a view from under the pew: pastor beetle s sermonic poem

Editor’s note: Amos is a churchmouse, who types by hopping on the computer keyboard, but he can’t operate the capital shift keys, and he shuns punctuation marks – except dashes and hyphens.

pastor beetle s sermonic poem

boss pastor leroy

beetle surprised us

in the church pew

underworld with a

poetic sermon about

jesus being our

sacrificial substitute

and i thought i would

share it with you

a college bug

one day asked

in the midst of a

theology class

tell me sir in the space

of a breath

what does the death

of a first-century jew

have at all to do with me

a soul of this century

silence reigned

minds strained

then from the back a

voice gently called

either everything

or nothing at all

to those who doubt

and cast him out

jesus seems to wield no

power and have no clout

he s simply a painting

on the wall

with no interest in our

world at all

but to those who know him

and believe jesus is king

he s lord of heaven and earth

and everything

he s the master of winds and

waves and sea

and deliverer of sinners and

wretches like me

but how can that be

you may say

to one he s a stone of stumbling

that gets in the way

a rock to cause you to fall

to another he s the

gibralter of great strength

the strongest one of all

a rock to cling to

with your life