by Ken Sehested
Leader: Let all that breathes declare the good news.
Children (arms raised): Christ has risen!
Read more ›Litanies & Prayers
Dueling psalms
A litany for Good Friday, with texts contrasting Psalms 22 and 23
by Ken Sehested
Oh LORD, you are my shepherd, I shall not want.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
Read more ›Bounty and abundance
A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 116
by Ken Sehested
Jump for joy, oh people! For amid the screaming commercials and blithering campaign ads, the Redeemer has heard our aching voice.
God hears! God knows! This is our assurance against all blistering deceit.
Read more ›Refuge in the shadow
A collection of Scripture for Holy Week, on "darkness" and "shadow" as the place of God's abiding presence
by Ken Sehested
Turning from darkness (death) to light (life) is a major theme in Scripture. But there is also a minority report, where darkness and shadow are the place of God’s abiding Presence.
“Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit. Guard me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” —Psalm17:1, 8
Read more ›Breath of Heaven
A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 71
by Ken Sehested
O Breath of Heaven and Earth’s Delight, to your shelter we flee from enmity’s fright.
Incline your ear to each whimpering voice collapsed by the weight of earth-splitting fear.
Read more ›Sustain the weary with a word
A litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 50:4-9a
by Ken Sehested
Is there no song to be sung, no bell to be rung, no laughter from the fields at play with their yield? Would that my mouth be formed and my lips unleashed to speak a word, a true and hearty word, to all grown deaf with grief.
Make our tongues worthy—make them constant and true—to sustain the weary with a word.
Read more ›By Thy might
A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 31
by Ken Sehested
The Rock of the Righteous is our God:
Who marks the boundaries between justice and vengeance;
Read more ›Mutinous lips
A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 118
by Ken Sehested
From the depths of distress, every sail sagged and limp,
my mutinous lips offer insurrecting sighs.
With heart-aching hope doth my voice still rejoice.
Incline us, consign us, to steadfast Embrace.
Claim on Jesus
A call to worship and litany, inspired by Luke 15:11b-32 ("The prodigal son" parable)
by Ken Sehested
Call to worship
It has been said: Our weakness is our only claim on Jesus. “Come to me, you who are weary. . . . For my yoke is light” (Mt. 11:28, 30).
Read more ›Let the lost rejoice
A litany for worship inspired by Jesus' parables of loss in Luke 15
by Ken Sehested
When power reaps death from countless
killing fields, and every war sows the seeds
of the next, those in the Great Shepherd’s
flock resist the bloodletting lure.
Let the mournful rejoice in the Lamb who
rules, for the Tendering Day draws near!
Both lion and lamb are inheritors of the
coming peaceful kingdom, but
the latter’s sleep is the sweeter.