Deserted Church Central Nebraska
Sunset glows through amber veil
Wood cloaked apse bathed in yellow hews
Impoverished lights cast no glow
Phantom souls fill the cold hard pews
Prairie wind howls through cracked mosaics
Ghost choir sings its eerie hymn
The sacred desk lay silent wasting
No crier to proclaim our carnal sins
Store up O church divine wealth
Spend your riches on human kind
Here moth and rust give way to schism
The faithful leave the church behind
On my way home from a retreat at the Benedictine Center in Schuyler Nebraska I found this deserted Presbyterian Church. Zion once stood proud at the intersection of Highway 15 and County Road U111. Today, she stands as a reminder of days gone by. Perhaps the population has shifted in the wake of corporate farming. Perhaps the population of a nation is shifting away from the church. Across the road, the church cemetery lay silent. Someone takes care of it, grooming the grass, trimming bushes. So many of our churches are becoming graveyards. Empty pews, challenging mortgages, and an inward focus is driving the institution to irrelevance. The last line of this poem states "The faithful leave the church behind." Perhaps for some this is a sad event, or perhaps, the faithful leaving are departing from mortgages, overhead, and upkeep and spending their human and financial resources on the community in need. Buildings soon become superfluous.
