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.

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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;

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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.

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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).

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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.

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Maître D’ of Heaven

A litany for worship

by Ken Sehested

The Maître D’ of Heaven commands the ’poverished-poor to table: the halt and helpless, lamed and maimed ushered up for honored seating.

The Beloved’s steadfast love is like a lip-smacking feast of abundance. But the Market’s squaloring famine sows the seeds of violent harvest.

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Lent is upon us

A liturgy for Lent

by Ken Sehested 

Call to worship

The season of Lent is upon us. Listen for your instructions!

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Spirit-led and Spirit-fed

A litany for worship inspired by Luke 4:1-13

by Ken Sehested

Drenched by Jordan’s buoyant power, confirmed by dove’s anointing perch, conformed to Heaven’s sundering plow, bewildering days now beckon.

Spirit-led and Spirit-fed, off to the famishing wilds now tread.

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Mercy’s requite

A litany for worship inspired by Jeremiah 1:4-10 & Psalm 71

“I am but a child!” you say.
“What business do you have with people of no claim,
of no clout, of no clue about the road to repentance
and the return from exile?”

Aahh, O clueless one, of no claim and no clout,
you know not that of which you speak!
Before your mother’s maiden life, I knew you;
before your father’s toddling feet,
I planned your sinews and mapped your countenance.

O child of consecrated lips and covenant voice,
      relinquish your fear!
            You shall not be put to shame.
                  Your Refuge is secure.
It is you, O child of destined grace,
      who will utter the Word that will shatter all enmity.

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