while, just him and his gang.

Yet this Jesus, did not come back to 

       make it easy,

He certainly didn't let his pals get off freely,

He asked them to show him what they 

       were worth,

And spread lessons from his suffering 

       all over the earth.

Because the God-man was no hero, 

       He was human, like me,

And came to live a life, for all to see,

That was full of suffering, pain and opportunity,

Opportunity to make people think differently.

So this Christmas, that of twenty sixteen,

This Jesus, is as relevant as he's ever been,

He knows the plight of the poor, 

       the lonely, the oppressed,

The sad, the hungry and those in a mess.

He's more than some dead dude, 

       born in a stable,

Some cracked up story, some lousy fable,

He's relatable, real, and he'll answer the call,

Of those that really need him, 

       he'll answer us all.

It just might not come, quite how you'd expect,

It might come as a whisper, 

       or a chill down your neck,

But this I know, of this I'm sure,

He wants to get to know you and 

       he asks for no more.