Commentary

In anticipation of the 500^th anniversary of the first
'believer’s' baptism and the launch of the Radical Reformation

Invocation. “Wade in the Water.” —Blind Boys of Alabama

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Epiphany’s provocation to abandon innocence

Ken Sehested

Invocation. “Ring out, wild bells.” —poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), music and performance by Alana Levandoski

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Ken Sehested

Processional. “Give Thanks.” —Abyssinian Baptist Church choir, New York City

Invocation. “Come ye fearful people come / Cast your sighs to highest heav’n / Yet—though terror’s harvest spread, / Casting sorrow in its stead— / Still the Promise doth endure / Life abounding to secure / Come, ye thankful hearts, confess / Mercy’s lien o’er earth’s distress.” —Ken Sehested, new verse to “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come”

Ken Sehested

Invocation. “O King of the nations, and their desire, / the cornerstone who makes both one: / Come and save the human race / which you fashioned from clay.” —English translation of lyrics to “O Rex Gentium” (“O King of Nations”), performed by the monks of St. Meinrad

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Ken Sehested

Processional. “Tango,” featuring jazz songstress Dianne Reeves. When the Spirit transcends human language, and faith, hope, and love join in a brawl with all who would foreclose history’s predicted demise.

Invocation. “It remains an experience of incomparable value that we have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed and reviled, in short from the perspective of the suffering.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

by Ken Sehested

Invocation. “Come Ye Disconsolate,” Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway

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by Ken Sehested

On the eve of an election that could return a scurrilous man to the Oval Office and unleash a befouled future. If not, should he lose, trouble is still brewing, with the prospect of a rising tide of political violence and a tempest of peril and turmoil, like a razor poised at hope’s throat.

Nevertheless, people of faith and conscience are steadied by eyes fixed on a larger horizon. As the ancients admonish: Return to your stronghold you prisoners of hope. (cf . Zechariah 9:12)

Ken Sehested & Nancy Hastings Sehested
13 October 2024, joint sermon at Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville NC

Part one: Ken begins

The text for today is a selection of verses from Hebrews 11 and 12.

Few know the federal regulations for handling and displaying Old Glory—and frequently are in violation of those laws

Ken Sehested

Invocation. “But your flag decal won't get you / Into Heaven any more. / They're already overcrowded / From your dirty little war. / Now Jesus don't like killin' / No matter what the reason's for, / And your flag decal won't get you / Into Heaven any more.” —John Prine, “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Any More”

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Ken Sehested

Who'd thought that just prior to commemorating our overthrow of a king, the US Supreme Court would reinstate monarchy?

That might be an exaggeration, but only a teeny-weeny one. With today’s Supreme Court ruling, presidents of the US have “at a minimum, a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.”