by Ken Sehested
John.
Such a tame name for a man born to inhabit
the wild side of heaven’s incursion into
earth’s contempt.
Author: ppadmin
Don’t go moonshining on the empire’s behalf
Or, what to do with disconsolation
Ken Sehested
You are encouraged to listen to Roberta Flack and
Donny Hathaway’s rendition of “Come, Ye
Disconsolate” before, during or after you read.
We are often suspicious of words of comfort, and
for good reason: such sentiments too often coax us
into being comfortable, too often keep us on our
couches, too often justify passivity in the face of
pillage. As if sanitizing our own hands is the end of
our duty.
The faux fight for Christmas
Backdrop on the annual year-end culture war
by Ken Sehested
"Every company in America should be on its knees thanking Jesus for being born.
Without Christmas, most American businesses would be far less profitable."
—Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly
I have to admit it was a bit embarrassing to watch the social media outrage of “progressive” Christians (and no, I’m not fond of the modifier) stirred up by the apparent indignation of “traditional” Christians that Starbucks would serve its brews in plain red cups, with nothing but their logo—a 16th century Norse woodcut of a twin-tailed mermaid—instead of those more hallowed images of snowflakes, snowpeople and snow-scened carolers.
Read more ›for thousands of years
A wedding call to worship
by Abigail Hastings
“Call to worship” for the wedding of
Jessica Sehested and Richard Mark, Saturday 6 May 2006
for thousands of years
people have gathered
under a grove of trees
or an expanse of sky
beside an altar of marble
or beneath a cloth of blessing
to bear witness to such
a beautifully simple act
of intention and promise
for thousands of years
people have looked on
as those they love
make known their choice,
this choosing of love
and life and future
News, views, notes, and quotes
Signs of the Times • 31 January 2018 • No. 150
¶ Processional. “I’m an ordinary man / from the place where the palms grow / and before I die I want / to sing out the verses of my soul.” —English translation of the first verse of “Guantanamera,” Playing for Change, performed by 75 Cubans from around the world collaborate on this historic recording of the Cuban unofficial national hymn. The song’s lyrics, by Cuban singer-songwriter, Joseíto Fernandez, were adapted from José Martí’s “Versos Sencillos” poem. Pete Seeger made the song popular in the US after the Cuban missile crisis in an attempt to affirm US-Cuban cultural ties in the face of growing diplomatic hostility.
¶ More background to the song’s repeated mention of guajira Guantanamera. “Another interesting part of the song’s story is the etymology of the word guajira. In the War of Independence, when the US came in at the 11th hour to ‘save the day,’ US soldiers saw some of the peasant militiamen on horseback, without uniform, rustic looking, and the soldiers greeted them, ‘Look at the war heroes.’ The Cuba ears, not accustomed to English, heard ‘war heroes’ as guajiros and thought they were being complimented, so the word stuck. Guajira is the feminine form, and the word now is used to identify country people, peasant people, much like we would say ‘bumpkin’ or ‘redneck.’” —Stan Dotson
Read more ›Preaching as Weeping, Confession and Resistance
Christine Smith, Westminster/JohnKnox, 1992
Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff
Smith writes from the perspective that preaching is an interpretation of our present world and an invitation to a profoundly different world. Preaching is a form of weeping in a universe filled with human suffering and oppression; it is a form of oppression where the preacher can call on communities into painful and honest confession, and it is a form of resistance, moving people to actively resist the attitudes and structures of oppression, of ‘isms’. Smith sees three worlds that converge in the act of preaching; the world of the text, the world of the preacher and community where proclamation occur, and the larger social context in which we live out our faith. Preaching is a theological act (mediating biblical perspectives) as well as an act of naming. Smith’s three descriptions of preaching are those of weeping, confession and resistance (the Christian response to the real world).
Smith identifies six areas of redemptive activity (handicappism, ageism, sexism, heterosexism, racism and classism). Each of the chapters names a type of violence; describes her experience that moved her to passionate feeling; identifying the realities of our social and political life; adding a sermon on the particular issue (eg women standing at the cross, ‘Standing at a Distance’, Good Friday, Luke 23:44-49). Smith’s close fellowship ecumenically, especially with Latin American struggles, adds powerful perspective to her presentations; it is a book that will bring preaching into a new partnership with the congregation.
Read more ›Preaching in the New Creation
David Jacobsen, Westminster John Knox, 1999
Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff
We live in apocalyptic times, with a sense that an age is ending and a new one breaking forth. Jacobsen provides methodology for preaching apocalyptic texts, starting with a definition. ‘Apocalypticism is a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which envisages eschatological salvation, invoking another supernatural world intended to interpret present earthly circumstances’ (p 6). Jacobsen points out the ways in which a throne room imagery is common to both Hebrew bible imagery and the Christian literature, the new testament; all the throne room scenes begin with the throne, move to the heavenly court and end with the commission (eg Revelation 5) (p 80ff).
The symbolic language offers a vision, a symbolic inversion, capable of evoking not just a different image but a different social world and a different way of engaging the old one’ (p 89). ‘Symbols are not interested in mediating information but in altering perception, as we live out in our lives the claims of colliding worlds…. John the Seer uses these symbols in order to encourage a praise of resistance among his hearers’ (p 89).
Read more ›Paul: the Pagans’ Apostle
Paula Fredriksen, Yale University Press, 2017
Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff
Paul’s letters concentrate on two ancient worlds, one Jewish, one pagan. The first is incandescent with apocalyptic hopes, expecting G-d through his messiah to fulfill his ancient promises of redemption to Israel. The second teems with human and divine actors, with superhuman forces and hostile cosmic gods. Fredrikson clearly outlines Paul’s situation within the social/cultural content of gods and humans, pagans and Jews, cities, synagogues and competing Christ-following assemblies, with particular attention to Paul’s letter to the Roman church.
Central to Pauline thought is his conviction that the kingdom of G-d is at hand, his firm belief that he lived in ‘history’s final hour’ is absolutely foundational, shaping everything Paul says and does. This vivid apocalyptic expectation unites the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth with the resurrection experience of his early followers, and accounts for their decision to spread Jesus’ message of the coming kingdom outside of the homeland to Israel within the Diaspora (p 167). It also explains their incorporation of pagan god fearers into this new charismatic assembly (the promise of the biblical theme of Gentile inclusion in Jewish End-time traditions, the inclusion of Gentiles as a natural extension of its mission to other Jews).
Read more ›Gospel Medicine & When G-d is Silent
Barbara Brown Taylor, Cowley Publications, 1995; Barbara Brown Taylor, Cowley Publications, 1998
Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff
Gospel Medicine is a collection of brief meditations on biblical texts, on 26 meditations that tough on a wide spectrum of biblical stories. All warrant attention in Taylor’s inimitable fashion: Jacobs wrestling bout (Genesis 32), the ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:9), the Silence of G-d (Isaiah 58:6,7).
I was particularly moved by ‘The First Breakfast’, where Jesus meets the seven of his disciples post-resurrection (John 21:2,3). ‘We are much better at beginnings; we are not so good at endings (p 84). Jesus is not serving supper this time—that was the last meal of their old life together. This is the first meal of their new life together (p 87). Evocative imagery! ‘There is a voice that can turn all our dead ends into new beginnings. ‘Come,’ that voice says, ‘and have breakfast’ (p 88).’
Read more ›Imagining the Small Church: Celebrating a simpler Path
Steve Willis, Alban Institute, 2012
Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff
Willis identifies the small church as one with an average worship attendance of 100 or fewer; his denomination has about 10,500 congregations, of which about 7000 are small churches; these are the congregations he has served in his 30-years of pastoral experience, bearing witness to what has seen G-d doing in small churches. ‘This book boasts no ten or fifteen steps to a successful small church, but encourages the reader to give up on steps altogether—and to see with new eyes the joys and pleasures of living small and sustainably. And what they see are love, belonging and faithfulness’ (p xiii).
Willis develops the concepts of central and peripheral culture (p 4). This is not simply a division between urban and rural; large populations of marginalized communities also reside in urban centres. Churches live and minister in these different cultures. Often the central culture is simply seen to be the way in which things work and that voices at the periphery are not measuring up. When central-cultural church power fails to respect the differences and imposes itself on small peripheral churches, it causes damage to these congregations (p 6). As mainline Protestantism has lost power and influence, many congregations are struggling to adapt to the change from being at the centre to being at the periphery. It’s ironic that some dominant church leaders complain about the way their churches are being mistreated by the changing culture, and they turn around and misuse their power and influence within the church family (p 7).
Read more ›