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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  2 November 2017 •  No. 142

“All Saints Day” illustration by Martin Erspamer OSB

Processional. “When the Saints Go Marching In,” The Weavers.
        The Weavers were formed in November 1948 by Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, and Pete Seeger. The group took its name from a play by Gerhart Hauptmann, “Die Weber” (“The Weavers” 1892), a powerful play depicting the uprising of the Silesian weavers in 1844, containing the lines, "I'll stand it no more, come what may.” In the early '50s, during the McCarthyite anti-communist hysteria, the group was blacklisted and their music banned. —see more at Wikipedia

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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  25 October 2017 •  No. 141

Processional. “Fa’afetai i le Atua,” Samoan hymn, sung by a wildfire “hotshot” crew from the Polynesian island of American Samoa, a colony of the US, brought in to help fight wildfires in northern California. (“Hotshot” firefighters are those with specialized training and assigned the most challenging locations—sort of like the military’s special forces.) —Hawaii News Now (2:46–scroll down to find the video. Thanks Duane.)

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Trust and obey

Reflections on living in the Spirit

by Ken Sehested
(unpublished lecture delivered at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, March 1993)
 

Two ancient texts to begin:

The Problem: Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. (Genesis 6:11)

The Solution: Heal the sick, and say to them, 'the reign of God has come near you.' (Luke 10:9)

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My ship of faith has many sails

What it means to live into particular religious identity in the midst of spiritual plurality

by Ken Sehested

        Near the end of seminary training, I made a listing of what had been the most important books in my theological education. As one reared in deep-water Baptist tradition, I was shocked to recognize that more than two-thirds of my “most important” guides were Roman Catholic authors.

        I now say that while my ship of faith has many sails, its mainsail is that legacy flowing from the anabaptist outburst of the 16th century (though that movement’s precursors stretch back to 14th century figures like the Czech priest Jan Hus and the Oxford theologian John Wycliffe—and even 13th century figures like St. Francis in Italy and the Beguine communities, a lay, semi-monastic order of single women (later repressed) in the Low Countries of Europe, all of whom dissented from  the church’s wealth and privilege.

        Long story short, my anchorage among the Radicals stems from two reasons: First, because of their thoroughgoing affirmation of what I call the “democratizing of access to the holy” and, correspondingly, their undermining of all notions of political sovereignty. Second, the anabaptist majority’s (there were dissenters on this score) refusal, on theological grounds, to wield the sword in defense of the state. (For more on this, see “Public reasoning and ekklesial reckoning: Commentary on the Vatican conference calling for ‘spirituality and practice of active nonviolence’ to displace church focus on just war” and "Enough of this! Toward a theology of nonviolence: Why I don’t often use the language of ‘pacifism’.”)

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Eucharistic conventions

Why we practice these (somewhat) odd manners at the Lord’s Table

by Ken Sehested

        When three of us began daydreaming about a starting a new congregation,
during long hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the first year of the new millennium,
one of the things we immediately imagined was worship centered around communion,
including placing the table in the center of our seating. Every Sunday—which is unusual
in Protestant bodies. None of us were raised that way. This tangible ritual act—of
re-membering in the midst of a dismembered world—is poignantly expressive of our
theological vision.

        Moreover, we wanted to do this with bodies in motion, as an act of intentionality,
requiring each to stand, to walk, to mingle in random, status-scrambling order with
others, encircling a round table—with the offering plate right there on the table
sharing space with the cup and homemade Host, along with hand-picked flowers, one
or more candles burning in remembrance of those not present and, on occasion,
pastoral letters of encouragement or prophetic challenges issued from the congregation
and signed by all so willing.

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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  10 October 2017 •  No. 139

Processional. “Grace,” early American melody, performed by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus the day after the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

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She was not

Judges 19: The Bible’s most vividly brutal story and why we must read and remember it

Ken Sehested
Circle of Mercy Congregation
19 September 2005
Text: Judges 19:1-30

      There have been two special occasions in my life when I have become agonizingly aware of the special fear women feel over the threat of sexual assault.

      The first happened when Nancy and I were counting the days before our wedding. Every couple weeks she came in from where she went to school in New Jersey to meet me in a chaplain’s office in New York City. We were doing a series of premarital counseling sessions.

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Go out in joy

A litany for worship adapted from St. Francis' "Canticle of the Sun" and related Scripture texts

by Ken Sehested

What is it you wish to know, oh mortal one?

Do you think you must ascend to the highest heaven or descend to the deepest pit?

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