Holy Crap

This is a poem inspired by Philippians 3.8 and it is not for the easily offended. So if you are easily offended, please read something else. With that said, here we go…

Holy Crap

I admit it
I have a thing for crap
Not sensually
Because that is just unsanitary
But spiritually and philosophically
I think there is a lot to crap
And crap is actually deeper 
Than we like to think

And the weird thing is
I think God
Has a thing for crap too.

While I have always been fascinated
With how deep the Crap gets
It has become more apparent 
with parenthood

Becoming a Parent includes a ton of crap
Both literal and metaphorical
From changing diapers
To headaches and heartbreaks
To that last gasp before death
Making people 
Real people
Mature people
Virtuous people
Requires wading through 
More crap than we can imagine. 

And if Jesus is to be believed
God is a Parent
And that of course means
God has to wade through
All of our crap as well.

But in our culture we want to protect God 
From crap
And semen
And urine
And sweat
And even bad breath
And anything we associate with death
With decay
With flesh. 

We say it is beneath God's dignity
That it is blasphemy 
To equate God and Crap
Even by implication

But God will have none of it
God made crap
And if Genesis One is to be believed
God even said crap was good
Very good in fact

And the process of making a new life
Of raising a new person
And all the crap that entails
God made that too
And said it also was very good

And if the Gospels are to be believed
God became a human 
Who shat all over himself
As an infant in the manger
As a Savior on the way to the cross
As he became the Refuse of the world 
So that we may become real people. 

Then Saint Paul
That crotchety and salty Apostle
Who took Christ to the world
Said he too was considered 
the refuse of the world
Said he considered the world's treasures 
a pile of crap
Because of the greatness of following Christ

And across the religions we find
For the Hindus God is not only present
In the heights of meditation
But God is also present
At the bottom of the latrine
And for the Buddhists
Their koans tell us
The Buddha
The epitome of Enlightenment
That Buddha is a Poop Stick
And for many a Taoist sage
Taking a great dump
Like eating a great meal
Or bedding a great woman
Is one step removed from Transcendence.

So we find ourselves now
In surprisingly deep Crap
For God is both the very highest 
And the absolute lowest
God is the majestic Transcendence
Who upholds being itself
And God is in the very Crap
We wipe from our rear
Because God is all in all.

This of course
Is a sermon I could never preach
But that doesn't mean
This crap won't preach.