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Signs of the Times  •  28 November 2017 •  No. 145

¶ Processional. “Adiemus,” composed by Karl Jenkins and performed by the Angel City Chorale. (There are no lyrics as such, instead the vocalists sing syllables and "words" invented by Jenkins.)

Above: Owl At Night (Kletr/Shutterstock)

¶ Invocation. “Calling all angels, calling all angels / Walk me through this one, don't leave me alone / Calling all angels, calling all angels / We're tryin', we're hopin' but we're not sure how.” —Jane Siberry & KD Lang, “Calling All Angels” (Thanks Abigail.)

¶ Call to worship. To move into a seemingly bleak and ominous future requires laying hold of stories from our past: Stories that remind us that buoyancy emerges from unseen places, at unknowing moments, in unpredictable ways, beyond all calculation and prognostication.

        People of faith instinctively know that reality will not be bridled by apparent history and its imperial champions. As Mary Hood wrote, “There’s no difference between a bare tree and a dead tree in winter.”

        Advent is the invitation to attentiveness even when the sap isn’t running, in the face of a howling cold wind and the frightful dark night. —kls

¶ Hymn of praise. “Behold, I Make All Things New,” Alana Levandoski.

¶ Advent reminder. Researchers are discovering that silence helps develop new cells in the hippocampus region of the brain, which is associated with memory, emotion, and learning. —Rebecca Beris “Science Says Silence Is Much More Important To Our Brains Than We Think,” Lifehack (Thanks Gus.)

¶ Good news: a collection of small reminders

        •Men behaving less badly. During a July concert in Minneapolis, country music superstar Garth Brooks noticed a woman near the front holding a sign. (See photo at right.) He stepped off the stage and continued his concert singing directly to Theresa Shaw who was battling stage 3 breast cancer. This brief (4:10) video may give you goosebumps.

        • “Soda consumption in the US fell to a 31-year low in 2016, according to Beverage Digest.” —Leo Sun, The Motley Fool

        • “Solar energy created more than double the jobs as coal did in 2016—374,000 compared to 160,000, according to a new report by the Department of Energy. . . . Another report by the Environmental Defense Fund found that renewables sector are hiring workers 12 times faster than the rest of the economy.” At the end of 2016 the US had installed 40 gigawatts (GW) of photovoltaic capacity. China’s solar capacity, however, now stands at 77.42 GW.  —Joe McCarthy, Global Citizen and “China's solar power capacity more than doubles in 2016,” Reuters

        •“Kentucky Coal Mining Museum converts to solar power.” —Sarah Anderson

        • Inspiring stories of places in the world committed to restricting or eliminating single-use plastics. (1:45 video. Thanks David.)

¶ Confession. “A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is great.” —Saul Bellow

¶ When free-marketeers get anxious about income inequality. Alan Greenspan, long-time Chairman of the Federal Reserve and among the leading cheerleaders for US-style corporate capitalism, recent expressed these fears over our economic system:

        “You cannot have the benefits of capitalist market growth without the support of a significant proportion, and indeed, virtually all of the people; and if you have an increasing sense that the rewards of capitalism are being distributed unjustly the system will not stand.” —John Komlos, “Income inequality begins at birth and these are the stats that prove it”

¶ Hymn of supplication. “To the river I am going / bring sins I cannot bear / come and cleanse me, come forgive me / Lord I need to meet you there.” —Grace Symphony, “The River”

¶ More on the Republican tax plan. “Even Congress’s own Joint Committee on Taxation—the House and Senate’s official scorekeeper on tax issues—finds that the Senate’s version of the bill would increase taxes on all income groups making under $75,000 per year. By 2027, it would give its biggest tax breaks to those making $1 million or more. The House bill would be even more generous to millionaires and billionaires. . . .
        Despite Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s assurances that the tax reform bill will “pay for itself,” “even the Tax Foundation—a major proponent of the corporate tax cuts—estimates the House bill will cause a $1.08 trillion revenue loss over ten years and the Senate bill, a $516 billion loss.” —Robert Reich, Newsweek

¶ A new analysis of the Senate tax plan by the Tax Policy Center show just how brutally regressive it will be. The modest tax cuts for lower and middle income quintiles of the population virtually disappear over the next decade, while that for the top earners balloons. For the top 1%, taxes are reduced by an average of $85,000 next year but rise to an annual savings of $208,000 by 2027. Corporate tax rates remain steady over that period. —for more see Greg Gargent, “The Tump tax plan is much worse than you thought,” Washington Post

¶ In its revised forecast, the Congressional Budget Office says the Senate tax reform plan would affect lower and middle income families more than previously indicated
        • “By 2019, Americans earning less than $30,000 a year would be worse off.
        • “By 2021, Americans earning $40,000 or less would be net losers.
        •  By 2027, most people earning less than $75,000 a year would be worse off.
        • “On the flip side, millionaires and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 would be big beneficiaries.”—Heather Long, Washington Post

¶ “The Biggest Tax Scam in History.” “Of the 42 ideologically diverse economists surveyed by the University of Chicago on the impact of Republican tax plans, only one agreed that they would lead to substantial economic growth, while none disagreed with the proposition that they would substantially increase U.S. debt.” —Paul Krugman, New York Times

¶ “An awkward — but extremely telling — moment arose at a Wall Street Journal ‘CEO Council’ event that featured the Trump administration’s top economic policy hand, Gary Cohn, as a key speaker.
        “John Bussey, an associate editor with the Journal, asks the CEOs in the room, ‘If the tax reform bill goes through, do you plan to increase investment — your companies’ investment — capital investment,’ and requests a show of hands. Only a few hands go up, leaving Cohn to ask sheepishly, ‘Why aren’t the other hands up?’” —Matthew Yglesias, Vox

¶ Forbes Magazine (whose motto is “The Capitalist Tool”) just published an article titled “GOP Tax Bill Is The End Of All Economic Sanity In Washington,” by contributing editor Stan Collender, who goes on to say, “If it's enacted, the GOP tax cut now working its way through Congress will be the start of a decades-long economic policy disaster unlike any other that has occurred in American history.” (Thanks Leah.)

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

¶ I learned seven key things researching the Republican tax reform plan. —see “The greedification of tax policy is a sign of spiritual impoverishment”

¶ A Pew Research Center study found two-thirds of Republicans believe “that a person is rich because he/she has worked harder than others. Those disdainful of the poor may not realize that in the eight years since the recession, the Wilshire Total Market valuation has more than TRIPLED, rising from a little over $8 trillion to nearly $25 trillion, with the great majority of that passive wealth going to the very richest Americans. In 2016 alone, the richest 1% effectively shifted nearly $4 trillion in wealth away from the rest of the nation to themselves, with nearly half of the wealth transfer ($1.94 trillion) coming from the nation's poorest 90%—the middle and lower classes, according to Piketty and Saez and Zucman.” —Paul Buchheit, Common Dreams

¶ Short story. In India 66 million trees were planted in just 12 hours (see photo at left), utilizing 1.5 million volunteers. The country has pledged to reforest 12% of their land by 2030 at a cost of $6.2 billion. This is part of India’s commitment to the Paris climate agreement. —AJ+ (1:26 video. Thanks Harriet.)

¶ Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, is among the leading neoconservative intellects of our age. Yet he has this to say on Twitter about major current events:
        “The GOP tax bill’s bringing out my inner socialist. The sex scandals are bringing out my inner feminist. Donald Trump and Roy Moore are bringing out my inner liberal. WHAT IS HAPPENING?” (Thanks Tamara.)

¶ Hymn of intercession. “Down In the Valley to Pray,” Doc Watson.

¶ Preach it. On the accusations of sexual assault against Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore: “We Christians, of all people, should be well-practiced at believing the testimony of a young woman, or we should just pack up our Nativity sets right now.” —Sarah Arthus on Twitter (Thanks Steve.)

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. A company curried favor with advanced thinkers by commissioning for Manhattan’s financial district the “Fearless Girl” bronze statue, which exalts female intrepidity in the face of a rampant bull representing (1) a surging stock market or (2) toxic masculinity. Then the company paid a $5 million settlement, mostly for paying 305 female executives less than men in comparable positions. —Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Money

¶ Unfortunately, the cheery holiday season only aggravates the recent grief of those who have lost loved ones. One dear friend, whose son suffered a tragic end, could only endure Thanksgiving. Another in our congregation—vigorous, only months ago—was just admitted to hospice care. The poem at right is dedicated to her and her beloved family. Be attentive (without being nosy) to such near you this season.

¶ Call to the table. “Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say, watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.” —Linda Hogan

¶ The state of our disunion. “A survey conducted in mid-November by PBS NewsHour, NPR, and Marist found that 35% of women and 9% of men have "experienced sexual harassment or abuse from someone in the workplace." A Quinnipiac University poll, also conducted in mid-November, found that 60% of women have been sexual harassed generally, and 69% of those women said it happened at work; it also found 20% of men have experienced sexual harassment, the majority of which also took place at work.” —“Out of Spotlight and Across Industries, Surveys Reveal Pervasive Sexual Harassment of Women”

¶ Best one-liner. “The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.” —Richard Rohr

¶ For the beauty of the earth. Photographer Chad Cowan has driven almost 100,000 miles across the US chasing powerful supercell thunderstorms and recording them in high definition. Cowan has recorded hundreds of storms and condensed the highlights into this short film titled “Fractal.” (3:22 video. Thanks Dick.)

¶ Altar call. “Seek Love in the pity of others’ woe,  / In the gentle relief of another’s care,  / In the darkness of night and winter’s snow,  / In the naked and outcast. Seek Love there!” —William Blake

¶ Benediction. “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” —Mary Oliver

¶ Recessional. “And we who run from our homes / When the silence of sorrow / Won't leave us alone / And we who are out there this late / Be it heartbreak or highway / Or some altered state / . . . . As long as there are broken hearts and dreams / And all of that highway in between / The waffle house will never close.” —David Wilcox, “Waffle House”

¶ Lectionary for this Sunday. “With a blood moon steep arising, and the sun beyond its set, let watchful eyes and wakened hearts mark midnight hours and cockcrow dawns. / E’vn should earth decay and heaven betray, the Word will prevail over every travail. / Keep awake—though you know neither hour nor day, from hither or yon—for your Comforter surely hastens.” —continue reading “Blood Moon Arising,” a litany for worship inspired by Mark 13:24-37, Joel 2:31, Daniel 7:13, Acts 2:20, Revelation 6:12

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “To what wilderness have you strayed, oh people of the Way? To what distraction have you tuned your ears? Have you not heard? To what diversion have you loaned your eyes? Have you not seen? Oh people of Mercy: Sing chords of comfort to worried minds, tender songs to wounded hearts. Raise a song of gladness!” —continue reading “Chords of Comfort,” a litany inspired by Isaiah 40

¶ Just for fun. Take a thrilling ride through the alps with this drone footage. (2:49 video.)

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Advent & Christmas resources for worship: Litanies, poems, sermons & articles”

• “Blood Moon Arising,” a litany for worship inspired by Mark 13:24-37, Joel 2:31, Daniel 7:13, Acts 2:20, Revelation 6:12

• “The greedification of tax policy is a sign of spiritual impoverishment”

• For more information on the impending tax reform debate in Congress, see the 15 November 2017 special issue of "Signs of the Times" titled "Tax Deform."

©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.

 

Signs of the Times  •  2 November 2017 •  No. 142

“All Saints Day” illustration by Martin Erspamer OSB

¶ Processional. “When the Saints Go Marching In,” The Weavers.
        The Weavers were formed in November 1948 by Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, and Pete Seeger. The group took its name from a play by Gerhart Hauptmann, “Die Weber” (“The Weavers” 1892), a powerful play depicting the uprising of the Silesian weavers in 1844, containing the lines, "I'll stand it no more, come what may.” In the early '50s, during the McCarthyite anti-communist hysteria, the group was blacklisted and their music banned. —see more at Wikipedia

Above: Korean landscape, photo by Jaewoon U.

¶ Invocation. “May light eternal shine upon them, O Lord, with Thy saints forever, / for Thou art kind. / Eternal rest / give to them, O Lord, / and let perpetual light shine upon them.” —English translation to the title/lyrics of Edward Elgar’s “Lux Aeterna,” performed by VOCES8 (Thanks Joel.)

¶ Call to worship. “We come again to a time when mortals / play out the battle of good and evil. / Before the goodness of the saints is delivered to us, / We must face the dark night / Don our courage / Wear it like a shield and / Say BOO! to the darkness / before it engulfs us.” —continue reading Abigail Hastings’ “Hallowed Week: A call to worship for All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day”

¶ How to think of ALL the saints. Astronomer Dorrit Hoffleit estimates the average naked eye can see 9,096 stars in the sky at night. Dr. David Kornreich, founder of the “Ask An Astronomer” service, makes a rough guess that there are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the universe (based on an estimate of 10 billion stars in our galaxy and 10 trillion galaxies in the universe).
        Think of the saints that we know about as the former figure; the actual number, the latter.

¶ Beauty pageant subversives. Contestants (right) in the Miss Peru 2017 beauty pageant read out facts and statistics about violence against women in Peru instead of the traditional measurements of bust, waist and hip sizes in an effort to draw attention to the mistreatment of women. (1:10 video)

¶ Hymn of praise. “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God,” The Children's Choir of St. John's Episcopal Church in North Haven, CT.

¶ Good news. Inspiring stories of places in the world committed to restricting or eliminating single-use plastics. (1:45 video. Thanks David.)

¶ Confession. During the 1950-1953 Korean War, some five million civilians and soldiers were killed. —for more info see “Korean War,” History Channel

 ¶ “A coalition of more than 200 South Korean civic groups have announced plans to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's escalation of nuclear tensions with North Korea during his scheduled visit to Seoul next week. . . . ‘Who can possibly welcome a foreign leader who talks about the possibility of a war on their land?’ the civic groups said during a press briefing.” —Jessica Corbett, “South Koreans Plan to Welcome ‘War Lunatic’ Trump With Mass Protest,” CommonDreams

¶ Hymn of assurance. “All around us and within us / And yet it's only at times we notice / As real as rain, and soft as stardust / We know deep down, what nobody told us / Can't you feel it ever closer / We breathe it in and we then we exhale / We touch both sides and now eternal / Standing closer to the veil.” —Carrie Newcomer, “All Saints Day” (Thanks, Mandy.)

¶ “As President Donald Trump continues to ratchet up tensions between the US and North Korea through saber-rattling on Twitter and in television interviews, the U.S. has quietly begun preparing to put nuclear-armed B-52 bombers on ‘24-hour ready alert,’ a status not seen since the end of the Cold War. . . . Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, concludes this ‘would precipitously raise the risk of accidents, strain an aging force, and ensure a destabilizing Russian response.’” —Jake Johnson, CommonDreams

¶ The US now has three carrier strike groups near the Korean Peninsula, or nearly a third of its Naval power. According to June Teufel Dreyer, a University of Miami political science professor and a leading Asia watcher, “Bringing in three carrier groups and not using them sends a bad signal.” —Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast 

¶ To be sure, there is a good bit of manufactured hatred of the US by the North Korean government. But some is fact-based. Consider:

        •During the Korean War, the US dropped 635,000 tons of bombs, greater than the 503,000 tons dropped in the entire Pacific theater of World War II.

        • The US’s intentional bombing of population centers in the North during the Korean War was a blatant war crime.

        • “What hardly any Americans knows or remembers is that we carpet-bombed the north for three years with next to no concern for civilian casualties.” — University of Chicago historian Bruce Cumings in The Korean War: A History

        • “I had seen the war-battered cities of Europe, but I had not seen devastation until I had seen [post war] Korea.” —Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

        • General Douglas MacArthur want to drop “between 30 and 50 atomic bombs.”

        • The dictatorial regime of US-backed South Korean President Syngman Rhee carried out a massacre of tens of thousands of suspected communists. Eyewitness accounts report that US military officers helped supervise the slaughter. —Mehdi Hasan, “Why Do North Koreans Hate Us? One Reason — They Remember the Korean War,” The Intercept

¶ “The American air war [in Korea] left a deep and lasting impression . . . more than any other single factor, gave North Koreans a collective sense of anxiety and fear of outside threats, that would continue long after the war’s end.” —Columbia University historian Charles Armstrong, Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950-1992

¶ “In 1994, when President Bill Clinton contemplated the use of force to knock out the North’s nuclear weapons program, the then commander of U.S.-Republic of Korea forces, Gary Luck, told his commander in chief that a war on the peninsula would likely result in 1 million dead, and nearly $1 trillion of economic damage.” —Bill Powell, “What War With North Korea Looks Like,” Newsweek

¶ Hymn of intercession. “Farewell,” a song for All Souls Day, by the choir of St. Francis Church, Melbourne, Australia.

¶ Saintliness breaks out at the beauty parlor. “I arrived for a cut at the very end of their workday and witnessed them provide a warm and very human circle of care for the only other client. This was a woman past my age who had called in a panic when her long wavy hair started coming out in handfuls as a result of her cancer treatment regimen.

        “Now this was not my first time here, and in the past I've heard these women pass on some vicious gossip and fling barbed zingers at one another with glee. There was none of that this evening. Neither was there saccharine sentiments nor empty platitudes.

        “Instead, they lovingly washed her hair and efficiently shaved off what remained, completely following the woman's lead in conversation topics, which ranged from family doings to treatment experiences and side effects to the best way to fashionize her new look. Perhaps she would wear black lipstick and go Goth or maybe wear only one of her large hoop earrings for more of a pirate statement. They cut some stretchy black silky material into a headscarf and tied it into some beautiful stylish knots.

        “And they held steady when she teared up as she faced her self in the mirror without her hair.

        “It was beautiful. They were beautiful. She was beautiful.” —Amy Smith on Facebook

¶ “I didn’t know [the US has] 1,000 troops in Niger,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Evidently, Armed Service Committee Chair John McCain was surprised and said “Americans should know what’s going on in Niger. Democratic Senators Bob Casey (PA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Shumer (NY) also said they were unaware. —for more see John Haltiwanger, Newsweek

¶ “Niger is the perfect example of the US state of perma-war.” “It’s the ‘war on terror’ circle of life: send troops into a country to ‘advise and assist’, troops inevitably get killed by local militants when they inevitably engage in combat missions, send more troops in to ‘fix’ the problem. Rinse. Repeat.

        “It’s not just Niger either. As journalist Nick Turse, an expert on the region who has been covering US military presence in Africa for years, writes: ‘In truth, US forces are already deployed all across Africa by the thousands. Around 6,000 troops are on the continent, conducting 3,500 exercises, programs, and engagements each year—almost 10 missions each day—from Cameroon to Somalia, Djibouti to Libya’.” —Trevor Trimm, The Guardian

¶ Short take. Wondering about the debt crisis in Puerto Rico that Trump has frequently referred to? Here’s an explanation (2:32 video) of how US tax policies created this burden. (Thanks Andrew.)

¶ Preach it. "The whole point of Jesus's public career was not tell people that God was in heaven and that, at death, they could leave 'earth' behind and go to be with him there. It was to tell them that God was now taking charge, right here on 'earth.'" —N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus

Left: Cartoon by Emad Hajjaj.

¶ Can’t make this sh*t up. “[A war on the Korean peninsula] would be terrible, but the war would be over there, it wouldn’t be here.” —Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, NBC interview

¶ Call to the table. “Performance without rehearsal. / Body without alterations. / Head without premeditation. / I know nothing of the role I play. / I only know it's mine. I can't exchange it. / I have to guess on the spot / just what this play's all about. / Ill-prepared for the privilege of living, / I can barely keep up with the pace that the action demands. / I trip at every step over my own ignorance. / I can't conceal my hayseed manners. . . .” —listen to a reading of Wislawa Szymborska’s “Life While-You-Wait” (2:34 video. Thanks Karen.)

¶ The state of our disunion. Greg Poppovich, legendary coach of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, speaks eloquently: “We still have no clue of what being born white means.” —Sport Illustrated (2:18 video. Thanks Aline.)

¶ For the beauty of the earth. Scrap metal sculpture artist John Lopez. (2:57 video. Thanks Amanda.)

¶ This year’s “National Organ & Tissue Donor Sabbath” observance is 10-12 November. For more information visit Donate Life for congregational resources.

¶ Altar call. “The difference between the Gospel written and the lives of the Saints is the same as the difference between music written on a page and music played out loud.” —St. Augustine

¶ Benediction. “I know your life / On earth was troubled / And only you could know the pain / You weren't afraid to face the devil / You were no stranger to the rain / Go rest high on that mountain / Son, your work on earth is done." —“Go Rest High Upon That Mountain,” Vince Gill, Alison Krauss & Ricky Skaggs

¶ Recessional. “When the Saints Go Marching In,” Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Session Band.

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Teach your children well. For they are living messages to a lineage you will not see; to a future beyond your horizon.” —continue reading “Teach your children well,” a litany inspired by Psalm 78

¶ Just for fun. “Voice recognition technology . . . in Scotland.” (Thanks David.)

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Teach your children well,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 78

• “Eucharistic conventions: Why we practice these (somewhat) odd manners at the Lord’s Table”
 
All Hallow’s Eve and All Saints Day

• “Hallowed Week: A call to worship for All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day,” by Abigail Hastings

• “All Saints,” an All Saints Day call to worship and pastoral prayer, Nancy Hastings Sehested

• Seven-year-old Sydney reading the Beatitudes at Circle of Mercy Congregation

• “All Saints Day,” a litany for worship

• “For All the Saints: New lyrics for an old hymn”

©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.

 

Signs of the Times  •  25 October 2017 •  No. 141

¶ Processional. “Fa’afetai i le Atua,” Samoan hymn, sung by a wildfire “hotshot” crew from the Polynesian island of American Samoa, a colony of the US, brought in to help fight wildfires in northern California. (“Hotshot” firefighters are those with specialized training and assigned the most challenging locations—sort of like the military’s special forces.) —Hawaii News Now (2:46–scroll down to find the video. Thanks Duane.)

Above: Orionid meteors fly each year between about October 2 to November 7. That’s when Earth is passing through the stream of debris left behind by Comet Halley. The Orionids are named after the direction from which they appear to radiate, which is near the constellation Orion. First discovered in 1839, Halley has probably been around for more than two millennia. The particles which hit earth’s atmosphere, at 132,000 mph, are mostly microscopic in size. Photo by John Ashely in Montana during the 2015 Orionid shower. —for more info see Deborah Byrd, Astronomy Essentials

¶ Invocation. “For it is in the act of worship that the church steadily renews itself in the discipline of wisdom. Worship is a vigorous act of reordering our desires in the light of God’s burning desire for the wellness of creation.” —Ellen F. Davis

¶ Call to worship. "Beloved God, accept our prayers. When we fall, may we fall freely, completely . . . finding our soul’s depth again, the solid earth from which we may rise and love again. Have mercy. Have mercy upon us. Here, there, everywhere. Have mercy. Amen." —Nancy Hastings Sehested

Introduction

This week’s focus is on the coincidence of two recent headline events: the #MeToo social media campaign ignited after the ghastly uncovering of Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s legacy of sexual assault; and the 50th anniversary of the March on the Pentagon, a defining moment for the movement to halt the Vietnam War.

            What is especially instructive about these concurrent stories (and we can only hope attention outlasts the fickle news cycle) is the way they portray the range of realities to which people of faith and conscience need to attend: from the up-close-and-personal sphere of sexual harassment and assault, to the large-and-public realm of geopolitical warmongering. Violence comes in many forms and must be strategically and appropriately addressed. At the same time, any vision of the Beloved Community must be cradled in an understanding of how the varied fruits of violence share a common root.

            So the question becomes: How do we carry out our concrete, grace-shaped, justice-seeking, peace-making, mercy-mediated engagement in ways that take into account the larger landscape of dehumanizing afflictions?

            Unfortunately, when all is said and done, there’s usually a lot more said than done. To accomplish anything in particular, you have to focus. While doing so, though, a larger vision is needed. Connecting the dots (the reason that awkward word, intersectionality, is now employed) is significant, because everything, somewhere, somehow, is connected and interactive.

¶ Hymn of praise. “Woah I, know I've been changed / Angels in heaven done sign my name.” —“Angels in Heaven,” performed by two of my city’s finest buskers, Abby the Spoon Lady and Chris Rodriguez

¶ Confession. “We talk about how many women were raped last year, not about how many men raped women. We talk about how many girls in a school district were harassed last year, not about how many boys harassed girls. . . . So you can see how the use of the passive voice has a political effect. [It] shifts the focus off of men and boys and onto girls and women. Even the term ‘violence against women’ is problematic. It's a passive construction; there's no active agent in the sentence. It's a bad thing that happens to women, but when you look at that term ‘violence against women,’ nobody is doing it to them. It just happens to them. . . . Men aren't even a part of it!” —Jackson Katz, Sojo.net

¶ “Alyssa Milano was in bed with her two young children when a friend of a friend on Facebook suggested something that struck her as a great way to elevate the Harvey Weinstein conversation. She took the idea to Twitter, posting: ‘If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.’” —Leanne Italie, Washington Post

¶ Words of assurance. “Prayer,” by Rene Clausen using words from a prayer by Mother Teresa, performed here by the Colorado Christian University Choir.

Right: Cartoon by Jeff Koterba, Omaha World Herald

¶ “Years before actress Alyssa Milano’s tweet publicized the idea of sharing ‘me too’ to add one’s experiences with sexual harassment or assault to the widening cultural conversation, [Tarana] Burke, a black woman, blogger, and women’s advocate, was spreading that healing message to survivors of trauma. Late Monday, Milano gave Burke credit for founding the ‘me too’ wave and shared a link to Burke’s youth organization, Just Be Inc. Its mission is ‘the health, well-being, and wholeness of brown girls everywhere,’ according to its website.” —Cristela Guerra, “Where did “MeToo” come from? Activist Tarana Burke, long before hashtags,” BostonGlobe

¶ Professing our faith. “To be a Mother is to suffer; / To travail in the dark, / stretched and torn, / exposed in half-naked humiliation, / subjected to indignities / for the sake of new life. / To be a Mother is to say, / ‘This is my body, broken for you,’ / And, in the next instant, in response to the created’s primal hunger, / ‘This is my body, take and eat.’” —continue reading Allison Woodard’s poem, “God Our Mother”

¶ In spring 2012, a week after setting up a website to catalogue experiences of gender inequality, I asked Lady Gaga for her support via Twitter. Keen to raise awareness of my newly created Everyday Sexism Project, I hoped she might spread the word among her millions of followers.

            The next morning I had 200 new notifications. “I clicked eagerly on the first message and stopped cold. It was a brutally graphic rape threat—and the moment I became aware of the sheer force of hatred that greets women who speak out about sexism.” —Laura Bates, The Guardian

¶ Hymn of intercession. “Til It Happens To You,” Lady Gaga at the 2016 Oscars, surrounded near the end of her song by young survivors of sexual assault.

¶ “I think the golden rule for men should be: If you’re a man, don’t say anything to a woman on the street that you wouldn’t want a man saying to you in prison.” —comedian Peter White

¶ Twitter confirmed to CBS News that [as of Tuesday] over 1.7 million tweets included the hashtag "#MeToo," with 85 countries that had at least 1,000 #MeToo tweets.

¶ Hymn of grief. “I was tortured in the desert / I was raped out on the plain / I was murdered by the highway / And my cries went up in vain / My blood is on the mountain / My blood is on the sand / My blood runs in the river / That now washes through their hands / I am lost unto this world.” —“Lost Unto This World,” Emmylou Harris

¶ Last Saturday was the 50th anniversary of the historic 21 October 1967 March on the Pentagon, sponsored by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which brought 100,000 people to Washington, DC. For the significance, see “How this 1967 Vietnam war protest carried the seeds of American division,” David Smith, The Guardian.

¶ One in my congregation was actually present for the historic March on the Pentagon in October 1967. Read Bill Ramsey’s first-person account, “Launched for a Lifetime.”

¶ “The March on the Pentagon: An Oral History” gives more first-person flavor to that day. —New York Times

¶ Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s PBS series, “The Vietnam War,” represents one of those don’t-say-you-didn’t-know moments for us in the US. It still shocks the mind that more than three million Vietnamese (the estimates go as high as six million) died. The film “deserves an Oscar for its depiction of the gore of war and the criminality of the warmakers. But it also deserves to be critiqued for its portrayal of the anti-war movement.” —for more see Robert Levering’s “Ken Burns’ powerful anti-war film on Vietnam ignores the power of the anti-war movement”

            It is arguably the most powerful anti-war film created in the US, even though as Christopher Koch points out, “Its tragic failure is its inability to hold anyone responsible for their actions. . . . Without the peace movement, there is no moral center to this series.” —“The Tragic Failure of Ken Burns’ ‘The Vietnam War,’” Counterpunch

            The series—10 episodes over 18 hours—is about the only must-see TV I know of. PBS has made it convenient to do so by free streaming.

¶ Preach it. “I think we do need truth and reconciliation in America. But truth and reconciliation are sequential. You can’t get to reconciliation until you first tell the truth.” —Bryan Stevenson, founder of Equal Justice Initiative, one of whose projects is documenting more than 4,000 lynchings in the US, most of them African Americans. A memorial to these will open in the spring of 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama.

Right: In Poland and many Western European countries, All Hallow's Eve is marked by candlelit cemeteries.

¶ “We destroyed 60% of [Vietnam’s] villages, sprayed 21 million gallons of lethal poisons, imposed free fire zones (a euphemism for genocide) on 75% of South Vietnam. They attacked US military bases in their country and never killed an American on American soil. There are no equivalences here. . . ." —Christopher Koch, "The Tragic Failure of Ken Burns’ ‘The Vietnam War,’” Counterpunch

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. Lt. William Calley, whose infantry platoon massacred as many as 500 civilians in the hamlet of My Lai, South Vietnam, was convicted of premeditated murder of 22 of My Lai’s victims. Calley, who could have received the death penalty, was sentenced to life imprisonment and hard labor. Instead, he served three years of house arrest. All of the other 26 soldiers in his command were exonerated.

            During his court martial Calley testified, “I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women, and children. They were all classified as the same. I felt then and I still do that I carried out the order that I was given.” —for more background see Wikipedia

¶ Best one-liner. “[T]he difference between being at peace and being complacent is one of the most basic lessons saints can teach us.” —Charles Mathewes

¶ For the beauty of the earth. Dolphins as appreciative fans. (0:43 video. Thanks Charles.)

¶ Altar call. The “processional” music video (noted at top, of a Samoan hymn) illustrates an important and largely-overlooked fact about singing hymns of hope and confidence: By and large the authoring was done in the face of trauma and risk—which the American Samoan firefighting crew calls to mind, when your vocation requires going into harm’s way. When expressions of piety occur outside such a context, their meaning often changes. They have a tendency to become self-centered assertions of privilege.

¶ Benediction. “The doxologies of ancient Israel, the lyrical soaring of Paul’s Epistles, and the regular amazement evoked by the deeds and teaching of Jesus all converge in the stunning affirmation that the world is other than we had taken it to be, because the world is the venue for God’s reign.” —Walter Brueggemann

¶ Recessional. “The Trumpet Shall Sound,” Phil Driscoll juicing Handel, from The Messiah. (Thanks Tom.)

¶ Lectionary for this Sunday. “Prosper the work of every generous hand,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 90

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. Listen as seven-year-old Sydney reads the Beatitudes at Circle of Mercy Congregation 

¶ Just for fun. 4-month-old otter has a bath for the first time. (2:14. Thanks David.)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• Lectionary resources for Reformation Sunday

• “She was not: Judges 19: The Bible’s most vividly brutal story and why we must read and remember it,” a sermon

• “Limb from limb: Repenting and repairing a legacy of violence against women,” a litany for worship inspired by Judges 19

• “Let gladness swell your heart,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 107
 
Resources for All Hallow’s Eve and All Saints Day

• “Hallowed Week: A call to worship for All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day,” a litany for worship by Abigail Hastings

• “All Saints,” an All Saints Day call to worship and pastoral prayer by Nancy Hastings Sehested

• Seven-year-old Sydney reading the Beatitudes at Circle of Mercy Congregation   

• “All Saints Day,” a litany for worship

• “For All the Saints," new lyrics for an old hymn

©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.

 

Signs of the Times  •  17 October 2017 •  No. 140

Special edition
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

¶ Processional. “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” University of Texas Trombone Choir.

Above: Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia.

¶ Invocation. To commemorate the International Day of the Girl, watch this remarkable video (2:57) of Beyoncés “Freedom.”  (Open a second tab to follow along with the lyrics.)

¶ Call to worship. “The earth and all its environs were marked from the beginning as the Dwelling Place of abundance. In this once-and-future land the arrogant are humbled by the countenance of Truth. / Holy the Name, whose might is manifest in mercy. Prosper the work of every generous hand.” —continue reading “Prosper the work of every generous hand,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 90

¶ Dirk Willems (see illustration at right) was a 16th century Dutch Anabaptist who is most famous for escaping from prison, turning around to rescue his pursuer—who had fallen through thin ice while chasing Willems—to then be recaptured, tortured and killed for his faith. —Wikipedia

¶ Hymn of praise (which gets my vote for a modern Reformation hymn). “If I Had a Hammer,” The Weavers.

¶ One way to understand the Protestant Reformation (and maybe our own age as well) is to turn to the oft-cited quote from Anglican Bishops Mark Dyer, popularized in the writing of Phyllis Tickle:

        “The only way to understand what is currently happening to us as 21st-century Christians in North America is first to understand that about every 500 years the church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale," when “the empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity become an intolerable carapace that must be shattered in order that renewal and new growth may occur." —see more at Tom Roberts, National Catholic Reporter

¶ The Reformation is typically divided into two wings from the 16th century: the “Magisterial” Reformation (think Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc.) who were supported by their respective existing political institutions, and the “Radical” Reformation, a diverse collection of movements commonly designated as Anabaptists, who were very nearly killed off (by Reformation and Roman Catholic authorities) after a generation. The bodies known now as Mennonites, Brethren, Amish, etc., are among the Anabaptist heirs.

¶ Near the end of seminary training, I made a listing of what had been the most important books in my theological education. As one reared in deep-water Baptist tradition, I was shocked to recognize that more than two-thirds of my “most important” guides were Roman Catholic authors. . . . I now say that while my ship of faith has many sails, its mainsail is that legacy flowing from the anabaptist outburst of the 16th century. —continue reading “My ship of faith has many sails: What it means to live into particular religious identity in the midst of spiritual plurality”

¶ Reformation as “democratizing access to the holy.” “Much of the history of the church is the story of the unfolding details of who gets to say and do what in the life of the believing community. It is the story of an increasingly complex bureaucracy detailing who gets to approach God on behalf of the people and approach the people on behalf of God. The early baptist impulse was to say that the unlettered and the unwashed also testify to the work of the Holy Spirit. The unanointed, the unlettered, the non-ordained also have access and also are called to speak to the difficult choices involved in following Jesus.” —continue reading “The baptist impulse: Notes toward a renewal of baptist identity”

¶ Confession. “We have divided Jesus into at least 41,000 denominational pieces when there is actually only one Jesus vine and, through the ages, billions of branches, because we . . . are the branches Jesus is referring to.” —Rev. Mari Larson, “Lutherans and Catholics Jointly Commemoration Reformation’s 500th Anniversary," The Catholic Key

Right: Dissenting Czech theologian Jan Huss, declared a heretic and burned at the stake in 1415 in Constance, Germany.

¶ “If anything signals the ‘overness’ of the Reformation, it has to be the appearance of Pope Francis at the Lutheran World Federation’s [LWF] formal inauguration of the year leading up to the October 2017 anniversary of the 95 Theses. This festive worship on October 31, 2016 featured the startling image of the pope—whose office was not infrequently identified by Luther as that of the Antichrist—processing up the aisle of the great cathedral flanked by Bishop Munib Younan, president of the Lutheran World Federation, and Martin Junge, general secretary of the LWF.” —Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, “Is the Reformation over? Yes and no,” Christian Century

¶ Hymn of supplication. “O God of earth and altar, / bow down and hear our cry, / our earthly rulers falter, / our people drift and die; / the walls of gold entomb us, / the swords of scorn divide, / take not thy thunder from us, / but take away our pride.” —Iron Maiden, “O God of Earth and Altar” (click “show more” to see all the lyrics)

¶ THIS is the profound failure not only of the Magisterial Reformation but of the church as a whole, in effectively removing the actual life and teachings of Jesus from the Christian story (from John Calvin’s Geneva Catechism, 1545)
        Question 55: “Why do you leap at once from [Jesus’] birth to his death, passing over the whole history of his life?”
        Response: “Because nothing is treated of here but what so properly belongs to our salvation, as in a manner to contain the substance of it.”

¶ Words of assurance. “Thou, greatest solace in all suffering, / Help us to fear neither shame nor death, / that we do not despair / before the enemy sues for our life. / Kyrioleis.” —lyrics to Martin Luther’s Pentecost hymn “Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord”

Left: Martin Luther’s burning of the Papal Bull excommunicating him

¶ As with most all historical naming, the date of 31 October 1517 as “Reformation Day” is biased. Dissent against the Holy Mother Church had already been underway for a century. The choice of this date comes because one of the most identifiable and volatile acts occurred that day.

        “A simple act . . . but it triggered an epic era of political and religious convulsions that changed the shape of Europe” when “a monk named Martin Luther walked to a church in the German town of Wittenberg and nailed his 95 theses to its wooden doors, lighting the fuse of the Reformation.” —Harriet Sherwood, “After 500 years of schism, will the rift of the Reformation finally be healed?” The Guardian

        New technology was a key factor. “The Protestant Reformation had a lot to do with the printing press, where Martin Luther’s theses were reproduced about 250,000 times, and so you had widespread dissemination of ideas that hadn’t circulated in the mainstream before.” —Nate Silver, author and statistician

¶ Luther was a prolific and eminently-quotable writer. Here are a few of my favorites:

        • “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.”

        • “As long as we live, there is never enough singing.”

        • “A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.”

        • “You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”

        • “I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.”

¶ It’s also true that Luther had some horrendous things to say about women, e.g., that women had but two roles: wife or prostitute. And even worse things about Jews, urging in “On the Jews and Their Lies” that “Jewish synagogues and schools be set on fire, their prayer books destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, homes burned, and property and money confiscated. They should be shown no mercy or kindness, afforded no legal protection, and ‘these poisonous envenomed worms’ should be drafted into forced labor or expelled for all time. . . . [W]e are at fault in not slaying them.” —Wikipedia

¶ Professing our faith. “If you preach the gospel in all its aspects with the exception of the issues that deal specifically with your time, you are not preaching the Gospel at all.” —Martin Luther

¶ Hymn of resolution. “Give Me Jesus,” Danny Gokey.

¶ Short story. For a short (8:17) video telling the story of Martin Luther’s revolt against the church’s practice of selling “indulgences” (to help speed one’s way, after death, from purgatory to heaven) to help rebuilding St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, see “An Introduction to the Protestant Reformation,” Khan Academy.

¶ For a summary of the major characters of the Protestant Reformation, see History World’s “History of the Reformation.”

¶ For a brief survey of the four currents within the “Radical Reformation”—the Protestant reformers who carried on the church’s reformation without official sanction from governing authorities—see “The Reformation Era,” Christianity Today.

Left: Oil painting after the etching La Pendaison (The Hanging), from Les Grandes Misères (“The Great miseries of War”), one of a series of 18 etchings by French artist Jacques Callot. The art depicts the destruction unleashed on civilians during the Thirty Years War in Europe (1618-1648), sparked when the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II attempted to push back the advance of Protestant rulers, primarily those of Sweden, France, Spain and Austria, with most of the conflict occurring on German soil. The “Peace of Wesphalia” treaty ending the wars reshaped the religious and political map of central Europe and set the stage for the development of the modern sovereign state.

¶ Preach it. Harold Bender, the Anabaptist scholar, writes that the notion of following was the key distinctive of the Anabaptist movement's birth in the 16th century. By and large the radical reformers were in agreement with the magisterial reformers, but felt they hadn't pushed the Reformation far enough. The notion of ‘salvation by grace alone’ was good but not sufficient. . . . Nachfolge Christi—following Christ—was the insistent refrain from the Anabaptists. They insisted that any idea, any cognitive affirmation, about God is tested by the way it transforms the shape of our lives. —continue reading “Trust and obey: Reflections on living in the Spirit”

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. President Trump declared the week of Oct. 15-21 National Character Counts Week in a proclamation Friday. "We celebrate National Character Counts Week because few things are more important than cultivating strong character in all our citizens, especially our young people," Trump said. —USA Today

¶ Call to the table. “When three of us began daydreaming about a starting a new congregation . . .  one of the things we immediately imagined was worship centered around communion. This tangible ritual act—of re-membering in the midst of a dismembered world—is poignantly expressive of our theological vision.” —continue reading “Eucharistic conventions: Why we practice these (somewhat) odd manners at the Lord’s Table”

¶ The state of our disunion. “Forasmuch as experience hath plentifully and often proved that since the first rising of the Anabaptists, about one hundred years since [a gross, willful, or ignorant misrepresentation], they have been the incendiaries of the Commonwealth, and the infectors of persons in matters of religion.” —“Act of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony law November 1644

¶ Best one-liner. “We must make the invisible kingdom visible in our midst.” —John Calvin

¶ For the beauty of the earth. “There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world, that is not intended to make us rejoice.” —John Calvin

¶ Altar call. “Even if we were not sinful by nature, the sin of having private property would suffice to condemn us before God; for that which he gives us freely, we appropriate to ourselves.” —Swiss Protestant reformer Huldrych Zwingli

¶ Benediction. “We should ask God to increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when it is overthrown.” —John Calvin

¶ Recessional. “Never Turning Back,” Street Choir Festival at Jubilee Square in Leicester, made up of 30 choirs across the UK.

¶ Lectionary for this Sunday. “For the nations shall tremble, the earth shall quake, at the stirring of Holy Intent. For the Beloved awakes to the cries of the poor, to the mourning of land and sky.” —continue reading “Nation of frivolous piety,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 99 & Isaiah 1:15

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Prosper the work of every generous hand,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 90.

¶ Just for fun. A Calvinist arrives at St. Peter’s gates and sees that there are two queues going in. One is marked “predestined,” and the other is marked “free will.” Being the card-carrying Calvinist that he is, he strolls on over to the predestined queue. After several moments an angel asks him, “Why are you in this line?” He replies, “Because I chose it.” The angel looked surprised, “Well, if you ‘chose’ it, then you should be in the free will line.” So our Calvinist, now slightly miffed, obediently wanders over to the free will line. Again, after a few minutes, another angel asks him, “Why are you in this line?” He sullenly replies, “Someone made me come here.”

¶ Just for fun #2. “Monty Python—The Adventures of Martin Luther.”

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Prosper the work of every generous hand,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 90

• “My ship of faith has many sails: What it means to live into particular religious identity in the midst of spiritual plurality,” a short essay

• “Eucharistic conventions: Why we practice these (somewhat) odd manners at the Lord’s Table,” a short essay

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

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

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