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And after they had eaten, Jesus took his disciples, walking east, away from the Old City of Jerusalem and its Temple Mount, descending through the Kidron Valley, and up again to the Mount of Olives and a garden named Gethsemane. Maybe he was tempted to keep on going.

But he stopped. To watch, to wait, to pray.

And the text says he was sorrowed and sad, anxious and anguished, troubled and tried and tempted to run.

Sorrowed and sad, troubled and tried, we come to the garden of refuge to pray.

“Wait here,” he told his disciples. “Stay with me; remain here with me; watch and pray.”

Sorrowed and sad, anxious and anguished, retiring, retreating, to watch and to wait.

But weariness overtook his disciples. (We know about that.) And they fell asleep. (As sometimes do we.)

Sorrowed and sad and tempted to run, up the hill of seclusion to find our reprieve.

Confessing, recessing—cup of portion, pass me by.

Spirit sure willing, but flesh sorely weak.

Yet soon comes rejoicing with Easter’s disclosure of death bound and gagged and remorse’s demise.

Through the garden’s temptation to turn tail and flee, now Pentecost beckons to earth’s jubilee!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Matthew 26:36-46.

Picture this, if you can: The Lord God of Hosts stands at the church house door, at the pulpit, at the communion table, maybe even at the potluck dinner counter, hands perched on hips, lips pursed and brows furrowed, voice wavering with a parental mixture of broiling anger and urgent affection, saying:

What in heaven’s name has gotten into you dimwitted people of the Promise, you ninny-headed, shallow-hearted sucklings of the Most High God!

From the lofty perch of Creation’s spire, your presidents and parliaments, your bankers and barons—they all look pretty puny to me.

Do you think your sorrows languish, unheard; your groans muzzled, unheeded?

Get over yourself! You don’t know jack!

Get on with your mandate, resume your mission.

The Authorizing One, the guarantor of your liberty, is neither faint nor feeble.

The One who seeded the galaxies and sorted the microbes has a design beyond your knowing and a resolve beyond your will.

Your way shall be given, your weal sure-provided. No matter how dog-wearied, dead-tired you are, your anchor holds, your storehouse stands.

However way-worn you get, wait for it. Wait and do not fret. Your wings are being readied. Your stamina restored.

Watch and wait, at Pardon’s gate, and lay your burdens down

At Mercy’s feet, when Love’s complete, exchange for cross a crown.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Isaiah 40:21-31.

One: The mighty One—Blessed be the Name!—speaks and summons the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting.

All: Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines in brilliant radiance.

One: The Beloved comes and does not keep silence; a devouring fire lights the way, and a mighty tempest marks the moment.

All: God calls to the heavens above and to the earth.

One: “Gather my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me!”

All: The heavens declare God’s righteousness, You alone judge.

One: “Hear, O my people, and I will speak. I am God. Your God.”

All: “Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; you fill my chambers with your burnt offerings.”

One: “I will accept no bull from your house, or goats from your folds.”

All: Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who set their foot on the Way I will bestow blessing, will bring to safety, will save and redeem.

One: “Do not fear, greatly beloved, you are safe. Be strong and courageous!

All: This is a Word that can be trusted! Thanks be to God!!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 50:1-9, 23 & Daniel 10:19.

Merciful One, for You alone does my soul wait in silence. Our only hope comes from Your presence.

I believe. Help my unbelief.

You alone are my rock and my salvation and my fortress. I shall not be shaken. We shall not be moved.

I believe. Help my unbelief.

On You rests my deliverance and my honor. You are our mighty Rock and safe Refuge.

I believe. Help my unbelief.

Trust God at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before the One who hears; God is a refuge for us.

This is our tearful cry: We believe—help us in our unbelief.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 62:5-8.

For what do we hope?

We hope for the Beloved’s Promise to overtake the world’s broken-hearted threat.

For what do we long?

We long for the moist goodness of God to outlast the parched climate of despair.

For what do we lack?

We lack for nothing—save the need for hearts enlarged by the assurance that every hostage will be freed.

For what do we strive?

We strive for lives marked by goodness, purified of deceit and malice, and hands made gentle by the tender caress of Wisdom’s approach.

For what do we struggle?

We struggle for the fate of every child whose sighs and cries are muffled by the market’s disdain.

In what do we rejoice?

We rejoice in rebellious acts of abundance in the face of every stingy arrangement.

For what prize do our eyes arise?

Our eyes arise for the Beloved Community’s embrace of earth’s abode and Heaven’s favor.

We stand forever on the edge of death’s brutal domain. Yet hope remains while the company is tue.*

May the company be true, indeed!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. *Line from Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings.

There are, to be sure, moments of high drama in the
work of holy obedience:
     marches to be made,
     confrontations to be staged,
     dangers to be endured,
     corruption to be exposed,
     trips made to distant and unfamiliar places,
     maybe even jail cells to be filled.

On rare occasions, the whole world is watching.

Much more often, the storyline of faith is lived without
notoriety, is forged without fanfare:
     in familiar places,
     in small acts of courage against petty tyrants,
     with commonplace forbearance in the midst
           of garden-variety stress.

Much more often:
     with family and friends and neighbors,
in traffic lanes and grocery store lines,
with tired children and anxious partners.

Even—Can you believe this!—even in church.
Even more often:
                       with yourself.

To be sure, dragons need to be slain. Much more often,
                       though,
           gardens need to be groomed.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Galatians 5:19-26.

Sisters and brothers, these are among the convictions that we harbor and herald:

Faith is not belief in spite of the evidence. Faith is life lived in scorn of the consequences.*

Faith isn’t a set of doctrines you agree to; or a set of religious habits you keep; or a particular emotion you feel.

Faith is trust that ushers us into a new way of living.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen.**

Faith is being joyful, though you’ve considered all the facts.***

Fear—not doubt—is the opposite of faith.

Faith is contagious. We catch it by surrounding ourselves with a cloud of witnesses, with the stories of faithful people, both from distant memory and direct experience.

Inoculate yourselves with stories of faith to ward off the fearmonger’s siege!

So let us persevere in the pace we have kept, laying aside every fear, looking to our Pioneer, who for the joy set before him disregarded all shame, that every lame and languishing name be ransomed and reclaimed from death’s grievous and groanful domain.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by **Hebrews 11:1-12:3, using lines from *Clarence Jordan and ***Wendell Berry.

Come, oh come, every supplicant soul, remember—how tender!—the story foretold.

The story—such splendor!—of love so astounding, of mercy resounding and pardon abounding.

Confounding the ransom of death’s dark dominion; restoring, imploring the earth’s fertile care.

Restoring, imploring, no heartache ignoring, all hands now adoring, each heart raised in prayer.

Take flight, oh my soul, when tempests besiege and temptations ensnare, and steal away home to Jesus.

Rejoice and be glad, though the path lies uncertain, when predators stalk and the night like a curtain eclipses direction and threatens affection.

The seedling now breaks through the barren one’s shame. Insurrection now gathers the shunned and the lame.

That story—sweet surrender!—of Heaven’s affair with all flesh-given creatures now standing as heirs to the Reign of God’s rapture and radiance and care.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by the Negro spiritual, “Steal Away.”

Arise, shine; for your Light has come, for heaven’s Glory rises to greet you!

But how can such frivolous claims be made? For blind rage covers the earth, and the nations are allied in enmity.

Open your eyes, oh People of Promise! Throw off fear’s blinding cover and see the Radiance that lights the Way Home.

Such Light will draw all to its splendor. Rulers from every corner will make their way by the light of this star.

Open every portal of sight, every pore of vivid sense, and take it all in! Look, your toddling sons stumble in your direction, arms aloft; your suckling daughters reach out for your breast.

This, now, is the moment of rejoicing. Hearts vibrate with the melody of joyful abundance!

Even the beasts of field and furrow are drawn to this luminous landscape, bearing extravagant gifts and songs of praise.

Arise, shine, for your light has come!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Isaiah 60:1-6.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

By that Word were all things breathed to life from the breathless dark, knit into comely shape from nether and nil.

Even so was Wisdom present at the beginning, the great Sculptor of God’s delight, carving the depths of the seas and the heights of the mountains, assigning the waters their limit, the springs their origin and the soil its abundance.

By the Word’s brilliance and by Wisdom’s great might did Glory tame the void’s furied fright.

Enfleshed by the Word, by Wisdom sustained, all creatures rejoice with voice unrestrained.

By Wisdom’s road lies the path of justice. By the Word’s embrace doth Heaven entice.

So watch by the gate, to the portal attend, for the light’s bright disclosure and the earth’s full amend.

Happy now those with her Wisdom conferred; grace upon grace, fully formed in his Word.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Proverbs 8 and John 1:1-18.