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The world is God’s and it will not fall apart.

The new age which the Lord has begun cannot be driven out or held back.

The church need not live out of fear as though the gospel were not true.

Instead, we are destined to live toward freedom, toward the pain of the world, toward the hurt of the world, toward the joy of the world:

The hurt and pain the world does not understand and the joy the world does not anticipate.

As Jesus left he reminded the church that we are able to risk much because we are safe.

We may need to focus much on shalom as a task, but it begins at the table as assurance.

So bring your fears to the table of bounty.

Here the bread of promise and the cup of joy shall soothe every seething heart, loosen every clenched fist.

Here find your freedom, casting off the rule of shame with hearts sustained by the goodness of God in the land of the living.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Adapting language from Living Toward a Vision by Walter Brueggemann and Psalm 27:13

Listen, God. Pay attention. Bend your ear to the sigh of my soul.

The world can be too much.

Floods devastate the lives of friends in the Midwest. Drought continues here in the Southeast. Health care costs and foreclosures and the price of tortillas have us scrambling for spare change.

The world can be too much.

While public opinion slowly turns against Guantanamo’s tortured cells, its twin facility—Bagram prison, in Afghanistan—is getting a $60 million expansion.

The world can be too much.

At Marion prison, the drumbeat of a Native American service of prayer for healing competes with the report of rifle fire from the guards’ practice range just beyond the walls.

The world can be too much—for us, but not for You.

For you are the Author of wondrous things. You are gracious, overflowing with steadfast mercy, a constant and patience presence. You grant strength to those who falter, new beginnings for those who fail, a welcome-home hug in our return from prodigal journeys.

Teach us Your ways, oh Wondrous One, that we may walk the boulevard of beauty, the road of justice, the highway of peace!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 81.

Each of you, a bordered country,  / Delicate and strangely made proud, / Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.

Your armed struggles for profit / Have left collars of waste upon / My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.

Yet today I call you to my riverside, / If you will study war no more. Come, / Clad in peace, and I will sing the songs / The Creator gave to me when I and the / Tree and the rock were one.

Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your / Brow and when you yet knew you still / Knew nothing.

The River sang and sings on. . . .

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God.

On either side of the river is the tree of life, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. First four stanzas excerpted from “On the Pulse of the morning,” by Maya Angelou; last two, from Revelation 22:1-2.

Listen to the voice of Wisdom, O people of folly. Hear the voice of understanding as She makes Her stand at the city gate and presides in the town square.

“All of you, hear my cry. Your lives are marked by trivial pursuits. Deceitful ways and crooked days are unbecoming, no matter how much gold acquired or jewel-attired.”

Guided by Wisdom’s voice every ruler’s choice leans toward just and worthy decrees.

By Wisdom’s way the earth conveys redemption’s mercy tree.

Before all time did Wisdom rhyme the depths with mountains’ frame.

Before fertile field did yield its store, there Wisdom made her claim.

‘Twas in God’s design did Wisdom shine, resplendent firmament.

‘Twas in God’s delight, by day, by night, by Her the world content.

Sing out, O pilgrim—raise your hymn—to Wisdom’s melody.

Recite Her ways with constant praise, confirm the Jubilee!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Proverbs 8.

Doubtless one day you will have cause
to chant the Prophet’s lament:

            Truly
           thou art a God
           who hidest thyself.

Even so, I still prefer this One to the other,
more snuggly brand, who feigns intimacy
but has the aroma of cheap perfume,
cheaper wine and layered sweat,
having been passed around by too many
lusty barkers for whom ecstasy's aftermath
           is nauseous stupor.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Citing Isaih 45:15.

The payback of Heaven neither tortures nor torments.

The vengeance of God is Christ’s victory of mercy,
o’er all venal indenture and vile deception.

The terror of God is the Risen One’s threat
to every merchant of death, every marketer’s breath,
every peddler of gun-wielding promise of power,

Whose assault is but aimed at the shame which
confounds and ensnares you.

Rise up with joy, every fleshly heart, to greet the
     One who entreats you;
Who from the dust has made you,
                             Who savors you,
                 Who knows you by name
                 and now comes to reclaim.

For your Champion shall raise you
     with Pardon’s full measure.
Earth’s delight will one day rise up
           to embrace the treasure
           of God’s steadfast love,
                 now and ever.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 103.

Do you wish to inquire into the purpose of the Most High God? Do you long for wisdom?

Do you pant for the breath of life? Does the Song of Creation reach your ears?

If you ask the animals, they will teach you. Ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you.

Ask the plants of the earth, and they will instruct you. And the fish of the sea will declare to you.

In the Beloved’s hand is the life of every living creature.

The day is coming, says the Beloved, when the wild animals will honor me:

The jackal and the macaw and the kangaroo.

The buffalo, the penguin, and the octopus, too!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. For a “blessing of the animals” service, adapting language from Job 12:7-10.

Every bird in flight, every creature of sea, every hair of every head is numbered and known.

In darkness and in light, whether happy or sad, asleep or awake, there is an Advocate who lingers, Who does not forget, Who notices every tear and cherishes all laughter.

Who is this Advocate, this gracious Father, this guardian Mother, this Presence whose Way is peace, whose Will is justice, whose Weal is shaped in mercy.

This One’s name cannot be contained, cannot be captured, cannot be controlled.

The Name above every name will not be tamed, will always slip from grasping hands, will not be hoarded or harvested for a profit.

The Blessed One comes to those with empty hands; to those on bended knee; to those of generous heart and gentle tongue.

This is the Master who abolishes slavery; the Lord who banishes privilege; the Savior who redeems without revenge.

Be Thou my vision, O Redeemer of all.

ALL SINGING (“Be Thou My Vision” tune): Heart of my own heart, whatever befall; still be my vision, O Servant of all.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org.

     Call to worship
Welcome to this Circle of faith. Today we mark both the palm and the passion of the human journey toward the arms of God.

Jesus, riding a humble donkey, entered Jerusalem, cheered by the crowd.

Palms and cloaks were laid in his path as a sign of messianic hope for deliverance.

Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes with liberation.

We, too, long to be saved, to be delivered from occupation.

Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes.

But who is this one who comes, this one who conquers? Why this confusion: Mighty One, mounted on the colt of a common donkey, rather than on a stallion of war?

What does this mean? What struggle is this?

     Confession and confirmation
Morning by morning the Beloved awakens me.

Tuning my ear to heaven’s harmony.

Be gracious to me, Blessed One, for I am in distress.

My eyes are awash with grief; my tears are a drowning flood.

My bones bulge under the weight of unlived life.

Sighs crowd my heart and swell my tongue.

Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. Over Asheville. Over the Circle of Mercy.

Can you hear it? Can you hear it?

But the One who vindicates is near.

The approach of Beloved has reached our ears.

Hear this, O people of The Way: The fitness of Christ is available to all. Hide not your face from this Deliverer. Your sins are insufficient, your shortcomings are too paltry, your frailties are too insignificant and your fears are too impotent to overwhelm the Reign of Grace!

We hear, and in hearing we rejoice!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Adaptation of a longer poem by the author, “Morning by Morning.”

Encouragement is the lime and silica that cement fickle sand into concrete resolve. The ministry of encouragement is not the “soft,” interpersonal side of our more hard-charging, public mission of confronting disruptive power.

We rejoice in the Blessed One,
who draws us up and circles us round
and builds a bulwark against gales of destruction.

Offering pastoral encouragement within the Body is not “feminine” work where mission in the larger world is “masculine.”

As the Scripture enjoins, weep with those who weep; rejoice with those who rejoice; and thereby reweave the unraveling fabric of the Beloved Community.

Nor are habits of complimenting each other to be shaped by the logic of commercial transactions: I offer winsome words to you, anticipating you will return the favor, and more, later on.

O God who ventures into the pit of every human catastrophe,
your ears catch the pitch of our cries which no mortal can hear.

The work of encouragement is done to boost the soul’s immune system. Encouragement does more than make someone “feel better.” It’s how we prepare for struggle.

Incite one another to love and good works, says the Apostle.

Encouragement is the capacity to confront fatigue, failure, even desperation, with the confidence that God is not yet done. And neither are we.

Provoke one another to fidelity amid the world’s faithless affairs.

By so doing, the Evil One’s power to rend us asunder comes undone.

The giving and receiving of timely encouragement in seasons of severity opens a portal to Heaven’s purpose and promise and power.

Blessed are those who do the truth.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 30; Hebrews 10:24; Romans 12:5; John 3:21