We recently had a person apply for our congregation’s music coordinator position. In her letter, she said “I am also a composer of sacred, spiritual music (of no particular religion). . . .” Tha… — Ken Sehested
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. You are not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to abandon it. (The Talmud)
And how are we to spend ourselves for the sake of the world that God loves? For the recognition? For the virtue?
For the hope of return in the future? Maybe for the pleasure?
Read more ›My hometown paper, the Asheville Citizen-Times, recently ran an editorial arguing that poverty is not inevitable. The following was my response, printed as a letter to the editor.
Wednesday’s AC-T editorial (“The cycle of poverty is not inevitable”) offers a compelling rebuttal to the notion that poverty is preordained. One reference, however, repeats a popular misreading of ancient authority: “Many who are not poor accept the biblical maxim that the poor will always be with us. . . .”
The “maxim” in Deuteronomy 15:11 (referenced by Jesus, in three of the Gospels, for other purposes) is the premise for this conclusion: “I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy.’”
Read more ›28 May 2015 • No. 23
¶ “What bothers me about the Bible is not the parts I can't understand, but the parts I can understand.” —Mark Twain
¶ “Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of [another]. . . . There are just some kind of men who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” —Harper Lee, “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Read more ›by Ken Sehested, Memorial Day 2015
The Al-Fanar Hotel restaurant was bustling when I walked in. I sat with a new friend, Charles, a professional photojournalist and fellow Iraq Peace Team member. There were about 40 of us, split between three hotels in downtown Baghdad on the banks of the Tigris River. This was February 2003, in the weeks leading up to the “shock and awe” invasion.
We were monitoring the effects of U.N. sanctions and providing an alternative account to that of the mainstream media’s war promotion. The trip was not undertaken lightly, given the impending invasion, along with the threat by our own government of prison sentences and steep fines for breaching the U.S. travel ban.
Read more ›The Lord’s my shepherd, I’ll not want
Green pastures rise and from the font
Flow waters, ever gentle, to surround me
My soul restored, my heart aflame
My feet will walk and for that Name
My lungs will lift to sing, Hallelujah.
Chorus: Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
In darkest valley, I’ll not fear
Though evil threat be crouching near
Your Presence ever shadows and enfolds me
At banquet feast you bid me rest
With enemies as table guests
My cup o’erflows with shouts of Hallelujah.
21 May 2015 • No. 22
¶ Invocation. "This old world is mean and cruel, / But still I love it like a fool, this world, / This world, this world." —Malvina Reynolds, “This World”
¶ Call to Worship. “Send Me,” a litany drawing from Isaiah 6:1-8.
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Texts: Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; John 3:1-17
It was the first football game of my senior year of high school. We traveled west-by-northwest, paralleling the Louisiana coastline, to New Iberia, where that bottle of spicy Tabasco sauce in your kitchen cabinet was made.
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Text: Romans 8:12-25
“We are lovers in dangerous times.” —Bruce Cochburn
“Faith is not belief in spite of the evidence. Faith is life lived in scorn of the consequences.” —Clarence Jordan
Read more ›by Ken Sehested
Dear God:
There was a time when your provision was like
a splendid feast,
a delicacy for the eye,
a delight to the palate,
an aroma so fine it buckled my knees.
But no more.
The thrill is gone.
The aroma gags.
I’ve had my fill of this swill.
15 May 2015 • No. 21
¶ Invocation for Pentecost. “Do not seek illumination unless you seek it as one whose hair is on fire seeks a pond.” —Sri Ramakrishna
¶ Opening hymn. “Every Time I Feel the Spirit,” Doris Akers
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