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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  11 February 2016  •  No. 58

Processional. “They have blessings – those who ask / Jesus himself said so / Hallelujah /  Jesus himself said so. . . . / They have life. . . . / They have joy. . . . / They have faith.” —“Wana Baraka” (They have blessings), traditional Swahili hymn from Kenya, arranged by Shawn L. Kirchner.

Right: Hamilton Pool Preserve is a natural pool that was created when the dome of an underground river collapsed due to massive erosion thousands of years ago. The pool is located about 23 miles west of Austin, Texas. Photo by Dave Wilson.

Invocation. “The world is God’s and it will not fall apart. The church need not live out of fear as though the gospel were not true. Instead, we are destined to live toward freedom, toward the pain of the world, toward the hurt of the world, toward the joy of the world: The hurt and pain the world does not understand and the joy the world does not anticipate.”  —continue reading “The world is God’s,” a litany for worship adapting text from Walter Brueggemann’s Living Toward a Vision

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Wintering over

A call to worship in a chilly season

by Abigail Hastings

We sing ~
In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron
Water like a stone ~

And perhaps that’s how winter
truly feels

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Mamrean encounter

A meditation on the threat of refugees, the burden of strangers and the bounty of God

by Ken Sehested

Eons ago, “the Lord”—in the guise of three traveling
strangers—ventured into Abraham’s and Sarah’s
oaken camp at *Mamre, were given hospitality, and
then announced the promise of a fertile womb beyond all conceivable prospect.

Today, that same angelic presence peers through the eyes of yet more strangers, waylaid on some new Jericho Road, modern refugees from Cain's ancient madness, and
not so far from the ancient Mamrean encounter. Their apprehensive, hungering gaze
is arresting, innocently clawing at stingy souls, imploring more than furtive glances and alibis.

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Deepening the Call

A wilderness fast in opposition to a "Desert Storm"

by Ken Sehested

The following was published in February 1991 by the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (BPFNA), along with the names of 1,700 individuals who earlier formally endorsed  the “Call to Prayer and Fasting” action sponsored by the BPFNA as one response of resistance to “Desert Storm,” the U.S.-led war against Iraq. This material was originally delivered at Prescott Memorial Baptist Church, Memphis, Tenn., on Wednesday evening, February 13, 1991, as part of the church’s Ash Wednesday service.

            Two months ago we urged members of the Baptist Peace Fellowship (and any others who would join us) to engage in daily prayer and weekly fasting. We issued a document entitled “All Things Are Possible: Call to Prayer & Fasting.” Its purposes were to mobilize and amplify the voice of Baptists and others who opposed the prospect of war in the Middle East, to affirm diplomatic initiatives to resolve the conflict, and to suggest creative, practical and redemptive ways for Christians to express their convictions.

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Lent is upon us

A liturgy for Lent

by Ken Sehested 

Call to worship

The season of Lent is upon us. Listen for your instructions!

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Spirit-led and Spirit-fed

A litany for worship inspired by Luke 4:1-13

by Ken Sehested

Drenched by Jordan’s buoyant power, confirmed by dove’s anointing perch, conformed to Heaven’s sundering plow, bewildering days now beckon.

Spirit-led and Spirit-fed, off to the famishing wilds now tread.

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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  28 January 2016  •  No. 56

Processional. “Traveller,” Anoushka Shankar, on sitar, dance by Shalini Patnaik. The dance form, Odissi, is one of the eight classical dance forms of India and is thought to be the oldest surviving dance of India.

Tibetan Prayer Flag Quilt by Peg Green, VA

Invocation. "Oh, a storm is threat'ning / My very life today / If I don't get some shelter / Oh year, I'm gonna fade away." Watch David Wolfe's inspiring, multi-artist rendition of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' "Gimme Shelter."

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From ecstasy to epilepsy

A Transfiguration Sunday sermon

by Ken Sehested
Text: Luke 9:28-43

            Once upon a time, Chris Semper and I both lived about an hour southwest of New Orleans, so we know about the significance of this time of year in South Louisiana. (TO CHRIS: Did you go to a lot of Mardi Gras parades?) The parades in New Orleans go on for more than a week; and lots of smaller towns down the bayous had at least one parade, all leading up to “Fat Tuesday,” the day before Ash Wednesday.

            Mardi Gras is almost synonymous with “revelry.” Partying. Excessively so, in some cases. Bourbon Street, in the heart of the French Quarter and ground zero for Mardi Gras festivities, is appropriately named.

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