Thursday 24 December 2009

John Bell - revisiting Christmas carols

Enjoying John Bell's 10 Things they never told me about Jesus (Wild goose publications, 2009)

His rewriting of 'O Little Town of Bethlehem is a gem'. the last couple of verses in particular:

Christ was not born at Christmas time
invoked by practised choirs,
embraced by plastic mangers and fulfiling our desires.
no kindergarten was his home, no drummer boy his page,
no earth had frozen snow on snow
when God had come of age.

Instead, on the periphery,
eccentric through decree,
the ower behind the universe was born a refugee;
a refugee from heaven above
became the world's creator,
and chose an unknown peasant girl
as host and liberator. (p.36)

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