The Devil Came To Church Today.

The Devil came to church today

And he had a lot of sweet things to say

We jumped for joy seeing him standing ahead

Tall and handsome in the fiery pulpit

With an arrogant knowing tilt to his head

He invoked upon us his sordid glory from hell’s pit

When the choir sang, he clapped his hands

And danced in ecstasy to the roaring bands

The congregation looked to him for salvation

And he preached his sublime message of damnation

He came prepared for a feast of our souls

And drenched us with unholy water from our heads to our soles

We were entranced by his seductive presence

And lifted our hands up to him to be filled with his essence

When we stood, he sat and when we sat, he stood

He’d come to freely give us our souls’ filling food.

He mesmerized us all

Children, women and men

And lured us in to take the final fall

And we all shouted loud choruses of ‘Amen’!

He beckoned to us to take that last step closer

And promised all our sufferings would soon be over

He would fill up our empty purses

With blessings we now know to be curses

Again and again, he smirked in victory

Reveling in our self inflicted misery

And just as we were about to bow our heads in surrender

That soft soothing voice of the redeemer

Whispered long-forgotten psalms of the father’s grace

Reminding us all of the eternal race

We were washed anew, free from shame

And sang in glory praising the name above all names

And so we laughed out in scorn at lying Lucifer

And took back our salvation and our crown

And we all wept with joy and sang out ‘Alleluia’!

The devil came to our little church, at the outskirts of town.

© ‘Kego Onyido