Commentary

Ken Sehested

Under cover of sham “negotiations,” in an attempted denial of political gravity, likely setting the stage for triggering the 1976 National Emergency Act for an electoral takeover leading up to November’s mid-term elections, and the threat of being found culpable in human trafficking, our president has started another g*dd*mmed war.

The fundamental lie at the root of our nation’s crisis is a theological heresy: That the US has a “manifest destiny,” that we are the one “exceptional” nation, and we are so because God has “anointed” us as such. Which is why people on the Way of Jesus must collaborate with all people of conscience, of faith or no faith, to stand in the face of our nation’s presidential psychosis to say a clear, unambiguous, and vehement NO to this military adventurism.

A litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 58

Ken Sehested

Hail, O human one, progeny of the stars’ dust enlivened by the Breath of the Most High. Stand and be accounted.

Do you enter the portal of Heaven’s presence with open hands and penitential heart? Or do you come to bargain?

US presidential quotes that might surprise you

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 

Remembering St. Brigit’s feast day and the Greensboro student sit-in

Ken Sehested

Invocation. “Gabhaim Molta Bríghde” (“I Give Praise to Saint Brigid”). — Aoife Ní Fhearraigh (Scroll down to see the lyrics.) 

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To the rupture convulsing our nation’s heartland

Assembled by Ken Sehested

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

by Ken Sehested

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.

Ken Sehested

Invocation. “Take Us Home by Another Way.” —Christopher Grundy 

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Commendations for sustaining
impervious resistance to imperial dominance

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 

Ken Sehested

“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 

A meditation in praise of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life
in light of Holy Week’s threat yet to come

Ken Sehested

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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