If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them! But the line dividing good and evil cuts t… — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Compiled by Ken Sehested
Invocation. “The President Sang Amazing Grace.” —Joan Baez
Call to worship. “Don't go playing no shell game with God / Only Satan's going to give you odds / We're given love and love must be returned / That's all the bearings that you need to learn.” —“Starwheel,” Bruce Coburn
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Invocation. “Within our darkest night, / You kindle the fire / that never dies away.” —“Within Our Darkest Night,” J. Berthier, Taizé
Call to worship. “Jesus is the reality of which Caesar is the parody." —N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar and Anglican bishop
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I have a vivid memory of the exact moment. I was in seminary, having fled my native South to New York City to finish college and then seminary, embarrassed at being a Baptist, at being a white Southerner, and not entirely sure if I was a believer. But the God question wouldn’t go away.
A mighty wrestling match was underway in my soul, trying to come to terms with my adolescent “youth revival” preacher days. Neither the Civil Rights nor the anti-Vietnam War movements had disturbed my piously-furrowed brow.
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Ken Sehested
Invocation. “Sometimes I get so sad / Sometimes you just make me mad / It's a sad and beautiful world / It's a sad and beautiful world.” —“Sad and Beautiful World,” Mavis Staples
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“Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting.”
—Cormac McCarthy, “All the Pretty Horses”
Invocation. “Keep your lamps trimmed and burning . . . / the day is drawing nigh. / Darker midnight lies before us . . . / the day is drawing nigh. / For the morning soon is breaking . . . / the day is drawing nigh. / Children, don't get weary / till your work is done.” —“Keep Your Lamps,” arr. André Thomas, combined choirs of Florida State University
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Invocation. “Dr. King received a message / As he sat there in his cell / In Birmingham Alabama / He had gone there to repel / The troubles in that city / For which it was well known / Though his message spoke of peace / Into the prison he was thrown / Pastors sent that message / Urging King to wait / They didn’t want his protest He wasn’t welcome in their state / History has taught us The Reverend understood / The bad get their power / From the silence of the good.” —Eric Mcfadden, “The Silence of the Good”
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Invocation. “O Holy Night.” —a minor-keyed version of the traditional Christmas carol by Ben Caplan
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Hymn of invocation. “Creator of the Stars of Night.” —9th century hymn performed here by the St. John’s Compline Choir
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The major holidays can be sad occasions for some who have lost a loved one: “Blue Christmas” services of sorrowful remembrance, Easter when resurrection day did not return your beloved, Thanksgiving when there is a painfully empty seat at the table of bounty.
Not to mention the fact that the Nativity story’s context included a state-sponsored terror campaign (cf. Matthew 2:16). And in the US, 27 November is a “National Day of Mourning” commemorated by Indigenous peoples of the ongoing struggle to recognize the historical atrocities committed by European undocumented immigrants in the colonial era and its aftermath.
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