Blog

Listen to the daisies

A profile of Georgian Baptist Bishop Rusudan Gotsiridze

by Ken Sehested

      Baptists and bishops have never played well together. With a few exceptions, neither has been friendly to clergywomen. So how to explain the anomaly of Bishop Rusudan Gotsiridze of the Evangelical Baptist Church (EBC) of the Republic of Georgia?

      Certainly one of her influences was St. Nino, the 4th century Cappadocian woman who first evangelized her homeland, the region then known as Caucasian Iberia, which became only the second kingdom, following neighboring Armenia, to officially convert to Christianity. But there was also her grandfather, a Baptist pastor.

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Background to the touch down

President Barack Obama's historic visit to Cuba

by Ken Sehested

       In case you missed this historic video (1:10)—of President Barack Obama and family deplaning in Havana, Cuba, on Monday morning, 21 March 2016.

        Even now, during the Christian community’s Passion Week, a countersign—the Promise embedded within the Passion—can be discerned. History, despite its bloodied face, is not fated; and we, among history’s actors, need not abandon the field in hopes of a private realm of bogus atonement detached from fleshly circumstance.

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Wedding on the oncology ward

A meditation on the hurried-up wedding of my youngest and the occasion of International Women’s Day

by Ken Sehested

Introduction: It is right and proper to retrieve and celebrate the memory of women of significant achievement who model excellence, infused with righteousness, for us all. However, the vast majority of such women (and men) are highly contextual, inconspicuous, and will only be known to a handful of witnesses. Kathy Waters is one of those.
        The following is a meditation, circulated to friends, after the collision of trauma and joy surrounding my youngest’s wedding. I did not realize until now that these events from 14 years ago coincided with International Women’s Day.

 

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No resurrection by proxy

What 8-year-old Amelia Meyer has to teach us about Lenten arrangements that lead to life’s flourishing

by Ken Sehested

        My vote for this Lent’s saint of the season is 8-year-old Amelia Meyer of Kansas City. Given the current electoral charade, with its evisceration of democratic traditions, her testimony couldn’t come at a better time.

        I learned of her story in a most mundane setting. My lunchtime habit is to heat up leftovers, or smear apple slices with peanut butter, and watch television news channels or sporting reports while eating. Occasionally, when all of those have simultaneous commercials, I flip to CNN’s “Headline News” for an update on “trending” styles and the subjects of public gossip. (You should try it—it can get pretty funny.)

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Mamrean encounter

A meditation on the threat of refugees, the burden of strangers and the bounty of God

by Ken Sehested

Eons ago, “the Lord”—in the guise of three traveling
strangers—ventured into Abraham’s and Sarah’s
oaken camp at *Mamre, were given hospitality, and
then announced the promise of a fertile womb beyond all conceivable prospect.

Today, that same angelic presence peers through the eyes of yet more strangers, waylaid on some new Jericho Road, modern refugees from Cain's ancient madness, and
not so far from the ancient Mamrean encounter. Their apprehensive, hungering gaze
is arresting, innocently clawing at stingy souls, imploring more than furtive glances and alibis.

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Realm of earth, rule of Heaven

Bodified faith and environmental activism

by Ken Sehested

        The greatest failure in the history of Christian thought is the separation of souls from bodies, spirit from soil, the wrenching of hearts from habitation—all representing the abdication of the realm of earth from the rule of Heaven. It is the great anthropomorphic heresy: that redemption is for humans alone, and then only for some ethereal essence: no bodies, no biology, no hills or dales, neither minnows nor whales.

        As Tom McMillan has noted, for 200 years we've been conquering nature. Now we're beating it to death. To be saved we must cultivate a bodified faith.

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Conscientious objection

Stories of faith from veterans

Few testimonies about nonviolence are stronger than those from war veterans. Our friends at the Mennonite Central Committee's Peace Education Office have compiled the following online resources. (For those who work with young people: These would be excellent resources for discussion, particularly for those approaching the age of mandatory Selective Service registration.)

•Reflections from Iraq War veteran Ben Peters. Six video clips (each 4-7 minutes long) with study guide for high school students/adults.  Ben discusses the identity-shaping experiences of boot camp, his struggles with post traumatic stress syndrom, the question of whether violence can be redemptive, biblical frameworks and more.  Ben is thoughtful, articulate and a compelling presenter.  

•Reflections from Iraq War veteran Logan Mehl-Laituri and Marine Joe Gibson. 
Five video clips that feature reflections on conscientious objection, moral injury and contrasts between the call of the armed forces and the call of God.

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Watch night history

Awaiting the quelling word

by Ken Sehested

“Watch Night” services began in 1733 with the Moravian communities in what is now the Czech Republic. By 1740 John Wesley and his Methodist movement within Anglicanism had adopted the tradition, with New Year’s Eve services ending after midnight, marked by penitence over shortcomings in the year past and resolution of greater faithfulness in the year ahead. One of the observance’s functions was to provide an alternative to the drunken revelry common in Britain on that night.

The Wesleyan revivals were especially attractive to the working class. Indeed, the early Methodist emphasis on sanctification (“holiness”) did not split personal from social application. Methodist societies were active in the abolitionist movement. “The ‘General Rules’ began with the commitment to give evidence of salvation by ‘Doing no harm’ and avoiding evil of every kind,” writes Bill Wylie-Kellermann,* noting that “‘doing no harm’ is an 18th century synonym for practicing nonviolence.” Significantly, the originating Methodist conference in the US called for the expulsion of any member participating in the slave trade, though the press of economic forces gradually weakened the tradition’s abolitionist convictions.

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Note to a friend, Rabbi Douglas

The mixed meaning of religious tolerance

        “You’ll be interested in this. Most late afternoons I sit with Mom during her early dinner at the nearby assisted living facility where she resides. On Monday a combined Brownie-Girl Scout group came caroling. Two of the pieces they sang were Chanukah songs, one I hadn’t heard, about the miraculous oil lamp, the other a popular dreidel song.

        “The fact that such music is employed in caroling, especially here in the South, is a pretty interesting phenomenon. The other interesting thing is that none of the other songs were about the Christmas nativity, but about Frosty, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, white-Christmas-dreaming, etc. Except for the finale, a lovely preadolescent rendition of ‘Silent Night.’

        “I think it’s a good thing, at least in the short run, that Chanukah has filtered down into civil society holiday traditions. Maybe we’re finally emerging from that ugly current in the Protestant Reformation, as when Martin Luther penned The Jews and their lies. Though, even given the uptick in violence against Muslims in this country, FBI statistics reveal that 59% of hate crimes are against Jews.

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Why is it hard to say thanks?

10 reasons

by Ken Sehested

1. Often, just because we’re not paying attention.

2. The barrage of demands on our time and energy creates “tunnel vision,” making it difficult to see anything that’s not directly in front of our noses.

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