thirty-one

“And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds,” Hebrews 10:24 

this day,

surround me with those

who will aggravate me

out of my apathy,

nudge me out of

my numbness to cruelty,

rouse me out of my reluctance

to seek justice for the forgotten,

i pray

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

thirty

“Raise a song, sound the tambourine,

    the sweet lyre with the harp.”  Psalm 81:2

instead of

our usual grumbling,

may we sing love songs

to those around us;

may we clap

our hands in delight

at the wonders of creation;

may we play

the anthems of justice

until they are learned

by the whole world

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

twenty-nine

“By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,

    O God of our salvation;” Psalm 65:5a

in the first-generation

immigrant who sets up

a grocery for new arrivals;

in the former athlete

who graduated from prison,

and now mentors young people

from his mistakes;

in the big sister who

patiently teaches her

little brother how to knit,

we find your awesome deeds

announcing your grace.

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

twenty-eight

“When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’” John 5:6

but,

if we say yes, how

will we ever manage

without

the delicious bitterness

on our tongues

destroying the taste buds

of grace and hope,

the weight of the

decades-old grudges

slowly crushing our souls,

the unbridled anger

curdling our hearts?

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

twenty-seven

“In speaking of ‘a new covenant,’ he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.”  Hebrews 8:13

may

our covenant with cruelty

dissolve into dust;

our fealty to fear

be broken to pieces;

our treaty signed with terror

be ripped to shreds;

our agreement with anger

be tossed in the bin,

so that we may discover

the new hearts you

have carved within us

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

twenty-six

^“Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’”

Mark 7:34

as we close our ears

to the single parent

looking for a job, you whisper,

‘Ephphatha;’

as we close our hands

in fists of rage instead

of welcoming love, you croak,

‘Ephphatha;”

as we close our mouths

when the powerful are

stepping on the vulnerable, you shout,

‘Ephphatha!’

all the while looking

up to heaven as if to say,

‘see what i have work with?’

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

twenty-five

 ^“And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.”  Genesis 12:9

thinking it is simply

a direct route from

point A to point B,

we quickly discover

the time spent making

bricks for the bigshots;

wading ankle dip through

freedom’s waters, before

a wilderness sojourn;

a kingdom divided here,

an exile there;

searching for a newborn

in a most unlikely place;

a heart-shattering loss

at the top of a garbage dump,

before seeing the sun rise

over the walls of the city

whose gates never close

just like our ancestors

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

twenty-four

“I come to the end—I am still with you.”  Psalm 139:18b

no shadowed alley,

but well-lighted streets’

no angry words,

but whispers of love;

no wretched punishment,

but warm embraces;

no anguished emptiness,

but a heart filled with hope

just beyond the end

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

twenty-three

“And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’”  Genesis 11:3-4

when,

as a fund-raiser for anger,

the fearmongers offer

bricks to be inscribed

with our names, we are

willing to borrow money

if we need, to help

build that wall which

will keep us safe

within our paranoia

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

twenty-two

“Therefore let us go on toward perfection*, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God,” Hebrews 6:1

for the sake

of civility, let us

stop opening snark’s

dictionary;

inasmuch as

we are called to love,

let us let go of grudges;

since we are no longer

two-years-old throwing tantrums,

let us listen to another;

in the event that God

just might know something,

let us live in faith.

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman  * - ‘maturity’ might be a better word here

twenty-one

“And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19 

(not so)

breaking news:

we walk around

throwing all the circuit

breakers, taking batteries

out of flashlights, and snuffing

everyone’s candles, hoping

they will come and enjoy

living in the shadows of foolishness

as much as we do

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

twenty

“They are not afraid of evil tidings;

    their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord.”  Psalm 112:7

when

hate tries to buckle

our knees with words

of anger and fear, let

us rearrange the letters

into songs of hope;

when

the autocrats demand

unconditional loyalty to

their cults of personality,

let us reveal our hearts

etched with your grace

and offer them to

the most vulnerable

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

nineteen

“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3

we try to weave

lives from hubris and

grudges, edged with frustration

and bound together with

the threads of anger and hurt,

so

you unravel us, and

putting us on the loom,

our hopes, dreams, fears,

and doubts the warp threads,

while the weft thread of your

grace

shapes us into your

beloved

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

eighteen

“And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.” Genesis 6:19

when

we breathe in the

acrid smoke,

fill up sandbags to

edge our homes,

respond to appeals

to help victims of

earthquakes and hurricanes,

remind us

that now, earth is

our ark, and

we need to stop saying,

“no, ah, there is no such

thing as climate change”

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

seventeen

“Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.” Psalm 51:1

half-way
through the assignment
to write all our foolishness
on the chalkboard, you
show up, wiping off
our painmaking efforts,
taking the erasers
outside, clapping them
together to watch the chaff
drift away towards the horizon

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

sixteen

“You show me the path of life.”  Psalm 16:11a

convinced

your path is too winding,

your way too steep

your road too potholed,

your streets too narrow,

we strike out

on our own, while

you follow at our side

whispering

‘recalculating

recalculating

recalculating’

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

fifteen

“Sing to him a new song;

    play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.”  Psalm 33:3

let this curmudgeon

listen to the heart-changing

songs of little children,

watch the young couples

dance until the last song,

discover the wonders

of constellation’s designs

forgotten so long ago,

find the last piece

to the intricate puzzle of

love, so

i can not only age

gracefully

but

gratefully

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

fourteen

“Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.”  Hebrews 2:1

when

we could share peace

but injure others;

when

we might be bearers of grace

but are spreaders of shame;

when

we should forgive another

but hold the grudge in our heart;

when

we could offer living water to the thirsty,

but remove the handle from the faucet,

we show we were too busy

daydreaming about ourselves

in the Gospel 101 seminar

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

thirteen

“Listen to the sound of my cry,

    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray.”  Psalm 5:2

hear the whispers

of hungry children;

give ear to the fears

of animals displaced

and terrorized by bush fires;

be attentive to those

huddled as drones

pass over their homes;

give ear to the

lonely, the forgotten,

the broken, the grieving;

tune in to those

who have no voice,

but whose hearts overflow

with worry and fears

and

teach us to listen

as intensely

as you

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

Baptism of the Lord

“You make springs gush forth in the valleys;

    they flow between the hills,” Psalm 104:10

drip by drip,

drop by drop,

we dribble out grace

as if it were more

valuable than gold,

while

you turn on every

faucet in the house

to flood the world

without charging us

anything

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

eleven

^“But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.”  Colossians 3:8

but

the bitterness tastes

so sweet,

the arrows of anger

pierce so deeply,

the foul-letter words

roll so trippingly

off the tongue, how

can you ask me

to just toss them

in the landfill,

rather

than recycling them

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

ten

“‘I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.’”  John 10:9

when

we see the gate

standing wide open

and think

we have to shut it

and put on new

latches and locks

to keep it closed tight,

forgive us,

Gate of the Sheep,

forgive us

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

nine

“I did not speak in secret,

    in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
    ‘Seek me in chaos.’
I the Lord speak the truth,
    I declare what is right.”  Isaiah 45:19

no enigmatic codes,

no clandestine meetings

   in alleyways,

no mazes without an exit,

simply

an invitation

to find your grace

   in whispers of peace

   and light-filled truth,

not in the chaotic

spite of bitterness

or

words of denigration

of your children

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

eight

“He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’”  Exodus 17:7

so busy

coming up with another

true/false quiz for you;

bickering as to what

wing you are under;

asking you to produce

your bona fides, we

never notice you

giving drinks of

friendship to the lonely,

grace to the forgotten,

justice to the bullied,

peace to the frightened

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

seven

“because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.” Colossians 1:5-6

let us

not only hear

of your hope,

but plant it

in the lives of others,

watering it with

our tears,

warming it with

our love,

keeping the weeds

of despair from

choking it off,

because . . .

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

six

“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”  Revelation 21:26a

and now,

the journey truly

begins, as

we seek to follow

the Light we have

found in this insignificant

baby,

in this backwater town,

to the depths

of your

heart of love and grace

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

five

“’I called to the Lord out of my distress,

    and he answered me;’”  Jonah 2:2a

when my tears

turned to dust

in my eyes, you

baptized me with yours;

when my throat

was so sore from

screaming, i was voiceless,

you whispered, ‘i am here;’

when my heart

shattered from the blows

of those i thought

loved me, you

mended it with

stained glass windows

of grace filling the cracks

© 2020 Thom M Shuman

four

“When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’” Joshua 4:6b

may we tell them

we used the stones

of our lives

not

for building walls,

but bridges;

not

as stumbling blocks,

but as steps to wholeness;

not

as monuments to hate,

but as landmarks for justice

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

Three

“He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.”  1 Kings 19:11-12

like a two-year-old,

we can

lay on the faith and

stomp our feet,

scream our heads off,

hold our breath

until we turn blue, and

having exhausted ourselves

with our foolishness,

are finally able to hear

your gentle whispers of

grace, hope, and love

for our lives

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman

two

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”  Ephesians 4:4-6

when we spend

so much time

splitting theological hairs

with family members,

disparaging another’s

practices while polishing

our Sunday School medals,

speaking ‘our’ truth (in

love, of course) while

turning deaf ears to what

others are saying,

we never notice how

we are breaking your

heart

© 2020 Thom M. Shuman