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Signs of the Times  •  11 April 2019 •  No. 190

Processional. “The Soundmaker,” electrifying acoustic guitar performance by Rodrigo y Gabriela. (Thanks Tom.)

Above: Sunset on Sugar Ridge Road, Ennis, TX in bluebonnet season. (Getty Images)

Invocation. “Oh, Strong Refuge, incline your ear to the clamor of children and all of weary voice. Hasten now, all you whose life is spent with sorrow, you of bone-wasting days, of sighing weeks and storm-tossed years. Come to the Sheltering Presence of the One who knows, The One who tapes your photo to Heaven’s refrigerator door.” —continue reading “By Thy might,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 31

Special issue
THE WAR IN YEMEN: WHY IT MATTERS

Introduction
"The world's worst humanitarian crisis"

        The news was easy to miss. I saw it in several media, but never “above the fold” or in the opening lineup of topics for cable news shows. And there is reason to debate how significant the news is, depending on your level of political optimism or pessimism.

        But the fact that Congress recently voted to exercise its never-before-used War Powers Act to cut off US funding for the Saudi-led war in Yemen is at least unusual. The face that both the House and the Senate approved the measure is significant; though the margin in the Senate makes it unlikely they can override an anticipated veto by President Trump. —continue reading “The war in Yemen: Why it matters”

Call to worship. “With feet-wearied hope doth my voice still rejoice.  / Incline us, consign us, to steadfast Embrace. / With glad songs of vict’ry, from the formerly vanquished, / let the festal procession loot the treasury of fear.” —continue reading “Mutinous lips,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 118

Hymn of praise. “When I come to die, / When I come to die, / When I come to die, / Give me Jesus.” —“Give Me Jesus,” Calvin Carter

By the numbers. The war in Yemen, which multiple international authorities describe as currently the worst humanitarian disaster in the world, has caused untold suffering.

        The war is directly responsible for the deaths of somewhere between 15,000-60,000 people since 2015.

        An estimate 85,000 children have died from starvation and easily preventable diseases; another 1.8 million under the age of five suffering acute malnutrition. —Rick Noack, Washington Post

        “Of the nearly 29 million people in the country, about 22 million — nearly 76 percent of the population — need some form of humanitarian assistance. Among them, 16 million don’t have reliable access to drinking water or food, and more than 1 million Yemenis now suffer from cholera.” —Alex Ward, “Yemen’s humanitarian catastrophe, in one chart,” Vox

¶ “Yemen crisis: Why is there a war?” —BBC News

Confession. Of a former US Air Force drone program technician. “I consider drones to be terror.” —AJ+ video (2:24)

¶ “When a Saudi F-15 warplane takes off from King Khalid air base in southern Saudi Arabia for a bombing run over Yemen, it is not just the plane and the bombs that are American. American mechanics service the jet and carry out repairs on the ground. American technicians upgrade the targeting software and other classified technology, which Saudis are not allowed to touch. The pilot has likely been trained by the United States Air Force.

        “And at a flight operations room in the capital, Riyadh, Saudi commanders sit near American military officials who provide intelligence and tactical advice, mainly aimed at stopping the Saudis from killing Yemeni civilians.” —Decian Walsh & Eric Schmitt, New York Times

Hymn of supplication. “By night we hasten in darkness / to seek for the living water / Only our thirst lights us onwards.” —"By Night", Jacques Berthier

¶ “The war in Yemen is a humanitarian disaster and a strategic failure, with precisely the forces the [US] Administration says it opposes—Iran, jihadists, separatists—gaining ground on the back of the bankrupt Saudi-led war strategy.”  —David Miliband, former British foreign affairs secretary, Guardian

MSNBC, the nominally liberal 24-hour cable news channel, has yet to cover the Saudi-led, US-financed war in Yemen in 2019. From July 2017 to July 2018, the news channel’s stories mentioned Stormy Daniels 455 times with zero mentions of Yemen. —, Common Dreams

Words of assurance. “Morning by morning my Sovereign awaits my wakeful embrace of the dawn. My ears rise, eager, despite my heart’s meager consent to the summons of grace. Make our tongues worthy—make them constant and true—to sustain the weary with a word.” —continue reading “Sustain the weary with a word,” a litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 50:4-9a

¶ “CNN has established that the weapon [which struck a school bus full of children] that left dozens dead on August 9 was a 500-pound (227 kilogram) laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by Lockheed Martin, one of the top US defense contractors. (Photo above: Charred remains of the school bus struck by a US-made bomb dropped by a Saudi war plane. On the right is a bomb fragment notes its manufacturer.)

        “The bomb is very similar to the one that wreaked devastation in an attack on a funeral hall in Yemen in October 2016 in which 155 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. In March of that year, a strike on a Yemeni market—this time reportedly by a US-supplied precision-guided MK 84 bomb—killed 97 people.

        “In the aftermath of the funeral hall attack, former US President Barack Obama banned the sale of precision-guided military technology to Saudi Arabia over "human rights concerns."

        “The ban was overturned by the Trump administration's then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March 2017.” — Nima Elbagir, Salma Abdelaziz, Ryan Browne, Barbara Arvanitidis and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

US drone strikes in Yemen have killed more than 1,000 people, most in the last three years. —New America

¶ Listen as CNN’s Wolf Blitzer argues with Sen. Rand Paul, who opposes US funding of the war in Yemen, saying a lot of jobs would be lost if the US stopped supporting the war. (0:38 video)

Professing our faith. In her book Christianity After Religion, Diana Butler Bass notes that the English word believe comes from the German word, belieben, which is linked to the word for “love.” Rather than a truthful idea or opinion, “believe” is more akin to something cherished, something trustworthy, something worthy of devotion.

Right: President Trump, seated next to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, holding up a poster showing how many jobs were created from the money Saudi Arabia was spending to buy US weapons. Photo by Shealah Craighead, White House.

Hymn of resolution. “Take Me to the Water (to Be Baptized),” Darrell Adams.

Short story. “The Deaf Princess.” The amazing tale of Princess Alice, the deaf British royal who sheltered Jews in her home during the Holocaust.  —Accidental Talmudist (2:40 video. Thanks Connie.)

Hymn of intercession. “The ends of earth are in thy hand, The sea's dark deep and far-off land. And I am thine! I rest in thee. Great Spirit, come, and rest in me.” —Marty Haugen, “The Lone Wild Bird”

Word. “The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. . . . Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.” —Barbara Brown Taylor

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

Can’t makes this sh*t up. Listen to this brief (32 seconds) commentary by Senior White House advisor Stephen Miller (Trump’s “Director of White Supremacy”). Miller, by the way, is the great grandson of refugees seeking asylum in the US from anti-Jewish persecution in Belarus.

Call to the table. "Imagination is better than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work." —Mary Oliver

The state of our disunion. “The 2019 World Happiness Report says that Finland remains the happiest country on Earth for the second year in the row, while the U.S. drops to No. 19, its worst ranking ever (it was No. 18 in 2018 and No. 14 in 2017).” —, Fortune

The most poignant combination narrative and photos of the effects of the war in Yemen: “The Tragedy of Saudi Arabia’s War,” written by Declan Walsh, photos by Tyler Hicks, New York Times

Lenten instruction. “How does silence affect the brain?” —Bright Side (1:15 video. Thanks Henna.)

Good news for gardeners. “State lawmakers in Florida have told cities they must respect citizens’ property rights, and seemingly even more basic right to grow their own food. They just passed a bill ‘prohibiting local governments from regulating vegetable gardens on residential properties.’” — (Thanks Tom.)

Genuine sports hero. “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar auctions off NBA championship rings and other memorabilia for STEM education.” —CBS News

Best one-liner. “We must address the question of responsibility for one of the greatest American foreign policy disasters of the twentieth century." —Lt. General H.R. McMaster, former Trump Administration national security advisor, in his 1997 book, "Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam"

For the beauty of the earth. The amazing world of deep sea creatures. —BBC

Altar call. “Come you masters of war / You that build the big guns / You that build the death planes / You that build all the bombs / You that hide behind walls / You that hide behind desks / . . . I think you will find / When your death takes its toll / All the money you made / Will never buy back your soul.” —Bob Dylan, “Masters of War

Benediction. "I said: what about my eyes? / God said: Keep them on the road. / I said: what about my passion? / God said: Keep it burning. / I said: what about my heart? / God said: Tell me what you hold inside it? / I said: pain and sorrow? / He said: Stay with it. The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” —Rumi

Right: Destruction caused by Saudi airstrike in Yemen-Yahya Arhab-EPA.jpg

Recessional. “Let us agree to work while it is day. The night is coming when no one will be able to work!” —English translation of lyrics in “Ngatitenderane,” performed by Phillip Mudzidzi, pastor, peace activist and conflict transformation trainer in Zimbabwe.

Lectionary for this Sunday. “Sustain the weary with a word,” a litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 50:4-9a

Lectionary for Sunday next. “Choral reading of John 20:1-18,” a script, using 8 voices, to tell aloud John’s resurrection account.

Just for fun. Generic Northerner terrorizing London by saying “hello.” (1:39 video. Thanks Vic.)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “The war in Yemen: Why it matters," a new essay
• “Palms, Passion, Politics and Prayer,” a Palm Sunday sermon
• “Mutinous lips,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 118
• “By Thy might,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 31
• “Sustain the weary with a word,” a litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 50:4-9a
 
For Maundy Thursday
• “Wash your feet,” a Maundy Thursday litany for a foot washing service
• “Bounty and abundance,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 116
 
Easter
• “Choral reading of John 20:1-18,” a script, using 8 voices, to tell aloud John’s resurrection account

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The war in Yemen

Why it matters*

by Ken Sehested
*For more background, see the 11 April 2019 (No. 190) issue of “Signs of the Times.”

        The news was easy to miss. I saw it in several media, but never “above the fold” or in the opening lineup of topics for cable news shows. And there is reason to debate how significant the news is, depending on your level of political optimism or pessimism.

        But the fact that Congress recently voted to exercise its never-before-used War Powers Act to cut off US funding for the Saudi-led  war in Yemen is at least unusual. The face that both the House and the Senate approved the measure is significant; though the margin in the Senate makes it unlikely they can override an anticipated veto by President Trump.

        Created in 1973, after the disclosure of a mountain of governmental lies deployed to sustain the war in Vietnam, the Act was supposed to return to Congress the constitutional mandate for declaring war. The Act has gathered dust ever since, despite the fact that the US has undertaken military action in at least 14 countries since then, including the war in Afghanistan, which has now lasted nearly as long as all our other wars combined.

§  §  §

         The devastation in Yemen is hard to conceive: It is too far away (for us in the West), geographically and emotionally; there are multiple actors involved and a longer history to be accounted; and the US role in the war is largely hidden under layers subcontractors (which is the way empires prefer to exert their power, to maintain plausible deniability when espoused human rights values collide with acts of naked aggression).

        The most immediate cause of the war goes back to the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings that changed political landscapes in multiple Arab countries.

        In this case, the minority Houthi people, devotees of the Zaydi branch of Shi’a Islam who live mostly in the country’s northern region (along its border with Saudi Arabia), began an uprising against the country’s repressive government. The rebellion was so successful—in part because of support from Iran’s Shi’a government—that in 2015 Saudi Arabia, Iran’s principal rival in the region, organized a coalition of other Arab governments to fight the Houthi-led anti-government forces.

§  §  §

        One of the supreme ironies in this bloody mess is the fact that, indirectly, the US is funding al-Qaeda, against whom we started the War On Terror following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That organization’s branch on the Saudi Peninsula is also fighting the anti-government forces in Yemen.

        “‘Elements of the US military are clearly aware that much of what the US is doing in Yemen is aiding al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and there is much angst about that,’ said Michael Horton, a fellow at the Jamestown Foundation.”

        All parties to the conflict have likely committed war crimes, though in proportion to the very unequal size of their forces.

§  §  §

        The war in Yemen, which multiple international authorities describe as currently the worst humanitarian disaster in the world, has caused untold suffering.

        The war is directly responsible for the deaths of somewhere between 15,000-60,000 people since 2015. It’s hard to get reliable information in an active war zone, in one of the poorest nations on the earth.

        An estimate 85,000 children have died from starvation and easily preventable diseases; another 1.8 million under the age of five suffering acute malnutrition. A cholera outbreak has affected over a million people. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, if the population of Yemen was represented as 100 individuals, 80 need aid to survive, 60 have little to eat, 58 have no access to clean water, 52 have no health care provision, 11 are severely malnourished. To get a sense of the scale of this disaster, project those percentages on to a country of 28 million.

§  §  §

        The US role in the war has been substantial and includes accelerated sale of weapons, intelligence, logistical support, aerial refueling of Saudi (and their allies’) aircraft, and assistance with targeting.

        The most tangible link between US arms and civilian deaths in Yemen came when a CNN photographer found a piece of debris with US markings following the 9 August 2018 bombing of a school bus which killed 40 children, 11 adults, and injured scores more. It was a 500 pound MK 82 laser-guided bomb made by Lockheed Martin. Note: It was laser-guided bomb, acclaimed for its precision, not an unfortunate act of “collateral damage.”

Right above: Remains of the school bus hit by a US bomb; below, bomb fragment.)

        “The US is completely complicit,” said Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. “It’s like a drive-by. You know, if a drive-by shooter has obtained the car and the fuel and the bullets and the map and the surveillance and funding from another entity, then isn’t that other entity pretty complicit? And if the United States cut all that off, it would bring the war to an end within a day.”

            “When a Saudi F-15 warplane takes off from King Khalid air base in southern Saudi Arabia for a bombing run over Yemen, it is not just the plane and the bombs that are American. American mechanics service the jet and carry out repairs on the ground. American technicians upgrade the targeting software and other classified technology, which Saudis are not allowed to touch. The pilot has likely been trained by the United States Air Force.

            “And at a flight operations room in the capital, Riyadh, Saudi commanders sit near American military officials who provide intelligence and tactical advice.

            “‘In the end, we concluded that [the Saudis] were just not willing to listen,’ said Tom Malinowski, a former assistant secretary of state and an incoming member of Congress from New Jersey. ‘They were given specific coordinates of targets that should not be struck and they continued to strike them. That struck me as a willful disregard of advice they were getting.’”

§  §  §

        The US did stop aerial refueling last November, due in large part to the public relations embarrassment in the aftermath of the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. President Trump, who publicly celebrated the jobs created in the US by Saudi Arabia’s arms purchases, has contradicted his own intelligence services who confirm that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman directly ordered Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey.

            It is painful to admit that the death of one well-known individual has a greater affect on public policy than the death and suffering of millions. This admission underscores the cruel observation of Joseph Stalin, former mass murdering premier of the Soviet Union, who quipped, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.”

§  §  §

            To be sure, to fully explore the causation of the war in Yemen requires a longer historical lens. Support for the Saudi-led war was originally supported by President Obama, though Trump has knocked over a number of the guard rails previously in place to reduce the carnage. And remember, Obama’s authorization of 500+ drone strikes, some in Yemen, far and away exceeded those authorized by his predecessor, George W. Bush.

            Drone strikes stretch the distance between predator and prey, making it more palatable for the former to act without regret. The increasingly sophisticated technology of war creates a new moral compass: the further from the actual blood, the easier to sustain unburdened by ethical qualms.

            An even longer view of the war in Yemen goes back more than a century, when in 1916 Britain and France literally drew the current boundaries in the Middle East, abruptly severing historical kinships based on tribal, religious, and familial ties. It was a World War I military tactic, whereby Arab leaders were promised independence if they would revolt against their Ottoman Empire rulers.

            Moreover, to understand much of the conflict in the Middle East, including Yemen, requires attention to the repressive rule of Arab monarchs themselves, who often made self-interested deals with colonial powers for the extraction of natural resources, oil in particular. It is this corruption that provides a key motivating factor to the rise of revolutionary groups like al-Qaeda (whose jihadist heirs were financed by the US in places like Soviet-occupied Afghanistan) and the Islamic State (which spawned out of the bloodletting and chaos caused by the US invasion of Iraq).

§  §  §

            Though it likely wasn’t intended, a recent “Garfield” the cat cartoon by Jim Davis brilliantly summarizes the history of Western nations’ colonial foreign policy in three frames.

            Garfield, thinking to himself, first says “I’ve decided to give back to the world.” Then, “But first . . . I’m going to take a bunch of stuff.”

§  §  §

        “Since 1980,” writes Jeff Faux, “we have invaded, occupied and/or bombed at least 14 different Muslim countries. After the sacrifice of thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars, the region is now a cauldron of death and destruction. Yet, we persist, with no end in sight. As former Air Force General Charles F. Wald told the Washington Post, ‘We're not going to see an end to this in our lifetime. . . .’

        “The rationale here is embarrassingly circular—we must remain in the Middle East to protect against terrorists who hate America because we are in the Middle East.”

        When it comes to foreign affairs (in particular), most do not realize that, more often than not, our nation’s economic interests eclipse our humane political values. It’s not that there are no charitable impulses to be recognized and applauded. They are surely there. But typically these are preceded or displaced or overruled by errant, even vicious self-interest.

§  §  §

            I am aware of how frustrating it is to call attention to such tragedies while offering little that can be done in response (e.g., charitable giving to relief organizations, contacting legislators, etc.). It is at least as bad for writers to pile on guilt as it is for readers to remain indifferent.

Right: "Peaceable Kingdom" painting by John August Swanson.

            Guilt is not the issue; in fact, it is a dodge. At least in the common meaning of that word, guilt merely assuages responsibility; it does not unleash the freedom needed to make alternate choices and demand different public policies.

            Odd as it may sound, the incitement to such freedom is the intention of Lenten observance now underway in the Christian community. Lent’s invitation is to pay close attention, even when it’s discomforting; to strip away the accretions of self-possessed living; to encourage penitential denouncement of miserly habits to make space for regenerate, neighborly response in the midst of history’s degenerate affairs.

            Lent reminds us that sometimes a no must be said before yes can be uttered. A kind of dying must occur before the living—for which we were made—can be undertaken.

            Before Easter’s resurrectionary profession can be made, a certain insurrectionary practice must be launched. To be enlisted in such a movement is not the achievement of valiant willfulness or moral heroism. Such virtues are noteworthy; but first we must fall in love, to be captivated by what Dr. King referred to as the Beloved Community, enrapture by a beatific vision, to the dream of Creation’s purpose and Recreation’s promise.

            These can be accessed only by paying close, risky attention to the underside of history: to the forgotten places, to the overlooked tragedies, to the frail, the frightened, the vulnerable, which call us to compassionate proximity.

            That’s why Yemen matters. It is a mirror reflecting who we are; but also a reminder of whom, and by Whom, we are invited to accompany.

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©ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Wash your feet

A Maundy Thursday litany for a foot washing service

The following was used in a Maundy Thursday foot washing service, Circle of Mercy Congregation,
focused around the John 13 text of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet,

Long before the people of the Promise migrated to Egypt, long before their cries to heaven roused the ears of the Almighty, long before Moses led them on their freedom march to the promised land, the Lord God appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. As he did, three visitors suddenly appeared, and Abraham ran to meet them and bowed to the ground.

In the same way, Yahweh appeared in a vision to Isaiah, in the land of Judah, and said, Declare this to my people: “Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean!”

Back in Mamre, Abraham said to the heavenly visitors: “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant.”

And in Isaiah’s vision, God continued: “And in the washing, cease to do evil, learn to do good. Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

Then Abraham, ‘neath the ancient oaks, said to the guests: “Let a little water be brought to wash your feet; and a little bread that you may eat and be refreshed.”

“Behold,” say the ancients, “in your washing and your eating, in your seeking justice and pursuing peace, you shall be called the city of righteousness, a faithful nation.”

“If you know these things,” said Jesus, “you are blessed if you do them.”

For as it is written, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring good tidings, who prophesy peace and publish salvation, who says to the nations, ‘Your God reigns!’”

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©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org
Adapted  from Genesis 18:1-5, Isaiah 1:16-17; John 13:17; Isaiah 52:7.

 

Wash your feet

A Maundy Thursday litany for a foot washing service

The following was used in a Maundy Thursday foot washing service, Circle of Mercy Congregation,
focused around the John 13 text of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet,

Long before the people of the Promise migrated to Egypt, long before their cries to heaven roused the ears of the Almighty, long before Moses led them on their freedom march to the promised land, the Lord God appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. As he did, three visitors suddenly appeared, and Abraham ran to meet them and bowed to the ground.

In the same way, Yahweh appeared in a vision to Isaiah, in the land of Judah, and said, Declare this to my people: “Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean!”

Back in Mamre, Abraham said to the heavenly visitors: “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant.”

And in Isaiah’s vision, God continued: “And in the washing, cease to do evil, learn to do good. Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

Then Abraham, ‘neath the ancient oaks, said to the guests: “Let a little water be brought to wash your feet; and a little bread that you may eat and be refreshed.”

“Behold,” say the ancients, “in your washing and your eating, in your seeking justice and pursuing peace, you shall be called the city of righteousness, a faithful nation.”

“If you know these things,” said Jesus, “you are blessed if you do them.”

For as it is written, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring good tidings, who prophesy peace and publish salvation, who says to the nations, ‘Your God reigns!’”

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©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org
Adapted  from Genesis 18:1-5, Isaiah 1:16-17; John 13:17; Isaiah 52:7.

 

Blessed are you if you do them

Maundy Thursday’s mandate

by Ken Sehested
A 2018 Maundy Thursday sermon

        Last Friday several of the youth in our congregation joined several others from another congregation in our city, making the long drive to Washington, DC, to take part in Saturday’s “March For Our Lives” rally against gun violence.

        My wife Nancy, Circle of Mercy’s co-pastor, met them at the rendezvous point to offer a blessing on their journey. She said two things.

Right: Rev. David McNair, rector of Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, making a sign for use in the “March For Our Lives” march against gun violence, Washington, DC, which included youth from his church and from Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC

        First, she urged these young ones to understand this journey as a protest against existing public policy. This is part of what disciples do: Saying no to current arrangements where benefits flow to some while costs are borne by others. Getting in the way of such mayhem is part of our vocation.

        One of the ironies of faith-based servanthood is it sometimes requires us to be a nuisance, to disturb the peace when maintaining “peace” is a cover for injustice.

        Servanthood is not servility. (This is among our greatest confusions.) Wielding the towel and basin, as Jesus did in John’s account of the last supper, does not mean becoming a doormat for use by others to wipe their feet.

        Second, Nancy reminded them that on the night before his trial, where he was arrested while praying in the Mount of Olives, one of Jesus’ disciples grabbed a sword and cut off the ear of the chief priest’s slave. Jesus, restoring the man’s ear, said to his disciples, “No more of this!” (cf. Luke 22:51), which became our youth’s chant during the march.

        “You are going to our nation’s center of power to say ‘no more of this!’ Nancy told these pilgrims.

        Under the sway of Easter bunnies, chocolate binges, and spring fashion sales, Holy Week and Resurrection Morning observances have shed almost all connections to the volatile political events in Jerusalem leading up to Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into the city.

Left: Circle of Mercy members Kenzie Bell and Beth Maczka washing the feet of Rev. Angela Hernández, pastor of Iglesia Getsemani, Camagüey, Cuba. For more about this story see Kiran Sigmon's “While washing my daughter’s feet.”

        The season of Jesus’ final visit to Jerusalem was the fevered occasion of Passover. Passover was the story of the Hebrews’ miraculous escape from Egyptian bondage. Passover’s observance in first century Palestine was like President’s Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day all rolled up into one. The Jews were again in bondage, this time subjugated by Roman occupation. Jews from around the countryside streamed into Jerusalem for reasons of piety mixed with nationalist fervor. Rome ramped up its troop level every year at this time.

        Acts of terrorist assassination escalated during the Passover observance. Some Jewish Zealots—known as the Sicarii, armed with sicae, small daggers that could be hidden in their cloaks—attacked both Roman leaders and members of the Jewish Temple elite who collaborated with their Roman overlords.

        Remember what the people shouted as Jesus, mounted on a donkey—an intentional act of satire against the assumptions of military prowess conveyed by the war horse—paraded into the city to be met by cheering crowds who laid palm branches in the street, a common symbol of victory, peace, and triumph among ancient Near East populations.

        “Hosanna,” cried the people lining the parade route. “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of our Lord! Blessed be the kingdom of our father David! Hosanna.”

        These shouts were thinly-veiled expressions of political subversion, with the memory of the mighty King David brought to bear against the Roman Caesar Augustus’ chokehold on the nation.

Right: Pope Francis washes the foot of a woman during the foot-washing ritual at the Castelnuovo di Porto refugees centre (L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP). In previous years, Francis has observed Maundy Thursday by washing the feet of prisoners, the elderly and people with disabilities. Shortly after his election as pope in 2013, the pontiff made waves by including women in his foot washing ceremony at a juvenile detention center. Prior to Francis, the long standing papal tradition was that the Pope only washes the feet of priests. —for more see Antonia Blumberg, “Pope Francis Washes Refugees’ Feet in Catholic Ritual,” huffingtonpost

        The word “hosanna” isn’t merely a pious expression. It’s not like saying “Amen,” “Hallelujah,” or “Thank-you-Jesus!” The word “hosanna” means “come and liberate us!” It expresses the hope for martial intervention, for achieving political independence, authored by none other than the Creator of heaven and earth, the One who sponsored Abram and Sarai’s trek to the Promised Land, the One who empowered Moses to organize the Hebrews’ flight from Pharaoh’s slavery, the One who ransomed Judah from Babylonian bondage, the One invoked by the Prophets to indict Israel’s failure to practice justice in the marketplace, righteousness in the judiciary, faithfulness in the legislature.

        There is of course profound spiritual significance in Good Friday’s brutal arrest, torture, and trial—resulting in Jesus’ execution by crucifixion, an explicitly political form of state-sponsored terrorism designed to repress revolutionary violence—along with the seditious drama of Sunday’s rolled-away stone. But it is a spirituality which informs and reforms social, political, and economic norms. Throughout Scripture, the indwelling of the Spirit traffics in fleshly affairs.

        The starting point for this drama, though, occurs on Maundy Thursday, setting the stage for everything else.

        In some parts of the church, Holy Week’s Maundy Thursday service is one where the Jesus’ initiative in washing his disciples’ feet is replicated. “Maundy” (mandatum in Latin) means mandate, commission, injunction.

        The story is unique to John’s Gospel (13:1-17), the Eucharistic account that has no ritual eating and drinking. We are only told that “during supper” Jesus abruptly takes up a towel and basin of water and begins to wash his friends’ feet. Such washing was a common act of hospitality for hosts in a dusty land trod by sandaled feet. We don’t know why this hadn’t happened before the meal. If I were guessing, I’d say no one wanted to do this because none of the disciples wanted to be in Jerusalem in the first place. They knew the danger to Jesus implicated them as well.

        When he finished, Jesus used the occasion for his final instruction: “If I, your Teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one anothers' feet.” This is Maundy Thursday’s mandate. It was a form of anointing his disciples to enact a reversal of the world’s understanding of power. The righteousness of Heaven’s purpose involves caring for neighbors, particularly the vulnerable, not lording over them. Indeed, naming Jesus as “Lord” disrupts and undermines all forms of lording.

        But how is this annulment to be accomplished? By moral heroism? By accentuating the positive? By saintly disposition? By extraordinary feat of willpower?

        Notice the odd question Jesus asks his friends in the middle of his teaching. “Do you know what I have done to you?”

        In his presence, we have been acted upon. By his power we are no longer autonomous, belonging only to ourselves, putting our own welfare before all others. We do not become (as the marketing gods insist) consumers for whom “freedom” means the choice between cable or satellite, Mac or PC, window or aisle.

        Servanthood in the manner of Jesus involves relinquishing private interests in favor of covenant ties to the welfare of the community. St. Augustine famously said, “We imitate whom we adore.” At the core of our faith, the privilege-abandoning Jesus is the cipher for the self-abandoning character of God’s love, inviting and empowering us to participate in that self-giving nature.

Left: Art by Steve Erspamer.

        Short of Maundy’s mandate, Friday’s agony is little more than divine ransom (as if God was in the bartering business); the joy of Sunday’s empty tomb, little more than the reassertion of divine gloating.

        Capacity for living beyond rancorous human competition has been bestowed. We are freed to wash because we have been washed; to forgive because we have been forgiven; to live graciously because grace is loosening the knots of self-absorbed greed in our own souls. The process of conversion, which is a lifetime appointment, is a form of divine photosynthesis: receiving the light of the Beloved’s delight to regenerate the verdant fields of creation’s intention for shared bounty and extravagant endowment.

        In the Jesus story, there is no behavioral gap between believing and doing. “If you know these things,” Jesus says, “blessed are you if you do them.”

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©ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Earth Day resources

for local congregations

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

• "Earth Day: The link between Easter and Pentecost," a meditation

• “All People That On Earth Do Dwell,” old hymn, new lyrics

• “Earth’s habitus: A meditation on creation,” a poem

• “Heaven’s Delight and Earth’s Repose,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 145

• “Satisfy the earth,” a litany for worship on Earth Day

• “The earth is satisfied,” a litany for worship on Earth Day

• "Go out in joy," a litany for worship adapted from St. Francis' "Canticle of the Sun" and related Scripture texts

• “Covenant-making on Earth Day”

• “The earth is the Lord’s," a collection of biblical texts which reveal the non-human parts of creation responding to God’s presence, promise and purpose

• “The earth is the Lord’s,” a litany for use in worship on Earth Day

• “Pacem in terris,” a poem for Earth Day

• “Set our hearts on fire,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 65

•  “Life began in a garden,” a collection of quotes on gardents

• “Holy Great Smokies,” a call to worship recalling the mountain sites of covenant and confrontation in Scripture

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

 

 

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  28 March 2019 •  No. 189

Processional. A New Zealand haka, performed by students from various schools, paying tribute to two of their peers who died in the Christchurch shooting.

         “The haka is a ceremonial dance or challenge in Māori culture [of indigenous people in Aotearoa /New Zealand]. Often thought of as a war dance, haka are performed as a show of unity and strength, to welcome distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great achievements, occasions or funerals.” (Thanks Cynthia.) For more see “Christchurch shootings: How Maori haka unify New Zealand in mourning,” BBC News

Above: Silver fern, national tree of New Zealand.

Invocation. If you cannot imagine the rage of God, you have nothing to say of God. —kls

Special issue
TERROR IN NEW ZEALAND
What should it prompt from us?

Introduction to this special issue

        What can you do to abate the harm caused by the mass murders in New Zealand mosques? Not much, in the scheme of things.

        Which is not to say there’s nothing at all to do.

        For us in the US (and people around the world), we must use that tragedy as a mirror to examine how we are complicit with similar threats close to home. If the grief we experience over deadly news a half-world away is to be more than vaporous sentiment, fading with each text alert from our phones, there must be a contextualizing in our own location. —continue reading “Find a trailhead to the ministry of reconciliation: What should the Christchurch massacre prompt from us?”

Above: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (left) dons a hijab to comfort survivors of the attacks by a white supremacist on two mosques in Christchurch. Women across the country (right) wore headscarves as a sign of solidarity with their Muslim neighbors.

Call to worship. “Ignite our integrity, and right-size us in our britches.” —Rev. Meg Peery McLaughlin, prayer to open a session of the US House of Representatives. (Listen to the entirety of her prayer. 1:32 video. Thanks Pete.)

This is what worthy political leaders do in moments of crisis. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern comforting members of the Muslim community targeted by a mass murderer. (2:03 video)

Hymn of praise. “Other refuge have I none, / hangs my helpless soul on thee; / leave, ah! leave me not alone, / still support and comfort me. / All my trust on thee is stayed, / all my help from thee I bring; / cover my defenseless head / with the shadow of thy wing.” —Rev. James Cleveland and the Voices of Cornerstone, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”

Confession. “The very symbols of Trumpism—the MAGA hats, the wall, etc.—are more than merely physical objects. They are now emblems. They are now the new iconography of white supremacy, white nationalist defiance and white cultural defense.” —Charles Blow, “It’s Bigger Than Mueller and Trump,” New York Times

¶ “‘They are us,’ [New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda] Ardern said of the Muslims slaughtered in her country. And she talked in global terms. If the rest of the world is happier talking about ‘global jihadism’, she talked of global white supremacism.” —Robert Fisk, Independent

When thoughts-and-prayers have substance. It took New Zealand less than a week after the mass shootings at two Christchurch mosques to announce a substantial gun control policy, specifically banning semi-automatic rifles and high capacity magazines, along with an ambitious gun but-back program. —Tom Westbrook & Charlotte Greenfield, Yahoo

Hymn of supplication. “Our tribe is calling to the people / who have just set foot on this meeting ground / Bring with you the memories of all our dead / and so many tears spilling forth nation-wide. / Look at our people working across the land / spread out far and wide / Shaking is the ground, quivering is the sea. / Oh, the love and the pain within me. / The ground shakes and quivers, yeah!” —English translation of Maori traditional folk song, “E Te Iwi E,” performed by the New Zealand Youth Choir

Good news. “U.S. Muslims are partnering to raise funds to build 50 water wells in Africa and South Asia in honor of the 50 victims of the New Zealand mosque massacres. Since launching their crowdfunding effort on March 23, Sajjad Shah, founder of the Indiana nonprofit Muslims of the World, and “American Islamophobia” author Khaled Beydoun have raised over $73,000 for the project. ‘We wanted to make sure their stories are remembered,’ Shah said.” —Aysha Khan, Religion News

Words of assurance. “O Joy that seekest me through pain, / I cannot close my heart to thee; / I trace the rainbow through the rain, / And feel the promise is not vain, / That morn shall tearless be.” —Darrell Adams, “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go”

Infectious. “Using an Anti-Defamation League map of hate crimes, the researchers [at the University of North Texas] found that in the American counties which hosted one of Trump’s 275 campaign rallies in 2016, there was a ‘226 percent increase in reported hate crimes over comparable counties that did not host such a rally.’” —, Reader Supported News (Thanks Gwenyth.)

More infectious. “The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes reported across Britain increased by 593% in the week after a white supremacist killed worshippers at two New Zealand mosques, an independent monitoring group has said.” —, Guardian

Professing our faith. “Ain’t I a Woman,” spoken & music of Sojourner Truth, from a speech for the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851, performed by Florida State University Women’s Glee Club.

A global story. “In a larger context, none of the nationalist and exclusivist movements—Jewish nationalism in Israel; Islamism in parts of Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia; Hindu nationalism in parts of India; Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand—that have grown in recent years are grounded in theology. They’re all connected by a shared sense of grievance and an imagined community based on assumed shared ideals.” —Murali Balaji, Rewire.news

Hymn of resolution. “There’s room enough in Paradise / To have a home in Glory! / Jesus, my all, to heaven in gone / To have a home in Glory! / He whom I fix my hopes upon / To have a home in Glory!” —Robert McFerrin, “Oh, Glory”

Selective attention to reality. “Terror attacks carried out by Muslims receive on average 357% more media coverage than those committed by other groups, according to research conducted at Georgia State University. The study found perpetrator religion is a major predictor of news coverage of a terrorist attack.” —EurekAlert

A Brennan Center for Justice report reveals that while terrorism has been a top priority for the FBI since 2001, only about 10% of its resources focus on domestic terrorism. According to an Anti-Defamation League report “says that all but one of the 50 killings in the United States motivated by extremist ideology in 2018 were committed by people with some kind of link to right-wing extremism. One was linked to Islamic extremism.” —Leila Fadel, “Civil Rights And Faith Leaders To FBI: Take White Nationalist Violence Seriously,” NPR (Thanks Lynn.)

Hymn of intercession. “Steal Away to Jesus,” New Zealand Youth Choir.

Word. “These won’t be my best words.” —commentary (4:44 video) by Waleed Aly, New Zealand television commentator (Thanks Loren.)

Call to prayer. At first sight [see art at left], it looks like a silver fern, the traditional emblem of New Zealand. But a closer look reveals the frond of the fern is formed by 50 silhouettes of Muslims in various stages of prayer. This is the compelling tribute that Pat Campbell, a cartoonist for Australia's Canberra Times newspaper, drew in memory of the 50 people killed in the Christchurch mosque mass shootings.

¶ “Facebook has announced a ban on content that includes ‘praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism’—a significant policy shift that comes after months of criticism from civil rights groups. Previously, Facebook had banned content promoting white supremacy (generally, the belief that whites are superior to other races). But the platform allowed white nationalist content (which promotes a belief that a white majority should control the social and political direction of predominantly white countries) and white separatist content (which argues that whites should create a separate ethnostate devoid of people of color).” —P.R. Lockhard, Vox

When only the blues will do. “Hymn to Freedom,” Oscar Peterson. (Thanks Dale.)

¶ “The world is organized the way it is right now thanks to Europe’s nearly 500 years of invasion, conquest and colonization. Blain Snipstal, writing at Why Hunger, puts it about as bluntly as possible: ‘The plantation system was the first major system used by the colonial forces in their violent transformation of the Earth into land, people into property, and nature into a commodity. . . . Race and White Supremacy were then created to give the cultural and psychological basis to support the rationale, organization and logic of capital.’” —Robert C. Koehler, “,” Common Dreams

Home grown. The member of the US Coast Guard, who was arrested in February before he could carry out massive terrorist violence against Democratic members of congress and high profile media figures, wrote in his own manifesto, “Liberalist/globalist ideology is destroying traditional peoples esp white. No way to counteract without violence. Much blood will have to be spilled to get whitey off the couch.” —quoted in Greg Myre, NPR

Preach it. We are longing for a “new story to explore, inhabit, and tell: To unmask the deceptive power of violence, to remove its magic sheen, and to show it for what it really is: a vicious, addictive cycle that creates a temporary euphoria, temporary order, and temporary unity, but in the long run, leads in a downward spiral ending in civilizational suicide.” —excerpt from “The Seventh Story” Lenten meditation by Brian McLaren and Gareth Higgins

Can’t makes this sh*t up. “I’m not worried about the moral issue here.” —one among 50 wealthy parents indicted by the FBI in a college admissions bribery scheme, focused on a college admissions counselor, Rick Singer, who claimed he had helped over 700 students get into prestigious universities through a “side door”

Call to the table. Alana Levandoski, “No Matter What Kings Say.”

The state of our disunion. "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?" —Rep.  Steve King (R-Iowa), in comments to the New York Times

Altar call. “Somebody’s Knocking At Your Door,” Voices of Unity.

Best one-liner. “People don’t want to be criticized for what their ancestors did, but they surely want to hold on to the profits their ancestors left.” —@merelynora

For more background. “The twin hatreds: How white supremacy and Islamist terrorism strengthen each other online—and in a deadly cycle of attacks.” —Sulome Anderson, Washington Post
        And “The New Zealand shooter shows how white nationalist rhetoric spreads.” —Jane Coaston, Vox

For the beauty of the earth. Take two minutes, turn up the volume as we leave you at a desert in bloom, at Southern California's Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Videographer: Lee McEachern. —CBS Sunday Morning (Thanks Abigail.)

Benediction. “My guardian dear, / To whom God’s love commits me here; / Ever this (day, night) be at my side, / To light and guard, to rule and guide. / Amen.” —English translation of lyrics to “Angele Dei,” performed by the New Zealand Youth Choir

Recessional. “When the silence isn't quiet / And it feels like it's getting hard to breathe / And I know you feel like dying / But I promise we'll take the world to its feet / And move mountains / We'll take it to its feet / And move mountains.” —“Rise Up,” Lurine Cato and the B Positive Choir Performance, Westminster Cathedral

Lectionary for this Sunday. Consider these eight suggestions for interpreting 2 Corinthians 5:16-21: “There is a new creation: The Apostle Paul’s vision of the ministry of reconciliation.”

Lectionary for Sunday next. “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.” —Isaiah 43:18-19, The Message

Just for fun (and in celebration of the start of the new baseball season). “Right Field,” Peter, Paul & Mary.

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Find a trailhead to the ministry of reconciliation: What should the Christchurch massacre prompt from us?”

• “There is a new creation: The Apostle Paul’s vision of the ministry of reconciliation,” eight suggestions for interpreting 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
 
Other features

• “Essay in celebration of the global Youth Strike 4 Climate movement: Choosing between Wednesday’s penitential ashes vs. the scorched aftermath of Earth’s burning”

©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.

 

Find a trailhead to the ministry of reconciliation

What should the Christchurch massacre prompt from us?

by Ken Sehested

        What can you do to abate the harm caused by the mass murders in New Zealand mosques? Not much, in the scheme of things.

        Which is not to say there’s nothing at all to do.

        For us in the US (and people around the world), we must use that tragedy as a mirror to examine how we are complicit with similar threats close to home. If the grief we experience over deadly news a half-world away is to be more than vaporous sentiment, fading with each text alert from our phones, there must be a contextualizing in our own location.

        The first thing we must do is interrogate the posture of hope. Does living in hope entail a denial of reality? If the posture of hope involves evasion of the world’s misery, what we have is not hope but acquiescence to the world’s disordering.

        The second thing to do is to recognize and name our own infatuation with violence porn. It’s why we find ourselves ogling car crashes as we slowly drive by; or staring at a person living with a highly visible physical impairment. It’s why grocery stores prominently display lurid tabloids—with their sensational (and usually fraudulent) headlines and scandal photos—to catch our eyes as we wait in line. The fear-mongers are everywhere, and relentless. This is how the privileged secure their advantage.

         We must, of course, go beyond self-reflection to public engagement, demanding that public institutions of all sorts faithfully steward public resources to reduce the risk of harm and protect the innocent.

        But, as with all outbreaks of large, headline-garnering acts of violence, the roots of this poisoned fruit must be addressed in local watersheds. If the tragedy in Christchurch is to be more than passing titillation, we must discover and address similar outbreaks (actual or potential) in our own contexts.

        Doing so means many things; but few are as threatening as the blossoming of white supremacy claims closer to home.

        In the early 19th century William Blake wrote, “The one who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars.” The work of reconciliation is not only about resolving large disputes. It is also about building sturdy relationships, doing so in specific circumstances, which often means in our daily encounters.

        Reconciliation’s topography begins in places were street names are familiar.

        The old stories of enmity and malice must be deconstructed. Yet new stories of health and healing must be reconstructed. Resisting the threat of violence is urgent, of course.

        Peace-making is essential; but it is only the first step in peace-building. As Walker Knight said so well, “Peace, like war, is waged.”

        One couple in my congregation made a very creative Lenten pledge to cultivate friendship “three houses down”—to intentionally interact with neighbors in the three houses to their left and three to their right.

        The three houses down commitment isn’t an end game. It’s a place to start, among many other relational connections.

        The behavioral disciplines of reconciliation are learned by practice—the small stuff prepares you for the larger. As Jesus said in Luke’s Gospel, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much” (16:10).

        In that light, see this illustrated article by Sarah Lazarovic, “” from Yes! Magazine.

        Then consider these eight suggestions for interpreting the Apostle Paul’s insistence that being “in Christ” entails being in the “world” in particular ways: “There is a new creation: The Apostle Paul’s vision of the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:16-21).”

        After interrogating the posture of hope, and recognizing our own complicity in the world’s disordering, the third thing we must do is resolving we can do something (even though we can’t do everything).

        No one is saying getting to know your neighbors will bring world peace. But it represents a start. There’s never just one thing that needs doing. The list is long, which is why being in communities of conviction is imperative—and by such means we get connected to ever-larger communities and networks.

        As Edmund Burke cautioned, “Nobody made a greater mistake than the one who did nothing because they could only do a little.”

        Start someplace—some place nearby. Find a trailhead to the ministry of reconciliation. Give yourself wholeheartedly to that occasion. (With experience, you may be able to blaze a new trail, leaving marks for others to navigate.) What comes next will be revealed. The road unfolds only in the walking.

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©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

There is a new creation

The Apostle Paul’s vision of the ministry of reconciliation

by Ken Sehested

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything
has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given
us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
—2 Corinthians 5:17-19

        Few things are more uniform among Protestant churches the world over than Sunday school. Many are surprised to learn that this organized form of Bible study began in Britain in the 18th century. And its specific purpose was to provide literacy training for poor children. It was a ministry of reconciliation in an age when industrialization was deepening the chasm of poverty.

        But Sunday school, like the ministry of reconciliation, has been tamed. In 2004, shortly after the release of gruesome photos of abuse and torture in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, a ranking U.S. Senator responded this way to a reporter’s question: “This is not Sunday school. This is interrogation. This is rough stuff.”

        Thirty years ago, on my first trip to apartheid-era South Africa, I was stunned to learn that the word “reconciliation” had derogatory connotations even for those Christians committed to racial equality. Why? Because the word had been warped in the National Party’s lexicon to mean: “When you are reconciled to the fact that we are on top and you are on the bottom, then we will have peace.”

        As Filipino poet Justino Cabazares has written, “Talk to us about reconciliation only if your living is not the cause of our dying.”

        The work of reconciliation—so prominent in the Apostle Paul’s understanding of the discipleship, so pivotal in Jesus’ mandate to love enemies—is frequently misunderstand in the church and is openly derided in the world whose norm is “reward your friends, punish your enemies.”

        How, then, are we to cultivate our calling to be agents of reconciliation? Consider these eight suggestions.

        1. The newer English translations of v. 16, “from a human point of view,” is an improvement over the King James phrase, “after the flesh.” But both are terribly misleading. As elsewhere in much of the Newer Testament, the word “flesh” is not a reference to material reality set off against “spiritual” reality. Rather, the reference is to existing patterns of domination that are diametrically opposed to the new creation that is promised. To be spirit-filled is to live humanly in right-relatedness.

Right: Jacob Steinhardt, Jacob and Esau, 1950, color woodcut

        2. Regarding those who are “in Christ” (v. 17), the traditional translation reads “he is a new creation.” It should be “there is a new creation,” because the language is deeply relational and is now governed by the promise of the coming new age. The transformation that occurs is like when Neo, in the movie “The Matrix,” discovers the world he has known is an oppressive fabrication. After this stunning revelation, everything changes.

        3. We are saved for the world, not from it. The work of repentance is not to prepare us for heaven but to propel us into the world’s broken places. We sing with the psalmist that “I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (27:13), confident in the Word that promises “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6). The table of our Lord is such that offerings are to be postponed until reconciliation is initiated (Matthew 5:23-24).

        4. The Gospel’s disarming of the heart, and of the nations, is a unified mission. Redemption is always personal but never merely private. To recover our ministry of reconciliation, we need more evangelistic messages that provoke the kind of confession of Jesus as personal Lord and Savior made by Zacchaeus (Luke 8). The church’s evangelistic mission is in contradiction to that of the world, where violence is the Devil’s evangelistic tool.

        5. Our capacity to forgive is proportionate to our experience of being forgiven. The work of grace is a fear-displacement process. As Jesus taught, “the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little” (Luke 7:47). The deeper our reverence for God, the greater our capacity to risk for the neighbor. Resting in God readies us for our rendezvous with earth’s trauma.

        6. Forgiving does not mean forgetting, at least in the short term. The work of reconciliation requires the labor of truth-telling. The Prophet Jeremiah cried out repeatedly against those who “have treated the wound of my people carelessly” (6:14 & 8:11). The journey of reconciliation toward the promise of peace requires treading the path of justice.

        7. Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation. The former is a transforming initiative we can take on our own. Forgiving frees us from the toxic grasp of vengeance. It is our imitatio Christi (imitation of Christ), who acted while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8).

        8. Finally, reconciliation is a lifelong covenant, not a one-night stand. Even the disciples, upon hearing the Commission before Christ’s ascension, were both reverent and doubtful (Matthew 28:17). Often enough, so are we, for the apparent evidence often favors those “whose belly is their God” (Philippians 3:19). Even still, being “surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, we lay aside every weight and run with perseverance the race set before us, looking to Jesus . . .” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

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©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Essay in celebration of the global Youth Strike 4 Climate movement

Choosing between Wednesday’s penitential ashes vs. the scorched aftermath of Earth’s burning

by Ken Sehested

“God gave Noah the rainbow sign / No more water but the fire next time.”
—lyrics from the Negro spiritual “Mary Don’t You Weep”

        I haven’t been able to get Greta Thunberg’s face out of my mind, especially since Ash Wednesday.

        Which references the searing choice poised in the subtitle for this essay: The ashes of penitence, or that of blistering land and boiling seas; escalating poverty, flooded coastal cities and island nations; mounting social tensions due to resource scarcity, prompting more violent conflict, generating more refugees, justifying more walls; rising tides of nationalism, religiously-sanctioned terror and white supremacy; makers vs. takers, haves-against-have-nots, and ultimately the war of each against all. All these and more generating a social “feedback loop”—each calamity compounding all others, paralleling what climatologists narrate as the key factor in escalating environmental catastrophe.

        Too apocalyptic?

        Well, consider the conclusion of the United Nations’ “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” from last October. After reviewing 6,000 peer reviewed reports on the details of climate change, the world’s leading climate scientists calculate humankind has a dozen years to avoid catastrophic environmental collapse. [1]

        Ninety-seven percent of trained climate scientists believe that (1) global warming is real, (2) that the production of greenhouse gases are the cause, (3) that human activity is a significant generator of these changes, and (4) that if we fail to keep the rising global temperature below 1.5°-2° Celcius (2.7°-3.6° Fahreinheit), the world faces extreme danger. [2]

        Could these projections be off by a small measure? Sure. The factors that go into predicting climate change are extraordinarily complex. Think of the difficulty meteorologists have in predicating temperatures and precipitation beyond the next 10 days. But documenting general patterns over a longer period of time is possible. And there is overwhelming consensus that the Earth’s elemental forces are pushing the boundaries of sustainable life.

        According to a 2014 study by the World Bank, at current levels of greenhouse gas emissions, Earth’s global temperatures will rise 7.2°F by the end of this century. [3] Maybe the most frightening fact of all is that we likely won’t know when the Earth’s climate passes a point of no return until it’s in the rear view mirror.

        What are we willing to risk? Currently the climate deniers’ logic runs through this cycle: Global temperatures are not rising. But if they are, it’s not caused by human activity. But if it, there’s nothing we can do about it. But if we could, it would cost too much. But if it doesn’t, we’re already past the point remediation. It’s out of our hands.

§  §  §

Watch this brief video animation of the increase in global warming from 1885-2014.
—NASA Earth Observatory

§  §  §

        Part of the perceptional problem in generating sufficient political will to affect substantial change is that the warming target of less than 1.5°-2°C increase sounds easily within reach. If the rise has been only 0.8°C since the Industrial Age began, [4] limiting the rise to 1.5°-2°C seems manageable.

        Ah, but that’s because we tend to think of addition instead of multiplication. Ten to-the-power-of one is 10. Ten to-the-power-of 10 is not 20. Ten to-the-power-of 10 is 10,000,000,000.

        Or, in another gauge of scientific measurement, think of how the power of earthquakes are calculated using the Richter Scale. A 1.5 magnitude quake is more than five times bigger, and releases more than 11 times more energy, than a 0.8 quake. [5]

§  §  §

“‘Hallelu-Yah!’ says the last of the Psalms, #150. ‘Let us praise [or Thank] Yahhhh.’ Not ‘Adonai, Lord,’
but Yahhhh, the Breath of Life, the Wind of Warmth, the Hurricane of Change, the Interbreathing
Spirit of the world. The Breath that keeps all life alive: We Breathe in what the Trees Breathe out;
the Trees Breathe in what We Breathe out. The Interbreath that is in crisis precisely in our generation,
as our machines and our corporations and ourselves on the drug of carbon breathe more CO2 into the
world than our trees can breathe in and turn to oxygen. So Mother Earth is fevered, burning hotter.
Choking. ‘I can’t breathe,’ coughs the planet. And ‘Hallelu-Yahhhh,’ says the last of the Psalms.”
—Rabbi Arthur Waskow, “A Time for Giving Thanks. Thanks for What?”

§  §  §

        Anyone who’s been to a graveside internment following a funeral service has probably heard these words: “We therefore commit [deceased’s name] body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The language, referencing Genesis 3:19, goes all the way back to the 1662 Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

        Ashes to ashes, however, has taken on a new meaning in our time, made especially and horrifyingly dramatic (here in the US) in the November 2018 Camp Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California—near a small city named, of all things, Paradise—now ranked among the world’s deadliest wildfires.

        Fire inspection official have yet to formally conclude the cause of the fire; but faulty equipment in the state’s Pacific Gas & Electric power company structures are suspected. State inspectors have already attributed 17 wildfires in 2017 to the utility’s faulty equipment.

Right: Greta Thunberg is greeted by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the February meeting of the European Economic and Social Committee meeting in Brussels, drawing legislators and business leaders from across the continent.  At this meeting, Juncker indicated that the European Union is pledging a quarter of $1 trillion budget over the next seven years to address the crisis of a rapidly heating planet. In the financial period beginning in 2021, Juncker said, the EU will devote a quarter of its budget to solving the crisis.
        Listen to this brief (2:14) excerpt from Greta Thunberg’s speech at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) conference in Katowice, Poland

        Ashes to ashes. The very phrase proclaiming assurance that the divine love infusing all creation is now rendered as the consuming aftermath of the fires of human malfeasance: Resurrection’s claim challenged by human addiction to power.

      We forget that Scripture authorizes the land itself to forestall human hubris: “If you defile the land, it will vomit you out.” [6]

§  §  §

“The effects of a changing climate are a national security issue with potential
impacts to Department of Defense missions, operational plans, and installations.”
—opening sentence of the Pentagon’s 17 January 2019 report to Congress [7]

§  §  §

        My congregation rents its meeting space from another congregation. Which means that on some special liturgical occasions (like Ash Wednesday), we don’t have space to meet. We encourage our members to gather with any one of a number of other faith communities on these occasions.

        Several of us decided to join the noonday Ash Wednesday service at a congregation near our city center, a community of faith that includes a sizeable number of homeless folk.

        Approaching Haywood Street Church’s parking lot, I noticed police cars and an ambulance parked out front. Tragically, one of the church’s regulars (hundreds also enjoy a meal) suffered a heart attack and died on the sidewalk. He was of course named and mourned at the start of the worship service. Every regular attendee knew him by name and also knew of his long struggle with addiction. Though his death was not a direct result of his addiction, neither was it unrelated.

        The connection between impending ecological mortality and industrialized nations’ addiction to fossil fuels is directly and emphatically related. This thought reverberated through my whole body during the service, especially when accepting the imposition of ashes near the end. The Lenten appeal for penitence—personal as well as corporate—could not have been clearer. I am implicated. We are implicated. And we pray, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” [8]

§  §  §

“I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse
and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address
those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are
selfishness, greed and apathy . . . and to deal with those we need
a spiritual and cultural transformation—and we
scientists don’t know how to do that.”
—Gus Speth, co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council

§  §  §

        Fifteen-year-old Greta Thunberg was considered little more than a curiosity when she began skipping school to hold vigil outside Sweden’s parliament last August. She sat rather forlornly against the building with her hand-painted sign, which read skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for climate), calling on Swedish legislators to take climate change seriously.

        What an odd duck, we might say in English; or one joker short of a full deck. No doubt some thought hers was a cute gesture, “brave” only in the sense of how people with fanciful grasp of reality act—in effect, foolhardy. Harmless, really; but harebrained, nonetheless.

        Truth is, Thunberg is a little out of kilter. Literally, she has been diagnosed with “selective mutism,” a condition on the Asperger diagnostic scale of mental health disorders. Her symptoms exhibit a “childhood anxiety disorder characterized by an inability to speak and communicate effectively in select social settings.” In a recent interview, Thunberg said, “I have always been that girl in the back who doesn’t say anything. I thought I couldn’t make a difference because I was too small.”

        Can you imagine a less likely figure to be the inspiration of one of the greatest mobilizations of the modern age? I’m speaking of the “Youth Strike 4 Climate” (aka "Student/School Strike for Climate" and "Strike for Climate Action"), a youth-led movement which, in a matter of months, has taken hold (at last count) in 71 countries and in more than 700 localities. [9] They will be taking to the streets, around the world, on 15 March. [10]

        When the mind has been adjusted to the demands of a hell-bent world, to the “rationality” driving ecocide, we need voices of those able to take leave of such minds. [11] We need prophets to speak against profits.

§  §  §

“I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you
to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.”
—Greta Thunberg, speaking at the January 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland [12]

§  §  §

        Among the opportunities Greta Thunberg is providing, especially to communities of faith, is a searing critique of what passes for hope. The word is now dominated by association with fantasy, daydreaming, and magical thinking.

        Recently, talking to myself as I circled several blocks in my city’s downtown district (where vehicular parking is at a premium), I muttered “I hope I can find a space.” A few weeks ago I hoped for dry weather when a group in our church helped one of our members move.

        As the old saying goes, “Everyone talks about the weather but nobody does a thing about it.” Hope, however, is more consequential than sentiment, more generative than scattered opinions.

        Expressions of hope can also be a cover for willful blindness. Kelly Craft, President Trump’s nominee to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations, recently said she believes “‘both sides' of climate change science” [her husband is a billionaire president of a large coal company]. [13] We know too, much, as T.S. Eliot wrote, but are convinced of too little.

§  §  §

“If humans went extinct tomorrow nothing too much
would happen to the planet, but insect extinction could be cataclysmic.” [14]

§  §  §

        In Domination and the Art of Resistance, a study of how colonized people resist suppression, James C. Scott concludes that the social arena in such conditions is not limited to passive acquiescence, on the one hand, or open revolt on the other. There is, he says, a stratum of the population which exhibits a “disguised, low-profile, undeclared” form of resistance which he terms “infrapolitics.” The deference that seems obvious to a casual onlooker in such situations can be more of a survival tactic, a condition which, given the right circumstances, can quickly be thrust aside in response to an occasion where the prospect of success in open revolt seems plausible. [15]

        I believe the seemingly spontaneous mobilization of student activists in the “Youth Strike 4 Climate” movement is an illustration of Scott’s observation. It could very well be the case that this same potentiality emerged as the January 2017 Women’s March on Washington, the largest single-day demonstration in history. Not to mention the modern civil rights movements, especially when you consider that every form of nonviolent struggle in that uprising was tried, without success, in numerous places earlier in the century. [16]

§  §  §

"The fossil fuel industry has made it quite clear that they will not relinquish those trillions
in future profits without an intense fight. To be at all serious about climate justice means
being willing to engage in a real struggle that will inevitably demand real sacrifices.
Moral leadership in this movement requires admitting the truth that if we are at all
successful in undermining the future profits of the fossil fuel industry, there will be a
backlash that will likely cost some of us our lives. Regardless of what roles we play
in the movement or what tactic we use, if we are to be truly effective, we will be
drawing a target on our backs at which the fossil fuel industry will take aim.
—Tim DeChristopher, Harvard Divinity Bulletin Winter/Spring 2015

§  §  §

       Hope is not wishful thinking; nor is it willful blindness. Hope is the capacity to peer above and beyond the prospect of doom to a far horizon where a beatific vision awaits, to what Dr. King spoke of as the dream of a Beloved Community, and to leverage that vision, that dream, in a way that allows us to spot the infrapolitics—“The kingdom of God is within/among you” [17]—of potential rebellion already at work in the world, however disguised to those enslaved by addiction, unheard by those with ears plugged against the melody of a profoundly new future.

        The Christian story is this: The work of grace frees those of supple heart from overblown fears. It allows us to peer over the walls of enmity, to read the evidence of things not seen, along with the substance of hope beyond fantasy. [18]

            The road of penitential living [19]—which is our only road to freedom—is not an easy one. It will disrupt existing patterns of interaction with both human and nonhuman parts of creation. It will unsettle current social and economic arrangements. It will interrupt patterns of privilege. Those currently in power will view such agitation as decidedly uncivil, as impetuous, as rash and ill-advised. All of us who profit on the labor of others, in a myriad of unseen ways, will have to learn new habits, made ready for what the Apostle Paul called a renewing of the mind, [20] for our own minds have been colonized.

        We will be discomforted. Addicts always protest required changes as threat, as irresponsible and unrealistic. That’s how the extraordinary Green New Deal proposal—whose implementation, in whatever detail we negotiate—is already being disparaged. [21]

        No one can make a revolution; but we can prepare for it, for that unpredictable tipping point moment when, against all reasonable odds, hope-buoyed people arise and breach conceited walls of privilege. Hope can never be sure of its success; but despair is a form of laziness, and a privilege we can no longer afford.

        Effective advocates for the Beloved Community will always knead patience and perseverance into their courage and passion, knowing that a certain infrapolitics is at work in every context of injustice—that there are more of us than most believe—and, eventually, much will be reaped if we do not faint. [22]

#  #  #

ENDNOTES

[1] See a summary of the of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in Jonathan Watts, “We have 12 years to limit climate catastrophe, warns UN,” The Guardian.

[2] “Scientific consensus: Earth’s climate is warming,” NASA Global Climate Change.

[3] Rebecca Leber, “This Is What Our Hellish World Will Look Like After We Hit the Global Warming Tipping Point,” New Republic.

[4] Estimate by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, “Earth Observatory.”

[5] See the calculator at United States Geological Survey site.

[6] Leviticus 18:28.

[7] Paulina Glass, Defense One. The Pentagon began nearly a decade ago prioritizing “global warming as a destabilising force, adding fuel to conflict and putting US troops at risk around the world.” Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian

[8] Romans 7:24.

[9] Jonathan Watts, “’” The Guardian.

[10] https://www.schoolstrike4climate.com/support-us

[11] “To be sane in a mad time / Is bad for the brain, worse / For the heart. The world / Is a holy vision, had we clarity / To see it.” —excerpt from Wendell Berry, “The Mad Farmer Manifesto: The First Amendment,” in New Collected Poems

[12] See coverage of the Forum in the 25 January 2019 issue of “Signs of the Times.”

[13] Cited in Adam Forrest, MSN. https://bit.ly/2GOxD5D

[14] David MacNeal, interviewed by Simon Worrall in National Geographic.

[15] See pp. 232-248. Thanks to Samuel Wells, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics, for alerting me to this Scott’s groundbreaking sociological research.

[16] See also Erica Chenoweth’s “It may only take 3.5% of the population to topple a dictator – with civil resistance,” The Guardian.

[17] Luke 17:21.

[18] See Hebrews 11:1.

[19] Though in a different context, I’ve written at greater length on penitence in “The Ties That Bind: The integrity of Penitence, on the 50th Anniversary of the Massacre at My Lai.”

[20] Romans 12:2.

[21] “.” Bill McKibben, Yes! Magazine. In the US, the Sunrise Movement is the student organization advocating support for the Green New Deal.

[22] cf. Galatian 6:9.

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org