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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.

There comes a season in every soul when the Goodness of Creation turns sour. “God,” says the writer of Lamentations, “is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding,” preparing to devour.

The day arrives when flesh wastes away and bones are broken; when I am besieged and beset; when I am walled about and chained.

Who but the Sovereign could bring such affliction, when my teeth grind on gravel, when my lips are pressed into the dust, when I am made to cower in ashes?

Who but the Maker could close the portal of heaven to my prayers?

Am I nothing more than a mark for Heaven’s Archer?

My eyes will flow without ceasing until the Ruler of Glory looks down and sees.

But this I call to mind, giving rise to hope:

The steadfast love of God never ceases; the Blessed One’s mercies never end.

They are new every morning, for great is your faithfulness.

Precious are you, Lord above all lords, for you are my portion.

When human rights are trampled, when justice is denied, the Righteous One sees!

Listen for the Voice of Assurance: “Fear not! Fear not! Fear not!”

For the Beloved is more taken with the agony of the earth than with the ecstasy of heaven.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Lamentations 3.

As with so many epiphanies in Scripture, the disciples were guided to a mountain, this one in Galilee, for Jesus’ parting commission.

To the mountain we go, both reverent and doubtful, commissioned for journeys both near and afar.

Here on this mountain, we are welcomed, doubts and all. Here we are invested with an authority the world does not recognize, much less endorse.

To the mountain we go, with our hopes and our heartaches; confessing, professing, processing in faith.

Here on this mountain we gain global vision and then discern our small part in that great drama. It’s a risk-your-assets kind of calling.

To the mountain we go, for the baptismal vision of life lived unleashed in the Commissioner’s pow’r!

So tarry on this mountain. Be still and know that Mercy’s full measure is given for guidance in the trials to come.

Then from the mountain we’ll march through the hollows, discipling the nations to the end of the age.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Matthew 28:16-20.

With good pleasure, in the beginning, the Beloved aspired all that now breathes. Then again, in the Lovely One, even Christ Jesus, the Wind of Heaven confounds the wail of rancor.

Come, heaven! Come, earth! With mercy so tender, adopted in splendor, all bloodletting malice shall melt into praise.

Riches of grace are lavishing still—breathlessly awaiting the fullness of days, when all will be gathered and richly arrayed.

Come, heaven! Come, earth! With mercy so tender, adopted in splendor, all bloodletting malice shall melt into praise.

‘Tis now that blood shall serve its purpose: of fertile womb, and fecund field, the hallowing hand of good pleasure’s full yield.

Come, heaven! Come, earth! With mercy so tender, adopted in splendor, all bloodletting malice shall melt into praise.

Now redeemed; yea, adopted! What mystery breaks o’er us. Every soul, bathed, forgiven; our inheritance ‘fore us. Good pleasure’s remittance from the Spirit who bore us from fate’s crippling snare to the One who adores us.

Come, heaven! Come, earth! With mercy so tender, adopted in splendor, all bloodletting malice shall melt into praise.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Ephesians 1:3-14.

God’s glory is on tour in the skies,

Divine handiwork is visible on every corner.

Is this work a struggle?

It IS a struggle!

God’s handiwork speaks without words.

Yet its voice echoes throughout the earth.

It is a good struggle?

It is a GOOD struggle!

God’s tutoring is whole and hearty.

It weaves our lives together in beauty.

God’s markers are true and trustworthy.

They keep our feet on right paths.

God’s boundaries mark borders of peril.

They give direction in seasons of confusion.

¿Es una buena lucha? Is this a good struggle?

¡Es una buena lucha! It is a good struggle!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 19.

In the face of endless aggrievement and obstinate bereavement, despite hope-contempting fear on display in every mother’s tear,

Let us go, let us go to the hallowed abode of the One who brings solace and cheer.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, where Abraham’s children contend; pray, too, for the peace of Asheville, each fracture and failure amend.

I was glad when they said unto me: Let us go to the house of earth’s pardoning decree.

“I will seek your good” is the Blessed One’s word to be uttered and anchored in covenant guaranty.

Speak peace to the nation, to every relation, to each hollow and meadow, every inch of creation. Let mercy defend, and gracefully mend; each stranger, each straggler, welcome and befriend.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 122.

In the book by his name, Job is addressed directly by the Lord God: “Gird up you loins, oh human one! I have questions for you. See if you can answer.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the children of God shouted for joy?

“Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth from my womb and fashioned its garment with clouds?

“Have you commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth to shake the wicked from its folds?

“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no one can survive, to satisfy the desolate wilderness with fields of grass?

“Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe its neck with strength, making it leap like the locust? Stallion and mare advance headlong into the fray, laughing at fear and casting off dismay. Neither sword nor spear, nor quiver of arrows, can still the steeds’ movement when the trumpet sounds!”

From the pit of humiliation Job responded: “I know, Oh Lord, that you can do all things. Your Presence is too wonderful for me to speak. I have known your Reputation from the ancient stories; but now, with my own eyes I see, with my own ears I hear, with my own heart I understand.

“How wondrous is the world you make; how relentless is the grace you bestow; how manifold is the mercy of your Reign!”

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Job 39-42.

Jesus said to his disciples:
     Want to travel the Way with me?
     Then get over yourself, step out on the road,
     get in the way of every hostile host,
     and follow my lead.

Gonna get on the Way, walkin’ every day, no matter what
     they say or think, we’re gettin’ in the way.

Oh, but couldn’t we just believe in you, Jesus? We’ve got
     lots of books on that, and bumper stickers to spare.

We’re big fans.

Hop on the Way, walkin’ every day, no matter what
     they say or think, we’re gettin’ in the way.

“We’ll worship the hind legs off Jesus but never do
     a thing he says.”*

Jump on the Way, walkin’ every day, no matter what
     they say or think, we’re gettin’ in the way.

“We love to sing ‘I have decided to follow Jesus,’ but
     we don’t bother looking to see which way he went.”**

Set out on the Way, walkin’ every day, no matter what
     they say or think, we’re gettin’ in the way.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Luke 9:18–27. *Clarence Jordan, quoted in Dallas Lee, The Cotton Patch Evidence (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 45. **Frank Stagg, quoted by Relma Hargus, Lectionary Note Lent4A http://allianceofbaptists.org/PCP/alliance_blog_detail/lenten-lectionary-note-lent-4a.