Ken Sehested
Introduction
Today, 30 April, is the anniversary of the official end of the Vietnam War (1975). Though it was never officially a “war,” since the US Congress, according to explicit Constitutional directive, is the only authority to declare such.
In 2018, leading up to the 50th anniversary of the Mỹ Lai Massacre, when US forces murdered some 500 men, women, and children in that small hamlet, an ad hoc committee organized national commemorations of this war crime. I was asked to put together worship resources for such remembrances in Christian congregations.
Below is some of the material from a worship liturgy for use in churches, “Penitential Opportunity.”
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Prelude
“Come on, people! Come on, children! / Come on down to the glory river / Gonna wash you up, and wash you down / Gonna lay the devil down, gonna lay that devil down / Come on, people! Come on, children! / There’s a king at the glory river / And the precious king, he loved the people to sing / Babes in the blinkin’ sun sang, ‘We shall overcome’ / And I got fury in my soul / Fury’s gonna take me to the glory goal / In my mind I can’t study war no more / Save the people! Save the children! Save the country, save the country now!” —“Save the Country,” Laura Nyro
Invocation
“To speak about God and remain silent on Vietnam is blasphemous.” {Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel}
Call to Worship
One: We gather to remember a story of war that haunts us to this day, to remember a wrong that must be made right.
All: We gather to reckon with the sorrow that still pains the souls of many—to reckon with the brokenness that remains within the living who cannot forget the dead.
One: We gather to reflect upon the prospects for meaningful justice and the compelling call for healing and reconciliation.
All: We gather to resolve not to leave this place unchanged or unwilling to transform this haunting memory into something good. In the words of Rabbi Abraham Yitzak Kook, “We don’t speak because we have the power to speak; we speak because we don’t have the power to remain silent.” {Paul C. Hayes}
Opening Prayer
Holy Light, we stand somewhere in the shadows, in between the battlefield of our struggles and the sanctuary of our souls. Shed a little light on our way. Keep your lighted sanctuary within us portable, able to see clearly, to walk courageously, to withstand the forces that corrupt the truth of our belonging to your one world wide family.
Keep our madmen world leaders away from buttons of annihilation. Keep them clearly out of range from pushing our buttons toward hopelessness and helplessness. Don’t give them security clearness to our spirits. Keep us ever secure in You. Shed a little light on our way.
Shed your light of healing on all who struggle with illness of body, mind and spirit. Shed your light of grace on all who stumble with regrets and shame too tender to touch. Shed your light of mercy on all who fear for their lives, who are caught in the crucible of suffering. Here, now, once again…shed a little light on us all. Amen. {Nancy Hastings Sehested}
Word
“There are things that can be seen only with eyes that have cried.” {Roman Catholic Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa, martyred in 2001 in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo}
Confession
One: The One who extends Presence into the most desolate region—even to the place of utter abandonment—is mighty in mercy, strong in tenderness, powerful in pardoning.
All: God hears! God knows! Therefore we will praise that Unspeakable Name forever.
One: Relax, oh my soul, in the arms of the One who dries tears, who swaddles our fretful limbs, whose light in the night scatters dragons, and whose promise is bounty and abundance.
All: God hears! God knows! This is our assurance against the ravages of fear. Therefore we will praise that Unspeakable Name forever.
Absolution
“Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.” {Book of Common Prayer, prayer for Ash Wednesday}
Words of Assurance
Be assured that the God who shakes heaven and earth, whom death could not contain, who lives to disturb us and heal us, blesses us with the power of the Spirit to redeem and to restore with justice and in love. {Adapted from Janet Morley’s “All Desires Known”}
Word
“Repentance for silence is better than repentance for speaking.” {Moorish proverb}
Professing Our Faith
One: For what do we hope?
All: We hope for the Beloved’s promise to overtake the world’s broken-hearted threat.
One: For what do we long?
All: We long for the moist goodness of God to outlast the parched climate of despair.
One: For what do we lack?
All: We lack for nothing—save the need for hearts enlarged by the assurance that every hostage will be freed.
One: For what do we strive?
All: We strive for lives marked by goodness, purified of deceit and malice, and hands made gentle by the tender caress of Wisdom’s approach.
One: For what do we struggle?
All: We struggle for the fate of every child whose sighs and cries are muffled by the market’s disdain.
One: In what do we rejoice?
All: We rejoice in rebellious acts of abundance in the face of every stingy arrangement.
One: For what prize do our eyes arise?
All: Our eyes arise for the Beloved Community’s embrace of earth’s abode and Heaven’s favor.
One: Peace be with you!
All: And also with you! {Ken Sehested}
Benediction
One: Among the memory prods in every tragedy’s aftermath is this reminder of the Spirit’s directives—
All: About whose presence we must foster,
One: About which whereabouts we must locate,
All: Whether the season calls for laughter or lament,
One: Whether patience or militance is called for, caressing hand or shaking fist.
All: Only after this interrogation can our speaking and silence, our moving and stillness, put us in the position to see and know what is to be done,
One: With whom it is to be done, in what place and time it is to be done,
All: And by what authority we proceed.
One: In and through our penitence, grant the bounty of grace and the risk of resolve.
All: Resolve to break the silence; to remember afresh; to hope that is stronger than fear; to persevere beyond fatigue.
One: You shall know the truth, beloveds, and the truth will make you odd!
All: So may it be, from henceforth and evermore. {Ken Sehested}
Postlude
“Finally brother after a while / The battle will be over / For that day when we shall lay down our burden / And study war no more.” —“Study War,” Moby
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decay. (Rom. 8:19, 21)
¶ Behold, the envoys of peace weep bitterly. The land mourns. “Now will I arise,” says the Lord. (Is. 33:7, 9, 10)
commemoration of the giving of Torah at Mount Sinai). Parallel resurrection moments, setting the stage for resulting resurrection movements.
got tired in the same degree. When I say “tired eyes” it’s not like I was getting sleepy. It really wasn’t my eyes that were tired; the weariness was in my capacity to see clearly—or more precisely, to “read” clearly. When tired, I had more trouble reading the rocks.
point in my tumultuous faith development, from the deconstruction of my childhood faith to its painful (and continuing) reconstruction. Dr. King’s lived speech gave clarified content.
doctrinal rigor, vigorous piety, moral purity, liturgical precision.
Fridays appear endemic, as are the martyrdoms of witnesses like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr. The Kinship of God is unleashed but not yet unrivaled. Spring’s floral seeds are still buried; but blossoms are promised. Creation’s own travail, as in a woman’s laboring birth pangs, still cries out “for the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:19-23).
frustrated. Gratefully, I’ve learned to pay attention to those sensations because it’s usually a clue about how I’m working or what I’m working with.
if they could all three come into relationship?
a hand on my shoulder, saying “OK?” Then, “you finished yet?”
despair convincing.”
cremated when that time comes. As did we.
ntimental optimism. Our cultivating work, as the Welsh novelist and academic Raymond Williams wrote, “is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing.”
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.
servility on the other?
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?
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.
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?
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.
Spanish troops during the independence movement in Cuba.
