by Ken Sehested
Today’s text is the brutal story of the mighty warrior, Jephthah, whose bloody victory entails the sacrifice of his only child, a daughter, whose name is lost to history. Hear now and testify your resolve to Heaven’s intent:
Oh you, dear unnamed daughter, pawn of warrior’s reckless vow,
You whose life was bound, requiting bloody vic’try, ancient row,
You whose memory linked forever to a father’s scur’lous name,
By whose spirit, for whose honor, consumed in sacrificial flame.
O you among the living, will you remember me at all ?
Will you write my name out with a single finger scrawl
Across a broken window, in some long forgotten wall,
That goes stretching out forever where the tears of heaven fall ?
Can I get no witness, this unholy tale to tell?
Was God alone there watching, crying, weeping as I fell?
Yes, God was there weeping, bidding me to do the same,
Bidding me to intervene by the power of Mercy’s reign.
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org
The words in italics are lyrics from Emmylou Harris' song, "Lost Unto This World"
—Ken Sehested, inspired by Judges 11:29-40, using lyrics (in italics) from “Lost Unto This World,” by Emmylou Harris and Daniel Roland Lanois