Live simply, that others may simply live. — St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
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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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
Read more ›by Ken Sehested
Invocation. “Come Ye Disconsolate,” Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway
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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)
Read more ›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.
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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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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.”
Read more ›Invocation. “I was blinded by the devil, / Born already ruined, / Stone-cold dead / As I stepped out of the womb. / By His grace I have been touched, / By His word I have been healed, / By His hand I've been delivered, / By His spirit I've been sealed.” —“Saved,” Bob Dylan
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Methodism’s founder John Wesley, an Anglican priest, was born on 28 June 1703.
Read more ›Ken Sehested
Text: Luke 24:44-53
12 May 2024, Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC
Invocation. “People killin’, people dyin’ / Children hurt and you hear them cryin’ / Can you practice what you preach / And would you turn the other cheek.” —Black Eyed Peas, “#WHEREISTHELOVE”
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