Overview

Even This Is Holy Ground is a poetry collection rooted in Christian faith and unafraid of the world as it actually is. Moving through Lent and Easter, baptism and burial, doubt and defiance, these poems dwell where belief is tested-at hospital bedsides, in fractured sanctuaries, in the shadow of empire, and at the mouth of an empty tomb. Scripture is not quoted as ornament but wrestled with. Biblical women speak in their own voices. Familiar stories are reopened, not to tame them, but to give them fresh life. With clarity and conviction, the collection confronts Christian nationalism, cheap grace, and the harm done in God's name. It refuses easy explanations for suffering. It pushes back against platitudes. It names grief-personal and collective-without looking away. And yet, resurrection remains. Not as sentiment or denial, but as costly, embodied hope. Written by a Synodically Authorized Minister serving in the ELCA, these poems carry the texture of lived ministry-of preaching and pastoral care, of congregations in transition, of sacred moments that unfold in daily life. They honor the fragile courage of trying to live truthfully in complicated times, and the stubborn mercy that outlives despair. At the same time, the poems step into the public square. They ask what faithfulness looks like in a democracy under strain. They question power baptized in gold. They insist that love of neighbor cannot be separated from justice. The cross here is not decoration or slogan-it is the place where God stands with the wounded and refuses to abandon them. This collection is for readers who love the church and wrestle with it. For those who believe and doubt in the same breath. For those who are weary of certainty but unwilling to surrender hope. For anyone searching for a faith spacious enough for lament, fierce enough for truth, and grounded enough to call even this-especially this-holy.

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Matt Schur hails from Lincoln, Nebraska. He holds a BA in English from Truman State University and an MA in Systematic Theology from Luther Seminary. Matt has preached in churches across Nebraska and currently serves two congregations as a Synodically Authorized Minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). When he's not writing, preaching, or making music, Matt can often be found cheering on his beloved Huskers and Red Sox with his wife and kids. Even This Is Holy Ground is his third poetry collection.

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