Signs of the Times • 18 February 2016 • No. 59
Special themed issue: “In God We Trust”
God as national mascot
Divine patronage asserted
¶ Processional. “Star Spangled Banner,” Jimi Hendrix. 
Author: ppadmin
Maître D’ of Heaven
A litany for worship
by Ken Sehested
The Maître D’ of Heaven commands the ’poverished-poor to table: the halt and helpless, lamed and maimed ushered up for honored seating.
The Beloved’s steadfast love is like a lip-smacking feast of abundance. But the Market’s squaloring famine sows the seeds of violent harvest.
Read more ›Raucous
God’s mutiny against Lenten tedium and patriotic pablum
by Ken Sehested
There’s a raucousness to God, in God, of God, by God,
that the orderly mind cannot abide (finds chaotic, riotous)
that the prim-proper mind finds embarrassing (even trashy)
that the erudite mind judges tacky (mangy)
that the pious mind believes unseemly (well-nigh depraved)
that the disciplined mind finds rowdy (or at least untidy)
that the morally rigorous simply cannot condone.
Have you ever been in a place like, maybe, as a child
in church, sitting next to your best friend who, despite
trying hard not to,
how can I say this without
offending delicate sensitivities
“breaks wind”? What might normally be only marginally
humorous, now
given the sanctuarial circumstances,
the prohibition of irreverence being severe
becomes funny all out of proportion and, despite your
best efforts, trying to swallow the guffaw rising from
your esophagus,
like trying to muzzle a sneeze
it squirts out anyway, and the breath suppressed explodes
through nasal cavity, launching a mucus-laced snort,
unleashing giggles, a mutiny against solemnity.
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
Read more ›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
News, views, notes, and quotes
Signs of the Times • 4 February 2016 • No. 57
¶ Processional. Street percussion and dance in New York City, from “To the Culture” (2:28 minutes).
Right: Shelf cloud over Sydney, Australia, photo by Richard Hirst.
¶ Invocation. “Miserere Mei, Deus" (Psalm 51), by 17th century Italian composer Gregorio Allegri (5:44 minutes).
Read more ›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.
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.
Read more ›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!
Read more ›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.
Read more ›