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Signs of the Times  •  19 June 2018 •  No. 164

Processional. Cubanos Todos.

Special Issue
ECONOMIC INEQUALITY

“The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful,
and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is
the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”
—Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher, considered the “father” of free market economic theory

Invocation. “Spirit open my heart to the joy and pain of living.” —“Spirit, Open My Heart,” text by Ruth Duck to the traditional Irish melody “Wild Mountain Thyme”

Call to worship. “Each tongue, by supplicating lung, / invokes bright morning’s rise! / Through darkest night let love’s Delight / condole all mournful eyes. / Both soul and soil alike await / Redemption’s crowning glory. / Meadow, mountain, healing fountain, / proclaim Resurrection’s story!” —continue reading “Draw near,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 130

Hymn of praise. “Yonder come day, Day done broke / Yonder come day, Oh my soul, / Yonder come day, Day done broke / Into my soul.” —“Yonder Come Day,” Bessie Jones

Good news. “All told, what began as a scrappy band of fast food workers [e.g., the “Fight for $15” movement] walking off their jobs in New York City in 2013 has won over $62bn in raises for 19 million workers, according to the National Employment Law Project.” —Tamara Draut, Guardian

¶ “The 3 Richest Americans Hold More Wealth Than Bottom 50% Of The Country, Study Finds.” —Noah Kirsch, Forbes,

¶ “. . . when God forbids oppression of the poor in the Book of the Covenant (cf. Exodus 22:21-24), it is the first time the Scriptures explicitly affirm that God becomes angry.” —Thomas D. Hanks

In the US “there are 62 million people making less than a living wage. But there are 400 people that make $97,000 an hour.” Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-organizer, with Rev. William Barber, of the new Poor People’s Campaign. In actions across the country over the past five weeks, 2,000 have been arrested in demonstrations advocating for a range of social and economic justice measure. Listen (or read the manuscript) of Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” interview with Theoharis and other campaigners, “Special Report: In the Streets with the New Poor People’s Campaign Against Racism and Poverty.”

Confession. “From the turbulent bowels of darkest deep, / our roiling souls cry to you, O God! / Close not your ears to the sound of our / afflictions! Remind us again that Heaven’s / Provision will yet outlast earth’s squalid distress.” —continue reading “The boundary of bedlam,” a poem inspired by Psalm 130 & Psalm 46

¶ “Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey / Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.” —Oliver Goldsmith

Hymn of supplication. “I want to be ready when joy comes back to me.” —Ruthie Foster, “Joy Comes Back”

¶ “It was the great sage of Islam, ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), who saw that as a society becomes affluent it becomes more individualistic. It loses what he called asabiyah, its social cohesion.” —Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

For starters. “Wealth Inequality in America” (6:23 video) provide a stunning graphic illustration.

Oxfam now calculates that the 85 richest people’s wealth equals that of the lower 50% [3.5 billion people] of the global population. —Graeme Wearden, Guardian

¶ “Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.” ―Thomas Jefferson

¶ “Rich people no more create jobs than farmers create tomatoes.” —Nick Hanauer, venture capitalist billionaire, civic activist, and severe critic of the US low-wage economy. For more see Brian Prowse-Gany & Joyzel Acevedo profile in Yahoo, and/or watch Hanauer speaking (9:20 video) to the danger of economic inequality.

Cognitive dissonance: Which one of these facts do not belong in this list?

        • “Adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage peaked in 1968 at $8.68 (in 2016 dollars). Since it was last raised in 2009, to the current $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum has lost about 9.6% of its purchasing power to inflation.” —Drew DeSilver, Pew Research Center

        • “Those with higher earnings have fared the best, enjoying a 27% jump in wages since 1979. Those in the bottom bracket, however, saw their paychecks shrink slightly.” —Tami Luhby, CNNMoney

        • “A minimum-wage worker needs 2.5 full-time jobs to afford a one-bedroom apartment in most of the US.” —Hillary Hoffower, Business Insider

        • "Median wages of production workers, who comprise 80% of the workforce, haven't risen in 30 years, adjusted for inflation." —Robert Reich 

        • “If you define a ‘low’ wage as under $15 per hour, you’re referring to almost half the workforce in the US. . . ." Most are not high school or college students. "Today 73% of workers earning under $15 per hour nationwide are older than 25.” —Mary Babic, “5 myths about the working poor in America,” Oxfam America

        • The present state of our economy “is pretty much as good as it gets.” —James Smith, one of our nation’s leading economists, quoted in Dillon Davis, Asheville Citizen-Times

¶ “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” —Plutarch, 1st century CE

Words of assurance. “If you, O God, should keep track of all our failures, none of us would make the grade. But your hands heap pardon on all the penitent. Forgiveness is your middle name. Mercy is your mandate; pardon, your provision. Declarations of amnesty flow from your lips. Every remorse is met with remission.” —continue reading “Amnesty,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 130

Hymn of resolution. “(I’ll never turn back) No Mo,” Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers.

¶ “Today’s economic boom is driven not by any great burst of innovation or growth in productivity. Rather, it is driven by another round of financial engineering that converts equity into debt. It sacrifices future growth for present consumption. And it redistributes even more of the nation’s wealth to corporate executives, wealthy investors and Wall Street financiers.
        “Rather than using record profits, and record amounts of borrowed money, to invest in new plants and equipment, develop new products, improve service, lower prices or raise the wages and skills of their employees, they are “returning” that money to shareholders. Corporate America, in effect, has transformed itself into one giant leveraged buyout.”  —Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post

Hymn of intercession. “All the pain that you have known  / All the violence in your soul  / All the 'wrong' things you have done  / I will take from you when I come.” —Sinéad O'Connor, “This Is to Mother You”

¶ “As America's largest banks post record profits, massive companies continue their unprecedented stock buyback spree, and already-obscene CEO pay packages are set to rapidly expand in the aftermath of the Trump-GOP tax cuts, top corporate executives are now openly admitting that they have no plans whatsoever to invest their enormous windfall into wage increases for workers.
        “During what Axios described as a ‘rare, candid, and bracing talk from executives atop corporate America’ at the Dallas Fed, Troy Taylor, CEO of Florida's Coca-Cola franchise, said of the possibility of broad wage hikes for workers: ‘It's just not going to happen. Absolutely not in my business.’" —Jake Johnson, CommonDreams

By the numbers. If Bill Gates could find a way to spend $1 million a day, it would take him 218 years before he bounced a check. —Allison Jackson, GlobalPost

Offertory. “When Jesus came to town all the working folks around / Believed what he did say / Well the bankers and the preachers ‘ They nailed him on a cross / For they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.” —Woody Guthrie, “Jesus Christ”

Preach it. “I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen. . . .’ Therefore you will be buried in a donkey’s grave.” —Jeremiah 22:19-21 (adapted)

Can’t makes this sh*t up. Gargantuan company Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, is the richest man in the world. How rich? When Amazon stock recently surged by 6.5%, Bezos’ wealth increased by $12 billion—in a single day. Can you guess how much federal income tax the company paid last year? Zero. Zilch. Nada. Zip. In fact, the company will be getting a $137 million tax refund. —Jessica Corbett, CommonDreams

It’s hard to imagine one billion of anything. Here’s one frame of reference. Say you’re working at minimum wage, $7.25 per hour, 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, no sick days. (Low wage earners rarely if ever get paid vacation or sick leave.)
        How long would it take you to earn $1 billion (before taxes)? That would be just short of 66,313 years.

Call to the table. “Grace is always sufficient when crops are abundant and food is plentiful; when crushing illness and death’s visitation are distant and anonymous; when pin-striped, silk-tied pirates no longer plunder tomorrow’s dreams. . . ? When a good name’s belittled or when the battered ask why?” —continue reading “Sufficient grace,” a litany for worship inspired by 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

The state of our disunion. “’Peace Is Bad for Business’: War Profiteer Stocks Plummet After Diplomatic Progress With North Korea.” —Jake Johnson, CommonDreams

“A mutant form of capitalism.” In this animated video Wesley P.P. Hall explains the root causes of war, poverty and terrorism in under two minutes.

Best one-liner. “Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor but because we cannot satisfy the rich." —author unknown

For the beauty of the earth. Hooded Grebes, one of the rarest birds in South America, doing a courtship dance. (1:06 video. Thanks Wendy.)

Satire alert. “They don’t pay taxes. They circumvent our laws. They get free stuff from the government. They are America’s billionaires, and many would like to see them gone. . . . They come here, take thousands of our jobs and export them overseas. . . .” —Andy Borowitz, “Sentiments Building to Deport Billionaires”

¶ “The federal minimum wage is less than the cost of living in every major city in the country.” —Josh Hoxie, CommonDreams

Generosity can break out in the most unlikeliest of times and places. This high school pitcher struck out his childhood friend, allowing his team to advance to the state championship baseball series. Before celebrating with his teammates, he first did this. (0:35 video)

Altar call. "Where a trade is carried on, productive of much misery, and they who suffer by it are some thousand miles off, the danger is the greater of not laying their sufferings to heart. . . . Many groans arise from dying men which we hear not. Many cries are uttered by widows and fatherless children, which reach not our ears.  Many cheeks are wet with tears, and faces sad with unutterable grief, which we see not." —John Woolman, 18th century Quaker abolitionist

Benediction. “Heal the World,” Child Prodigy covers this Michael Jackson hit song. (Thanks Deborah.)

Lectionary for this Sunday. Re: 2 Corinthians 8:7-15. In his work to gather donations for the destitute church in Jerusalem, Paul makes references a God-Occupying axiom: “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.” But this is no first century United Way appeal. This instruction goes to the heart of Exodus-rooted covenant theology, given by the very Shining Presence of God to the Egypt-émigré Hebrews during their long walk to freedom, announcing daily manna: Each was to gather only enough for the number in their tents. The result: Those who gathered much had nothing left over; those who gathered little had no lack. Any surplus gathered “bred worms and became foul” (Exodus 16:9-21).

        Also: Two litanies for worship based on Psalm 130: “Amnesty”  and “Draw Near.”

Lectionary for Sunday next. “Rouse yourselves,” a litany for worship inspired by Ezekiel 2:1-5

        Also: “Sufficient grace,” a litany for worship inspired by 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 & Habakkuk 3:17-19

Recessional. “Toccata on ‘Amazing Grace.’” —Jeff Brummel (Thanks David.)

Just for fun. A belated Happy International Dance Day. (2:37 video. Thanks Glenn.)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Blessed assurance: Call to the table in the face of terror,” commentary on caging children

• “Sufficient grace,” a litany for worship inspired by 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 & Habakkuk 3:17-19

• “Morning by morning,” a litany for worship inspired by Lamentations 3 and Luke 19:41-42

• “Rouse yourselves,” a litany for worship inspired by Ezekiel 2:1-5

©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 “prayer&politiks.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.

 

Rouse yourselves

A litany for worship inspired by Ezekiel 2:1-5

by Ken Sehested

Rouse yourselves, O creatures of clay, for it is I, the Potter of Heaven, who commands your attention!

We tremble, but trust that your grace is sufficient.

On your feet, O mortal ones! The One whose Name is whispered in the wind now summons your presence!

We tremble, but trust that your grace is sufficient.

Brace yourselves! For I am sending you to an impudent and stubborn people. Speak up, even those whose hearts are deaf.

We tremble, but trust that your grace is sufficient.

Cast off your fear, even when you are encompassed by ascending briars and assaulting scorpions.

We tremble, but trust that your grace is sufficient.

MercyFull ones, do not hide your scandal-ridden hands or your scorn-scarred hearts. Trust the promise, claim the power, walk in the light of God.

¡Alabaré! Praises be! ¡Marchemos! March on!

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Arise and arouse

The Blessed One is a stronghold of safety for those crushed by the world.

In every season of trouble, cling to this promise.

May this Name be upon your lips in every waking hour.

In every storm of despair, hold fast to this assurance.

Let you voice resound with praise, for Creation’s Song has yet to be silenced.

In every eruption of brutality, take refuge in this confidence.

The Faithful One will avenge every murderous impulse; the cries of the afflicted ignite the Heart of Heaven.

When the gates of death are opened, fear not! Fear not!

The Advocate will never abandon. Another Way has opened. A River of Peace shall be unleashed.

Arise and arouse, O Christ, and roll back the rule of enmity. Amaze us with your Grace, so that all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.*

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Psalm 9. *The last line comes from Julian of Norwich, a 14th century mystic. This litany is reprinted from In the Land of the Living: Prayers personal and public.

Blessed assurance

Call to the table in the face of terror

by Ken Sehested

        One important thing that hasn’t been said this week [about the savagery of separating of children from parents at the US-Mexican border] is that this Department of Justice policy change is in fact a form of terrorism.

        The point of terrorism isn’t killing people. Terrorists make strategic use of aggressive trauma to spread fear for the purpose of affecting social or political objectives. Look up the FBI’s definition.*

        When Attorney General Jeff Sessions first announced this new administrative procedure six weeks ago, he explicitly used the threat of separating children to spread fear among would-be immigrants. Already, 2,000 children have been separated from families.

        When we gather at this table, week after week, we recall an ancient act of terrorism when the Newer Testament story’s antagonistic climax began, with Jesus gathering with his disciples shortly before his arrest, torture, and crucifixion.

        For the Roman authorities, crucifixion was not merely a means of capital punishment. It had a very special meaning, of hanging those convicted of subversion on crosses at busy intersections for all to see. Its purpose was far larger than killing—its purpose was to terrify the population to enforce obedience.

        Of course, our weekly recollection is more than reminiscence. Rather, it is ongoing training in light of the continuing antagonism to what Jesus named as the Kingdom of God. The drama did not end with Jesus; but it was illuminated, with the call to a different sort of obedience extended to those willing to walk in this Way.

        So week by week we ritually reimagine ourselves as actors in this story. It is a repeated practice because we are forgetful; because the signals that fill the airways are confusing and contradictory. We gather to tune ourselves anew to redemption’s homing beacon. And we are reminded again that we are not alone, that the Comforter is present, that we are buoyed by a power we do not manage or fund or control.

        Indeed, “it is the resurrection which is the terror of God to all who believe that death should have the final word” (Lee Griffith).

        Many years ago, in a season of personal trauma and career uncertainty, I memorized this Wendell Berry poem, which speaks of the assurance and sustenance available to all:

        Whatever is foreseen in joy
        Must be lived out from day to day.
        Vision held open in the dark
        By our ten thousand days of work.
        Harvest will fill the barn; for that
        The hand must ache,
        the face must sweat.

        And yet no leaf or grain is filled
        By work of ours; the field is tilled
        And left to grace.
        That we may reap,
        Great work is done
        while we’re asleep.

        When we work well,
        a Sabbath mood
        Rests on our day and finds it good.
        [“X” in Sabbaths, North Point Press, 1987]

        Come to the table, trusting in this blessed assurance.

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©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. This is a slightly extended version of his “call to the table” for communion, 17 June 2018, Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC.

For more on this topic, see “Testimony in a Time of Terror: Standing with the Word of God, for the earth and against the world,” a litany for worship adapting multiple biblical texts

*Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Definition of Terrorism. The unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

Early Church Fathers on refusal of the sword

A collection of quotes

TERTULLIAN (160–220)

§ “Christ, in disarming Peter, disarmed every soldier.”

§ “Shall we carry a flag? It is a rival to Christ.”

§ “It is absolutely forbidden to repay evil with evil.”

§  “Only without the sword can the Christian wage war: the Lord has abolished the sword.”

§  “How will a Christian engage in war (indeed, how will a Christian even engage in military service during peacetime) without the sword, which the Lord has taken away?”

§  “Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword, when the Lord proclaims that he who uses the sword shall perish by the sword? And shall the son of peace take part in the battle when it does not become him even to sue at law?”

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (347–407)

§  “I am a Christian. He who answers thus has declared everything at once—his country, profession, family; the believer belongs to no city on earth but to the heavenly Jerusalem.”

JUSTIN THE MARTYR (100–165)

§  “We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war. We have exchanged our swords for plowshares, our spears for farm tools…now we cultivate the fear of God, justice, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given us through the Crucified One.”

§  “We who formerly hated and murdered one another now live together and share the same table. We pray for our enemies and try to win those who hate us.”

§  “God called Abraham and commanded him to go out from the country where he was living. With this call God has roused us all, and now we have left the state. We have renounced all the things the world offers. . . . The gods of the nations are demons.”

ARNOBIUS OF SICCA (died c. 330)

§  "For since we, a numerous band of men as we are, have learned from His  teaching and His laws that evil ought not to be requited with evil—that it is better to suffer wrong than to inflict it—that we should shed our own blood than stain our hands and consciences with that of another, an ungrateful world is now for a long period enjoying a benefit from Christ . . ."

IRENAEUS (c. 180)

§  “Christians have changed their swords and their lances into instruments of peace, and they know not now how to fight.”

MARCELLUS OF TANGIER (spoken as he left the army of Emperor Diocletian in 298)

§  ““I threw down my arms for it was not seemly that a Christian man, who renders military service to the Lord Christ, should render it by earthly injuries.” “It is not lawful for a Christian to bear arms for any earthly consideration.”

THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH (died c. 185)

§  “Say to those that hate and curse you, You are our brothers!”

MARTIN OF TOURS (315–397)

§  “Hitherto I have served you as a soldier; allow me now to become a soldier to God. Let the man who is to serve you receive your donative. I am a soldier of Christ; it is not permissible for me to fight.”

ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA (293–373)

§  “Christians, instead of arming themselves with swords, extend their hands in prayer.”

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (150–214)

§  “Above all Christians are not allowed to correct by violence sinful wrongdoings.”

§  The Christian poor are “an army without weapons, without war, without bloodshed, without anger, without defilement.”

§  “We Christians are a peaceful race . . . for it is not in war, but in peace, that we are trained.”

HIPPOLYTUS (170–236)

§  “The professions and trades of those who are going to be accepted into the community must be examined. . . . . A military constable must be forbidden to kill, neither may he swear; if he is not willing to follow these instructions, he must be rejected. A proconsul or magistrate who wears the purple and governs by the sword shall give it up or be rejected. Anyone taking or already baptized who wants to become a soldier shall be sent away, for he has despised God.”

§  “A person who has accepted the power of killing, or a soldier, may never be received [into the church] at all.”

TATIAN OF ASSYRIA (died c. 185)

§  “I do not wish to be a ruler. I do not strive for wealth. I refuse offices connected with military command.”

ORIGEN (185–254)

§  “You cannot demand military service of Christians any more than you can of priests. We do not go forth as soldiers with the Emperor even if he demands this.”

§  “We have become sons of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader.”

§  “To those who ask us whence we have come or whom we have for a leader, we say that we have come in accordance with the counsels of Jesus to cut down our warlike and arrogant swords of argument into ploughshares, and we convert into sickles the spears we of Alexandria. For we no longer take ‘sword against a nation,’ nor do we learn ‘any more to make war,’ having become sons of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader, instead of following the ancestral customs in which we were strangers to the covenants.”

THE 2ND EPISTLE OF CLEMENT (anonymous author c. 95–140)

§  “For the Gentiles, hearing from our mouth the words of God, are impressed by their beauty and greatness: then, learning that our works are not worthy of the things we say, they turn to railing, saying that it is some deceitful tale. For when they hear from us that God says: ‘No thanks will be due to you, if ye love only those who love you; but thanks will be due to you, if ye love your enemies and those that hate you’—when they hear this, they are impressed by the overplus of goodness: but when they see that we do not love, not only those who hate us, but even those who love us, they laugh at us, and the Name is blasphemed.”

EPISTLE OF MATHETES TO DIOGNETUS (late 2nd Century)

§  Christians “love all people, and are persecuted by all; . . . they are reviled, and they bless; they are insulted, and are respectful.”

ARISTIDES OF ATHENS (c. 137)

§  “It is the Christians, O Emperor, who have sought and found the truth, for they acknowledge God. . . . They show love to their neighbors. They do not do to another what they would not wish to have done to themselves. They speak gently to those who oppress them, and in this way they make them their friends. It has become their passion to do good to their enemies. . . . This, O Emperor, is the rule of life of the Christians, and this is their manner of life.”

ST. CYPRIAN, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE (died c. 258)

§  “The whole world is wet with mutual blood; and murder, which, in the case of an individual, is admitted to be a crime, is called a virtue when it is committed wholesale.”

§  “[Christians] are not allowed to kill, but they must be ready to be put to death themselves . . . it is not permitted the guiltless to put even the guilty to death.”

§ “God wished iron to be used for the cultivation of the earth, and therefore it should not be used to take human life.

§  “It is the Christians, O Emperor, who have sought and found the truth, for they acknowledge God. . . . They show love to their neighbors. They do not do to another what they would not wish to have done to themselves. They speak gently to those who oppress them, and in this way they make them their friends. It has become their passion to do good to their enemies. . . . This, O Emperor, is the rule of life of the Christians, and this is their manner of life.”

ATHENAGORAS (133–190)

§  “We Christians cannot endure to see a man being put to death, even justly.”

SPERATUS (martyred 180)

§  “I recognize no empire of this present age.”

LACTANTIUS, instructor of Constantine’s son (240–320)

§  “For when God forbids us to kill, he not only prohibits us from open violence, which is not even allowed by the public laws, but he warns us against the commission of those beings which are esteemed lawful among men. . . . Therefore, with regard to this precept of God, there ought to be no exception at all, but that it is always unlawful to put to death a man, whom God willed to be a sacred animal.”

THE TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD (anonymous author, 4th or 5th Century)

§  “If anyone be a soldier or in authority, let him be taught not to oppress or to kill or to rob, or to be angry or to rage and afflict anyone. But let those rations suffice him which are given to him. But if they wish to be baptized in the Lord, let them cease from military service or from the [post of] authority, and if not let them not be received. Let a catechumen or a believer of the people, if he desire to be a soldier, either cease from his intention, or if not let him be rejected. For he hath despised God by his thought, and leaving the things of the Spirit, he hath perfected himself in the flesh and hath treated the faith with contempt.”

AMBROSE (338-397)

§  “The soldiers of Christ require neither arms nor spears of iron.”

§ “The servants of God do not rely for their protection on material defenses but on the divine Providence.” 

THE DIDACHE (also known as The Teachings of the 12 Apostles, is an early Christian document written c. 80–90)

§  “This is the way of life: first, thou shalt love the God who made thee, secondly, thy neighbor as thyself: and all things whatsoever thou wouldest not should happen to thee, do not thou to another. The teaching of these words is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast on behalf of those who persecute you: for what thanks will be due to you, if ye love only those who love you? Do not the Gentiles also do the same? But love ye those who hate you, and ye shall not have an enemy.”

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©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Out of the House of Slavery

Bible study on “immigration"

by Ken Sehested

This material was delivered in 2010 to a North Carolina Council of Churches-sponsored series of clergy gatherings in various cities.

      My assignment is to do a Bible study relevant to the intense conversation underway in our nation over the question of immigration. Others will offer social analysis and practical strategies. But I should mention three presumptions I bring.

      First, I believe we have a powerful witness to bear from our Scriptures, one that is surprisingly relevant. It’s not more information that we need. We don’t so much need to be convinced as to be convicted.

      Second, while I believe we have some unique sources of conviction, that doesn’t mean we have privileged insight or expertise when it comes to shaping specific policies. For that we need to come to the table with other people of faith and conscience to forge workable policy options that take into consideration what has happened in the past and what is happening now as leverage for what could happen in the future.

      Third, our analysis must be informed by an intelligent reading of the economic realities shaping immigration policies and patterns. I firmly believe there is a kind of economic magnetism at work: a negative force, characterized by desperation (particularly in Latin America), shoving migrants across the border. And a positive force drawing them here: A lot of people make a lot of money employing migrants. In fact, people like you and I need to count the cost: Our standard of living depends on cheap labor. We, too, are implicated in this system.

      Several years ago, to supplement my income, I began a new career as a stonemason. I was paid $10.00 an hour doing very strenuous work. After a year, my boss laid me off, saying he could hire a Mexican for $8.00 an hour. “Nothing personal,” he said, “just business.” But in biblical terms, nothing is just business. In the long run, the only sustainable business is just business.

      Some of you may recall hearing the story of Manuel Jesus Cordova. He was in the news a couple years ago.[1] While sneaking across the border from Mexico, Cordova happened to find a 9-year-old boy, Christopher Buchleitner of Rimrock, Arizona, alone and injured in the desert. As it happens, Christopher and his mom had been in a single-car accident when their van went over a cliff on a remote road in southern Arizona. His mother had been killed, and Christopher went looking for help. Cordova gave the boy his sweater and some chocolate and built a fire to warm the boy. It was that fire that drew the attention of the border patrol. Authorities say Christopher would likely have died had Cordova not stopped to protect him.

      Cordova was honored for the rescue by U.S. and Mexican officials at a border crossing station. Then he was arrested by federal agents and returned to Mexico.

      I mention that story not to romanticize those who enter the U.S. without legal sanction. No doubt that within the ranks of immigrants—whether legal or illegal, documented or undocumented—there are the same proportion of saints and scoundrels as are already here. I mention his name—Manuel Jesus Cordova—as a reminder that each immigrant has a name and a story. They’re not simply statistics.

      By the way, Beatriz Lopez, the Mexican consul general for Nogales, had this stunningly prophetic insight in her comments to the press about this incident: “The desert has a way of rearranging priorities.”

      I have four brief points to consider for this Bible study.

      1.  There is a stunning amount of material in the Bible about “immigrants,” and all of it underscores the special attention that God commands on their behalf. In Scripture the commonly used words are “strangers” and “aliens.”

      •“You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:19).

      •Among Job’s complaints was this assertion of holiness: “I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger” (29:16).

      • “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field. . . ; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien” (Lev. 23:22)

      •The prophet Malachi explicitly links refusal to “fear” the Lord with the mistreatment of marginalized people: “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. . . . Those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan [two other classes of uniquely vulnerable people in ancient Middle Eastern cultures], against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts” (3:5, italics added).

      •Jesus included “strangers” among those whose fate was tied up with his own: “. . . for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matt. 25:35).

      •Even the Apostle Paul echoes this persistent theme throughout the Bible: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God. . . .” (Eph. 2:17-22).

      2. The holiness of God is attested by just relations within the earth. The story of the Hebrew people’s escape from Pharaoh’s brickyards is so familiar to us that we forget that it’s hardly a “religious” story at all. Rather, it is an ancient civil rights movement, a rebellion against empire, a stunning escape from slavery. The very memory of this liberation movement is asserted as the rationale for obeying the commands of Yahweh God: “Thus God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” This is the preamble to the Ten Commandments and all the law of Torah. It begins with: “You shall have no other God before me,” and ends with a prohibition against covetousness, which is to say, against hoarding life’s provisions. Over and over again in Scripture idolatry and exploitation are paired as frequently as are “fear of the Lord” and doing justice.

      “Having no other God” is finally played out by refusing monopoly and exploitative economic practices—something which later gets spelled out in the “Jubilee” laws, describing the year of the Lord’s favor as a time that slaves be freed, debts be canceled and land be returned to original owners. The great prophet Isaiah returned to this “jubilee” theme several times, as did Jesus when, in his inaugural sermon, he spoke of his mission “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19).

      3. To understand who these “strangers” are, we need to know a little more about the practice of slavery in Egypt. Among the many unfortunate distortions of Scripture caused by Hollywood movie-makers is the notion that those Egyptian pyramids were built by legions of slaves—the kinds of slaves that used to be imported to the U.S. from Africa for sale as chattel property. There simply is no historical evidence for this. There are no records of markets in Egypt for the buying and selling of slaves. Nor were Egyptian slaves primarily like “indentured servants” who worked for a period of time as servants to pay off a debt. Maybe the closest analogy is that slaves in Egypt were something like serfs in medieval Europe: a more or less permanent underclass who, merely because of the accident of birth and family history, were destined by economic and social sanctions to live at the very edge of material existence. Rulers’ domination was by divine right—much the way, currently, the “free hand of the market” is considered self-evident and unassailable. (Whether theistic or not, “God made it that way.”)

      You remember the story of Joseph’s clan who came voluntarily into Egypt to avoid starvation. In other words, they were very much like the majority of modern immigrants fleeing lives of desperate poverty.

      It’s important to also remember than the origins of the “Hebrew” people were not primarily racial or ethnic. Biblical scholars believe the biblical term “Hebrew” is an alternate rendering of the word “habirû.” “Habirû” was the sociological designation for outsiders, people with no claim on the land—vagrants and vagabonds, the hoi polloi—people who at various times were merely an inconvenience, possibly a worry, and occasionally an overt threat to ruling authorities. [2]

      The word “Hebrew” comes from a root word meaning “to cross over.” Thus, the Hebrew is one who crosses borders, who have no social power and no legal claim on resources or status, whose desperate efforts of sheer survival push them to ignore the boundaries of assigned bounty. [3] (And some of them, like some of us, just long for expanded consumer options.)

      Recall Joseph’s story. Captured by a trade caravan after being left for dead by his brothers, Joseph was sold into bondage but then, remarkably, managed to rise through the ranks to become a key political operative in Pharaoh’s court. He became an insider. Recall how the text reads when his brothers come begging: “[The household servants] served [Joseph] by himself, and [his brothers] by themselves, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians” (Gen. 43:32). Joseph had been co-opted, had become a part of the power elite. We know about that, don’t we?

      4. Theologian Douglas Meeks has suggested that much of Scripture—and particularly these teachings about care of strangers—depicts God through the metaphor of “homemaker” [4] I like this image a lot. Think of it: God as the one who makes a home for strangers and aliens. A God who takes a nameless and homeless people and gives them an identity and a place to call their own. A God who provides hospitality and welcome to those who find no room in the inn. A God who jumps into action at the sound of groaning slaves—not because of some special moral quality or devotional purity, but simply because they cry out. A God who undermines empires, who feeds the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty-handed. A God who befriends the unworthy, the unwashed, the untouchable, a God who eats with “trashy” folk. A God who turns enemies into friends—and who invites us into the fray.

      “Once you were no people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).

      This—I am suggesting—this is our story, this is our song. Such is the praise we raise all the day long.

Endnotes
1. Associated Press story in the Asheville Citizen-Times, Wednesday, 5 December 2007.
2. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation and Obedience: From Faithful Reading to Faithful Living, p. 291.
3. Ibid., p. 292-293.
4. God the Economist: The Doctrine of God and Political Economy, cited by Ibid., pp.298-299.

Let Wisdom’s Way endure

A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 107

Listen now you who linger in wasted lands, consumed with wanton hearts: The Blessed One has eyes and ears opened and tuned to the cries of your distress.

Give thanks and rejoice you faint-of-limb and sick-of-soul: An open gate of Quenching Delight stands eager to receive you.

Listen now you who languish athirst, bowels rumbling in hunger: Bountiful tables—too wondrous to behold—are spread as ransom for your ruin.

Give thanks and rejoice you prisoners of misery: The Counsel of Mercy now argues your case in the court of the Most High.

Listen now you princes of contempt: The burdens you lay and the bonds you impose shall be seized and shattered and lifted and loosened.

Give thanks and rejoice you storm-tossed pilgrims: the Stiller of Storms is at your mast, hushing the wind and calming the waves.

Listen now you barking jackals: A diligent Voice will sever your tongue and seal your mouth forever.

Give thanks, you orphan and widow; rejoice, you refugee: Let the least of these join choirs of angels in grateful harmony! With Vindication near, no one need faint nor fear. Hope and harvest alike abound from hallowed, fertile ground. Let Wisdom’s Way endure; the Promised Reign, secure.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Amnesty

A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 130

If you, O God, should keep track of all our failures,
none of us would make the grade.

But your hands heap pardon on all the penitent.
Forgiveness is your middle name.
Mercy is your mandate; pardon, your provision.

Declarations of amnesty flow from your lips.
Every remorse is met with remission.

The feet of your grace rush to our incarcerated souls.

      Oh restless, fitful hearts:
Wait for your Redeemer;
           for the Word that unlocks prison doors,
                  that infiltrates our enslaved minds.

Inspired by Psalm 130, reprinted from In the Land of the Willing: Litanies, Prayers, Poems, and Benedictions.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Morning by morning

A litany for worship inspired by Lamentations 3 and Luke 19:41-42

Be gracious to me, Blessed One, for I am in distress.

My eyes are awash with grief; my bed swims in tears.

My bones bulge under the weight of unlived life.

Sighs crowd my heart and swell my tongue.

Jesus, weeping over Jerusalem.

      Weeping over this city.
           Over these people.
           Over this church.
           Over my own anemic,
                 knuckleheaded self.

Can you hear it? Can you hear it?

But the One who vindicates is near.

The Advocate’s approach stymies fear.

Morning by morning the Beloved awakens me,

Tuning my ear to heaven’s harmony.

Morning by morning new mercies I see.*

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. *Line from “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” Thomas Obediah Chisholm.

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  5 June 2018 •  No. 163

Invocation. “Imagine,” by John Lennon, performed by the Secaucus (New Jersey) High School and Middle School, on the 4 March 2018, National School Walkout.

Special issue on
IMAGINATION

Introduction

       Imagination is one of our age’s feel-good words, and if you use it (and I do, a lot), first pause to consider the term’s shadow side.

        Imaginary, a linguistic cousin, can be used to describe a life removed from the vicissitudes of history, e.g., pipe dreams sprinkled with pixie dust, also known as magical thinking. To call such living childish is an insult to children. Imagination is not escapism. Spiritual life is not evacuation to another world. . . .” —continue reading “Imagination and transformation: ‘Do not be conformed’”

Use the list quotes that follow as prompts to personal and communal prayer, to
recover and rejuvenate the longing that mortal life be delivered from the grip of
this brutal age and transformed by the One who makes all things new.

§ A vision without a task is but a dream, a task without a vision is drudgery, a vision with a task is the hope of the world. ~Church inscription, Sussex, England (1730)

§ Imagination is more important than knowledge. ~Albert Einstein

§ Violence is the behavior of someone incapable of imagining other solutions to the problem at hand. ~Vicenç Fisas

§ While the Passover narrative [in Exodus] energizes Israel’s imagination toward justice, Israel’s hard work of implementation of that imaginative scenario was done at Mt. Sinai. . . . Moses’ difficult work at Sinai is to transform the narrative vision of the Exodus into a sustainable social practice that has institutional staying-power, credibility, and authority. ~Walter Brueggemann

Short story. “Forty inmates lined up for smudging to enter the sacred circle for the Native American prayers. I spotted Genaro and a little alarm went off in my head. ‘Genaro, can I talk to you for a minute?’ He smiled and nodded.

        “The shade of the building sheltered us from the blistering noonday sun and got us out of hearing range of the other men. ‘Genaro, you know that you must either go into the circle to smoke the pipe, or stay outside the circle by yourself. Last week I noticed that another guy sat with you outside the circle. If custody staff sees that, they assume you’re passing tobacco.’

        “A glint of sun struck his face as he erupted. ‘Who told you to say this to me? You racist like everybody. . . .’

        “He turned away, his arms flailing with each billowing Spanish word that I didn’t need a translator to understand. A dozen Latinos broke their line and encircled him. I walked closer to them, clutching my radio. Officers who could have offered assistance were inside a locked door on the other side of the building, exactly where I wanted to be at that moment.” —continue reading Nancy Hastings Sehested’s “Imagine this: A story from prison”

§ It always seems impossible until it’s done. ~Nelson Mandela

§ As for me, the grounds of my hope have always been that history is wilder than our imagination of it and that the unexpected shows up far more regularly than we ever dream. ~Rebecca Solnit

§ I believe our task is to develop a moral and aesthetic imagination deep enough and wide enough to encompass the contradictions of our time and history, the tremendous loss and tragedy as well as greatness and nobility, an imagination capable of recognizing that where there is light there is shadow, that out of hubris and fall can come moral regeneration, out of suffering and death, resurrection and rebirth. ~Richard Tarnas

§ All things are possible to the one that believes. ~Jesus

§ Imagination is better than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. ~Mary Oliver

§ Hold fast to dreams, / for if dreams die,  / life is a broken-winged bird / that cannot fly. / Hold fast to dreams / For when dreams go / Life is a barren field / Frozen with snow. ~Langston Hughes

§ A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshiping we are becoming. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

§ Moral imagination is the capacity to imagine something rooted in the challenge of the real world yet capable of giving birth to that which does not yet exist. . . . The moral imagination believes and acts on the basis that the unexpected is possible. It operates with the view that the creative act is always within human potential, but creativity requires moving beyond the parameters of what is visible, what currently exists, or what is taken as given. . . .  ~John Paul Lederach

§ Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination. ~John Dewey

§ To hope is a duty, not a luxury. To hope is not a dream, but to turn dream into reality. Happy are those who dream dreams, and are ready to pay the price to make them come true. ~Cardinal Leo Suenens

§ In order to create an effective movement for redemptive engagement, reflective work must be integrated with affective learning in the context of a community of conviction. Mind and imagination must be addressed, and these must be tethered to disciplines of concrete and communal commitments. ~Ken Sehested

§ Human imagination is not simply our means of reaching out to God but God’s means of manifesting himself to us. ~Christian Wiman

§ When we are dissatisfied with things as they are, or suffer and know pain, we begin to imagine what the world would be like if things were different—if there were no hunger or thirst and all tears were wiped away (Rev. 7:14). Creative imagination reaches toward God, and glimpses a new heaven and new earth. The new reality has nothing to do with the present order. In fact, the one who responds to call seeks to put something more beautiful in the place of what she sees. This is where the friction and fight begin. ~Elizabeth O’Connor

§ If you want to change people's obedience then you must change their imagination. ~Paul Ricoeur

§ The step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy is all too brief. ~Franciscan priest William of Manchester (played by Sean Connery), in the movie “The Name of the Rose”

§ You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. ~Mark Twain

§ The Eucharist has been preempted and redefined in dualistic thinking that leaves the status quo of the world untouched, so congregations can take the meal without raising questions of violence; the outcome is a “colonized imagination” that is drained of dangerous hope. ~Walter Brueggemann

§ 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. ~Wendell Berry

§ Most peacemakers don’t begin with a grand vision. They begin with the troubles at hand and the resources they have. Then you act for good, for justice, for healing, for hope, for peace. It’s as simple as that. ~Dan Buttry

§ The two, suffering and hope, live from each other. Suffering without hope produces resentment and despair. Hope without suffering creates illusions, naïveté, and drunkenness. Let us plant dates, even though we who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see. This is the secret discipline. ~Rubem Alves

§ Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. ~Albert Einstein

§ When we are dreaming alone, it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality. ~Dom Hélder Câmara

§ Sometimes imagination pounces; mostly it sleeps soundly in the corner, purring. ~Terri Guillemets

§ You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. ~Mark Twain

§ Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night. ~Edgar Allan Poe

§ Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one had always known it, the loss of all that gave one identity, the end of safety, and at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will bring forth, one clings to what one knew, to what one possessed or dreamed that one possessed. Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self pity, to surrender a dream he has long cherished, or a privilege he has long possessed, that he is set free—that he has set himself free—for higher dreams, for greater privileges. ~James Baldwin

§ Vision is the art of seeing things invisible. ~Jonathan Swift

§ The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. ~Marcel Proust

§ All people dream: but not equally. / Those who dream by night / in the dusty recesses of their minds / wake in the day to find that it was vanity. / But the dreamers of the day / are dangerous people, / for they may act their dream with open eyes / to make it possible. ~T.E. Lawrence

§ Fantasy mirrors desire. Imagination reshapes it. ~Mason Cooley

§ Rationalism is merely the human structuring of reality by those in power. ~author unknown

§ You will recognize your own path when you come upon it, because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need. ~Jerry Gillies

§ The Possible’s slow fuse is lit / by the Imagination. ~Emily Dickinson

§ Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. ~Lewis Carroll

§ Things are only impossible until they're not. ~Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

§ Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun. ~George Scialabba

§ You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. ~Maya Angelou

§ Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought. ~Albert Szent-Györgyi

§ The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping old ones. ~John Maynard Keynes

§ Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in sight of all. Men will give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as if on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude. ~Fyodor Dostoyevsky

§ No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. ~Albert Einstein

§ When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity. ~Linda Naiman

§ It seems to be one of the paradoxes of creativity that in order to think originally, we must familiarize ourselves with the ideas of others. ~George Kneller

§ It is good to be introduced by someone with a glib tongue, a vivid imagination and an elastic conscience. ~Foy Valentine

 § You can crush the flowers, but you can’t stop the spring. . . . As for me, the grounds of my hope have always been that history is wilder than our imagination of it and that the unexpected shows up far more regularly than we ever dream. ~Alexander Dubcek, hero of the Prague Spring uprising of 1968

§ We do not live by what is possessed but by what is promised. ~Walter Brueggemann

§ The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

§ I slept and dreamt that life was joy; / I awoke and saw that life was service; / I acted and, behold, service was joy. ~Rabindranath Tagore

§ Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination, / calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting — / over and over announcing your place / in the family of things. ~Mary Oliver

§ We are a little lost here in America. Too many of us have tuned out, and too many of us are deeply tuned in to the wrong things. Our eccentricities have curdled into crochets. Our love for the strange and deeply weird has soured into a devotion to the mean and deeply angry. Our renegade national soul has given itself up to petty outlawry. . . . Imagination always has been the way out—a faith in that which seems impossible, a trust that not every mystery is a murder mystery, and that not every mysterious creature is a monster. Imagination is the way out—a belief that safety is not necessarily the primary (or even the secondary) goal of democratic citizenship, and that a self-governing political commonwealth does not always come with a lifetime guarantee. Yes, we are a little lost here in America, but we can find our way, and the best way that we can find is the one that seems like the least secure, the darkest trail, the one with the long, sweeping bend in the road that leads god knows where. ~Charles P. Pierce, “Goodbye to All That”

§ Where there is no vision, the people perish. ~Proverbs 29:18

Benediction. “When God imagined me / the Trinity was in harmony / I was no afterthought, no oversight.” — Alana Levandoski “When God Imagined Me” (Thanks Lenora.)

©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.

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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.