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The latest US-Iran dust-up

Reckless baiting . . . again

by Ken Sehested

“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer . . . who says Cyrus [“the Great,” 6th century BCE ruler of Persia,
modern day Iran, who freed the Jews from Babylonian captivity] is my shepherd and he shall carry out
all my purpose” for he is my “anointed” [the same word later used for Jesus in the Newer Testament].
—Isaiah 44:28-45:1

It’s quite possible that the last two days’ headlining spat between the US and Iran may be Trump’s desire to distract public attention from his domestic challenges. It is not inconceivable that, as some are saying, he’s willing to go to war with Iran in order to get reelected.

Whatever the case may be, it’s important to pay attention to how the Administration and the press are reporting this latest dust-up.

Today’s article on the subject in USA Today (Kim Hjelmgaard and David Jackson) is a perfect example of how the US often portrays itself (ourselves) as victims, effectively disguising our role as provocateur.

On Sunday night Trump sent a Twitter shout, in all caps, demanding “NEVER EVER THREATEN THE US AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKE OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE” (which contains the implicit threat of a nuclear attack). Trump was responding to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani who, earlier on Sunday while speaking to an international group of foreign ministry officials, warned the US against a military attack on his country.

On Monday White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders put the blame on Iran, saying “If anybody’s inciting anything, look no further than to Iran.”

As if this history of belligerence began on Sunday. Not mentioned in news coverage are these facts:

1. In July 2017 John Bolton, currently Trump’s National Security Advisor, promised regime change “before 2019,” saying “I have said for over 10 years . . . that the declared policy of the United States of America should be the overthrow of the mullahs' regime in Tehran. The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change, and therefore the only solution is to change the regime itself.”

2. Not mentioned is that in May, weeks after unilaterally pulling out of a multi-lateral agreement with Iran to halt its nuclear weapons production, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his first speech as secretary of state, outlined a 12-point list of demands on Iranian leaders, which the Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian called “silly.” Then, after Rouhani’s speech surfaced, Pompeo issued a statement portraying Iranian leaders as “mafia” and urged Iranian citizens to rise up against its government (hinting at US support).

Keep in mind that Pompeo’s derision of Islam dates from his days as a congressman from Kansas: “The threat to America is from people who deeply believe that Islam is the way and the light and the only answer.” He is not only a fervent evangelical; his piety expands to a theocratic governing vision: “[T]o worship our Lord and celebrate our nation at the same place is not only our right, it is our duty,” describing politics as a “a never-ending struggle . . . until the rapture.” —Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, “,” Common Dreams

3. On Monday night, US General Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme commander (and one-time advocate of “internment camps” to house “disloyal” American citizens) commented that such tit-for-tat recriminations between the US and Iran “go all the way to the Iranian revolution of 1979.”

He failed to acknowledge the reason for that revolution and the dramatic hostage-taking of US Embassy personnel in Tehran: In 1953 the US Central Intelligence Agency (with British allies) sponsored the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, putting in its place the dictatorial regime of the Iranian Shah (“emperor”), Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who provided bargain-basement access to the nation’s considerable energy resources by Western oil companies.

4. Few citizens recall that during the 1980s Iraq-Iran war the US removed Iraq from its “state sponsors of terrorism” list in order to supply crucial military intelligence to Iraq, as well as components of Iraq’s chemical weapons.

(General Clark has written cogently about the catastrophic effect a military strike on Iran. For more see his “Here’s the real cost of leaving the Iran deal,” CNBC.)

Or that the student hostage-takers at the US embassy in Tehran reconstructed and published 54 volumes of evidence, patched together from embassy files, revealing “CIA operatives . . . manipulating, threatening and bribing world leaders, rigging foreign elections, hijacking local political systems, shuffling foreign governments like decks of cards, sabotaging economic competitors, assassinating regional, national and tribal leaders at will, choreographing state-to-state diplomacy like cheap theater.” (Quote from Margot White’s Waking Up in Tehran first-hand reporting from that period, in David Swanson, “Waking Up in Tehran,” Global Research .)

Or the “Iran-Contra” affair in the mid-‘80s, when the Reagan Administration secretly sold military arms to Iran (in violation of an official arms embargo) to fund the US “contra war” in Nicaragua, opposing the Sandinista government, funding which Congress prohibited.

Or the 1988 incident when the US Navy shot down an Iranian passenger plane, flying in Iranian airspace, killing all 290 passengers, after which President Reagan expressed “regrets.”

Or that the US currently has two dozen (that we know of) military bases in 10 countries surrounding Iran, in addition to at least one Naval carrier group in the Persian Gulf region.

As Jeff Faux has written (“Why Are We in the Middle East?”), “The [US] rationale is embarrassingly circular—we must remain in the Middle East to protect against terrorists who hate America because we are in the Middle East.”

You don’t have to believe that Iran’s current leaders are innocent of the charges brought against them to acknowledge that the US has sought to work its will on the Iranian people for a long time and is currently pursuing a reckless game of brinkmanship with potentially catastrophic consequences.

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•For more on this dangerous threat, see “Worried about increasing US-Iran tensions? You should be.”

•For a local congregation’s confessional statement opposing such a war (approved in 2007, reissued in 2012), see “We Say No, Again: Baiting Iran toward a dangerous collision.”

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Memorial Day: A historical summary

Why being for peace is not enough

by Ken Sehested

        As a child I wasn’t aware that Memorial Day observances were intended for those felled on the battlefield. I though of it as a day of familial remembrance, honoring relatives gone before us—veterans and non-veterans alike—something akin to a low-church All Saints Day, but with flowers. Lots of flowers.

        For decades, to this day, one of my uncles in southern Oklahoma assumes the duty of trimming grass, pulling weeds and placing wreaths on the Rowell, Sehested and Young burial plots in the small town of Marlow, where I was born and where my own name is carved—with only a birth day for now—in a granite slab that stretches across my immediate family’s plot, where both my father’s body and my sister’s ashes are buried.

        Decorating the graves of fallen soldiers goes back at least to the fifth century BCE, when the Athenian leader Pericles offered tribute over the graves of Pelopponnesian War casualties. (Among the most tragic and enduring statements of political reality—“The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”—comes from the Greek historian Thuycydides’ The History of the Pelopponnesian War.)

 

U.S. Civil War origins of the holiday

        In the U.S., however, the tradition originally referred to as “Decoration Day” sprang up in response to the Civil War.

        Where the first such commemoration was held is murky. Boalsburg, Penn., Vicksburg, Miss., Waterloo, N.Y., and Carbondale, Ill., make the claim (along with some 20 other cities). It wasn’t until 1966 that a Congressional resolution formally recognized the village of Waterloo as “the first observance of Memorial Day [on 5 May 1866] as a national holiday.”

        Most such observances were in April or May, when plenty of flowers were available. Not surprisingly, women primarily were the ones who took the initiative. Even the first national leader to issue a proclamation marking the day—for 30 May 1868—General John A. Logan, Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, was said to have been inspired by his wife’s account of viewing women in Petersburg, Va., decorating the graves of Confederate soldiers. Two years earlier the New York Tribune printed a story of Columbus, Miss., women laying flowers on the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers.

        Decoration Day ceremonies were often occasions for a renewal of bitter regional rivalries. In Arlington Cemetery, Confederate and Union gravesites were segregated from each other, and in some years soldiers prevented people from decorating the graves of Confederates. In New York, the first state to declare 30 May a holiday, Confederate veterans were not allowed to parade with their flag or uniforms. In the South during Reconstruction, Decoration Day provided a rallying point for continued resistance to the Civil War’s conclusion and the occupying Union troops. In other Northern cities the occasion featured diatribes against freed slaves and abolitionists. Rarely if ever was the day devoted to celebrating the emancipation of slaves.

        (Contrary to popular opinion, most Unionists were not abolitionists. In fact, the most deadly race riot in U.S. history was in July 1863 in New York City, after President Lincoln signed legislation ordering a military draft. For five days poorer white residents —mostly Irish, then New England’s “white trash”—looted and burned, targeting mostly African Americans, including an orphanage. In the end there were at least 120 fatalities and over 2,000 wounded. “Freeing the slaves” was not a widespread motive for the war. President Abraham Lincoln himself wrote: "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” In the lines of a popular rhyme in Northern cities when the war broke out, “To the flag we are pledged, all its foes we abhor. And we ain’t for the ni**er, but we are for the war.” For background, see R. Blakeslee Gilpin, “A War Not for Abolition, New York Times.)

Other interesting facts about the holiday

        •Shortly after the war’s end, some 10,000 freed slaves in Charleston, S.C., dedicated a cemetery holding the remains of Union prisoners of war.

        •Nine former Confederate states still have an official “Confederate Memorial Day.”

        •A 1905 story in The New York Times reported that a two-year-old mystery had finally been resolved, involving the repeated decoration of a tall granite shaft in a Westchester, N.Y., cemetery commemorating the deaths of Confederate soldiers. The Daughters of the Confederacy claimed the wreaths had not been their doing. As it turns out, two Unionist women’s organization had been secretly placing the memorial flowers.

        “Although the services yesterday were nominally intended to honor the Confederate dead,” wrote the Times journalist, “the graves of Union soldiers had the highest heap of flowers on them, and they were put there by the Southern women.”

        •The current Memorial Day holiday observance, placing the date on the last Monday of May, was not established by Congress until January 1971.

        It’s hard to comprehend the devastation of the U.S. Civil War. The official death toll of 620,000 soldiers (civilian casualties were not tallied)—almost equal the death toll of all subsequent U.S. wars—represented two percent of the population. Two percent of our nation’s current population comes to more than 6,000,000.

Being for peace is not enough

        A reported conversation following World War I between Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd-George of Great Britain and Georges Clemenceau of France speak well to the situation under consideration.

     Among them it was asked, "Do we want peace?"  Their agreed answer was, "Yes." Then it was asked, more probingly, "Are we willing to abandon colonialism?"  And the British answered, "No, of course not."  It was further asked, "Are we willing to forego any claims for reparation against the Germans?"  This time it was the French and the Americans who said, "No."

     Then, within that influential threesome, the perceptive insight was voiced, "What we really want is not peace, but only quiet while we enjoy the spoils of our victory in war."

     To say it more concisely: We all want peace. But we also want what we cannot get without war. Which is why it’s not enough to be for peace.

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©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

This article slightly expands the original which was first printed in the 26 May 2008 edition of “EthicsDaily.com,” electronic publication of the Baptist Center for Ethics.

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  9 May 2019 •  No.193

Processional. Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers with Pete Seeger, at the Newport Folk Festival, 1964. May 3 was the 100th anniversary of Seeger’s birth.

Invocation. Bread baking, kitchen-dwelling, breast-feeding God, / We return to your lap and to your table / because we are hungry and thirsty. / Fill us again / with the bread that satisfies, / with milk that nourishes. / Drench parched throats with wet wonder; / feed us ‘til we want no more.” —continue reading “Bread baking God”

Call to worship. “Imagine if every church became a place where everyone is safe but no one is comfortable. Help us to hold one another to the truth.” —Rachel Held Evans, rest in peace (I’ve gathered my top 10 favorite quotes from Evans—add one or more of your own to this list.)

Good news. “‘We've Made History’: Ireland Joins France, Germany and Bulgaria in Banning Fracking.” —Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch

Hymn of praise. "Pie Jesu" (“Merciful Jesus”), Andrew Loyd Hebber, performed by Hauser (cello), Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra Choir Zvjezdice, & Josephine Ida Zec (vocals).

Confession. “There are times when life is cruel beyond imagination and against all explanation. At such times, we simply wrap our arms around the still-breathing bodies of those we cherish. And we pray, and we sing, and we speak tenderly through the tears, chanting aloud or silently the promise that one day, all tears will be dried; one day, all mourning will pass away; one day, all crying will cease; one day, death itself shall come undone (Rev. 21:4). Vaya con Dios, my friend, as you journey through the valley of this deathly shadow.” —condolence letter to a close friend after the trauma of losing a dearly beloved

Well, that’s a start. “The provincial government in British Columbia, Canada, has amended workplace legislation to prevent employers to force women to wear high heels at work.

        “‘In some workplaces in our province, women are required to wear high heels on the job. Like most British Columbians, our government thinks this is wrong. That is why we’re changing this regulation to stop this unsafe and discriminatory practice,’ said BC premier Christy Clark. A mandatory high-heel dress code “is a workplace health and safety issue,” she said. ‘There is a risk of physical injury from slipping or falling, as well as possible damage to the feet, legs and back from prolonged wearing of high heels while at work.’” —, Guardian

¶ “I once suffered a miscarriage shortly before Mother’s Day. When I entered the sanctuary that Sunday, an usher carrying a basket of carnations greeted me. ‘Happy Mother’s Day, pretty lady!’ He innocently beamed. ‘I know you must be a mom! Here’s a flower.’ In a sudden daze I accepted the flower from his hand and rushed to the bathroom crying.” —continue reading “Pastoral dilemmas with observing Mother’s Day”

Words of assurance.  “Down in the valley while on my knees / I asked my Jesus, carry me please / He promised that he’d take care of me / If I would lift him up / He said if I  / Be lifted up  / He said if I / Be lifted up (be lifted up) / I’ll be your father, I’ll be your mother / I’ll be your sister, and your brother.” —Emmy Lou Harris, “If I Be Lifted Up”

Professing our faith. “Peace is the fruit of love, a love that is also justice. But to grow in love requires work—shard work. And it can bring pain because it implies loss—loss of the certitudes, comforts, and hurts that shelter and define us.” —Jean Vanier, rest in peace

Short story. “During the Christmas holidays of 1964, [Jean Vanier] visited a friend who was working as a chaplain for men with learning difficulties just outside Paris. Disturbed by conditions in which 80 men did nothing but walk around in circles, he bought a small house nearby and invited two men from the institution to join him.” —continue reading Martin Bashir, “Jean Vanier: Founder of L’Arche dies,” BBC

Hymn of contrition. “Gospel shoes are laced with shackles and chains / Fitted for the poor runners of the race / Now every hand is folded shape of a gun / Target's ever changing but the war it rages on / So the armies march onward for the mother and the son / As this world of screaming color is bleached in the blood.” —Madolin Orange, “Gospel Shoes”

Word. “I wanna talk about the grief. I know a lot of people they really wanna stick on the hope train. Let’s just be hopeful, it’s all gonna be okay.

        “We need to sit in the grief. We need to sit the enormity of the issues because I’m telling you; if we don’t sit in the reality of the situation, we are just going to spend all this time, all this energy, this life force — giving to false solutions and I really don’t want that for our generation moving forward. I don’t want to just be taken away by these commercials for our greater future and then put all this energy into it and realize in 30 years, oh my gosh — what have we really done?” —Ayana Young at Humboldt State University (Thanks Shelley.)

Hymn of supplication. “We hunt your face and long to trust that your hid mouth will say again / let there be light, a clear new day. / But when we thirst in this dry night, / we drink from hot wells poisoned with the blood of children. / And when we strain to hear a steady homing beam, / our ears are balked by stifled moans / Wellspring gold of dark and day, be here, be now.” —James Taylor, “New Hymn”

Preach it. “It’s the realization of how to create a culture which is no longer a culture just of competition, but a culture of welcoming, where tenderness, where touch is important. It’s neither sexualized nor aggressive. It has become human. And I think that this is what people with disabilities are teaching us.” —read more of Krista Tippett’s interview with Jean Vanier, “On Being” (Thanks Mike.)

¶ “Ramadan is about re-establishing your relationship with God.” [The daytime fasting means that] “every day of Ramadan reminds us of our life cycle. We start the day strong, like we’re very young.—we’re ready to go. But by the end of the day, no matter your age, you get very weak, and you’re reminded of your death. Then [after sundown] you break your fast and are reminded of Paradise.” —listen to the first 1:06 of this video “A Ramadan etiquette guide for non-Muslim” (Thanks Kristen)

        • “Why Ramadan is called Ramadan: 6 questions answered.” —Mohammad Hassan Khalil, Religion News

        • Here is a short overview of the tradition and practices of Ramadan.

        • Learn how to pronounce the traditional greetings in Arabic: "As-salamu alaikum," which translates “Peace be upon you”; and the traditional response: “Wa alaykumu as-salam,” or “And unto you peace.” (The transliteration of the Arabic into English varies in spelling. Here is one very brief aid in pronouncing of these two phrases.)

      • For more on the commonalities in peacemaking traditions among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, see “Peace Primer II: Quotes from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Scripture & Tradition.”

      • For more on the need for building interfaith coalitions, see “The things that make for peace: The purpose, promise and peril of interfaith engagement.”

Can’t makes this sh*t up. “Our objective is to get the Islamic Republic of Iran to behave like a normal nation,” says US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo [without the least bit of irony, given that the US has 45 military bases in countries bordering Iran]. —Pompeo quoted in Lolita Baldor & Zeke Miller, Associated Press

Hymn of lament. “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” Odetta.

Call to the table. We come to your lap and to your table / and rediscover your romance with the world. / As you nourish us with the bread of life and the milk of your word, / let your Spirit hang an apron around our necks. / Fashioned and patterned like that worn / by our Lord-become-friend, Jesus.” —continue reading “Bread baking God”

The state of our disunion. On Monday, 6 May, the United Nations released a report saying that one million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction due to climate change, “with alarming implications for human survival.” On that same day, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blocked an Artic Council policy statement referencing extreme polar ice melting, instead celebrating the amount of money to be made on the new shipping lane being created by the thaw, which would add dramatically to the flooding threat of rising sea levels. —Rick Noack, Washington Post

        For context on the latter, watch this short (2:44) video on “How Earth Would Look If All The Ice Melted.”

Best one-liner. “I would rather put a song on people’s lips than in their ears.” —Pete Seeger (3 May was the 100th anniversary of his birth)

Hymn of intercession. “Holy Mother, where are you? / Tonight I feel broken in two. / I've seen the stars fall from the sky. / Holy mother, can't keep from crying. / Oh I need your help this time, / Get me through this lonely night. / Tell me please which way to turn / To find myself again.” —Eric Claption & Luciano Pavarotti, “Holy Mother”

For the beauty of the earth. Incredible time lapse footage shows a beautiful sunset in Western Australia, followed by a view of the Milky Way as it spins overnight into dawn. —ABC News

Altar call. “You will always have what you gave to love / In this life the love you give / Comes back around / To be your treasure / What you lose will be what you win / A well the echoes down too deep to measure.” —Beth Nielson Chapman, “Deeper Still”

Pastoral suggestion. If you’re willing to veer off the lectionary reading for this Sunday, consider preaching from Proverbs 8, featuring the character of “Wisdom” (“Sophia”).

Benediction. Women: Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! / Men: Speak up, that all may hear! / W: Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. / M: Oh, brothers, can you hear?” —continue reading “Mother’s Day,” a litany for worship, drawn from the words of Julia Ward Howe

Recessional. “Like a Woman,” Ryan Amador, a modern Mothers’ Day anthem celebrating the women who teach boys to grow into a different kind of manhood.

Lectionary for this Sunday. “The One on the Throne will pitch his tent there for them: no more hunger, no more thirst, no more scorching heat. The Lamb on the Throne will shepherd them, will lead them to spring waters of Life. And God will wipe every last tear from their eyes." —Revelation 7:15b-17

Lectionary for Sunday next.

• “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.” —continue reading “Acclaim the One whose breath is your bounty,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 148

• “Hallelujah,”  a poem adapting Psalm 23; musical rendition performed by Ken Medema, a Leonard Cohen tune

Just for fun. Watch master potter Vernon Owens create a ceramic candlestick holder on the wheel.

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Hallelujah,”  a poem adapting Psalm 23; musical rendition performed by Ken Medema, a Leonard Cohen tune

• “Acclaim the One whose breath is your bounty,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 148

For Mother’s Day

• “A brief history of Mother’s Day”

• “Mother’s Day,” a litany for worship, drawn from the words of Julia Ward Howe

• “Bread baking God,” a poem

• “Pastoral dilemmas with observing Mother’s Day” 

Other features

• “Eastertide: The outing of the church,” an essay

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor, as are those portions cited as “kls.” Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Feel free to copy and post any original art on this site. (The ones with “prayerandpolitiks.org” at the bottom.) As well as other information you find helpful.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at kensehested@prayerandpolitiks.org.

 

Ten quotes from Rachel Held Evans

(Feel free to add yours)

"Rachel Held Evans, a well-known Christian blogger, author, and joyful troublemaker online, died on Saturday [4 May 2019] from massive brain swelling after being hospitalized for an infection, according to her family. She was 37. Evans leaves behind two little kids, a husband, and four books to her name. Her death has been met with an up-swelling of grief and appreciation from loyal readers, famous pastors who sparred with her, and, especially, young people who saw her as a mentor." —continue reading Emma Green, "Rachel Held Evans, Hero to Christian Misfits," Atlantic

Here is a quick roundup of my top 10 quotes from her faithful heart and creative hand. —kls

• “Imagine if every church became a place where everyone is safe but no one is comfortable. Help us to hold one another to the truth.”

• “This isn’t a kingdom for the worthy; it’s a kingdom for the hungry.”

• “Cynicism is a powerful anesthetic we use to numb ourselves to pain, but which also, by its nature, numbs us to truth and joy.”

• Speaking to the scrupulous, genuflecting tradition of biblical authority in which she was reared, Evans wrote: “Everyone’s a biblical literalist until you bring up gluttony . . . or divorce, or gossip, or slavery, or head coverings, or Jesus’ teachings on nonviolence, or the ‘abomination’ of eating shellfish and the hell-worthy sin of calling other people idiots. [on the latter, see Matthew 5:22].”

• “I thought God wanted to use me to show gay people how to be straight. Instead, God wanted to use gay people to show me how to be a Christian.”

• “The apostles remembered what many modern Christians tend to forget—that what makes the gospel offensive isn’t who it keeps out but who it lets in.”

• “Jesus said his Father's House has many rooms. In this metaphor I like to imagine the Presbyterians hanging out in the library, the Baptists running the kitchen, the Anglicans setting the table, the Anabaptists washing feet with the hose in the backyard, the Lutherans making liturgy for the laundry, the Methodists stocking the fire in the hearth, the Catholics keeping the family history, the Pentecostals throwing open all the windows and doors to let more people in.”

• “While the word charity connotes a single act of giving, justice speaks to right living, of aligning oneself with the world in a way that sustains rather than exploits the rest of creation.”

• “It seems those most likely to miss God’s work in the world are those most convinced they know exactly what to look for, the ones who expect God to play by the rules.”

• “This is the difference between charity and justice. Justice means moving beyond the dichotomy between those who need and those who supply and confronting the frightening and beautiful reality that we desperately need one another.”

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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  30 April 2019 •  No. 192

Processional. “Lord I’m free, free, free, Lord I’m free.” —Melanie DeMore, “Free, Free, Free”

Invocation. “We seek justice in the world, we fight for the flourishing of each and all, not just because we suffer with others, but because we sense the luminosity and love the loveliness.” —Mayra Rivera

Special issue
EASTERTIDE: THE OUTING OF THE CHURCH
A collection of short reflections

Introduction. “Eastertide was the period when the early followers of Jesus were forced to recalibrate their messianic expectations. Good Friday’s execution was a crushing blow to their hopes. Despite Jesus’ repeated teachings to the contrary, the apostles still presumed Jesus would be the leader of a divinely-inaugurated coup d’état that would expel Roman occupiers and restore King David’s regal dynasty.” —continue reading “Eastertide: The outing of the church”

Call to worship. “For this, improbably, is the / Little Flock of Jesus empowered: / To stand amidst the rule of the / imperium, the markets of the / emporium and the impunity / of their praetorian guards—  / each with global reach and / aspirations, though none / so imperative as the / implausible mercy of God. . . . / How, indeed, shall we then live / in this enduring season between / Easter, / God’s Resurrection Moment, and / Pentecost, / God’s Resurrection Movement?” —continue reading “This Little Flock of Jesus”

Hymn of praise. “Death’s flood has lost its chill  / since Jesus crossed the river; / Lover of souls, from ill / my passing soul deliver.” —St. Mark’s Church Choir, “This Joyful Eastertide”

The entire universe’s supply of tears is insufficient to wash away the tragedy of human enmity. This is why Easter’s promise is not just important but is essential to any thought of any tomorrow devoid of death’s fragrance. —kls

Confession. "Is the sweetest melody the one we haven't heard? / Is it true that perfect love drives out all fear? / The right to be ridiculous is something I hold dear / Oh, but a change of heart comes slow. . . ." —U2, “I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight”

¶ “We should not be surprised that the women are overcome with 'fear.' The disciples have in fact been described as ‘fearful’ (phobeisthai) at several important ‘passages’ in their journey with Jesus: both stormy boat crossings (4:41; 6:50), his transfiguration (9:6), the portents of his execution (9:32), and the journey up to Jerusalem (10:32). . . .

        “The second epilogue, like the first (8:21), ends with a challenge to the reader in the form of an unresolved question. Will we ‘flee’ or will we ‘follow’? . . . We do not entirely understand what ‘resurrection’ means, but if we have understood the story, we should be ‘holding fast’ to what we do know: that Jesus still goes before us, summoning us to the way of the cross. And that is the hardest ending of all: not tragedy, not victory, but an unending challenge to follow anew. Because that means we must respond.” —continue reading this short excerpt from Ched Myers’ book, “Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus,” reflecting upon the open tomb ending of the first Gospel. “Jesus Still Goes Before Us”

Hymn of supplication. “Abide With Me,” David Hartley, steel guitar.

¶ “The sealing of the tomb is, I believe, notoriously misunderstood. I grew up with a Sunday School notion that to seal the tomb was a matter of hefting the big stone and cementing it tight. The seal, in my mind’s eye, was something like first-century caulking–puttying up the cracks to keep the stink in. Not so. This is a legal seal. Cords would be strung across the rock and anchored at each end with clay. To move the stone would break the seal and indicate tampering. . . . To move the stone and break the seal is a civil crime. The resurrection is against the law.” —continue reading this short excerpt from Bill Wylie-Kellermann’s book, “Seasons of Faith and Conscience”

¶ “Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it. He destroyed Hades when He descended into it. Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with. It was in an uproar because it is mocked. It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed. It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated. It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive. Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see. O death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory?” —excerpt from the Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom (347–407 CE) Archbishop of Constantinople. To see the full text, and more about Chrysostom, see this Orthodox Church in America link.

Words of assurance. For what can we hope? “Only this: confidence that / the dust is not that of / abandonment, but / of adama, of earth, earth / from which all adam receive / breath, and shall again, on / that rapturous occasion when / creation comes / unbound.” —continue reading “Psalm 30 interrogation: For Madeleine, too soon departed”

Right: Barbara Rose Jones is featured in one of 18 statues of leaders and participants in the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial in Richmond, Virginia commemorating protests which helped bring about school desegregation in the state. After losing a court challenge to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas) Supreme Court ruling outlawing school segregation, number public schools in Virginia were closing—some for only a day, but one entire school district, Prince Edward County, remaining closed for five years. (See more below.)

Short story: an April remembrance. “On April 23, 1951, quiet teen Barbara Johns (1935-1991) organized a strike of 450 students, fed-up that their dilapidated school in Farmville, VA had no desks or cafeteria and was dangerously overcrowded. An NAACP lawsuit went all the way to the Supreme Court, but, ordered to integrate, the county chose instead to close all public schools for 5 years! White terrorists forced the Johns family to leave town. But Martin Luther King Jr. was right about the arc of the moral universe. Persistent activism won out. In honor of Johns’ courage, a state office building in Richmond has been renamed for her.” —Pam McAllister; see more of her profiles—usually of unrecognized heroes—at her blog, “Activists With Attitude”
        For more on Johns, see “Virginia celebrates first-ever Barbara Johns Day,” WTVR, Richmond, Va.

Professing our faith. Once “the power of Easter has burst upon us . .  now we no longer strive to be good because we have to, because it is a duty, but because our joy is to please him who has given all his love to us! Now our life is full of meaning!” —Thomas Merton

Hymn of resolution. “The shackles are undone / The bullets quit the gun / . . .The stone it has been moved / The grave is now a groove / All debts are removed / Oh can't you see what love has done?” —U2, “Window in the Skies” (Thanks Kevin.)

¶ “One empty tomb poses no threat / to present entanglements, / any more than annual and / specially-adorned sanctuary / crowds encroach on Easter morn. / It’s Easter’s aftermath, / resurrectus contagio, / contagious resurrection / that threatens entombing empires / with breached sovereignty. / The Lamb Slain sings / of tribulation annulled, / of death undone, / of heaven reraveling the / sinews of soil and soul.” —continue reading “Easter’s aftermath”

Did you know? After fire ravaged the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, innumerable commentators mentioned in their statements of grief how this building represents “our shared European heritage and identity.” Few know that the architectural design owes its origins to Middle Eastern predecessors. —Diana Darke, Middle East Eye

¶ “The journey towards peace / is one in which the end is not / known at the beginning. / Frequently, the journey cannot / be made by flying over the conflict, / or by driving past the conflict. / Those paths are tempting, / but in the end often futile. / It’s only by walking through the conflict, / with the people who are living it, / sharing the dust, and the fatigue, / stumbling on rocks, and starting again; / weeping with those who weep, / and rejoicing with those who rejoice / that transformation can be reached.” —Janice Jenner, in “Footpaths,” newsletter of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University

Hymn of intercession. “When Jesus wept, the falling tear / In mercy flowed beyond all bound. / When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear / Seized all the guilty world around.” —OnlyAStarvingWriter, “When Jesus Wept” (Thanks Tim.)

Preach it. “But hope is not about what we expect. It is an embrace of essential unknowability of the world, of the breaks with the present, the surprises. Or perhaps studying the record more carefully leads us to expect miracles . . . to expect to be astonished. . . . And this is grounds to act. I believe in hope as an act of defiance. . . . There is no alternative, except surrender. And surrender not only abandons the future, it abandons the soul.” —Rebecca Solnit, excerpted from “Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities"

Your weekly devotional. Take a 17 minute break as you begin Eastertide to listen to Mahler’s “Symphony No. 2 Mov V,” featuring the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, and soloists Miah Persson & Anna Larsson (Thanks Kimberly.)

Can’t makes this sh*t up. The Trump administration is threatening to veto a UN Security Council resolution seeking to end the use of rape as a weapon of war. Why? Because the resolution contains language on the need for victims’ support from family planning clinics. —, Common Dreams

Call to the table. “It isn’t always easy here. We share in the conflicts common to all creation. Sometimes the vision seems slow, and weariness overtakes us. But joy sustains, and grace is sufficient. Our guiding creed is the Rule of Mercy. To its Author alone do we pledge faithfulness.” —continue reading “Covenant vows for new and renewing members,” a litany for worship

The state of our disunion. “Someone had to pick the cotton / Someone had to plant the corn / Someone had to slave and be able to sing / that’s why darkies were born.” —lyrics to “What’s Why Darkies Were Born,” sung by Kate Smith (1907-1986), who premiered the iconic song, “God Bless America”

Best one-liner. “The funny thing about the heart is a soft heart is a strong heart, and a hard heart is a weak heart.” —Criss Jami (Thanks Amy.)

¶ “Easter demands not sympathy for the crucified Christ but loyalty to the risen Christ. The proof of Easter is not a rolled-away stone, but carried-away Christians.” —William Sloan Coffin

For the beauty of the earth. When the trees slow dance: video from above of forest in Tulum, Mexico, swaying in the wind. (1:04 video. Thanks Kathryn.)

Altar call. “The greatest failure in the history of Christian thought is the separation of souls from bodies, spirit from soil, the wrenching of hearts from habitation—all representing the abdication of the realm of earth from the rule of Heaven. It is the great anthropomorphic heresy: that redemption is for humans alone, and then only for some ethereal essence: no bodies, no biology, no hills or dales, neither minnows nor whales.” —continue reading “Realm of earth, rule of Heaven: Bodified faith and environmental activism”

Benediction. "Martin Luther King did not become an icon of social change by giving a speech that said ‘I have a complaint. No, he dreamed of a different kind of world." —Rabbi Michael Lerner

Recessional. A most familiar piece of music—but that’s not the point. It’s the spontaneous dance. Count me among those who have a hard time sitting still and quiet in worship when splendor and/or revelation break out. (2:27 video. Thanks Martha.)

Lectionary for this Sunday. “Discard your reluctance, you saints and you sinners: Shout vowels of praise, sing consonants of delight. . . . Take my mourning heart and teach it to dance;  tailor my grieving gown into festival attire!” —“Weeping may linger," A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 30”

Lectionary for Sunday next. “The One on the Throne will pitch his tent there for them: no more hunger, no more thirst, no more scorching heat. The Lamb on the Throne will shepherd them, will lead them to spring waters of Life. And God will wipe every last tear from their eyes." —Revelation 7:15b-17

Just for fun. The Hooded Grebe Courtship Dance. —National Geographic

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Eastertide: The outing of the church,” a new essay

 • "Easter’s aftermath,” a poem

• “Realm of earth, rule of Heaven: Bodified faith and environmental activism,” an essay

• “Earth Day: The link between Easter and Pentecost,” an essay

• “Psalm 30 interrogation: For Madeleine, too soon departed,” a poem

• “Weeping may linger,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 30

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor, as are those portions cited as “kls.” Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Feel free to copy and post any original art on this site. (The ones with “prayerandpolitiks.org” at the bottom.) As well as other information you find helpful.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at kensehested@prayerandpolitiks.org.

 

Eastertide

The outing of the church

by Ken Sehested

       Some years ago, writing in the days leading up to Easter, I realized important though tragic anniversaries arrived in the days immediately following that Sunday.

        “Even before our resurrection flowers have wilted, we will be confronted again with the presence of evil. Since Easter falls early in the calendar this year, in the coming resurrection week we will be forced to remember the enduring power of death. In 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian, was executed by the Nazis two days after Easter Sunday. This next Thursday, April 4, we will remember the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. right here in Memphis.” —continue reading “Open Letter to My Daughter: Easter morning, with the stench of death still in the air”

Right: "Holy Spirit Coming," painting by He Qi.

What it is

        We have entered Eastertide, the liturgical season beginning with Easter and ending 50 days later on Pentecost (aka Whitsunday). The formulation of this season parallels the period in Judaism between the first day of Pesach (Passover, marking their liberation from Egypt) and the feast of Shavu’ot (Feast of Weeks, both a harvest festival and a commemoration of the giving of Torah at Mount Sinai). Parallel resurrection moments, setting the stage for resulting resurrection movements.

        Freedom’s announcement is not a spectator sport. Neither the parting of the sea, nor the rolling of tombstone, are part of some kind of divine service economy. God is not a personal attendant, working for tips (aka piety). God is the Ringleader, the Chief Inciter of the rebellion against the reign of every cruel and merciless force.

        There is no resurrection by proxy. It’s a bet your assets kind of involvement. The baptismal waters are troubled and troublesome.

        Eastertide was the period when the early followers of Jesus were forced to recalibrate their messianic expectations. Good Friday’s execution was a crushing blow to their hopes. Despite Jesus’ repeated teachings to the contrary, the apostles still presumed Jesus would be the leader of a divinely-inaugurated coup d’état that would expel Roman occupiers and restore King David’s regal dynasty.

        Hadn’t the Hebrew prophets predicted this messianic outcome—confirmed in Matthew’s and Luke’s birth narratives?

        We, even today, are not exempt from the same kind of disorientation caused by the resurrection’s disarranging announcement.

Eastertide as cognitive dissonance

        Eastertide is the season for Jesus’ followers to undergo a complete reimagining of the nature of power. It demands a decolonization of the mind and a regeneration of the heart: conception, conviction, and practice operating in tandem, each shaping, correcting, and reinforcing the other. A certain deconstruction is at work, and it is often discomfiting, for we are being stretched and refitted to become suitable couriers of the news that is disturbing before it is good.

        Near the very end of Luke’s Gospel, the text records this odd command from Jesus as he prepares to end his resurrectionary appearances to ascend to the Abba.

        “I am going to send you what my Father has promised [i.e., the paraclete or Holy Spirit]; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (24:49, emphasis added).

        Before the community of the resurrection could mobilize, before its power could be unleashed, it first had to undergo formation and instruction—something parallel to the Israelites’ confused wandering prior to receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai.

        Why? Because cognitive dissonance is a very real thing: deceptive appearances, deceitful powers, and fraudulent promises are everywhere. We first have to learn how to spot the fakery.

Eastertide as reorientation

        In “the world” (the disordered condition of creation), we are constantly being offered counterfeit assurances: You get what you deserve; you are what you own; only the strong survive; eat or be eaten. The assertions of the Beatitudes are contradicted at every turn: the poor are shamed; the mourners are taunted; the meek are mocked; the merciful are victimized; the peacemakers are disparaged.

        The thing that must be rectified before power “from on high” (i.e., not susceptible to manipulative human authority) can be granted, the discrepancy between what our eyes have been trained to see, our ears schooled to hear, must be retrained. In other words, we have been brainwashed. Or to use another metaphor: Before we can be comprehend the beatific vision by which we have been called, the warped neural pathways in our brains need to be disentangled in order to see where the Spirit is breaking out, to hear what the Spirit’s is declaring, to understand our marching orders.

        As Mark Twain put it, “You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

        Like all of the church’s liturgical seasons, Eastertide is not one and done. As with the formation of our faith, we learn bit by bit, by repetitive effort, a process that is not judged by achievement but by perseverance.

        In Luke’s story, after Jesus was baptized, the Divine Breath descended on him “as a dove” and as a “voice from heaven.” Then the text offers a lengthy genealogy, tracing Jesus’ lineage and career back to Creation’s story of origin. In his story line, something distinctive is occurring; but it is not novel. The narrative traces back to “in the beginning,” when the first Breath of God “swept over the face of the waters.”

        After that came the desert’s confirmation class, where assumptions about power were clarified. The wilderness was his catechesis. Not until those lessons were learned was Jesus’ anointment completed with his being “filled with the power of the spirit”—a power contradicting every earthly supremacist claim.

        That indwelling led to Jesus’ inaugural sermon. The congregation’s initial response was pride over a hometown boy made good, who recited venerated lines from the revered Prophet Isaiah. In his commentary, however—in bringing the text to bear on history’s details—Jesus veered from assumed Israel-first piety by telling a story of God’s privileging the needs of those in sh*thole countries. Hearing that, the crowd’s mood got ugly, and they were “filled with rage.” It was an affront—then as now—to hear that being chosen does not embargo Heaven’s affection.

Pentecostal preparation

        Eastertide is the season when we learn to tell a different story about a different configuration of power, inside out, upside down, the envisioning of a commonwealth that flips the script of every predatory claim of entitlement. Jesus’ lordship upends and overthrows lording of every sort.

        Pentecost is when we take Easter to the streets, and the streets are still mean. But the Apostles’ power—with the granting of fiery nerve and inspired breath upon earth’s turbid disorder—inaugurates the Spirit’s incursion against every affront to Creation’s intent and the Beloved Community’s surety.

        Eastertide’s preparation is for the Spirit’s outing of the church at Pentecost. There will be scandal; indeed the world’s current innkeepers will declare “no room” and will demand that we keep our noses out of its business.

        The Way of the Cross still leads home, sisters and brothers; but we are not left bereft. Attend to Eastertide’s tutoring. The tomb’s seal has been broken. The Comforter is present to sustain, to animate, to inform, and to incite the little flock of Jesus—not for exclusionary claim to the Beloved’s deference but for extravagant announcement of Mercy’s mending power, restoring the maimed and shamed (and all who find no “home” in the world’s present ordering), readying the table of refuge and bounty for the age to come.

        Alas, sorrow’s governance remains. In the ordinary days that follow in the wake of Pentecost’s tide, the names of additional martyrs will be added to our All Saints’ Day recitals. The rule of terror continues, by state and statute and commercial constraint. Zion’s true songs of praise are heard as threat since angels’ good tidings and joy’s insurgence cannot be brokered or patented or rationed.

        If left to our own resolve, the weight of woe would overwhelm even the strongest. But the Spirit has smuggled provisions through enemy lines. The attentive will spot clues of their whereabouts. The virtue of hope and the victual of sustenance have been readied. The supply chain, though constantly harried, has not been broken.

        The facts on the ground do not have the last word, though this cannot be verified by existing calculus. Cheating death is what we do—not from moral heroism but because joy’s embrace is more resilient than grief’s restraint.

        Be joyful, friends, though you have considered the facts.* Come out. Be seen. Pitch your tent in compassionate proximity to the disdained. In learning their names you will discover your own; and from their voices, discern what needs doing.

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*line from Wendell Berry
©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  19 April 2019 •  No. 191

Processional. “Lamb of God / with love poured out / you suffer with the world.” —The Many, “Lamb of God”

Above: Wisteria Tunnel at Kawachi Fuji Gardens, Japan.

Invocation. “Let him easter in us.” —line from a Gerard Manly Hopkins poem

Call to worship. “The spiritual life does not come cheap. It is not a stroll down a Mary Poppins path with a candy-store God who gives sweets and miracles. It is a walk into the dark with the God who is the light that leads us through darkness.” —Joan Chittister OSB, “Called to Question: A spiritual memoir”

Two seasonal essays.

        • “The week beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter Eve is arguably the most volatile and conflicted period on the liturgical calendar. Even the lectionary suggestions for Scripture readings give the options of celebrating a coronation or lamenting a crucifixion. Do we give priority to the cross or the crown?” —continue reading “Jesus wasn’t lynched because he talked about getting right with God”

        • “Earth Day observance represents a significant theological lens focusing Easter’s provision with Pentecost’s promise. In the testimony of Scripture, all creation is sentient—capable of responding to the Creator’s purpose, promise and provision.” —continue reading “Earth Day – The link between Easter and Pentecost”

Resources from prayer&politiks for local for congregations’ observance of Earth Day.

Hymn of praise. “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” Darrell Adams.

Why Easter is called Easter, and other little-known facts about the holiday.

To comprehend many themes in Christian faith, we must first explore the antecedents in Judaism. See “What is Passover?” —My Jewish Learning

Good news. “A federal court issued another blow to the Trump administration's aggressive deregulatory agenda when it ruled on Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must immediately reinstate an Obama-era pollution rule that sets methane emission standards for the oil and natural gas industry.” —Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams

Confession, reminiscent of Jesus’ “why hast thou forsaken?” “I read somewhere that you are / near the brokenhearted / Which causes me to wonder / if you have seen my heart / or is it just some distant thunder  / . . . ‘God Answers Prayer’ I’ve read / on greeting cards and bookmarks / Someday I hope to find ‘that prayer’ / and say it the right way / then maybe you will answer / . . . I do not understand how / to see into the unseen / or if it’s you, or if it’s me / who seems to be / agnostic, God.” —poem fragment from Aaron, a friend in prison

¶ In late March and early April, fires consumed three century-old African American congregations (pictured above) in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana: St. Mary Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist Church, and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. Authorities have arrested a suspect, the 21-year-old son of a deputy sheriff, and prosecutors charged him with three counts of arson and a fourth “hate crime” charge. (As of this writing, authorities are not using the word “terrorism” to describe this violence. They appear to be laying the groundwork to attribute the crimes to mental illness.) —for more background on previous fires in black churches in Louisiana, see Claire Taylor, Acadian Advocate

You can contribute to the rebuilding of these churches via a GoFundMe campaign organized by the Seventh District Baptist Association.

Hymn of supplication. “We all see through different eyes / Blinded by each other’s lies / Truth be told we’re all the same / A mother lies awake at night / Not a trace of hope in sight / She’s asking god who to blame / She’s on her knees and screams his name / No luck from above God knows it’s not easy to love.” —Eli Yacinthe, “Easy to Love” (Thanks Mandy.)

Words of assurance. Watch this brief (2:37 video) excerpt of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech, “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” delivered under stressful conditions (the first march in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis had turned violent) on the night before King's assassination.

Professing our faith. “As a deputy and an employee of the county, I have to watch out for residents. But as a human being and a Christian, I also have to watch out for people. . . .” —Deputy Sheriff and code enforcement investigather Ben Cothran, who spends off hours working with Rev. Kurt Stutler, pastor of South Main Chapel and Mercy Center, whose ministries include care for the homeless in Anderson County, SC, in Kirk Brown, “When the woods are home,” Independent Mail

Hymn of resolution. “Old Rugged Cross,” Zane King, steel guitar.

¶ “Earth Day challenge for gardeners: Don't poison bees.” —Rachel Layne, CBS News (Thanks Davis.)

Short story. “As the author E.B. White watched his wife Katherine planning the planting of bulbs in her garden in the last autumn of her life, he wrote, ‘there was some thing comical yet touching in her bedraggled appearance . . . the small hunched-over figure, her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection.

        “‘Katherine was a member of the resurrection conspiracy, the company of those who plant seeds of hope under dark skies of grief or oppression, going about their living and dying until, no one knows how, when or where, the tender Easter shoots appear, and a piece of creation is healed.’" —Robert Raines

Hymn of intercession. “Have mercy, my God, / for the sake of my tears! / Look here, heart and eyes / weep bitterly before You. / Have mercy, have mercy!” —translation of lyrics to "Erbarme dich mein gott" (“Have mercy, my God”) from Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” performed by Delphine Galou, contralto

Word. “Act on climate change like you did on Notre-Dame, activist Greta Thunberg begs EU.” Within 24 hours some $700 million [the total is now $1 billion] has been pledged to rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. How can we provoke such bold generosity to confront climate change? —SBS News

More from the young, following the March 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. After the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, students mobilized for action, including trips to meet with legislators in Florida and, in Washington, DC, members of congress. Here is an extraordinary afterward statement by Parkland student Delaney Tarr, one of the organizers of March for Our Lives. (1:43 video)

¶ “Jesus was lynched. Holy Week’s symbols should include a cross and a noose.” —, Baptist News Global
        Which reminds me that Will Campbell once quipped, “If want to feel the true meaning of the cross, wear a miniature electric chair on your necklace.”

¶ “In the old days, on Easter night, the Russian peasants used to carry the blest fire home from church. The light would scatter and travel in all directions through the darkness, and the desolation of the night would be pierced and dispelled as lamps came on in the windows of the farm houses, one by one. Even so the glory of God sleeps everywhere, ready to blaze out unexpectedly in created things. Even so his peace and his order lie hidden in the world, even the world of today, ready to reestablish themselves in his way, in his own good time: but never without the instrumentality of free options made by free people.” —Thomas Merton

Preach it. “It’s Friday But Sunday’s Coming,” a short clip (3:34) from Tony Campolo’s most famous sermon.

Can’t makes this sh*t up. “In an eye-opening exclusive reported by CNN, it was revealed that former Aetna Medical Director, Dr. Jay Ken Iinuma, admitted under oath that ‘he never looked at patients’ records when deciding whether to approve or deny care.’ This admission was made during a deposition in a lawsuit brought against Aetna by Gillen Washington, a 23 year old with common variable immune deficiency (CVID) who was denied coverage for an infusion of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) four years ago.” —, Forbes

Right: “Christ carrying the cross” by Sadao Watanabe, Japan’s foremost Christian artist. See more of his art.

Call to the table. “It was in losing the fear of death that I began to understand faith and hope. Faith is the belief that certain outcomes will happen, and hope is the belief that they can happen. The work of faith is to actively surrender to forces unseen, to acknowledge that what is desired will come about, but by means you might never know – and this is difficult. Faith will sometimes waver. . . .

        “Hope is the precursor to strategy. It powers our vision of how to bring about a desired goal, and it amplifies our efforts. I am not surrendering to luck, or a blind faith that things will just get better. I am reminded that to have faith that a world of equity and justice will emerge does not relinquish one’s role in helping it do so. This is the way to use hope: as faith’s companion, and vice versa.” —DeRay Mckesson, “‘,” Guardian

The state of our disunion. “Fuzzy chicks and cut bunnies are part of the pastel pantheon of Easter décor, and their charm helps define the look of the season. . . . The key to a modern Easter look is simple, according to Kevin Sharkey, executive creative director for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia: ‘It’s about a controlled color palette.’

        “At ALLYOU.COM, find instructions for turning eggshells into tiny votive holders, nestled in silver egg cups—an elegant Easter dinner idea. Spring hues and simple style elements will take your Easter décor from sweet to sublime.” —Kim Cook, Associated Press

Best one-liner. “We seek justice in the world, we fight for the flourishing of each and all, not just because we suffer with others, but because we sense the luminosity and love the loveliness.” —Mayra Rivera

For the beauty of the earth. “The secret life of flowers,” short (3:46) animated video. —

Altar call. “Return to your heart, O you transgressors, and hold / fast to the One who composted soul and soil alike. / Stand with the Beloved and your footing shall be / firm. Rest in the Merciful One and you shalt be / buoyed.” —continue reading “Return to your heart: Altar call for repentance and amendment”

Benediction. “May Easter’s affection / spawn many children / who know / despite the trouble / the toil / the rubble strewn soil / the way of the cross leads home.” —Easter blessing by Ken Sehested

Recessional. “Ain’t No Grave (Can Hold My Body Down),” A Southern Gospel Revival & Jamie Wilson.

Lectionary for this Sunday. Confronting white supremacy with Easter’s announcement: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any who fear God and does what is right is acceptable to God.” —the Apostle Peter, Acts 10

Lectionary for Sunday next. “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” —the Apostle Peter, upon his arrest by the Temple police, Acts 5:27-32

Just for fun. Think of this brief (1:32) video as analogous to the early disciples’ (and ours) stumbling, bumbling efforts to understand our mission. (Thanks Linda.)

And before we go, a wee bit of bragging—prayer&politiks won two writing awards from the Associated Church Press (for material published in 2018): “He desired a better country: A remembrance of David McReynolds,”  and “Getting soaked: A meditation on the recovery of baptismal integrity.”

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Jesus wasn’t lynched because he talked about getting right with God”

• “Earth Day – The link between Easter and Pentecost”

• Earth Day resources from prayer&politiks for local congregations

• “Return to your heart: Altar call for repentance and amendment”

Right: Each of the three “Rose Windows” (this one the "North") in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris were among the art objects rescued from the fire. More than a billion dollars has already been raised to rebuild the 13th century church building.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor, as are those portions cited as “kls.” Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Feel free to copy and post any original art on this site. (The ones with “prayerandpolitiks.org” at the bottom.) As well as other information you find helpful.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at kensehested@prayerandpolitiks.org.

 

Jesus wasn’t lynched because he talked about getting right with God

A Holy Week meditation*

by Ken Sehested
Maundy Thursday 2019

        The week beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter Eve is arguably the most volatile and conflicted period on the liturgical calendar. Even the lectionary suggestions for Scripture readings gives the options of celebrating a coronation or lamenting a crucifixion. Do we give priority to the cross or the crown?

§  §  §

        The Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday is filled with obvious references to religious-inspired revolutionary fervor. His choice of riding a donkey (instead of a stallion, the typical transport of royalty and military leaders) is, on the one hand, a form of satire on the nature of power. But it was also a form of theater linking his upside down kingship claim dating back to the sixth century BCE Prophet Zechariah, where God promises a donkey-mounted king who will “cut off the chariot . . . and the war horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea . . . to the ends of the earth” (9:9-10).

            We should remember that it was no coincidence that the Gospel writers chose words like “Lord,” “Savior,” “Son of God” and “Prince of Peace” to account Jesus’ birth narratives. These exact same terms were also used of the great Caesar Augustus, ruler of the Roman Empire during that period. These narratives are evidence of the serious ideological conflict between the contrasting visions pitting the Reign of God with the rulers of this world. [1]

§  §  §

        We know from many sources that Rome’s signature brand was to offer religious “freedom” to its conquered peoples, but only insomuch as these peoples’ piety remained silent on empire’s dominion.

        Many inscriptions describing Caesar’s divine status can still be found. On some of those artifacts you can read about the Caesar’s “gospel”—literally, euaggelia, the same root word in Greek we Christians use when we speak of evangelism.

        Jesus’ highly symbolic entrance into Jerusalem—the theological center of the biblical world—also fulfills the first century prophecy of the Hebrew priest, Zechariah, father of John the Baptizer, who on learning of Mary’s pregnancy, forecast the coming of Messiah and the global peace proclaimed by this humble prince, fulfilling the angels’ song in Luke 2:14: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward people!”

        Glory, to God . . . and peace, for the earth, are inextricably bound. Heaven’s righteous insurgency unfolds as earth’s just ordering.

§  §  §

        Clearly, Jesus was linking his mission with the foundational Jewish memory of the Passover, marking their liberation from Pharaoh’s slave labor force centuries before. Passover was Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans’ Day, Flag Day, and Fourth of July all rolled into one. Rome dramatically increased its security forces during the season.

        The shouts of “Hosanna” from the crowds gathered for this parade were not exclamations of pious sentiment. It wasn’t “hallelujah,” “praise the Lord,” or “amen!” Hosanna means in Hebrew, “Save us, we beseech you!” And the saving was not merely souls for heaven but the nation from colonial rule. “Hosanna” was holiness manifest in righteous governance.

        Not long after Jesus’ crucifixion there arose in Israel a fanatical band of Zealots, the Sicarii, who carried out political assassinations against both Roman officials and Jewish Temple elite who collaborated with the occupiers, using daggers (sicae) which were easily concealed in cloaks, and perpetrators easily blended in with the throngs crowding Jerusalem’s streets.

        The use of palm fronds lining the roadway is likely an intended reference to the second century BCE Israelite priest and rebel commander Judas Maccabeus, namesake of the revolt against the Seleucid (Hellenist) Empire’s control of Jerusalem and, especially, the cleansing of the Jewish Temple of Greek gods and goddesses portrayals. The coup was successful but short-lived.

§  §  §

        Jesus’ militant overturning of the Temple moneychangers’ tables was not an assault on financial transaction but on economic exploitation of the poor, an obvious recollection of the “jubilee” admonitions in Hebrew Scripture regarding sabbath practices that include the cancellation of debt, land redistribution, and freeing of slaves. The Temple porticos, where money changers charged exorbitant rates to exchange the many foreign pilgrims’ currency to Hebrew shekels (for purchasing sacrificial animals), were a form of hawking access to the holy. (Several decades later, in the Jewish Revolt of 66, one of the first acts in the rebellion against Roman occupation was the burning of the debt records stored in the Temple archives.)

        In other words, Jesus wasn’t lynched because he talked about getting right with God. He was executed in the most brutal way of that day, literally nailed to a tree—right alongside the highway, for all to see—a punishment for which the Roman authorities reserved for political subversives. Crucifixion was an important tactic in Rome’s “war on terror,” designed not so much to kill as to intimidate, dominate, and pacify.

        Pax Christi, the peace of Christ, was (and sometimes still is) a threat to Pax Romana, the “peace” resulting from Roman tyranny.

§  §  §

        The believing community’s choice between marking Holy Week either as coronation or crucifixion has consistently bedeviled its theological vision and discipling presence. Coronators want to crown Jesus as Sovereign in order to put churchly authorities in charge of social order (directly, in some traditions; indirectly, in others). A focus on Jesus’ “passion” typically sets aside history from meaningful attention, turning the drama into a metaphysical transaction, isolating human affairs from the resurrection’s subversive implications.

        In both cases, God comes out looking like a divine child abuser.

        The import of Christianity’s premier season simply dissipates when stripped of its fleshly, corporeal context. Inasmuch as the church’s proclamation skips from Jesus’ crib to his cross to his crown of glory, the defining content of Jesus’s message—his instruction, his healing, his parables, his choice of companions, his preoccupation with the marginalized—become disposable. Then, what passes for church becomes a near-perpetual capital campaign to extend and adorn its sanctuaries—where nothing that troubles Herod is heard again. [2]

        God is not a sadist requiring blood sacrifice to satisfy divine displeasure. Rather, God’s intention—in the incarnate presence of Jesus—intentionally disavows vengeance. [3] The crucifixion was not a premise in divine logic. Jesus’ execution was the conclusion of his seditious life. And it was an explicit repudiation of bloodlust as the enduring arbiter of creation’s order. The passion of Christ, to endure suffering rather than inflict retaliation, is the secret to the resurrection’s power to breach the seemingly insurmountable walls of hostility that have plagued the world ever since the abandonment of Eden.

        This is God’s unilaterally disarming initiative. The Resurrected One’s emergence from the grip of death broadcasts, even today, God’s invitation to likewise walk this Way. [4] It is precisely the Way of the cross that leads home and empties tombs.    

        The failure to love enemies is to hedge on Jesus. We are, as the Apostle said, “baptized into Christ’s death,” implicated by the sedition of our own faithfulness. Thereby we also share in the resurrection and the promised new heaven and new earth, where every tear will be dried and death itself comes undone. [5]

#  #  #

ENDNOTES

[1] Remember that John the Revelator’s account of history’s culmination, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah” (11:15).

[2] “We’ll worship the hind legs off Jesus and never do a thing he says.” —Clarence Jordan

[3] “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” —Matthew 26:53

[4 The earliest disciples were simply called “People of the Way.”

[5] cf. Revelation 21:1-4

_____________________

Maundy Thursday, 18 April 2019. For more on the meaning of Maundy Thursday, see “Bless are you if you do them: Maundy Thursday’s mandate.”

All linocut art on the page by Julie Lonneman.

*I am indebted to my friend and colleague Joyce Hollyday for some of the insights in this article, stemming from her 14 April 2019 sermon, “Give Us Jesus,” at Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC.

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

 

 

 

Earth Day – The link between Easter and Pentecost

Pacem, pacem, pacem in terris

by Ken Sehested

Easter’s focus is always sharper when allied with Earth Day. We sing, properly, of being wayfaring strangers. “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor” (Deuteronomy 26:5) is among the oldest testimonies of fate and faith. An alternate translation—“A Syrian ready to perish was my ancestor”—brings added poignancy to the text.

We are indeed strangers; but not foreigners. In common usage these two words seem similar. Biblically speaking, though, the theological difference could not be greater.

§  §  §

This “world” is not my home; but this earth is.
We are not drifters: directionless, detached,
disaffected, suffering neither loves nor longings,
risking no hopes, claimed by no promises.

We are in fact squatters, occupying the land and
waters whose only trustworthy deed challenges
every indenturing creed, every realty’s lien which
privileges the few at the expense of the many.

We seek no flight to another terrain for it is this
very domain— every meadow’s shadow, every peak’s
brow, every river’s careen, every furrow’s plough—
which asserts heaven’s riposte to Hades’ advance.

§  §  §

Earth Day observance represents a significant theological lens focusing Easter’s provision with Pentecost’s promise. It’s not only human reality on the line (contra our abiding anthropocentric arrogance); and not only sentient life. In the testimony of Scripture, all creation is sentient—capable of responding to the Creator’s purpose, promise and provision.

        § When covenant faithfulness is ruptured, thorns and thistles abound (Genesis 3:17-19); rain is withheld (Deuteronomy 11:11-17); the land languishes and mourns (Isaiah 16:8, 33:9; Hosea 4:3) and vomits (Leviticus 18:28); the stone cries out from the wall and the beams from the woodwork respond (Habakkuk 2:9, 11); the stones cry out (Luke 19:40); light disappears from the heaven, mountains waver, hills palpitate, gardens become wastelands (Jeremiah 4:23-26); the earth withers (Isaiah 24:4).

        § On the other hand, when righteousness and justice abound, mountains drip sweep wine (Amos 9:13); rough places are smoothed (Isaiah 40:4); the sun lifts its hand in praise (Habakkuk 3:10); the seas roars and the fields exult (Psalm 96:11); fire and hail, snow and frost, fruit trees and cedars offer praise (Psalm 148:8-9); the wilderness shall be glad, the desert rejoice and bloom (Isaiah 35:1); trees will clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12) and sing for joy (Psalm 96:12), the heavens testify (Psalm 19:1).

        § The covenant of peace will free creation from its bondage (Romans 8:21); beasts and birds and all creeping creatures are heirs to this covenant (Hosea 2:18); the earth shall be satisfied (Psalm 104:13); sabbath provided even for cattle (Leviticus 25:7); the leaves of the trees will provide healing (Revelation 22:1-2).

§  §  §

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth. . . .” (Matthew 6:10) Pacem, pacem, pacem in terris.

#  #  #

*Lines from “Pacem in Terris,” a poem by Ken Sehested.
©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

The prowess of Resurrection’s promise

A Holy Week meditation

by Ken Sehested
6 April 2016

“I shall wrassle me up a future or die trying.”
—Zora Neale Hurston, African-American novelist and folklorist
(and daughter of a Baptist preacher)

        Dustin Johnson is currently at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking. Talking about his talent, both physical and mental, one of his colleagues commented in an ESPN interview, “He’s fearless. It’s like he doesn’t really care if he wins or loses.”

        Obviously, that’s hyperbole. I’m sure Johnson does in fact enjoy winning. But the comment underscores something very important: Maybe Johnson’s greatest asset is not allowing the fear of losing to dominate his play.

        A similar quality of fearlessness is the driver of spiritual formation. It doesn’t literally mean we’re never afraid. Fear—as in caution, of assessing circumstances with eyes wide open—is an instructive capacity. But we humans have a marked tendency to give fear the Number 1 ranking in our repertoire of motivating factors.

§  §  §

        In my own mind, one of the historical narratives that line up in the shadow of Holy Week’s preface to Easter is the story of the colonial Puritan state church’s opinion of their ana/baptist neighbors in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The dissenters were considered “incendiaries of the Commonwealth, and the infectors of persons in matters of religion,” particularly when it came to denying “the ordinances of magistracy, and the lawfulness of making war.”

        Rabble-rousers have always and everywhere been a threat to those assuming their governing order reflects Heaven’s blueprint. As the great suffragette Susan B. Anthony said, “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”

        These days, given the national pride we take in the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., you would think that no one in their right mind would have opposed the Civil Rights Movement. How easily we forget that for years he was surveilled (mostly illegally) by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (which considered him “the most dangerous Negro in the country”), the National Security Agency, and the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command.

§  §  §

“When asked about the need to complete an overwhelming task, Rabbi Tarfon replied:
‘You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.’”
—Mishnah, Pirkei Avot

§  §  §

        This past week we marked the fiftieth anniversary of King’s watershed speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break the Silence,” where he offered a full-throated objection to the Vietnam War and traced the corrupt triangle of “racism, materialism, and militarism.” His Nobel Peace Prize reputation took a beating. Liberal funding sources dried up. More than a few of his own advisors begged him not to deliver this speech. And mainstream media shushed him.

        •The New York Times, formerly a supporter, ran an editorial, “Dr. King’s Error,” chiding him for linking foreign policy (the US war in Vietnam) with domestic policy.
        •The Washington Post said “King has diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.”
        •Life magazine called it “demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi.”
        •Reader’s Digest warned it might provoke an “insurrection.”
        •Even the NAACP, our nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, issued a public statement decrying King’s linkage of the civil rights and anti-war movements.

         Almost never, in our countless King Holiday recitations, do we hear his judgment about "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today—my own government."

§  §  §

        Honoring courage past is forever easier than (and often a substitute for) practicing it presently.

§  §  §

        It has been rightly said that courage is fear that has said its prayers. Disciplined training in faith must not repress fear, which should always have a voice in the heart’s counsel table. But fear shouldn’t be allowed to run the meeting.

        The King James rendition of Paul’s letter to his young associate reads, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). The “sound mind” is elsewhere rendered as self-control, discipline, wise discretion.

         There's a difference between being a "fool for Christ" and a garden-variety damn fool. The Gospel is and will always be "foolish" in the eyes of a compromised world; but not all foolishness is Gospel. The work of discernment is never relaxed, bringing reason to work, within the prayerful community of faith, in conversation with Scripture and its interpreted tradition.

         As Jesus instructed the crowd gathered to hear him, “do not fear those who can kill the body (Luke 12:4)—but steer clear of the one who can also snatch the soul as well. In this text, the implied synonym for “soul” is “fearlessness.” The fearful state itself is Gehenna (“hell”).

         Fear is to faith what darkness does when the light comes on.

§  §  §

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”
—Kris Kristofferson

§  §  §

        “I’m not fearing any man” Dr. King shouted in his final speech, on the eve of his assassination. I can think of no better way to prepare for Holy Week than listening to King’s “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” speech in Memphis.* It was an eerily prescient occasion, not unlike Jesus' foresight, in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying while Peter, James and John slept, finally awakening his friends to say "my betrayer is at hand" (Matthew 21:36-46).

        Growing in faith involves bridling fear. The freedom to live fearlessly comes as a result of the conviction that nothing—not even death—can take away anything essential. When Scripture speaks of God’s comfort, the emphasis is not on a pacified emotional condition but on the wellspring of an activated, daring, redemptive presence in a world of threat.

        Indeed, fearing God is the very leverage that allows believers to live fearlessly within all other relations. Such is the prowess of Resurrection’s promise.

§  §  §

"Ain't No Grave (Can Hold My Body Down)"
—"Brother" Claude Ely, performed by Johnny Cash

#  #  #

*Here are three options for listening to “I Have Been to the Mountaintop”:
        •Complete speech (43:14 audio)
        • Excerpts (22:14) of the speech along with photos, video clips and commentary from some of his colleagues.
        •Brief excerpt of the speech’s key lines. (2:37 video)

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org
Linocut art ©Julie Lonneman