Recent

Ken Sehested

Prelude. “This world is so profane, / I can hear the earth screaming, / screaming in pain. / Everywhere; / There is not compassion left in us. / Why is it that so much pain is caused? / and so much injustice is done in the name of God? / Why have children stopped dreaming? / and why is it that mothers won’t stop crying; / I just ask myself how can God look at us.” —English translation of lyrics in “¿Porque?” (“Why?”), Yasmin Levy

Call to worship. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” —Aramaic phrase spoken by Jesus on the cross, translated to “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Quoting Psalm 22:1, recorded in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34.

§  §  §

I had a waking dream last week, vacillating between rage and despair. In that heavy, hushed silence, an angel sidled up, put a hand on my shoulder, saying “OK?” Then, “you finished yet?”

Then the heavenly messenger said, “Here, have a snack; now take a nap.”

And I did, a deep sleep, then rudely awakened, hand pulling me up by the collar, a gruff voice saying, “Get up you whiney runaway. Get over yourself. We got a long walk ahead and a mountain to climb. There could be bandits, maybe beasts, and uncertain provisions; but beyond, a land that is fairer than day, every night’s fright banished.” And I swear the voice sounded like Elijah. (cf. 1 Kings 19:5-8)

§  §  §

Hymn of mourning. “A sorrowful mother stood under the cross / She cried and spoke through the tears / Oh, sonny, my sonny, for what sin / You endure harsh time now / On the cross.” —translation of lyrics to “The Sorrowful Mother,” Ukranian Lenten Hymn

§  §  §

While there are differences in detail among the Gospels’ account of Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem—where he would be arrested, interrogated, tortured, and crucified (the most shameful form of Rome’s execution protocols)—the one common theme is that of confrontation between the competing assertions of power pitting Jesus against the coalition of Roman and temple aristocracy.

We in the US have rarely if ever had a clearer display of this contention, both arrayed in piety, than with our current political climate. The conflict hinges not merely on political vision but on idolatry and heresy.

Watch this brief (41 second) video of our cheer leading warmonger, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, quoting the Lord’s Prayer while playing in the background is a montage of videos displaying US military prowess.

§  §  §

Hymn of lamentation. “When in the dark orchard at night / The God Creator kneeled and prayed / Life was praying with the One / Who gave life hope and prayer.” —translation from “Wa Habibi” (“Mother’s Lament”), a Christian hymn of the Syriac/Maronite rite, performed by Fairuz. The hymn has been performed every year on Good Friday. 

§  §  §

As it happens, hope’s fertile soil lies in that spit of land between helpless despair and sentimental optimism. Our cultivating work, as the Welsh novelist and academic Raymond Williams wrote, “is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing.”

Hope is wider than optimism, believing everything will be fine; and deeper than pessimism, sensing all is doom, claiming only the strong survive. The latter, in fact, is a form of arrogant self-obsession, as if the world will unravel without our attention and muscular exertion.

Both optimism and pessimism are haphazard and fickle, providing unreliable compass readings for the living of these days. When one or the other knocks at your door, give welcome; but say, you’ll get neither bed nor board in this house.

How are the faithful to hold up in the face of mounting tragedy? This is the focal question as we practice our special disciplines—as means of attentive listening—in this liminal season.

The counsel of scriptures and the saints for faithful posture and animated hands is this: In the panic, be still; in the ordeal, take heart; in the night of sorrow, remember the promise of joy’s release, for more is at work than we imagine.

Hope is not hope absent the context of threat. Otherwise, what you have is distracting amusement. And as Kate Bowler has written, we are “too tired for tidy hope.”

“For the world has grown full of peril,” Galadriel said to Celeborn in Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” “And in all lands, love is now mingled with grief.”

Celeborn asks, “What now becomes of this Fellowship? Without Gandalf, hope is lost.”

“The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife,” said Galadriel. “Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true.”

Trying days are here. Death’s pandemic is more palpable than usual; but it does not have the last word. Find your company and devote yourself to its sustenance.

§  §  §

Word. “If the word hope doesn’t work for you, try ‘Never f**king surrender.’” —Rebecca Solnit

§  §  §

Lent’s invitation is to ponder our own mortal limit. For 25 years I’ve had a pictorial reminder of Lent’s brush with mortal boundaries. After my dad’s funeral in 2001, Nancy and I discovered that both my mom and my sister wanted to be cremated when that time comes. As did we.

Years prior, Mom and dad purchased side-by-side plots in Marlow, Oklahoma’s cemetery, where they, my sister Glenda, and I were all born in that small town’s four-bed hospital. Together we decided to purchase a gravestone that would stretch across both plots: Dad’s casket in one, the other to hold the ashen urns for the rest of us.

Which means every Lent I have had an icon, with my name on it, to focus my attention on breathly life’s impermanence. The picture casts no morbid shadow over my imagination. Rather, it is a vivid reminder that death has lost its sting; the grave, its victory. This (to the degree I allow it) is the secret to living free of fear’s shackle and smothering hesitance.

§  §  §

Benediction. “Good Friday is not about us trying to ‘get right with God.’ It is about us entering the difference between God and humanity and just touching it for a moment. Touching the shimmering sadness of humanity’s insistence that we can be our own gods, that we can be pure and all-powerful.” —Nadia Bolz-Weber

Postlude. “Soon it will be done / Trouble of the world / Soon it will be done / Trouble of the world / Going home! to live! with God! / No more weapin’ and wailin’ / No more weapin’ and wailin’ / Going home! to live with my Lord!” —“Trouble of This World,” Abbot Kinney & Lighthouse Choir 

# # #

 

 

 

 

 

Pastoral and prophetic resources

Ken Sehested

Prelude. “Lullaby.” —Together for Palestine 

Invocation. “The War Prayer,” by Mark Twain, presented as an animated film by Markos Kounalakis. Twain’s work is a short story written in the heat of the Philippine-American war of 1899-1902 offering a poignant reflection on the double-edged moral sword implicit to war. (14:02 video.)

Call to worship. “You just need to look at what the gospel asks and what war does. . . . The gospel asks us to take up our cross. War asks us to lay the cross on others.”

§  §  §

Passion week

In the coming week, we face Maundy’s mandate and Friday’s calamity . . . and, well, Saturday’s betwixt-and-between daze and discomposure of Jesus’ disciples and revelers. Then and now, the dominant culture remained confident in the security of the tomb’s immovable stone and the legionnaires’ vigilance over its irrevocable seal.

Best not bank on resurrection’s circumvention of death’s ascendance and terror’s reign. Few doubt the market’s ruleenforced by the sword’s regime.

Be clear about this: There is no bystanding in this drama. There is no skipping Maundy’s directive and Friday’s threat on the way to Sunday’s Uprising. No leap from crib to cross to Crown of Glory.

In prosperous cultures like ours, voyeurism is the great pretender as an agency of spiritual formation. Titillation substitutes for texture and substance. The quest for emotional novelties, intellectual baubles, and experiential souvenirs displacing incarnation’s fleshly ordeal.

In my native West Texas idiom, a pretend rancher would be described as “all hat and no cows.” You can dress the part without engaging the reality. “Spirituality” as levitation from history’s crucifying peril. The luxury of hope’s assurance severed from the context of threat. Singing the blues without paying the dues. The pretense of faith despite no back against any wall.

Holy Week epitomizes the story of history’s brutal affliction upended and overturned by Heaven’s insurgence. Good Friday is good not because of what it displays but because of what it foreshadows.

Easter’s eruption is our hymn of invitation to join this mutiny. There is no “getting right with God,” there’s only getting soaked. Only the passion opens onto the Spirit’s efficacy. In a suffering world, only a suffering God is believable. The Way is enjoined by imitating the One we adore.

Let this be our adoration. Let this be our testimony to Heaven’s insurrection for Earth’s reclamation. In the words of an old proverb, let this be our eulogy: They tried to bury us; they didn’t know we were seeds.

—excerpt from “Passion week – A meditation on getting right with God,” Ken Sehested

§  §  §

Word. “Unfortunately, it has become increasingly common to drag the language of faith into political battles, to bless nationalism, and to justify violence and armed struggle in the name of religion. Believers must actively refute, above all by the witness of their lives, these forms of blasphemy that profane the holy name of God.” —Pope Leo XIV in his 1 January 2026 “World Day of Peace” message

Liturgy. “Lament Together.” —“The Many,” highly recommenced 41-minute video of poignant music and timely readings for marking Holy Week 

§  §  §

Holy hell week

As it happens, hope’s fertile soil lies in that spit of land between helpless despair and sentimental optimism. Our cultivating work, as the Welsh novelist and academic Raymond Williams wrote, “is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing.”

Hope is wider than optimism, believing everything will be fine; and deeper than pessimism, sensing all is doom. The latter, in fact, is a form of arrogant self-obsession, as if the world will unravel without our attention.

Both optimism and pessimism are haphazard, sometimes fickle. When one or the other knocks at your door, give welcome;but say, you’ll get neither bed nor board in this house.

How are the faithful to hold up in the face of mounting tragedy? This is the focal question as we practice our special disciplines—as means of attentive listening—in this liminal season.

The counsel of scriptures and saints for the living of these days is this: In the panic, be still; in the ordeal, take heart; in the night of sorrow, remember the promise of joy’s release, for more is at work than we imagine.

Hope is not hope absent the context of threat. Otherwise, what you have is distracting amusement.

“For the world has grown full of peril,” Galadriel said to Celeborn in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. “And in all lands, love is now mingled with grief.”

Celeborn asks, “What now becomes of this Fellowship? Without Gandalf, hope is lost.”

“The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife,” said Galadriel. “Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true.”

Trying days are here. Death’s pandemic is more palpable than usual; but it does not have the last word. Find your company and devote yourself to its sustenance.

—excerpt from “Holy hell week: In the panic, be still; in the ordeal, take heart,” Ken Sehested

§  §  §

Week’s worth of music. “A few (somewhat unconventional) music suggestions for Holy Week and Easter”

Benediction. “I would like to see every single soldier on every side just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane and say nope, I ain’t gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich want to fight. Give them the guns.” —Woodie Guthrie

Postlude. “Al-Fatiha.” —Byzantine-Gregorian Chant 

#  #  #

40 questions for contemplative attention

Ken Sehested

Prelude. Sufi dance, featuring Rana Gorgani, Farid Sheek, Mirtohid Radfar 

Call to worship. “Gordon Hempton, acoustic ecologist, considers silence to be not the absence of sound, but the absence of noise.  As I’ve been dwelling on silence in preparation for this reflection, I’ve thought about this definition and tried to figure out, then, what noise is. Last week, during a hike, I sat by Deep Creek in the Smokies, my feet in the water, not able to hear anything but the thundering sound of the water over the rocks. I wondered: Is that noise? Is noise just loud sounds, or is it a word describing things that assault our senses in an unpleasant, unsettling, or undesirable way? If so, then for me, noise would not just refer to sounds, but also to billboards, and to those videos playing at gas pumps. It would be the words scrolling endlessly on news shows, and a riot of perfumes wafting from the centers of department stores. It would include the garbage piled up by the river after the hurricane, and the lies coming from amplified voices of power in our society.

 

“Perhaps noise is anything that takes my attention away from that which most deserves my attention. And if that’s the case, then silence would be a lack of these things, a state allowing me to focus on that which most deserves my attention.” —continue reading Dr. Amy Boyd’s “Reflection on Silence,” Circle of Mercy Lenten reflections 

§  § §

Lent’s labor is designed as special time and attention to our own hearts and minds; to examine the work of our hands, the paths of our feet; to inquire into the ways and wherefores we give attention with our eyes and our ears; to audit our speech, whether we have been true and truthful, whether we have said too much—or too little; to scrutinize our longings and desires to see if any have breached their healthy boundaries, if some need retraining, retracting, refuting—or reviving.

But beware: Lent is not for our self-absorption or flagellation, which can be yet another form of narcissism, of pride, of conceit. The work is not a spotlight on ourselves, much less a despairing obsession with our own failings. It is the work of triangulating our attention, in alignment with and yoked to the Work of the Spirit, in a world that has forgotten its origin, its promise, its purpose.

Lenten observance is simply the recognition, followed by corrective measures, that pipes can get clogged; moving parts need lubrication; rust begins to corrode; bodies, in need of medical intervention; cracks exposed and rot replaced.

Remembering that you are dust is not an insult, for such is the very stuff of the universe, ordered and animated in God’s own delight. Do not grovel! Simply allow your compass to be adjusted, as needed.

We all need helpful hints on how Lent’s labor can be carried out. There are many—none are foolproof. What follows are some suggested questions to ponder in your own solitude or in conversation with others. Asking the right question is often essential to arriving at the right answer. You may not find what you need here, but in considering them, you might formulate your own.

§  §  §

Penitential unveiling. “. . . the howl of the orphans is passed from one generation / to the next, as in a relay race: / the baton never falls.” —Israeli poet Yeduda Amichai

Hymn of confession. “Why? – For Gaza.” —Annie Lennox 

§  §  §

In the struggle for a Beloved Community—forged in the grip of grace, penitential posture, joyful refrain, undergirded by a vision of time beyond animosity, all done in reverential awe of the Blessed One, of the Way of Jesus, powered and sustained by the Holy Spirit—ponder the following questions.

1. Can we be faithful without becoming arrogant?

2. Can we be generous without recreating relations of control and manipulation on the one hand and dependency and servility on the other?

3. Can we be compassionate without seeking publicity?

4. Can we be patient without becoming passive?

5. Can we be angry without becoming vengeful?

6. Can we become agents of meaningful change without becoming brokers of imposition?

7. Can we be hopeful without being sentimental?

8. Can we weep with those who weep while also rejoicing with those who rejoice?

9. Can we offer forgiveness without ignoring the need for repairing harmed relations?

10. Can we count our blessings that are not the result of wealth or other privilege?

11. When all is said and done, is more said than done?

12. Can we think of mercy as the mechanism that reconciles the demands of justice with the prerequisites of peace?

13. Can we be prophetic without becoming sanctimonious?

14. Can we prioritize the needs of the poor without romanticizing poverty?

15. Can we excavate the root causes of violence in the world while also doing that work in our own hearts and minds?

16. Can we offer pardon without collecting IOUs?

17. Can we engage those who differ from us without becoming antagonistic?

18. Can we be joyful without being triumphalist?

19. Can we tearfully express our grief and anguish without languishing in the solitude of lethargy and indolence?

20. Can we pledge ourselves to faithful communities without becoming tribal, insular, or sectarian?

21. Can we recognize that in leaving “Egypt” behind, we also have to dethrone the lingering presence of “Pharaoh” within our own hearts.

22. Can we rediscover God’s passion for the flourishing of the natural world—see ourselves as located within, not dominating from without—thereby recognizing our need for repentance and turn toward repairing and protecting the created order?

23. Can we discern the different but connected needs of providing emergency aid to the suffering as well as the need for opposition to policies which make charity necessary? Engaging in the charitable work of binding wounds, providing shelter and adequate clothing and nutrition and health care—but also deconstructing and reconstructing structures and policies which are the root cause of such deprivations?

24. Can our hands and feet be deployed in the work of resistance to injustice without resorting to clinched fists or trampling boots? To guard against becoming beastly in our struggle with beasts?

25. Can we be “still”—embraced by grace that generates calmness in the midst of torrents—without becoming indifferent or listless?

26. Can we publicly, even vociferously, demand public justice without becoming self-righteous?

27. Can we affirm that God is more taken with the agony of the Earth than with the ecstasy of Heaven—employing that affirmation as a plumb line to appraise all that we do and say and think?

28. Can we think of ourselves less rather than thinking less of ourselves?

29. Acknowledging we all have blind spots, unexamined presumptions, privileges of which we are unaware (especially those of us in the majority caste), how can we open ourselves to experiences which might expose our privileges—not for punishment but for reparation, for the growth of our understanding and the stretching of our hearts?

30. Can we conceive of the “good life” for ourselves as that life extending to an ever-widening circle of kinship?

31. Can we imagine that in our revolt against an economic system, which centers human greed, we need to do the hard work of imagining and constructing a new system which centers human need?

32. Can the passion we bring to the work of prayer become the compost that nurtures a life in pursuit of the Beloved Community; and bring both the joy and grief of that pursuit into the conduit of our prayer life?

33. Can we revive the conviction that faith in the Manner of Jesus entails a bet-your-assets commitment—that following Jesus is different from admiring him?

34. In the midst of interpersonal conflict, can we be truthful without becoming vindictive? Accept a criticism of ourselves without holding a grudge?

35. Can we get to the point of understanding there is no sacred and secular, only sacred and desecrated?

36. Do we have the needed imagination to affirm that one day all shall go out in joy and be led back in peace, the mountains bursting in song, the trees in applause? (cf. Isaiah 55:12)

37. How can we shape our communities of conviction so that pastoral work is not segregated from prophetic engagement (and vice versa)?

38. Is our faith buoyant enough to withstand squalls of doubt? (They will come.) Our hope, resilient enough to endure seasons of despair? (Those storms will arrive, sometimes without warning.) Our love, sufficiently robust to survive contagions of anger and resentment? (Infections are common.)

39. Can we be confessional without being colonial, living confidently (though nimbly) in the coherence of our faith tradition, without demanding that others, even our collaborators in the work toward a Beloved Community, adopt our identity?

40. How best can we adopt this pastoral advice from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. Just keep moving forward”? (In the end, that is all we are asked.)

§  §  §

Benediction. “In times of darkness, tend your fire: it will give light until the morning.” —St. Brigid of Kildare

Postlude. “Bella Ciao.” —Rana Choir, made up of Arab and Jewish women singing in Farsi, Hebrew, and Arabic, recorded as a gesture of solidarity with the courageous women in Iran

#  #  #

Ken Sehested

Prelude. “Mozart y Mambo.” —Rondo alla Mambo, which combines the music of W.A. Mozart and Cuban Mambo, was featured in this flashmob on the streets of Havana, Cuba and was the grand finale of the Mozart y Mambo project. Inspired by W.A. Mozart and written by Joshua Davis and Yuniet Lombida Prieto, it is performed by Sarah Willis and the Havana Lyceum Orchestra.

Call to worship. “Hope is not denial of reality, but defiance of inevitability.” —Brent Barry, Stout Creek Farm, Saltillo, Texas

§  §  §

President Trump has created a fracture in his MAGA base with a sudden bout of colonial delirium, targeting Venezuela first, now Iran, with Cuba as “next” on his rampage.

As one of his most ardent promoters in Congress, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), put it recently on a Fox News segment:

“We’re marching through the world. We’re cleaning out the bad guys. We’re gonna have relationships with new people that will make us prosperous and safe. I have never seen anybody like it. Donald Trump is resetting the world in a way nobody could have dreamed of a year ago. He is the greatest commander in chief of all time. Our military is the best of all time. Iran is going down, and Cuba is next.”

Just today, the New York Times reports that US and Cuban officials have been in conversation, and the Vatican may have a hand in fostering the dialog.

For its part, the fact that Cuba has little to offer by way of “natural resources” may make a military confrontation less likely. But the fact that the US has maintained an economic embargo for the past 66+ years is considered by some as one step short of a state of war. (The U.S embargo against Cuba is a comprehensive set of economic sanctions, largely enforced through the “Trading with the Enemy Act” of 1917.) Mostly because Cuba posed such a threat to “free market” order in the Western Hemisphere, a market—not unlike casino odds-making—that always tilts toward the house.

Remember, no one has surpassed Trump’s record of bankrupting four casinos.

Below are three items for your consideration. The first, “A Plea for Peace With Cuba,” is a call for normalization of relations between the US and Cuba, endorsed by local congregations here in the US. Second, a first-person story by Kiran Sigmon, “While Washing My Daughter’s Feet,” about a foot-washing service with our congregation’s partner in Cuba. Third, a profile of José Martí, considered the “Apostle of Cuban Independence.”

§  §  §

Hymn of confession. “O you whose blade, like a spear, is stretched for oppression, even the sharpness of your blade shall pass.” —“This Too Shall Pass,” Iranian music by Farya Faraji, ney by Ali Farbodnia, lyrics from a 14th century poem by Saif Farghani (scroll down to see the translated lyrics)

Word. “The society we seek, based on communal values, is spelled out not in Marx or Engels but in the Book of Acts. It’s not pure socialism, but it’s surely not capitalism either. I would applaud capitalism if it would feed the people of the world. But in fact, the forces of capitalism have a deteriorating effect on the two primary projects of God: human nature, and the creations of the natural world.” —Rev. Raul Suarez, pastor emeritus, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Havana, Cuba, founder of the Martin Luther King Center, and among the first Christians elected to Cuba’s National Assembly in 1992, following Cuba’s revised constitution which exchanged the word “secular” for “atheist”

§  §  §

Thirteen US congregations, each partnered with
a congregation in Cuba, issue the follow statement*

A Plea for Peace With Cuba

10 March 2026

“There is a humanitarian crisis now, which will worsen. We, the US, are almost fully responsible for that crisis; we can change it.” (The Peace Advocate Feb. 2026)

We, members of faith communities across the US, call your attention to what has been described as a “moment of exceptional urgency” in Cuba. We sound this call as those who have walked with and seen the suffering of our Cuban brothers and sisters. Since the 1990s each of our churches has partnered with Cuban congregations, worshiping together, sharing faith together, and being in each others’ homes. We are not enemies. We are family. It breaks our hearts to see those dear to us, children, women and men, needlessly suffering from US policies.

For 66 years, the US economic embargo—not to mention the news blackout—has isolated Cuba from the world community and devastated the Cuban economy. Now, the recent US blockage of Cuba’s oil purchases from Venezuela and Mexico is creating a situation of catastrophic proportion. Because Cuba relies heavily on oil to produce electricity, the resulting lack of power generation affects every aspect of the Cuban people’s lives. “Across Cuba, many people are struggling to meet basic needs, including reliable access to food, clean water, electricity, transportation, and safe housing. Reduced fuel supplies have immediate consequences, contributing to blackouts, limited water access, reduced mobility, and disruptions to essential services.” (“A Call to Stand with the People of Cuba,” Alliance of Baptists ). Cuba is experiencing an intensifying humanitarian crisis caused by an embargo that is a breach of widely accepted international law. We can change it.

As people of faith, we believe the road to peace does not involve weapons or embargoes. Please contact your congressional representatives and ask them to stand with us as we call for an end to these harmful policies.

Endorsing congregations include (in alphabetical order):

Baptist Church of the Covenant, Birmingham, AL; Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC; Ecclesia Baptist Church, Asheville, NC; First Baptist Church, Asheville, NC; First Baptist Church, Jamaica Plains, MA; First Baptist Church, Sylva, NC; First Baptist Church, Washington, DC; Glendale Baptist Church, Nashville, TN; Lovely Lane United Methodist Church, Cedar Rapids, IA; Northminster Baptist Church, Monroe, LA; Oakhurst Baptist Church; Decatur, GA; Park Road Baptist Church, Charlotte, NC; Williamsburg Baptist Church, Williamsburg, VA

*Original draft by Doug Berky, coordinator of the Circle of Mercy Cuba Partner Mission Group, with editing from several in the US and in Cuba.

§  §  §

While Washing My Daughter’s Feet

Kiran Sigmon, February 19, 2008

A sermon I will never forget was preached not long ago in a Cuban living room. Eleven members of our church were visiting our sister congregation in Camagüey, Cuba. Most of our group were in Cuba for the first time. We were building the foundation for what we hoped will be a long and strong church friendship. We had had a complex and rich week with new friends, we were sad on our fifth day together to be leaving. Ken was among the group and was sick for the formal worship service held earlier that week. I knew the outline of his sermon as I was to be his interpreter and my limited Spanish worked best with time to prepare. On our last day in Camagüey I encouraged him to recap his intended sermon. I was a bit nervous about this. I was a bit nervous about the translating, yet I was more nervous about his message and the fact we were considering whether or not to offer a foot washing. Would that be culturally taboo, too much too soon, offensive in any way?

“We sat in the high-ceilinged living room, and I took a deep breath. I explained to our friends that we wanted to end our time with a few words and a parting ritual. Ken began speaking about the cross as a symbol of Christianity. He pleaded that it has been weakened and manipulated. He spoke of gold chains and crosses, jewelry symbolizing wealth and power. He regretted how too often the cross is turned upside down and used as a sword. He then spoke about alternative symbols. “Consider then the basin and towel.” He told the story of the last night Jesus had with his disciples. It was the night before Passover in Jerusalem. An unsafe time and a risky place. The political climate intense, the Roman Army occupied the streets and Passover was a time of potential violence. Surely the disciples were fearful and reluctant. “Why here? Why now?” they must have been thinking. He walked in, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and began washing the disciples’ feet. When he got to Peter, Peter said, “NO, not my feet. You will never wash my feet.” Jesus responded, “If you do not allow me to do this, then you will have no part of me. . . .”

“Suddenly, a Peter-like thought flashed into my mind: “Are we ready for that intimacy, that vulnerability, that connection in our lives? Am I?”

Then “we offered to the small group of our Cuban friends the idea of doing a foot washing before we left. “We are different now because of this trip and our time with you,” I said. “We would like to share this ritual with one another and with you, if you care to join us.” We admitted that we as a congregation, and as our small group of travelers, had not done this together before.

“It was powerful. A simple wooden stool was placed in the middle of the circle. A large, dented, metal basin quickly appeared, and a two-gallon water bottle, one of the many we had used for drinking water, became part of the ritual. We slowly made our way around the circle pouring cool Cuban water over each others’ naked feet and into the common basin. We quietly sang, swayed, and washed each other’s precious, precious feet.

“For someone for whom public emotion is a rarity, I could not contain the sweetness and goodness I felt in this moment. It felt wonderful to place my feet in the puddle left by those before me, and it felt healing to feel the water poured anew. I then I had the chance to wash the feet of Joy, my courageous 9-year-old daughter. Be cleaned, I thought. Be free, I prayed.”

§  §  §

Hymn of supplication. “God I give You all I can today / These scattered ashes that are hid away / I lay them all at Your feet / From the corners of my deepest shame / The empty places where I’ve worn Your name / Show me the love I say I believe. —Lauren Daigle, “Once and For All”

Word. “Cuba seems to have the same effect on U.S. administrations as the full moon once had on werewolves.” —Dr. Wayne Smith, former director of the US Interest Section in Havana, Cuba

§  §  §

José Julián Martí y Pérez (1853–1895) was a leader of the Cuban independence movement as well as a renowned poet, journalist and essayist. Considered the Cuban people’s national hero, he is often referred to as the Apostle of Cuban Independence.

He was first imprisoned at age 16 for his criticism of Spanish rule in Cuba. After exile, he moved to New York City where, for 14 years, he came to know both the wonder and the woe of U.S. domestic and international policies. He died fighting Spanish troops during the independence movement in Cuba.

Three years later, shortly before the Cuban independence movement was about to succeed, the U.S. declared war on Spain and sent troops to Cuba, forcing Spain to relinquish its rule of the island. However, no representatives of the Cuba people were signatories to the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American war. (With the treaty, the U.S. took control of Cuba as well as other Spanish colonies, including Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam.)

In 1902 the U.S. transferred governance to the Cuban parliament under the condition that their constitution be amended to allow the U.S. to intervene militarily in the country’s affairs (which we did three times, occupying Cuba for a total of eight years prior to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.)

§  §  §

Benediction. “If violence and war is the way to peace, then Rome was right, and Christ died for nothing.” —Michael Gorman, Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University

Postlude. “In the thirst for life, the thirst for life / God offers you water of life, water of life / Come, come to me. / Freely, freely drink here. . . . / In cool dew you will bathe my branches, / I will be like a tree with fruits to give.” —translation of “En la Sed de la Vida” (“In the Thirst for Life”), a song written by Kim Christman for the 2020 New Song Festival at the Kairos Center in Matanzas, Cuba. A group of dancers at the Center choreographed the song. 

P.S. For more background see “Bring Down the Wall in the Caribbean: A resolution in support of renewed diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba,” a 2016 resolution I wrote for the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ, later approved, with revisions, by the United Church of Christ General Synod.

If you want a deep dive in the history of US-Cuba relations (Thomas Jefferson wrote that the US “must annex Cuba at our earliest convenience”), read Louis A. Pérez Jr’s “Cuba in the American Imagination.”

#  #  #

These are but a few of the price tags of the first 50+ hours of the war

Compiled by Ken Sehested

§  §  §

“. . . they traded their wisdom for their splendor.”
—Ezekiel 28:17

Prelude. “Lament.” —Yuval Ron 

§  §  §

• At least 153 girls, most between the age of 7-12, were killed by a US missile strike on their school in Minab, Iran.

• An estimated 555 Iranians have died. Six US service members. Nine-to-eleven Israelis.

• The three US F-15E Strike Eagle warplanes shot down by friendly fire over Kuwait cost $90-$100 million each.

• Small Iranian drone missiles cost $20,000 each. Each US Patriot missile (used to shoot down the Iranian drones) cost $4 million each.

• On average, 1,000 bombs and missiles strike Iran each day.

• US “bunker buster” bombs cost $5 million each.

• US spent more than $100 million attacking Iran on the first day. And our president says the attacks will escalate.

• Each US B-2 Spirit Bomber costs $2 billion.

• Each of the two US carrier strike groups near Iran costs $13 million in regular maintenance per day. Each F-15 Strike Eagle jet costs $29,000 per hour to operate.

• Trump says war was planned to last “four-to-five weeks” but could go on much longer.

§  §  §

Postlude. “When I am laid, / am laid in earth, / may my wrongs create / No trouble / no trouble in, / in thy breast. —“Dido’s Lament,” Alison Moyet & Henry Purcell

#  #  #

Picture below: Graves being dug for the elementary school girls killed by a US missile strike in Minab, Iran.

#  #  #

Sources for this data:

“Prolonged War with Iran Would Cost Taxpayers Dearly“

AI overview: Cost of F-15 fighter plane shot down over Kuwait

“US F-15 Friendly Fire Incident in Kuwait, All Pilots Safe”

AI overview: “Warships, explosive drones and stealth bombers: The high-tech weapons and hardware the US is using to attack Iran”

“US announces its first casualties in Iran war; poll signals challenge for Trump”

“’Whatever it takes’: Trump says Iran operation could last a month or more “

“At least 153 dead after reported strike on school, Iran says”

“Iran death toll reaches 555 as US, Israel escalate attacks”

“The first 24 hours of the US attack on Iran cost approximately $779 million”

AI overview: cost of operating F-15 warplane

 

 

Ken Sehested

Under cover of sham “negotiations,” in an attempted denial of political gravity, likely setting the stage for triggering the 1976 National Emergency Act for an electoral takeover leading up to November’s mid-term elections, and the threat of being found culpable in human trafficking, our president has started another g*dd*mmed war.

The fundamental lie at the root of our nation’s crisis is a theological heresy: That the US has a “manifest destiny,” that we are the one “exceptional” nation, and we are so because God has “anointed” us as such. Which is why people on the Way of Jesus must collaborate with all people of conscience, of faith or no faith, to stand in the face of our nation’s presidential psychosis to say a clear, unambiguous, and vehement NO to this military adventurism.

What follows is a recollection of previous statement from one local congregation, from 2007 during George W. Bush’s presidency, then reissued again in 2012 during Barak Obama’s presidency.

They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;
yet they were not ashamed, they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall, says the Lord.
Jeremiah 6:15

Invocation. “Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness: according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences. Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin. . . .thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence: and take not thy holy Spirit from me.” —translation of “Miserere Mei Deus” (“God have mercy,” based on Psalm 51), by Gregorio Allegri, performed by Tenebrae 

Call to worship. “Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.” —Habakkuk 1:3

§  §  §

 

We Say No, Again
Baiting Iran toward a dangerous collision

by Ken Sehested
15 January 2012

On the first Sunday on Lent in 2007, when tensions between the US and Iran were escalating, Circle of Mercy Congregation unanimously adopted a statement (“We Say No: A Christian statement in opposition to war with Iran—see below”) opposing an attack on Iran. With the recent assassination of another Iranian scientist—the fourth to be targeted in the past two years—tensions between our two countries are again at a boiling point.

This is an appropriate time, on this observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, to reaffirm our earlier convictions.

Virtually no one in the US media, Congress or Administration is willing to speak of this assassination as an act of terrorism. One can imagine the outcry here if US scientists were being targeted, if Iran’s submarines were patrolling our coasts, if our nuclear program were the target of a cyber attack, if our energy exports and financial transactions were blockaded, or if Iranian political leaders were openly calling for “regime change” in the US.

No one denies that our two nations have real and substantial policy disagreements. What seems increasingly clear, however, is that the US is baiting Iran toward a dangerous retaliatory response.

The legacy which Dr. King’s bequeathed to us—highlighted by the new memorial in our nation’s capitol—is more than a fanciful pipe dream or fairy tale. Revering the dreamer while reneging on the dream only hollows his memory. If Dr. King is to be more than a public souvenir, his commitment to nonviolent struggle—stemming from his vision of the Beloved Community—must become our commitment as well. Thus the following convictions need reaffirming.

§  §  §

“We are America, second to none, and we own the finish line.”
—former President Joe Biden

§  §  §

We Say NO
A Christian statement in opposition to war with Iran
Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC (USA)
Lent 2007

Despite assurances to the contrary from the U.S. Administration, we believe our nation’s leaders may be seriously calculating the benefits and risks of attacking Iran. Our reading of this moment in history, in light of our commitments as citizens and our convictions as followers of Jesus, impels us to oppose such a move.

We fear that our political leadership—led by the Administration with the complicity of Congress—is pushing us to the brink of moral, financial, ecological and diplomatic bankruptcy.

As with the ancient empire described in the Prophet Habakkuk’s oracle, our government is setting its “national interests” above international norms of justice, usurping all authority to itself. With an escalating military budget—already larger than those of all other nations combined—we seem to have established our own destructive threat as the source of national glory and honor.

Pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out with fatness, their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth.
Psalm 73:6-9

It is not our habit to engage in partisanship on any political party’s agenda. We believe in the separation of church and state. But not in the separation of values from public policy.

In the Magisterial Reformation legacies of the Christian community (toward which some in our congregation lean) there is a tradition of invoking a status confessionis, of declaring that some moments in history require the church to refuse neutrality and abandon silence. And in the Radical Reformation traditions (various Ana/baptists, toward which others of us lean), Jesus’ insistence on loving enemies precludes the willingness to kill them.

Not only are these religious convictions suffering scandal; so, too, are the core values of this Republic’s founding. It was Thomas Jefferson, in 1807, who asserted, “The spirit of this country is totally averse to a large military force.” Now, with the Administration’s 2002 “National Security Strategy” document, the U.S. claims (for the first time) justification for waging preemptive war. This policy undermines our democratic traditions, any and every theory of when war is “just,” and the very foundation of international law itself. The contradiction is staggering.

Accordingly, should the U.S. preemptively attack Iran, we shall vigorously protest. For some of us, this commitment includes the willingness to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience.

In the same way, we also pledge vigorous support for any leaders willing to consider Iran’s security concerns and national interests alongside those of the United States. Competition in belligerent behavior carries catastrophic risks. The only enduring security is mutual security.

Another way is possible. Waging peace will require at least as much commitment—as much courage, pride, honor and ingenuity—as the pursuit of war.

We say no to war against Iran. It is both a contradiction to the Way of the Cross and a defamation of national honor. We say yes to the strategies of multilateral diplomacy and other nonviolent initiatives. We invite other Christians, other people of faith, and other people of conscience to deliberate these convictions and consider similar commitments.

Postscript

You have sown much and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough;
you drink, but you never have your fill; you put the wages you earn in a bag full of holes.
Haggai 1:6

We make this statement in the midst of Lent, the Christian season leading up to Easter. The traditional emphases of Lent are prayer, fasting and almsgiving, all of which focus the mind and heart on the way gluttony corrupts our personal and common life. Appetites have a way of overwhelming wisdom. Righteousness is pursued by a commitment to clarifying disciplines: prayer, to calm the heart’s fretfulness; fasting, to purge the body’s toxic buildup; almsgiving, to recall God’s bias on behalf of those denied access to the earth’s bountiful table of provision.

Sisters and brothers, especially in the household of faith: the Apostle Paul’s instruction—overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21b)—is both a spiritual truth and the foundation for politically realistic strategies to transform conflict. The Way of the Cross leads home.

§  §  §

Benediction. “God shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” —Micah 4:3

Postlude. “Psalm 51.” —Choir of St. Simon the Leper, Republic of Georgia (sung in Aramaic) 

#  #  #

 

A litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 58

Ken Sehested

Hail, O human one, progeny of the stars’ dust enlivened by the Breath of the Most High. Stand and be accounted.

Do you enter the portal of Heaven’s presence with open hands and penitential heart? Or do you come to bargain?

Do you delight to know my ways? To have your light break forth like the dawn, your healing spring up speedily? Do you seek Heaven’s presence as your rear guard?

Are you soliciting divine guidance?  Raindrops for parched places? Relief from osteoporosis or a well-watered garden, fed by springs that never runs dry?

Or repair of your ancient ruins, enough to support many generations, and to be known as a repairer of the breach and restorer of safe streets?

If so, honor my Name by naming those whose sake you are pursuing, those who have my close attention. I am less interested in your ritual acts of purification than in your advocacy for those with little standing in your midst.

Instead of fasting, loose the bonds of injustice and undo the ligaments of servitude, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, housing those denied a postal address.

Instead of genuflecting in the sanctuary, genuflect in the back streets and darkened alleys on behalf of those who have insufficient clothing or respect. Want to draw near to me? Then restore the dignity and livelihoods of those on the margin, those who dig through dumpsters for their daily bread, those whose food stamps have been withdrawn, those whose health care has become exorbitant and out of reach.

Form coalitions demanding redirection of public policies that now privilege the few in neglect of the many, policies which subsidize stock portfolios and prolong the lash of servility.

Then I, Host of Heaven, will answer and provide you with salvation’s light, flourishing gardens, more water than you can imagine, healing of your infirmities, solace in your affliction. Then your vindicator shall go before you; your benefactor will have your back.

—inspired by Isaiah 58

 

US presidential quotes that might surprise you

Compiled by Ken Sehested

Invocation. “The President Sang Amazing Grace.” —Joan Baez 

Call to worship. “Don’t go playing no shell game with God  / Only Satan’s going to give you odds / We’re given love and love must be returned / That’s all the bearings that you need to learn.” —“Starwheel,” Bruce Coburn 

§  §  §

On the rule of mammon

¶ “I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” —President Thomas Jefferson

¶ “The growing wealth acquired by [corporations] never fails to be a source of abuses.” —President James Madison

¶ “The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.” —President Abraham Lincoln

¶ “To befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. All contributions by corporations to any political committee for any political purpose should be forbidden by law.” —President Theodore Roosevelt

¶ “If monopoly persists, monopoly will always sit at the helm of government. I do not expect monopoly to restrain itself. If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it.” —President Woodrow Wilson

¶ “In church it occurred to me that it is time for the public to hear that the giant evil and danger in this country, the danger which transcends all others, is the vast wealth owned or controlled by a few persons. Money is power. In Congress, in state legislatures, in city councils, in the courts, in the political conventions, in the press, in the pulpit, in the circles of the educated and the talented, its influence is growing greater and greater. Excessive wealth in the hands of the few means extreme poverty, ignorance, vice, and wretchedness as the lot of the many.” —President Rutherford B. Hayes

¶ “Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.” —1912 platform of the Progressive Party, founded by former president Theodore Roosevelt

¶ “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” —President Franklin D. Roosevelt

¶ “Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called Social Security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps the people.” —President Harry S. Truman, 1952

¶ “A nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.” —President Barack Obama, inauguration speech, 1.20.09

¶ “The greatest moral challenge of the 21st century is the chasm between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” —President Jimmy Carter

¶ “With all due deference to separation of powers,” Obama scolded, the [Supreme Court ‘Citizens United’] decision “will open the floodgates for special interests—including foreign corporations—to spend without limit in our elections.” —President Barak Obama in his 2010 State of the Union address to Congress (with all the Supreme Court justices sitting in front of him)

For more quotes from elected officials admitting the influence of corporate interests, see Jon Swarz, “Yes, We’re Corrupt: A List of Politicians Admitting That Money Controls Politics.” https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/politicians-admitting-obvious-fact-money-affects-vote/

§  §  §

Hymn of confession. “World’s in a Bad Condition” (when politicians, bankers and preachers are on the make). —bluesmen Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wNsWftgQVQ

§  §  §

The US as “exceptional” or “indispensable” nation and “manifest destiny”

¶ The idea of “American exceptionalism” is at least as old as when Puritan leader John Winthrop wrote in 1630 to describe the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a model Christian community.

¶ Journalist John L. Sullivan first used the phrase “manifest destiny” in an 1845 article for the Democratic Review arguing for the annexation of the Republic of Texas.

¶ US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright first claimed the US as “the indispensable nation” in justifying the US-led embargo on Iraq after the first Gulf War in 1991.

¶ Albright’s boss, President Bill Clinton, then used the phrase in his Second Inaugural Address in 1997.

¶ Then, in a 2012 commencement address to the Air Force Academy, President Barack Obama asserted that the US is “the one indispensable nation.”

¶ The French political theorist and historian Alexis de Tocqueville was the first writer to describe the US as “exceptional” in 1831 and 1840, in “Democracy in America.”

¶ But the more common reference began with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (!) in criticizing the American Communist Party leaders for their belief that the US was above Marxist doctrine of the laws of history.

¶ “…our holy struggle for liberty and independence” that will be won “under Divine Providence.” —Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Feb. 1864, referring to the South’s war against the Union to preserve white supremacy and African slavery

¶ “I believe that God planted in us the vision of liberty. I cannot be deprived of the hope that we are chosen, and prominently chosen, to show the nations of the world how they shall walk in the paths of liberty.” — President Woodrow Wilson as Washington entered World War I

¶ “President Trump saying (with dramatic gesture) he is “the chosen one.” —0:47 video, 21 August 2019

¶ “The best that can happen to any people that has not already a high civilization of its own is to assimilate and profit by American or European ideas . . . of civilization and Christianity, . . . the prerequisite condition to the moral and material advance of the peoples who dwell in the darker corners of the earth.” —President Theodore Roosevelt

¶ “Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled there will be America’s heart, her benedictions and her prayers. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause by the countenance of her voice and by the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition which assume the colors and usurp the standards of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force…she might become the dictatress of the world.  She would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit.” —President John Quincy Adams, Washington D.C., July 4, 1821

¶ America is the “most just and virtuous republic ever conceived. Someday soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars.” —President Donald Trump, in his speech at the Lincoln Memorial, 4 July 2019

¶ On the eve of our entry into World War I, William Jennings Bryan, President Woodrow Wilson’s first secretary of state, described the United States as “the supreme moral factor in the world’s progress and the accepted arbiter of the world’s disputes.” —Chalmers Johnson, “Exporting the American Model: Markets and Democracy”

¶ “My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”  —Russian President Vladimir V. Putin

¶ In his statement on the killing [of Osama bin Laden], he [President Obama] said: “Tonight we are once again reminded that Americans can do whatever we set our minds to—we can do these things not because of our wealth and power, but because of who we are, one nation under God indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” —televised address, 2 May 2011

¶ President Franklin D. Roosevelt supposedly remarked in 1939 that [Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio] “Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.”

¶ “The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.” —President Thomas Jefferson

¶ “President George W. Bush reminded his people that the United States is ‘a nation founded under God and that from our very beginning we have relied upon His strength and guidance in war and in peace.’ Following the military victory, Bush spoke before the National Religious Broadcasters and thanked them for ‘helping America, as Christ ordained, to be a light unto the world.’ Bush declared that the teachings of Jesus had been the moral force behind the victory. When he ordered bombing in the ‘no fly zone’ of southern Iraq in the week before he left office, Bush stated that the bomber pilots had done the work of the Lord.” — Griffith, “The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God”

¶ “Oil is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs.” —Henry Kissinger, 1974, US Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon & Ford

§  §  §

Altar call. “Let It Be Me.” —Indigo Girls 

§  §  §

Miscellaneous other presidential quotations

¶ “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” —President Abraham Lincoln, 22 August 1862

¶ Listen to this video clip (1:53) from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “military industrial complex” speech warning about burgeoning military budgets.

¶ “[Thomas] Jefferson felt that the presidency created by the new Constitution was too strong. . . . He was especially concerned that an unscrupulous president might narrowly lose a bid for reelection and falsely insist that the contest had been stolen. ‘He will pretend false votes, foul play, hold possession of the reins of government, be supported by the states voting for him,’ Jefferson wrote to [James] Madison.” —Jeffrey Rosen, “The Nightmare of Despotism,” The Atlantic

¶“We can’t be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of arms.” —President Jimmy Carter

¶ “We’ve been at war with 25 different countries or more since the Second World War. There were four years—I won’t say which ones—where we didn’t drop a bomb, we didn’t launch a missile, we didn’t fire a bullet.” —President Jimmy Carter, TED Talk, May 2015

¶ In the earliest days of our republic, there was little support for universal voting rights. John Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence and later president, wrote in 1776 that no good could come from enfranchising more Americans: “Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there will be no end to it. New claims will arise; women will demand the vote; lads from 12 to 21 will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level.”

¶ “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever . . . The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.” —President Thomas Jefferson

§  §  §

Benediction. “Dark mother always gliding near with soft feet, / Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome? / Then I chant it for thee, I glorify thee above all, / I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly. / Approach strong deliveress, / When it is so, when thou hast taken them I joyously sing the dead.” —excerpt from Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” written as an elegy followed the trauma of the US Civil War and President Lincoln’s assassination

Recessional. And in preparation for Ash Wednesday: “Create In Me.” —Acappella

#  #  #

Remembering St. Brigit’s feast day and the Greensboro student sit-in

Ken Sehested

Invocation. “Gabhaim Molta Bríghde” (“I Give Praise to Saint Brigid”). — Aoife Ní Fhearraigh (Scroll down to see the lyrics.) 

§  §  §

Tomorrow, the first of February, is the feast day of St. Brigit (aka Brigid) of Kildare (c. 451–525), Irish abbess known for  her hospitality. It brought to mind one of my favorite prayers, which I designed as a piece of art (at bottom).

As it happens, tomorrow is also the sixty-sixth anniversary of the Greensboro, NC “sit-in” movement, when students at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University demanded to be served at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter.

The extraordinary decision by those students to commit nonviolent resistance against injustice was not done on impulse. Much preparation went beforehand. This tactic had been tried before but did not spark of movement.

This one did, triggering similar protests in 55 cities and 13 states. One of my dear friends, then a student at Wake Forest University in nearby Winston-Salem, was among the first white students to join that action. (See George Williamson’s memoir, Born in Sin, Upended in Grace. For more on the inaugural sit-in, see “How the Greensboro Four Sit-In Sparked a Movement.”)

It’s instructive, too, to recall that most every major civil rights movement episode was initiated by local communities. Dr. King’s presence certainly brought national attention, strategy focus, additional activists, and necessary funding. But the spark that prompted the blaze almost always came from localized leaders and networks.

The coincidence of St. Brigit’s feast day and the Greensboro action is a fitting framework to think of the kind of formation people of faith must undertake.

Clearly we need a beatific vision which Brigit’s prayer provides, I would say “mystical” vision, but the word in Englishmostly draws up images of esoteric hermits or rarefied saints. But, yes, a mystical vision, illimitable; a “thin space” experience where Heaven’s ecstasy and Earth’s agony overlay; a transcendent apprehension that, yes, “Earth has no sorrow that Heav’n cannot heal.”

Such intuitive grasp of the Beloved’s promise is essential if companions of Jesus are to withstand the inevitable storms and squalls of history’s rancor and hostility. Such an anchor is what allows us to face the rampaging powers, who mock the faithful, saying “you cannot withstand the storm,” and responding “I am the storm.”

A mountaintop experience, not unlike that of the story of Jesus’ “transfiguration,” when Jesus takes three of his disciples to a peak, where a glorious vision unfolds, where the Prophets Moses and Elijah appear. Impulsive Peter suggests tabernacles be built there. But no sooner had the rapturous moment ended, Jesus—ignoring Peter’s impetuous request—saying something to the effect of fugetaboutit and leads the three back down the mountain where they are immediately confronted by a man whose son had a “spirit” causing him to convulse, grind his teeth, and foam at the mouth, which some commentators think may have been epilepsy.

Jesus heals the boy. And thereby establishes the link between the ecstasy and epilepsy—between mountaintop spiritual experience and the healing of Earth’s destitute, diseased condition.

You may recall that this story in Mark’s Gospel (chapter 9) comes immediately after Jesus’ conversation with his disciples, asking, “who do the people say I am?” Peter gets it right—but not quite right. Then Jesus speaks to them of the trouble tocome, of his suffering and eventual crucifixion by Rome’s anti-terrorism task force. Whereupon Peter, in his insolence, adamantly rejects the notion that a sovereign should suffer, much less die!

We should also be thinking here about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “mountaintop” speech in Memphis—surely a beatific expression—where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers. Some consider that speech to be his most electric elocution.

“I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man.”

He continued, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” And the vision comes in the context of supporting the demand of sanitation workers for better pay and working conditions.

To sustain the struggle at hand we need St. Brigit’s visionary prayer of festive delight and exuberant gladness. But make no mistake, its lexicon—its field of vision—is infirmity, is animosity, is in every context of history’s affliction, even within our own hearts and minds.

St. Brigit’s vision, combined with the resolute bravery of the disinherited (supported by those who join them), chart the path for followers of The Way.

§  §  §

Benediction. “I’m Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table.” —Birmingham Jubilee Singers 

#  #  #

To the rupture convulsing our nation’s heartland

Assembled by Ken Sehested

Invocation. “Within our darkest night, / You kindle the fire / that never dies away.” —“Within Our Darkest Night,” J. Berthier, Taizé

Call to worship. “Jesus is the reality of which Caesar is the parody.” —N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar and Anglican bishop

§  §  §

 

Matt Moberg
Minneapolis pastor and co-chaplain of the
Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team

“If you’re a church posting
prayers for peace and unity today
while my city bleeds in the street,
miss me with that softness you only
wear when it costs you nothing.

“Don’t dress avoidance up as holiness.
Don’t call silence “peacemaking.”
Don’t light a candle and think it
substitutes for showing up.

“Tonight an ICE agent took a photo of me
next to my car, looked me in the eye and told me,
“We’ll be seeing you soon.”

“Not metaphor.”
Not hyperbole.
A threat dressed up in a badge and a paycheck.

“Peace isn’t what you ask for
when the boot is already on someone’s neck.
Peace is what the powerful ask for
when they don’t want to be interrupted.

“Unity isn’t neutral.
Unity that refuses to name violence
is just loyalty to the ones holding the weapons.

“Stop using scripture like chloroform.
Stop calling your fear “wisdom.”
Stop pretending Jesus was crucified
because he preached good vibes and personal growth.

“You don’t get to quote scripture like a lullaby
while injustice stays wide awake.
You don’t get to ask God to “heal the land”
if you won’t even look at the wound.

“There is a kind of peace that only exists
because it refuses to tell the truth.
That peace is a lie.
And lies don’t grow anything worth saving.

“The scriptures you love weren’t written to keep
things calm. They were written to set things right.

“And sometimes the most faithful thing you can do
is stop praying around the pain and start standing inside it.

“If that makes you uncomfortable—good.”

§  §  §

Hymn of lament. “Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear / It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.” —Bob Dylan, “Not Dark Yet”

Eucharistic invitation. Fear displacement is the most important pastoral duty we have in our communities, to heal the dis-ease of anxious hearts and timid decorum, thereby unleashing confident defiance of the vindictive politics of distraction, panic, and fury. Jesus beckons us to the Table for just this purpose, to restore the daring, blessed assurance that the world—despite much evidence to the contrary—is in God’s hands and is promised only to the meek who know their true and only source of security, an assurance which not even threat of death can dislodge. Fearless citizens are Caesar’s greatest nightmare. —Ken Sehested

§  §  §

When a Baptized Conscience Refuses Anesthesia
Rev. Allison Burns-LaGreca

When a baptized conscience refuses anesthesia,
the senses sharpen like flint.
The air smells of iron and smoke.
The hymns echo hollow in rooms where truth has been embalmed.
Every silence starts to speak.
I walk through the streets with my collar tight against my throat,
feeling the pulse beneath concrete,
bones of old empires grinding under asphalt,
their promises bleaching in the sun
like abandoned crosses on a hill.
Water remembers me.
It remembers the day it claimed my body,
the day oil traced a cross on my skin
and said, Wake up.
You belong to God now.
There is no numbing that kind of claim.
When a baptized conscience refuses anesthesia,
sleep fractures.
Dreams fill with children calling names we forgot to learn,
with borders stitched into flesh,
with angels standing guard at detention centers,
their wings singed, their eyes unblinking.
I try to pray politely.
You do not let me.
Instead, you bring me fig trees stripped bare,
coins clinking in Judas’ pocket,
Pilate washing hands that never come clean.
You set a table in the presence of drones and ledgers,
and ask me to eat anyway.
Jesus, I see you still refusing the wine mixed with myrrh.
Still choosing pain over forgetting.
Still loving with nerve endings intact.
Still breathing forgiveness through cracked lips
while the crowd rehearses its excuses.
How dare I ask to be spared consciousness
when love itself stayed awake.
When a baptized conscience refuses anesthesia,
hope is not soft.
It is bone-deep.
It is a fist closed around a seed in winter.
It is Mary’s song rattling the palace windows at midnight.
It is Amos pounding his staff into the marble floor
until justice echoes like thunder.
I feel it in my chest, Lord.
This burning.
This grief that refuses to curdle into hatred.
This anger that keeps choosing compassion
even when it would be easier to disappear.
Do not let them lull me, God.
Not with comfort.
Not with patriotism dressed as piety.
Not with the lie that this is just how the world works.
Keep my conscience unsedated.
Let it ache.
Let it imagine another way.
Let it see resurrection even while standing at the grave.
Because when a baptized conscience refuses anesthesia,
the empire trembles,
the stone begins to shift,
and somewhere beneath the weight of brutality and lies,
new life draws breath
and waits for dawn.

§  §  §

The best concise summary on this topic: “How We Got Here: The Racist Myth of a ‘Broken’ Immigration System” by Craig Nash

§  §  §

Of the Empire
Mary Oliver, published in “Red Bird”

We will be known as a culture that feared death
and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity
for the few and cared little for the penury of the
many. We will be known as a culture that taught
and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke
little if at all about the quality of life for
people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All
the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a
commodity. And they will say that this structure
was held together politically, which it was, and
they will say also that our politics was no more
than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of
the heart, and that the heart, in those days,
was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

§  §  §

Word. “The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, say to this people: You are a land that is not cleansed. Your officials are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. You have practiced extortion, committed robbery, oppressed the poor and needy, and tyrannized the immigrant.” —adapted from Ezekiel 22

§  §  §

Conscientious Objector
Edna St. Vincent Millay

I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death.
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall; I hear the clatter on the barn-floor.
He is in haste; he has business in Cuba, business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning.
But I will not hold the bridle while he clinches the girth.
And he may mount by himself: I will not give him a leg up.

Though he flick my shoulders with his whip, I will not tell him which way the fox ran.
With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where the black boy hides in the swamp.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death; I am not on his pay-roll.

I will not tell him the whereabout of my friends nor of my enemies either.
Though he promise me much, I will not map him the route to any man’s door.
Am I a spy in the land of the living, that I should deliver men to Death?
Brother, the password and the plans of our city are safe with me; never through me
Shall you be overcome.

§  §  §

Benediction. “We must do what they fear—tell the truth, spread the truth. This is the most powerful weapon against this regime of liars, thieves, and hypocrites. Everyone has this weapon. So make use of it.” —Alexi Navalny, a lawyer, human rights and anti-corruption activist, who died in a Russian prison, in his posthumously published memoir, “Patriot”

Recessional. “We are not alone . . . for God is with us.” —“We Are Not Alone,” The Riverside Choir

#  #  #