Dolly, speaking of her younger brother: “Billy says he doesn’t hafta go to church anymore ‘cause his phone has an app for that!” — Bil Keane, Family Circus cartoon
by Ken Sehested
Texts: Genesis 4:1-16; Psalm 133; Matthew 18:1-22
"Why do we kill people to show that killing people is wrong?"
The logic of that bumper-sticker aphorism sounds so simple. Is it simplistic? If you think so, ponder this more complex quote in 1994 by former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, who died earlier this year:
Read more ›by Ken Sehested
Mark 11:1-11
This week we come to the dramatic events of Lent’s finale. Holy Week. Jesus’ so-called triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In order to figure out where this parade is taking us, we need to remember some clues that have been given earlier in the story.
The first thing we need to remember is that the nativity stories of Jesus’ birth were not originally sung as lullabies. Rather, they were provocative hints at the political intrigue unfolding with the birth in Bethlehem.
Read more ›by Nancy Hastings Sehested
Mark 2:1-12
Jesus was in demand as he made his way into the villages along the Sea of Galilee. After a dizzying schedule of healing the sick and casting out demons, he arrived in the fishing village of Capernaum. There it was reported that he was at home. The home was easy enough for a crowd to find. It was probably one or two rooms, made of the dark stone of the region stuck together with mud. The thatched roof of straw and clay was made strong with crossbeams of wood.
Then as now people were desperate for healing and inspiring teaching. The people smushed in as close as possible, but they couldn’t all get in the doorway. While Jesus was teaching, four people arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a pallet. They wanted to place the man in front of the healer Jesus, but there was no way to get in.
Read more ›Katanacho is dean and faculty member at Nazareth Evangelical College, located in the city the Gospels identify as Jesus’ boyhood home in northern Israel. He was the co-author of "The Palestinian Kairos Document" which addresses the issues of Israel, Palestine, the Occupation, and Christian theology, faith, and practice. In speaking of the "Theology of Resistance,” Katanacho writes about Jesus' command to love our enemies: "Love opens the channels of communication. It should provoke Palestinians and Israelis to talk to each other, instead of killing each other. It should help them to pursue justice and security together for love is not an excuse to abandon justice, but an opportunity to pursue it." Given the support of “Christian Zionism” in many US churches, especially among evangelicals, Katanacho’s voice needs to be heard. —Dan Buttry is a global missions consultant for peace and justice with American Baptist Churches International Ministries
Read more ›12 March 2015 • No. 13
¶ Invocation. “Be humble for you are made of earth.” —Serbian proverb
¶ Southern Appalachian mountaintops are now a bit safer. “After five years of action by Earth Quaker Action Team, PNC Bank announced a shift in its policy on March 2 that will effectively cease its financing of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia.
“This marks a major turnaround for the nation’s seventh largest bank, which for years refused to budge on this issue. After more than 125 actions, their desire to continue business as usual proved no match for Earth Quaker Action Team, or EQAT, and our allies.
“As more and more banks stop financing mountaintop removal, we expect the coal companies to have more trouble over the next few years securing financing for extreme extraction.” —“How a small Quaker group forced PNC Bank to stop financing mountaintop removal,” George Lakey
by Ken Sehested
DO WHAT YOU DO,
when you need to do it,
where you do it,
how you do it,
with whom you do it,
for whatever reason and
whatever manner you do it,
oblivious to both promise of reward
and threat of punishment,
neither heaven nor hell,
WITH NEITHER MALICE NOR CONCEIT,
foreswearing hate for enemies
no less than pride of companions,
in strong days and weak,
hard times and favorable,
rain or shine,
in famine and in feast,
with surge of courage or
barely-disguised trembling,
in Arabic, Hebrew or English,
Ken Sehested
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Circle of Mercy, 2 April 2006
Friday’s Asheville Citizen-Times featured front-page story was about the first day of our new lottery. The story, titled “Let the Dreams Begin,” was dominated by a photo of the woman who won the area’s first prize. She shelled out $20 at the Hot Spot convenience store and gas station south of where Nancy and I live on Brevard Road. The fact that she only won $3 didn’t seem to dampen her enthusiasm. “This is the only way I’m ever going to be a millionaire,” she said. “I can work all my life, and it isn’t going to happen.” [Hold up paper with headline: “Let the Dreams Begin”]
Meanwhile, the state of North Carolina raked in $10 million on the first day. Last year the voters were promised the money would supplement spending on education, that it would be added to the profits from thousands of bake sales and raffles and school-sponsored carnivals—and, of course, property taxes that support public education. It wasn’t until all the lottery machinery was in place that the governor announced: Oh, by the way, a full 35% of the profits would go to education. And . . . well . . . the richest school districts would be getting more than their proportionate amount because . . . well . . . those poor owners of expensive homes pay an awful lot of taxes.
Read more ›And God said: I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances. (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice.
They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, trusting in the Lord.
Read more ›by Ken Sehested
A few weeks ago, Senator Richard Burr [R-NC] took over as Chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, whose responsibility is to oversee the Central Intelligence Agency. But already we are troubled by his actions in that job.
Read more ›¶ Invocation. “It happens often among us that praise is either escapist fantasy, or it is a bland affirmation of the status quo. In fact, doxology is a darling political, polemical act that serves to dismiss certain loyalties and to embrace and legitimate other loyalties.” —Walter Brueggemann (See Ken Sehested’s “The Work of Praise” posted on this site.)
¶ Not just a pretty face. National Geographic researchers say in 1996 there were one billion monarch butterflies making their annual trek from the US to wintering grounds in Mexico. By 2004 that number was cut in half. Now the estimate of surviving Lepidoptera is about 33 million. In mid-February the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced a $3.2 million grant to conversation efforts. This week the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the US Environmental Protection Agency in an attempt to get stronger restrictions on the chemical glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.
¶ Radio for great music and greater stories. If you’ve never caught an "eTown" radio broadcast, look for it (or listen to past programs on your computer). Begun 24 years ago by Nick and Helen Forster, the weekly program has a lineup of live music—and each week they give an eChievement award (nominations come from listeners) to someone making positive social change in their community, with a 6-7 minutes live or telephone interview with each week’s recipient each week. These are the kinds of small, courageous stories from which large movements begin.
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