Author: Ken Sehested

Advent calls to worship

Ken Sehested

First Sunday

Do not bow in the face of fear, O Little Flock of Jesus. Though be
vigilant, for there is reason to quake. Before Jesus was so described
in the Gospels, it was Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus who was
proclaimed as “savior” and “redeemer” who brought “salvation”
to the world, and citizens were to have “faith” in their “lord.”
Scripture’s nativity stories have grown sentimental in our telling,
but not so for the original accounts. Then and there, a head-to-head
conflict was narrated as to whose peace was more reliable, whose
promise more trustworthy, whose Word would endure beyond the
heavens’ rending and the mountains’ trembling. Regardless the
stumble, do not slumber. Despite history’s grimaces, do not shield
your eyes nor stop your ears, lest you miss an angel’s announcement
of hope’s incursion. Stay awake!

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The cultivation of gratitude and the practice of thanksgiving

Ken Sehested

Processional. “Give Thanks.” —Abyssinian Baptist Church choir, New York City

Invocation. “Come ye fearful people come / Cast your sighs to highest heav’n / Yet—though terror’s harvest spread, / Casting sorrow in its stead— / Still the Promise doth endure / Life abounding to secure / Come, ye thankful hearts, confess / Mercy’s lien o’er earth’s distress.” —Ken Sehested, new verse to “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come”

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Christ the King(?) Sunday

Ken Sehested

Invocation. “O King of the nations, and their desire, / the cornerstone who makes both one: / Come and save the human race / which you fashioned from clay.” —English translation of lyrics to “O Rex Gentium” (“O King of Nations”), performed by the monks of St. Meinrad

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Hope as the power to transcend the world-as-it-is and enact the new world as promised

Ken Sehested

Processional. “Tango,” featuring jazz songstress Dianne Reeves. When the Spirit transcends human language, and faith, hope, and love join in a brawl with all who would foreclose history’s predicted demise.

Invocation. “It remains an experience of incomparable value that we have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed and reviled, in short from the perspective of the suffering.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

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Whither hope on the eve of an election?

by Ken Sehested

On the eve of an election that could return a scurrilous man to the Oval Office and unleash a befouled future. If not, should he lose, trouble is still brewing, with the prospect of a rising tide of political violence and a tempest of peril and turmoil, like a razor poised at hope’s throat.

Nevertheless, people of faith and conscience are steadied by eyes fixed on a larger horizon. As the ancients admonish: Return to your stronghold you prisoners of hope. (cf . Zechariah 9:12)

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The US Flag Code

Few know the federal regulations for handling and displaying Old Glory—and frequently are in violation of those laws

Ken Sehested

Invocation. “But your flag decal won't get you / Into Heaven any more. / They're already overcrowded / From your dirty little war. / Now Jesus don't like killin' / No matter what the reason's for, / And your flag decal won't get you / Into Heaven any more.” —John Prine, “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Any More”

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Happy birthday, John Wesley!

Invocation. “I was blinded by the devil, / Born already ruined, / Stone-cold dead / As I stepped out of the womb. / By His grace I have been touched, / By His word I have been healed, / By His hand I've been delivered, / By His spirit I've been sealed.” —“Saved,” Bob Dylan

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Methodism’s founder John Wesley, an Anglican priest, was born on 28 June 1703.

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