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Women: How can we thank God enough for you, in return for all the joy we feel because of your presence in our lives?

Men: Night and day we pray earnestly that your face will never depart from our memory.

Women: So now may the One Who showers our lives with goodness and mercy be present with you even in our parting.

Men: And may the Gracious One strengthen your hearts in holiness, protecting you against every threat of terror.

Singing: *God be with you till we meet again!
Heav’nly counsel guide, uphold you,
Safely and securely fold you
God be with you till we meet again!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13, tune by W.G. Tomer, lyrics adapted from J.E. Rankin.

Reader 1: One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in.

Reader 2: Pay attention!

Congregation: PAY ATTENTION!

R1: His friends would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple.

R2: Pay attention!

Congregation: PAY ATTENTION!

R1: When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms.

R2: Look at us!

Congregation: LOOK AT US!

R1: Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said to the man, “Look at us.” And the man fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.

R2: Gold and silver!

Congregation: GOLD AND SILVER!

R1: But Peter said to the man, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give to you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”

R2: Stand up and walk!

Congregation: STAND UP AND WALK!

R1: And Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

R2: Stand up and walk!

Congregation: STAND UP AND WALK!

R1: Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple praising God.

R2: Wonder and amazement!

Congregation: WONDER AND AMAZEMENT!

R1: And the people recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

R2: Wonder and amazement!

Congregation: WONDER AND AMAZEMENT!

R1: And all the people said,

Congregation: AMEN!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Adaptation of Acts 3:1-10.

“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears!

“Say firmly: Our brothers shall not beat their plowshares into swords, their harvest blades in bayonets.

“Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

“Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

“We women of one country will be too tender those of another country to allow our kin to be trained to injure theirs.

“From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own; it says, ‘Disarm, disarm!’

“Blood does not wipe out dishonor,” nor violence secure redemption. The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.

Now death’s dominion has met its match in love’s resurrecting grace.

So rejoice, every wounded heart; rise up, every barren field.

The world with all its harried hands soon yields to Mercy’s appeal.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Using excerpts from Julia Ward Howe’s “Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World,” September 1870, where she called for a “Mother’s Peace Day: A time for women and children to speak for the things that make for peace.”

Let blessings leap from your lips, you People of Mercy!

For the One who saves is the One who serves.

Bring all that you are to this holy abode. Take off your shoes and lean into God’s breath.

Bring your heartaches and your hallelujahs; your disconcerting fears and your delightful fiestas.

Bring your grinding disappointment and your grandest dream; your seething sorrow and your side-splitting laughter.

Whatever you have, bring it here, lay it down.

For the One we adore is great beyond measure: Allahu, Allahu, Allahu Akbar!

Clothed with majesty, the Blessed One lingers.

Awash in radiant light, God’s chariot rides the clouds, descending on winded wings, anchoring the earth to its bedrock of hope.

Come, joy; come sorrow, every day and every morrow, every vict’ry and defeat now embraced at Mercy’s Seat. Allahu, Allahu, Allahu Akbar!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 104:1-8.“Allahu Akbar” is an Arabic phrase commonly translated as “God is great.”

To the Blessed One of Heaven does my heart heave its burden.

For release from my shame, I wait all the day long.

Silence accusers; still every sharp tongue.

For pardon amid failure, I wait all the day long.

Alone to you do I yield, sealed in grace unrelenting.

For the hint of your mercy, I wait all the day long.

Guide my feet along paths of wisdom’s contentment.

For amnesty’s assurance, I wait all the day long.

May your truth be my beacon; your justice, my guide.

For the ransom of your realm, I wait all the day long.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 25:1-7.

Peace, like a river. Praise, like a songbird. Joy, like a fountain.

All these things, and more, in my soul.

I’ve got tears, like raindrops. Heartaches, by the handful. And protest—Lordy me, have I got protests.

All these things, and more, in my soul.

Oh, Giver of good gifts, steel my soul with endurance, to sustain my living and loving. Grant a sturdier heart, one strong enough to stand up to the journey’s brambles and cold nights. Grant sharp eyes to spot those lost sheep, and an equal share of courage to face wild beasts.

All these things, and more, in my soul.

Bless your Maker, oh people. Rejoice in your Redeemer, you young and you old. Stand ready, open-handed, for the singeing promise of Pentecostal fire.

We have been smelted in refining furnace; caught in the net of enmity; burdened with the toil of anxious labor; plunged beneath drowning waters. But God has heard our prayers and heeded our petitions.

The Blessed One brings us from cramped quarters to spacious land. Lifted us from river’s torrent to dry land. Secured our footing along perilous mountain paths.

Therefore, speak, you faint of heart, for God listens!

Let the Spirit tickle your funny-bone, for Heaven’s Humor promises a surprising, unbelievably delightful ending in store for you! Come near to the Mercy Seat, for your failures do not define your future!

Rejoice, oh people! And again we say, rejoice!

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 66.

In the company of these witnesses, round this table of remembrance of baptismal vows,  within hearing of the One who delights in our company and in whose Promise we trust, let us make our professions.

What do we believe?

That we shall see the goodness of God in the land of the living.

What do we maintain?

That we are headed for a party, not a purge.

What do we profess?

That one day lion and lamb will lie together in safety.

What do we confess?

That even our own failures do not separate us from the love of God, and that recognition of our own weakness is our only claim on Jesus.

What do we affirm?

That the Spirit gives us the power to repent, and that this repentance deepens the mandate to renew and to restore.

What do we declare?

That the grace of God frees our lives from self-centered ways and allows us to live in favor of neighbors who have no place at the table of earth’s bounty.

On what do we insist?

That hope is the radical refusal to calculate the limits of the possible.*

To what do we testify?

That the way of the cross leads home: Since no tomb could hold Jesus, neither shall any threat steal our voice or stop our witness.

Beloved, hear these promises. Hasten your Presence. Harness all our humble offerings. We pray with confidence for the day when “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” 

Amen.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Luke 3:6. *Line from William Sloan Coffin.

Oh Wondrous One, Who rides the skies and consorts with the earth— haunting the heavens, hounding mere mortals with the expectation of ecstasy—come and rouse hungry hearts with the aroma of your Presence.

Let the song of angels sound again, announcing glory to God and peace for the earth.

Give your people wombs of welcome to the news of reversal: the annulment of enmity and the Advent of promise.

Let every lip echo the jubilant manifesto of creation’s destiny with justice and with joy.

Set our hearts on the edge of our seats, shivering in hope, longing, longing for the age when bitter memory dissolves into Magnificat.

Holy One of heaven, mark these dark nights with the brilliance of your star to guide emissaries of exclaiming grace.

The grace of contradiction and scandal to the insolent innkeepers of this age.

The grace of blessing and bounty to the indigent, and to all who find no lasting home save in the age to come.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Adaptation of a longer poem, “Annunciation.”

Let the room be filled with laud and laughter, oh people of Mercy. Fill the air with music and merriment, with the sound of delight annulling the wail of indigence.

Praise your Maker, you wind and wave. Sun and moon and Bethlehem’s star, shout in exultation!

Let all that swim in the sea give thanks; all that walk on the land, rejoice; all that traverse the open sky, extol.

Bow down, you mighty mountains! Lift your heads, you humble valleys! Roar in applause, you deepest seas!

Oak and ash, black bear and red robin, ladybug and dragonfly, you city-folk and you farmers, acclaim the One whose breath is your bounty, whose mercy is your salvation.

All sing: Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Rejoice, rejoice, and again I say rejoice. Rejoice, rejoice and against I say rejoice.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 148.

Attend to my cry, O Lord; hide me in the
shadow of your wings.

Beloved One, my mouth praises you with
joyful lips; and in the shadow of your wings
my voice resounds.

“I will protect those who know my name,”
says the Strength of Day and the Guardian of Night.
“When they call me, then shall I answer.”

Woe to you who take refuge in
     any freemarketer’s dream,
     any warrior’s scheme,
     any tyrant’s regime.
Every militarized threat invites devastation;
every nuclear shadow casts unfolding destruction.

All again shall live ’neath my Shadow concealed: flourishing, nourishing, succulent yield. By tenderful mercy—O Dawn of High Heaven—break upon us,
redeem us from death-shadowed reign.

For succor and strength, confine to the Shadow;
there abide, reside, whatever betide.
In the fullness of time the Call will be sounded;
the pathway of peace, reveal and confide.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by numerous biblical texts that mention “shadow,” including Ps 17, 63, 91; Isa 30; Hos 14; Luke 1.