-- for Dietrich Bonhoeffer
            with thanks

You shall have                                                      no other gods                                                           before ME.                                                   -- Exodus 20:3 My God's a secular god: he does not shut himself in convents     that offer refuge from reality; he does not wait for pious words     or holy thoughts before he speaks to me; he does not wait till the endtime     to reveal himself to me. My God's a secular god: he walks the city streets and bends      his back with me at work. He taps me on the shoulder      and argues with me endlessly     over beer or coffee. When I'm absorbed in other things,     he will not let me have the last word. In all this pain and suffering,     this world's godlessness,     my own heart's emptiness, he shows himself at work,     bearing what I cannot bear,     bearing even me. My God's a secular god. For he is really Lord,       not only of the age to come      but of this present age. A godless age this? Well,      my God's a godless God.                                                                          -- Mahlon H. Smith