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Happy are those who walk in the Way of Beauty, harnessed in the Bridle of Mercy and according to the Weal of Justice.

In this Law I delight! May it rule soul and soil and society alike.

From Creation’s Promise to Redemption’s Assurance, may Your Faithful Word leap from our lips and exclaim with our limbs.

In this Law I delight! May it rule soul and soil and society alike.

When dust chokes my heart and fear stays my hand, I remember Your Ordinance and am not put to shame.

In this Law I delight! May it rule soul and soil and society alike.

When highways of ruin threaten meadows of rapture, fashion resistance by Instruction in hope.

In this Law I delight! May it rule soul and soil and society alike.

To the Reign of Grace, alone, we salute. To all others we pledge infidelity.

In this Law I delight! May it rule soul and soil and society alike.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 119.

In the year now ending, many have passed from this mortal life: most, whose names we do not know; some, whose lives we admired; a few, who were dearly beloved. With the calendar’s turn we also recall hopes and dreams that have frayed and failed. Some will be forgotten entirely; some will linger with regret for a season; but some still threaten to unravel us.

Hear, Oh Promise of Bethlehem, the aches that bind our hearts and smother our dreams.

With the Magi, we set our sights on distant lights that lead to virgin hope.

Grant, Oh Mangered Babe, the courage to venture new risk and renewed pilgrimage.

Sharpen the memory of those who passed this way before, who dared living as refugees in this distraught and disfigured world:

Those who died without arriving in that promised New Land; but—seeing it at a distance—were drawn to its brilliance.

Oh Fruit of Mary whom Joseph did not scorn: Send us on our way to that Better Country, with songs of flagrant hope on our lips.

Christen our journey to that City of Promise, to that Residence that knows no shame and to its Banquet Table freed of miserly greed.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by the story of the Magi in Matthew 2 & by Hebrews 11:13-16.

In the land of sky, with eyes’ consent
To bless majestic firmament
Descend to every heart’s lament

Of thee, O Christ, I sing.

Fill all thy saints with gentleness,
With patient passion, humbleness
Now walk in paths of blessedness

One Hope to which I cling.

To bonds of peace the Spirit leads
Submerged in grace, then raised to feed
A famished world laid bare with greed

Undo death’s fearsome sting.

O Land of Sky, knit arms with Head
By truth’s confession raising dead
All blistered souls now bound in dread

Rejoice! Let freedom ring.

You prisoners of Christ, now blessed
With confidence and holiness
Forbearing each with love’s caress

 Spirit’s mark adorning

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Ephesians 4:1-16, in a 2009 commissioning service for the newly-formed Land of Sky United Church of Christ.

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

In the Land of Bounty my name will be spoken.

How long must I bear pain in my soul,
and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

In the Land of Bounty my name will be spoken.

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death.

In the Land of Bounty my name will be spoken.

My enemy will say, “I have prevailed.”
My foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

In the Land of Bounty my name will be spoken.

But I trusted in your steadfast love;
My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord, because the Land of Bounty has spoken my name.

In the Land of Bounty my name will be spoken.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 13.

Speak, O people of the Promise: What is the character of your faith?

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Heb. 11:1)

Faith is not belief in spite of the evidence.

Faith is life lived in scorn of the consequences! (Clarence Jordan)

Faith is not the absence of fear or doubt.

Faith is the force that gets you safely through those long, dark, waiting-room hours.

Faith is the actual belief that what one hopes for is attainable. (Merrill Womach)

The beginning of hope is to be conscious of despair in the very air
we breathe, and to look around for something better. (Walker Percy)

Lean, then, on the Everlasting Arms, and declare your intention:

We shall risk in faith, decide in hope, and suffer the consequences
in love!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Final line attributed to a civil rights marcher on the road to Selma, Alabama, 1965.

Dear God: The world has gone nuts. Every symbol of trust has been turned into a marketing scheme; every pronouncement of care conceals deceit; every herald of hope disguises a threat.

Because the poor are despoiled, I will rise up, says the Lord.

They even use your Name to sponsor their vanity. The humble petition for blessing becomes a demand for national privilege.

God says: The groans of the needy inflame the heart of Heaven.

As Wall Street surges, main streets collapse. Tourists are catered; farmers, forgotten. Lavish housing abounds; affordable homes disappear. Lying lips manage the world and mortgage its future.

Have mercy, have mercy, bring safety and solace. O Blessed Redeemer, come near and condole us. We are here, are here, are here for You.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 12.

Wake up, sleepy-head! Rouse yourselves, all you who have been sedated by the mindless blather coming from statehouse and church house alike. Knock some sense into each other, all you who have come to believe that that strength comes from your own hand, that security is held by your own harness.

With my own eyes I saw the Blessed One before me: Christ above me, Christ before me. Christ behind me, Christ within me.

Let loose your timid tongue to declare Mercy’s approach in response to Mary’s supplication. Raise hearts of gladness for the annulment of enmity. Let your body’s senses relish the hope of Heaven’s embrace.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me. Christ on my right side, Christ on my left.

For your Lover is faithful, watchful. God is ever vigilant. Rare the mother who abandons her child. Rarer still the Womb of Heaven who forgets her offspring.

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down. Christ when I arise, Christ to shield me.

For you, Most Humble Lord, guide me in the paths of righteousness; you disclose the way of justice; and your Presence makes glad my soul and makes haste my feet!

From all who wish me ill, afar and anear, alone and in a multitude, against every cruel and merciless power that may oppose my body and soul: I arise today!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Adapted use of Acts 2:25-28, Ps. 16:8-11, and “The Deer’s Cry,” anonymous 8th century poem often attributed to St. Patrick.

In Joppa and Jerusalem, in Atlanta and Asheville, people of prayer are prone to catching a glimpse of Heaven’s Bidding. The ecstatic vision rises up in the midst of pots and pans, unswept floors, workday boredom and endless “to do” lists. The ancient witness speaks like this:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for all that had come before was renewed and redeemed.

And I saw a holy habitation, big cities and small burgs, meadows and mountains, all shedding their enmity in response to God’s rhapsody, each as a lover anticipating the Beloved.

Make way, make way, for all excluded are destined for embrace.

Look and see! Hosanna’s Home breaks out in flesh and blood, claiming river and raven, harvest and heretic.

Look and see! Amazing grace erupts in every tear gland and funeral parlor, in every orphanage and operating room.

Death’s Dominion shall end, every Terror shall bend, to the sound of grace unrestrained.

Look and see! Let it be, let it be! May it be so today, with you and with me.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Rev. 21:1-4.

      Call to Worship
Come to the place where horizons expand, and the gulf between earth and sky shrinks. Here covenants unfold and confrontations are staged.

It was at Mount Ararat that Noah’s ark rested on dry ground as flood waters receded. From Egyptian bondage, the Hebrews came to Mount Sinai where their adoption by God
was sealed and commandments were set.

      On Mount Carmel the prophet Elijah confronted
           the false prophets of Baal.
     At Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal Joshua instructed
           the people in the Law of Moses.
     At Mount Nebo God brought water out of the rock
           to relieve the people’s thirst.
     It was on Mount Zion that David constructed the
           temple as the center of praise and worship.
     Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount outlined the vision
           for the new people of God.
     It was on the Mount of Olives that Jesus prayed
           through the night before his crucifixion on
                 a hill named Golgotha.

Blessed by the Lord come the choice gifts of heaven, with the finest produce of the ancient mountains, and the favor of the One who sprinkles dew on Hermon and nestles among the pines on Tabor.

Your righteousness o’ershadows the Rockies, your justice towers over Katahdin. Peak calls to peak in your Wake and echoes back again.

Great are you, O God, and greatly to be praised. Your holy Great Smokies are the joy of all the earth. Break forth in singing, you Sierra Madres, you forests and every wild flower. For the Blessed One unveils you.

Blow the trumpet on every Appalachian ridge; sound the alarm on Mount Ranier! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming.

In the abundance of your trade, says our God, you were filled with violence, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from my beloved Cumberlands.

Like blackness spread upon the Peabody Coal’s sheared mountain tops, a great and powerful army comes. Fire devours in their wake, and behind them a flame burns.

Before them the land is like the Garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness.

Come, let us go up to Grandfather Mountain. There the Beloved will teach us the ways of righteousness that we may walk on the path of mercy.

      Assurance of pardon:
            We cry aloud to you, O Lord.
           Answer us from your Olympic Mountains.
           Send out your Light and your Truth;
                 bring us to your dwelling in the Wichitas.

Whoever takes refuge in God shall possess the land and inherit God’s awesome Ozarks.

For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the Bitterroots and the Black Hills shall burst into song, and all the trees on Stone Mountain shall clap their hands.

On that day you shall not be put to shame and you shall no longer be haughty in God’s blessed Berkshires.

      Benediction
In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established higher than Dinali; all the nations shall stream to its crags.

The Allegheny Mountains skipped like rams, and the Grand Tetons, like lambs. May the Adirondacks yield prosperity for the people; and the Davis Mountains, thy graciousness.

They will not hurt or destroy on my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

On the Sangre de Cristos the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a ballroom feast, a warehouse of well-aged wines. God will move among West Virginia’s blast-scarred hills, removing rubble from each hollow and restoring every shattered-scattered crest.

The time is coming, says the Lord, when Matterhorn Peak shall drip sweet wine and the New Mexican mesas shall flow with it.

Death shall be swallowed up forever in the Kilauea’s fiery depths. Then the Tender of Days will wipe away every tear, and all disgrace will be taken away.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. In many ancient cultures, mountains were sacred places. Scripture’s story of the ancient Hebrew people is punctuated with holy encounters upon mountains. This liturgy was written for worship following the arrest of a member of our congregation after his civil disobedience action protesting mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia. Textual inspiration came from: Deuteronomy 33:12–16; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 48:1; Psalm 133:3; Isaiah 44:23; Ezekiel 28:16; Joel 2:1–3; Micah 4:1-2; Psalm 3:4–8; Psalm 43:1–5; Isaiah 57:13; Isaiah 55:12; Zepheniah 3:11; Isaiah 2:1–5; Psalm 114:4; Psalm 72: 3; Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 25:6–8; Amos 9:13.

Worthy, worthy the One who conceived the earth and gave birth to bears and basil and beatitudes alike.

We extol you, Heaven’s Delight and Earth’s Repose!

Oh, children of Christ’s embrace, even when trembling abounds, say aloud: God is worth the trouble!

The Beloved is abundantly good, overflowing with mercy, glacially slow to anger, drawing near to every listening ear.

So now, every hill and habitation, every honey bee and human heart, rejoice and give thanks. For the Consort of Mary stands ready, eager to satisfy every creaturely desire.

Worthy, worthy the One that inspires compassion, Who disarms the heart and confuses the tongues of empire. We listen for that Voice!               

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 145.