Category Archives: Theology

Sandy Hook: the Day After

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    Sometimes as Good as a Dog

 

Do not say that “It was the will of God.”

  Imagine what automatons are like:

no thought, no will, no emotions.  A good

  dog trained to help the blind can make

the decision not to cross the busy

street even if the master says to heel.

…

A robot just repeats repeats a task.

  A human can lovingly pat you on

the back, or choose to stab you in the back.

  God seems to prefer life to a machine.

So we are free to love, to choose the good,

and if sometimes we do…we can thank God.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL Dec. 15, 2012

Hee-Haw

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“Just put the burro here,” he said,

“She’ll calm the horses of the folks

inside the inn.”  And so they tied

me to the pole above the trough.

…

I was surprised he later led

a man and girl into the stall

and pointing to the straw, he said,

“Sleep here,  this simple space is all

that’s left tonight, and if the child

is born the cries won’t wake the guests.”

… 

He grimaced, but she somehow smiled

and sank down to the ground.  Their rests

did not last long.  Her labor soon

began and then the baby, wrapped

and warm, was laid under the moon

light bright where we, the stock, were trapped

and fed.  I brayed when shepherds dumb

barged in and said a king had come…

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Dec. 11, 2012

The Nativity, Martin Schongauer, c. 1470/1475, National Gallery Collection

The Nativity, Martin Schongauer,
c. 1470/1475, National Gallery of Art Collection

 

The Manger

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We are more than animals,

but not as much as we may think

We both must stop to eat and drink:

trough or table, room or stable.

He was placed in a manger.

…

He would become food for us:

bread and wine, life divine,

grace we can taste, pure salvation,

soul and body–redemption!

All from a baby in a manger.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, December 10, 2012

Our Shelter from the Stormy Blast

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Just Joseph

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My children have had children, yet this week

this widower may take a teenager

to be a wife.  Her family did not seek

a younger, handsome  man.  A carpenter

I am, not an Adonis– I worship

just Adonai, and follow in the way

of Torah,  righteousness.

…

Did Mary slip

from  following the way, from purity?

She is with child, yet I have had a dream

like Joseph did of old:  an angel said

I should not fear to wed though it may seem

absurd.  The child in her has been conceived

by holy spirit, not by sex.  His name

should be Emmanuel, yes, God with us,

for he will save his people from their sins.

,,,

I will take Mary for my wife; Jesus

will be his name.  God can speak in a dream.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Dec. 4, 2012

“Go and do likewise”

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The Parable of the Good Samaritan at Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska ending with “Simple Song” from Leonard Bernstein’s Mass.

I am lost to the world

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Dennis Aubrey “I am lost to the world” on Via Lucis Photography caught struck a deep chord while preparing for the following Sunday’s sermon. Gustav Mahler, the photography, and the poetry lifted my soul in the midst of the toxic 2012 campaign here in the U.S.

The River of Blessing

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Haiku – Rain 4

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Fourth in a series of four haiku poems on RAIN: “Rain 4”

the rain falls on all 

falls on the just and unjust 

just give thanks for grace

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL 11/12/12

The first two lines refer to a portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

– Gospel According to Matthew 5:43-45

Sammy Williams, Pastor of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA, posted a thought-provoking piece on the Sermon on the Mount, including this picture that was taken just before “the hilicopters, tanks and jeeps swarmed in” on military maneuvers.

Site traditionally thought of as place of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount

The Sound of the Trumpets in the Morning

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A sermon preached the Sunday before Election Day at Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska, Minnesota.