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Signs of the Times  •  3 January 2018 •  No. 149

¶ Processional. “What a Wonderful World.” —Choir, Choir, Choir, where hundreds gathered for the unveiling of the tallest Christmas tree in Toronto and a massive sing-along. (Thanks Tom.)

Above: Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, photo by Aaron Lynett, Canadian Press

¶ Invocation. “Bravo! Bravo to the One who comes from the unknown and unseen place to rattle the landscape and roust the pretenders! / This One, and this One alone, is worthy of devotion. / The Majestic One thunders into the silence of tyranny. At the sound of this Voice, all creation shudders in remembrance of forgotten promises. / This One, and this One alone, is worthy of ovation.” —continue reading “Worthy,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 29 and the Pentecost story of Acts 2

¶ Call to worship. “In an age ruled by terror—both by state and by sect—place on our lips the subversive claim of Epiphany’s Promise. / Give us the courage to live at odds with the rage of this age. / Inspire in us a thirst for beauty and for truth. / Teach us to track the signs of your Spirit moving in odd ways, in unbeknown places, and among the least likely. / As with the ancient Magi, give us the grace to cross national boundaries, racial borders, religious barriers and cultural brinks.” —continue reading “Epiphany’s promise,” a litany for worship on the occasion of a new (Gregorian calendar) year”

¶ Hymn of praise. “Psalm 8 Adonai Adonenu” by Dan Forrest, performed by CMEA Capital Section High Honor Choirs.

Right: Art by Ricardo Levins Morales, ©RLM Art Studio

¶ This brief story should be read on the cusp of every new year. “Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement: ‘If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.”
        “Well—one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.” —continue reading Naomi Shihab Nye’s brief essay, “Gate A-4,” Radical Discipleship

¶ Confession. “There is hurting in my family / There is sorrow in my town / There is panic in the nation / There is wailing the whole world round.” —Holly Near, “I Am Willing”

¶ Good news, in three short parables.

        • “This year, the World Health Organisation unveiled a new vaccine that’s cheap and effective enough to end cholera, one of humanity’s greatest ever killers.” —start your new year reading “99 Reasons 2017 Was a Great Year,” Angus Hervey, FutureCrunch (Thanks Brian.)

        • “Christians and Muslims celebrated Christmas for the first time in Mosul since the city was taken back from ISIS.” —AJ+ (1:38 video. Thanks Shanta.)

        • “When a mosque in Victoria, Texas was burned down by an arsonist, the community came together to prove that love always overcomes hate.” (2:47 video. Thanks Amanda.)

¶ “Anyone who thinks that gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year. For gardening begins in January with the dream.” —Josephine Nuese

¶ Hymn of supplication. “The echoes of childhood whisper violence / Cold wind beating out of the past / Rage in your throat, muffled silence / Hold on, I will stand fast / In the darkness your guardians had left you / Cold wind / None to hear your cries, none to defend you / Hold on / I will stand fast, I will stand fast.” —Fred Small, “I Will Stand Fast,” a song for survivors of child abuse 

¶ The year now past clearly qualifies as a historic silence-breaking era, as Time magazine notes on its “Person of the Year” cover and story on the cascading acts of extraordinary boldness by women (and some men) speaking out about their experiences of sexual assault and harassment.

(By the way, you’ll notice a extra arm on the right side of the photo. It belongs to an anonymous young hospital worker from Texas — a sexual harassment victim who fears that disclosing her identity would negatively impact her family.)

The silence breaking began last January, as a response to trumphoolery, in an unprecedented Women’s March where more than a half million came to the nation’s capitol, with somewhere between 3.6-4.6 million gathering in at least 550 other cities in the US and more than 100 other cities around the world.
        Then, in the fall, the #MeToo hashtag campaign went viral.

¶ “This was the great unleashing that turned the #MeToo hashtag into a rallying cry. The phrase was first used more than a decade ago by social activist Tarana Burke as part of her work building solidarity among young survivors of harassment and assault. A friend of the actor Alyssa Milano sent her a screenshot of the phrase, and Milano, almost on a whim, tweeted it out on Oct. 15. "If you've been sexually harassed or assaulted write 'me too' as a reply to this tweet," she wrote, and then went to sleep. She woke up the next day to find that more than 30,000 people had used #MeToo. Milano burst into tears.” —Stephanie Zacharek, Eliana Dockterman & Haley Sweetland Edwards, “Time: Person of the Year: The Silence Breakers”

¶ Among the significant results is the creation of two similar initiatives within Christian constituencies: the #ChurchToo platform (see Tara Isabella Burton, "#ChurchToo: abuse survivors speak out about harassment in their religious communities,” Vox) and, for self identified evangelical women, the #SilenceIsNotSpiritual hashtag.

¶ Long time coming. The phrase “sexual harassment” was not coined until 1975 and wasn’t even illegal prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s ban on sexual discrimination. It took three decades and a string of Supreme Court decisions—punctuated by the Senate hearing drama of Anita Hill’s testimony against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas—before the actual mechanisms of legal redress were specified.
        Not until 1998 was freedom from sexual harassment considered a fundamental human right, without reference to physical, emotional, or financial harm. —for more see David Crary, ABCNews

¶ Terry Gross’ “Fresh Air” program “Anita Hill Was A ‘Canary In the Coal Mine’ for Women Speaking Out” ought to be required listening.

¶ “Following the rise of the #MeToo movement in 2017 and under the banner of a new initiative called ‘Time's Up,’  over 300 hundred artists, actresses, directors, and entertainment industry leaders issued a ‘unified call for change’ to end the crisis of sexual harassment and assault that exists ‘from movie sets to farm fields to boardrooms’ nationwide.”
        While initial meetings were already underway, the group significantly intensified its work after receiving in November an open letter on behalf of 700,000 female farmworkers. (See below.) The “Time’s Up” begins with contributions totaling $13 million to subsidize legal representation for low-income women. —Jon Queally, CommonDreams

¶ Open letter from female farmworkers. “We write on behalf of the approximately 700,000 women who work in the agricultural fields and packing sheds across the US. For the past several weeks we have watched and listened with sadness as we have learned of the actors, models and other individuals who have come forward to speak out about the gender based violence they’ve experienced at the hands of bosses, coworkers and other powerful people in the entertainment industry.” —continue reading the letter published in Time

¶ “Nearly half of working women in the US say they have experienced harassment in the workplace.” —NBC News

¶ Hymn of assurance. “When I can't run anymore, I will walk / When I can't walk anymore, I may stumble ‘ When I stumble sometimes, I might fall / And down on my knees, I will crawl / Yes down on my knees, I will crawl.”  —Eli “Paperboy” Reed, “My Way Home”

¶ Of the many gains of the #MeToo movement, here are at least four significant lessons:

        • This may be a moment when the healing process of penitence and pardon, restoration and redemption, will get a new hearing outside our sanctuaries. In “Should We Forgive the Men Who Assaulted Us?” Danielle Berrin vividly recounts a scene of shaming from “Game of Thrones”: “The punitive justice meted out may be emotionally thrilling, but it does little to promote a framework for building a more just society.” Then she concludes, “Judaism offers a prescription for restorative rather than punitive justice that I think can provide a template for all of us.”

        • Courage is infectious. “Emboldened by the uprising of women in America and Europe against sexual harassment, a few particularly courageous Afghan women are speaking out, too, in the face of a problem long just accepted as commonplace and unsolvable.” —Rod Nordland & Fatima Faizi, New York Times 

        • People of faith are reminded again of the need to be vigilant over the ways our vocabulary can morph into repressive use. Take the word “silence,” for instance—a spiritual discipline in need of recovery. When, why and how do we practice silence? And when do we risk raising a ruckus?

        • The rise of social media surely facilitates the #MeToo (among other) movements. “But it’s not technology alone,” says Estelle Freedman, history professor at Stanford University. “It’s a gradual, accumulative process and then a tipping point.” (See Lucy Rock’s “How American women's growing power finally turned #metoo into a cultural moment,” The Guardian.) We need a spirituality strong enough to sustain the struggle against injustice, on many fronts, against the historical tides of available evidence.

¶ Short story. “As I greeted the men at the door for the midweek Christian service I was surprised to see Blake, a regular in the Wiccan group.

        “‘Chap, I didn’t come for the service. I came to see you. I gotta see you now.’

        “Ushering him into my office, he started talking even before he sat down. ‘You got some time? Oh, hell, it doesn’t matter. This is life or death. I wanna kill a guy.’” —continue reading Nancy Hastings Sehested's “Hope Remains,” excerpt from an upcoming book of stories from her years as a prison chaplain

¶ Hymn of intercession (when words no longer suffice). “Cold Was the Ground, Dark Was the Night,” Blind Willie Johnson.

¶ Preach it. In “What if this darkness [in America] is not the darkness of the tomb but of the womb?” —Sikh lawyer and activist Valarie Kaur, speaking at a 31 December 2016 New Year’s Eve interfaith service at the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC. (6:18 video)

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. “Tennesseans will be allowed to bring their guns to the new home of the legislature but must leave any hand-held signs behind, according to a recently implemented policy. The policy, which Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, approved Dec. 14, expressly prohibits ‘hand-carried signs and signs on hand sticks’ because they ‘represent a serious safety hazard.’” —Joel Ebert, Tennessean (Thanks Janet.)

¶ 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.” —listen to a reading of Wislawa Szymborska’s “Life While-You-Wait” (2:34 video. Thanks Karen.)

¶ The state of our disunion. According to a Yale opinion poll, 70% of US citizens believe climate change is real (up from 52% in 2014), but only 40% believe they will harm them personally.  —J.D. Capelouto, Reuters

¶ Best one-liner. "Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke." —Will Rogers, early 20th century humorist

¶ For the beauty of the earth. Breathtaking view of aurora borealis. (1:41 video)

¶ Altar call. “The text [Matthew 2:1-12] doesn’t say there were three [Magi], or that they were riding camels. One of the most shocking facts hidden in the text is that these royal visitors were following a star. Jewish scripture has several explicit commandments against star-gazing, of reading history through the movement of the stars, as if all futures are predetermined. This story upholds the scandalous notion that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not constrained by our lists of who’s been naughty, who’s been nice.” —continue reading “Epiphany: Seeing what’s real,” a sermon based on Matthew 2:1-12

¶ Benediction. “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou (2:15 video).

¶ Recessional. “And I’ll rise up / I'll rise like the day / I’ll rise up / I'll rise unafraid / I'll rise up / And I’ll do it a thousand times again / And I’ll rise up / High like the waves / I’ll rise up / In spite of the ache / I'll rise up / And I’ll do it a thousands times again / For you.” —Andra Day, “Rise Up”

¶ Lectionary for this Sunday. “Such a tame name for a man born to inhabit / the wild side of heaven’s incursion into / earth’s contempt. / You startle children with your leather-girdled, / camel-haired attire, hot breath calling the / devout into Jordan’s penitential wake. / What brings you and / your honey-smeared beard / into such a barren land?” —continue reading “John the baptizer,” a litany for worship inspired by Mark 1:4-11

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Merciful One, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you hear my thoughts from far away. / You know all my comings and goings, and I am never out of Your sight. / Even before a word forms in my mind and comes from my lips, you already know it. / Encompass me with your Presence, and lay your hand on my heart.” —continue reading “Wonderfully made,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 139

¶ Just for fun. Photojournalists David Bloom and Ian Kucerak take a solution of dish detergent and corn syrup and froze bubbles into snowflakes on a -25 Celsius day in Edmonton, Alberta. (2:07 video. Thanks Linda.)

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Hope Remains,” Nancy Hastings Sehested, excerpt from an upcoming book of stories from her 14 years as a prison chaplain

• “Wonderfully made,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 139

• “John the baptizer,” a litany for worship inspired by Mark 1:4-11

Resources for Epiphany

• “Epiphany of the Lord: Commentary on Ephesians 3:1-12" from Feasting on the Word (Westminster John Knox Press)

• “Epiphany: Manifesting the bias of Heaven,” a meditation

• “Epiphany’s promise,” a litany for worship, on the occasion of a new (Gregorian calendar) year

• “Epiphany: Learning to see what’s really real,” a sermon for Epiphany Sunday

• “Epiphany: The queerness of God,” a sermon for Epiphany Sunday

©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.

Right: Art by Ade Bethune, ©Ade Bethune Collection, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN.

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  •  20 December 2017 •  No. 148

¶ Processional. “Mary,” Take 6 (an arrangement of “O Mary Don’t You Weep).

Above: Two mudskippers on tidal mudflat in Krabi, Thailand. Photo by Daniel Trim. For more humorous photos from nature see “The Comedy Wildlife Photograpy Awards” page.

¶ Invocation. “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and
bring glad tidings of good things.” (Isaiah 52:7) —"How Beautiful Are the Feet," G.F. Handel, sung by Jane Siberry

¶ Call to worship. “Regardless of the season’s shivering news, / the frost’s falling weight, / the bare naked limbs, / or the predator’s stalk, / lean in to this night’s forlorn silence, / and train your ears for the portent / of angel-winged rustle.” —continue reading “Silent night,” an Advent poem

¶ Hymn of praise. “Psalm 96: Chantez a Dieu, chanson nouvelle” (“Praise to the Lord a New Song”), by Jan Pieterszoon, performed by Kairos: A consort of singers.” (Thanks Roy.)

¶ Confession. Much religious piety (especially at Yuletide) parallels this Dennis the Menace cartoon. Standing next to a mall Santa, Dennis asks, “How good do I have to be to get what I want for Christmas?”

Left: This conspicuous statue of Dominican Friar Antonio Montesinos, which stands over the port of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, is about 50 foot tall. It is in honor Montesinos’ prophetic challenge in 1511 of Spanish authorities’ treatment of indigeneous people on the island of Hispañola, modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Mexican government donated the work, by celebrated sculptor Antonio Castellanos Basich, to the Dominican people in 1982.

¶ Saint for the fourth Sunday of Advent.  Dominican friar Antonio Montesinos’ name is not widely known. It should be.
        It was the fourth Sunday in Advent, 21 December 1511. Montesinos and his Spanish friar companions, earlier sent as missionaries to the island of Hispañola (modern-day Haiti and The Dominican Republic), were deeply troubled to hear of the conquistadors’ brutal treatment of the indigenous Taino people in the land. The friars asked Montesinos to speak out in a sermon.
        “Montesinos’ text for the day was that clarion call from John the Baptizer, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Matthew 3:3). This voice, Montesinos declared to the gathered colonial authorities, is that “all of you are in mortal sin and you live and die in it due to the cruelty and tyranny which you practice with this innocent people.  Tell me by what right and with what justice do you hold these Indians in such horrible servitude?  With what authority have you waged such detestable war, bringing havoc and death never before seen on these people who were living peacefully and calmly on their lands?” —continue reading “Saint for the fourth Sunday of Advent: The story of Dominican Friar Antonio Montesinos’ dramatic call to repentance for Spanish brutal treatment of indigenous peoples on the island of Española”

¶ For more background on Montesino.

        • Christopher Minster’s “Antonio de Montesinos,” ThoughtCo

        • English translation of Montesinos’ historic sermon. —Digital History

        • Brief (2:01) audio excerpt of his sermon translated into English.

        • Brief (3:24) audio reenactment in Spanish of his sermon.

¶ Hymn of supplication. “Holy,” from the Trinity Entertainment Group's production of Langston Hughes’ play, “Black Nativity.”

¶ Words of assurance. “Beneath the soil of grayed days and / clouded sighs lies the Promised Seed whose / reach through trampled ground and bloodied / debris awaits the thaw of clawed hands and / brittle feet. Blessed Assurance, however / embattled, shall not forever be constrained.” —continue reading “Grayed days and clouded sights,” a poem for a hospital-bound friend on New Year’s Eve

¶ Mull for a moment the graphic at right, listing 27 highly-profitable companies (note that the numbers are in millions) which paid no federal income tax. In fact, each of these received a tax rebate from the IRS (meaning, from you and me). Several things to ponder:

        • The reason these companies get public support is because of tax law loopholes designed to broadly share the cost of certain economic practices for the good of the whole community.

        • This sharing is called socialism. That’s right, the US government—just like (on much smaller scale) your family and mine—practices socialism. Parents care for children, even though they don’t “add value” to family fortunes. Sometimes, too, children care for parents. And no one keeps score as to who owes what to whom.

        • Why? Because we all know market forces can be brutal. It’s true that the free reign of capital is economically generative. But not all growths are good. Cancer is an obvious example; pollution is another.

        • But, you may say, isn’t it true that nearly half of US households pay no federal income tax? Yes, about 44%. Three-fourths of those are the elderly and lower-income families with children. The rest are among the poorest in the land. This doesn’t mean they pay no taxes. All workers pay Social Security and Medicare taxes (again, socialism), not to mention a host of local and state taxes.

        • Our elected representatives have agreed, in certain instances, that targeting benefits to a few enhances the well-being of the whole. It wasn’t Karl Marx who said, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be required” (Luke 12:48).

        • In my state (and in others), Duke Energy, the largest electric utility company in the nation, wants consumers—instead of shareholders, who have profited from the company’s earnings—to bear the cost of securing millions of tons of highly toxic coal ash waste dumps, accumulated over decades, which threaten public health. Examples like this (and they are countless) are why some say that in the US we have socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.

        • Now ponder this conclusion: The tax reform law just approved by Congress will mean the list of wealthy companies who pay no income taxes will multiply in the years to come. And the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader have both said the next big thing on their legislative agenda is cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and what little remains of our social safety net. And all the while they will yell DEFICITS! DEFICITS!, hoping the majority forget their role in creating such debt.

¶ Hymn of intercession. “The First Noel,” performed by the children of Public School 22 Chorus, Staten Island, NY, and Leslie Odom Jr.—for those who enjoy watching singers as well as listening.

¶ Catch next week's PBS special, "The Sultan and the Saint.” “A moment in time that has been captured in art has now been captured on film and could hold a powerful lesson for us today. The encounter in 1219 between St. Francis of Assisi and Malek al-Kamil, the sultan of Egypt, during yet another flashpoint in the long history of the Crusades has been made into a documentary. "The Sultan and the Saint" will get its nationwide premiere Dec. 26 on PBS. Check local listings for dates and times. (Thanks Jim.) —Mark Pattison, America

¶ The source of much bogus religious piety. Dennis the Menace cartoon setting: Dennis asks the mall Santa, “How good do I have to be to get what I want for Christmas?”

¶ Preach it. “The Christmas story starts with an imperial decree signed by Caesar Augustus. As I was watching President Trump’s address [6 December, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the US embassy there], I could not help but think of the so-called Balfour Declaration signed 100 years ago when the British empire promised Palestine to the European Jews as their national homeland. Trump’s address was indeed another such imperial decree. . . . Again and again we, the Palestinian people, are sacrificed at the altar for imperial politics. . . .” —Dr. Mitri Rabeb, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. Read his entire statement.

¶ The state of our disunion. “The war on Christmas is over and will soon be replaced by the war with North Korea.” —Alec Baldwin, in his Donald Trump persona on Saturday Night Live

¶ Best one-liner (satire alert). “In response to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, the Palestinian National Authority has announced that it will recognize Texas as a state of Mexico since it was violently annexed by the United States in the 1840s.” —Alex Huntley, thebeaverton

Left: Remembering the context of Christmas. Despite the rocket attack that collapsed its roof, this time last year St. Elias Cathedral in Aleppo, Syria, hosted its first Christmas mass in five years. APF Getty image.

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. “When a group of Cub Scouts met with a Colorado state senator this month, they asked her about some of the most controversial topics in the nation: gun control, the environment, race and the proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico.” One of them was Ames Mayfield, 11, from Broomfield, Colo, who asked State Senator Vicki Marble, why she would not support “common-sense gun laws.

        “‘I was shocked that you co-sponsored a bill to allow domestic violence offenders to continue to own a gun. . . . Why on earth would you want somebody who beats their wife to have access to a gun?” Five days later Ames’ mom was told by his den leader that Ames was no longer welcomed in the group, saying gun control is too politically charged.” —Christine Hauser, New York Times

¶ Call to the table. “O saving Victim [Sacrifice], opening wide / The gate of Heaven to us below; / Our foes press hard on every side; / Thine aid supply; thy strength bestow.” —translated lyrics to “O Salutaris Hostia,” a section of one of the Eucharistic hymns written by St Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century for the Feast of Corpus Christi, performed by the Trinity College Choir, Cambridge, UK

¶ If it’s been a while since you heard the story of how the Christmas carol “Silent Night” brought a brief pause during World War I, watch “1914: A Christmas to remember” (3:38 video).

¶ For the beauty of the earth. Closeup photographs of snowflakes, each a piece of majestic art. (1:13 video. Thanks Abigail.)

¶ No single word, in any language, can capture the meaning of the incarnation—of the birth of Jesus and the larger redemptive purposes of God. But of all the words used in Scripture to indicate the purposes of God and the mission of Jesus, “peace” is surely among the most prominent. What follows is a collection of relevant texts. —continue reading “Prince of Peace: The birth of Jesus and the purposes of God: A collection of texts”

¶ Altar call. Few texts are more common this time of year than Isaiah’s prophecy, “For unto us a child is born. . . .” (9:6). Few, however hear the premise of this promise, in v. 5: “For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.”

¶ Benediction. “The angel breaks with Heaven’s hail! / from Joy’s horizon on every weary heart, / amid that unruly, precarious land beyond / where cheery sentiment stalls and merry, / bright roads end. Now, in terrain beyond all / mapping, the adventure begins.” —continue reading “Emancipation is (still) coming,” written against the backdrop of New Year's Eve services, 1862, when African Americans gathered to await news of US President Abraham Lincoln's promised "Emancipation Proclamation

¶ Recessional. “El cant dels ocells” (“The Song of the Birds,” which sing in the sky “Peace, peace, peace”), by Pablo Casals.
        In October 1971 Casals was awarded the United Nations Peace Prize “for his lifelong commitment to peace and the rights of all people. For the occasion, the ninety-four-year-old Casals performed "El can dels ocells," a traditional Catalan Christmas carol. It tells of nature's joy at learning of the birth of Jesus Christ in a stable in Bethlehem. After his self-exile in 1938 to protest the fascist regime of Francisco Franco, Casals would end concerts with this piece in tribute to the people of his country.” —Colin Field, The Plough

¶ Lectionary for this Sunday. “Open your mouths, oh people of praise. Unchain your lungs and unleash your lips. / Let joyful noise erupt from every muted tongue, thankful hymns from every muffled mouth. / Compose a new song for the Chorister of Heaven. A cappella or symphonic, let the sound rise like leaven. / Whether big band or bluegrass or rhythm and blues.” —continue reading “Big band or bluegrass,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 98

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Sister Anna. Last-named prophet in Holy Writ, more / likely listed among household property and livestock. / When did your Temple-dwelling vocation begin? /  sustained your twenty-four-seven vigil / for all those years? / Anna, school us in the habits / of vigilant perseverance.” —continue reading “Sister Anna,” a litany for worship inspired by the Prophetess Anna, Luke 2:22-40

¶ Just for fun (and back by popular demand). “Christmas According to Kids,” children telling the Christmas story, conveyed by a homegrown video from the folk at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky.

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Saint for the fourth Sunday of Advent: The story of Dominican Friar Antonio Montesinos’ dramatic call to repentance for Spanish brutal treatment of indigenous peoples on the island of Española”

• “Prince of Peace: The birth of Jesus and the purposes of God: A collection of texts”

• “Sister Anna,” a litany for worship inspired by the Prophetess Anna, Luke 2:22-40

• Planning a “Watch Night” service on New Year’s Eve? See “Watch night history: Awaiting the quelling word,” written against the backdrop of New Year's Eve services, 1862, when African Americans gathered to await news of US President Abraham Lincoln's promised "Emancipation Proclamation."

©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  •  13 December 2017 •  No. 147

¶ Processional. “Prepare the Way,” Jaques Berthier, performed by the Choir of Grace Luther Church, River Forest, Illinois.

Above: Wildfire approaching Springs of Life Church in Casitas Springs, California. AP photo/Noah Berger.

Special issue
MARY'S MAGNIFICAT

¶ Invocation. “We are waiting . . . waiting for that Gloria in Excelsis Deo." —The Many, which is offering their new “Advent & Christmas” album for free download.

¶ Call to worship. “My soul magnifies you, O Lord, and my spirit rejoices in your Saving Presence. / Everything in me comes alive when you look in my direction. . . . / Your power is sufficient to baffle the aims of the arrogant. Imperial might trembles at the sound of your approach; but the prison yards and the sweatshops and the slaughterhouses erupt in jubilation!” —continue reading “My soul magnifies you: A contemporary midrash on the Magnificat, inspired by Luke 1:46-55”

¶ Hymn of praise. “Canticle of the Turning” is an exposition of Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55. Written by Rory Cooney, using a traditional Irish tune, this version is performed by Woven Image

My soul cries out with a joyful shout that the God of my heart is great,
And my spirit sings of the wondrous things that you bring to the ones who wait.
You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight and my weakness you did not spurn,
So from east to west shall my name be blessed.  Could the world be about to turn?

¶ Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, began at sundown last night and goes until sundown Wednesday 20 December. For more background see “My Jewish Learning.”

¶ Hanukkah hymn. “Light One Candle,” Peter, Paul & Mary.

¶ “If Mary had appeared in Bethlehem clothed, as St. John says, with the sun, a crown of twelve stars on her head, and the moon under her feet, then people would have fought to make room for her. But that was not God’s way for her, nor is it Christ’s way for himself, now when he is disguised under every type of humanity that treads the earth.” —Dorothy Day

¶ Confession. “Upon studying ‘The Coronation of the Virgin,’ a triptych altarpiece by the 16th century German painter Bartholomäus Bruyn the Elder: ‘Yet Mary’s face betrays no exultation. She is practicing custody of the eyes, a way of seeing which instills trust, whatever the cross or crown may be. ‘I do not ask to see / The distant scene—one step enough for me.’ [quoting Newman] Could we believe enough, could we trust, could we let works like this altarpiece seep into our consciousness, surely it would dissolve our worries—at least for a time.” —Carol Zaleski

¶ Mary, the mother of Jesus, has always played a large part in the lives of many Christians. Life magazine once estimated the prayer “Hail Mary” is said two billion times every day. In the Orthodox tradition, her birthday is one of 12 “Great Feasts” on the church’s liturgical calendar.

        • Each year five to ten million people make a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City; many others visit Marian sites elsewhere in the world. This saint is prayed to as advocate and helper, and even in the sports area there is a reference to her power: the last desperate pass by a losing football team is called a "Hail Mary."

        • Mary’s “Magnificat” (Latin for “[My soul] magnifies”), also known as Mary’s Song, is the powerful canticle she speaks when visiting her cousin Elizabath, recorded in Luke 1:46-55. It has frequently been considered too subversive for public reading.

        • When the evangelical Anglican missionary Henry Martyn went out to Calcutta as chaplain to the East India Company in 1805, he was appalled to discover that the British authorities had banned the recitation of the Magnificat at Evensong. On the final day of British rule in India in 1947, Mahatma Gandhi, who was not a Christian, requested that this song be read in all places where the British flag was being lowered.

        • After Chilean dictator General Augustine Pinochet came to power in a 1973 military coup, he banned the Magnificat as a public prayer.

        • The Magnificat’s prophetic speech was banned in the mid 1970s in Argentina after the Mothers of the Disappeared used it to call for nonviolent resistance to the military junta.

        • During the 1980s, the government of Guatemala found the ideas raised by Mary’s proclamation of God’s special concern for the poor to be so dangerous and revolutionary that the government banned any public recitation of Mary’s words.

*Sources for the above: Bonnie Jensen, “We Sing Mary’s Song,” World and World  Elizabeth Johnson, Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints; John Dear, Mary of Nazareth, Prophet of Peace; Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, “Birthday of Mary, the Mother of Jesus”; Craig Greenfield, “Here’s what you need to know about the REAL war on Christmas” ; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, quote from The Mystery of Holy Night, a compilation of Bonhoeffer’s sermons and writings on Christmas; Dan Clendenin, “The Subversive Song of the Mother of God: Mary's Magnificat,” in The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself

Left: "Hail Mary," Meinrad Craighead

¶ “It is hard for me to imagine a ‘sweet baby Jesus, no crying he makes.’ What I see is blood-soaking straw where Mary lay, probably wanting to die if not actually near death, and Joseph nearly beside himself both with paternal concern, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, wondering how in the world he was going to explain this illegitimate child to the family back home. And then because of the threat from Herod’s death squads, loading Mary and baby Jesus back on the donkey for a midnight escape through the desert to Egypt.” —continue reading “The Manger’s Revolt,” a sermon on Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55

¶ Hymn of supplication. “Canticle of the Turning”

Though I am small, my God, my all, you work great things in me
And your mercy will last from the depths of the past to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame and to those who would for you yearn,
You will show your might, put the strong to flight, for the world is about to turn.

¶ Words of assurance. “Any exegesis is fruitless that attempts to tone down what Mary’s song tells us about preferential love of God for the lowly and the abused, and about the transformation of history that God’s loving will implies.” —Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutierrez

¶ Professing our faith. “At first glance, through modernity’s eyes, Mary’s encounter with the angel’s natal announcement—and her annunciating response—appears to be a form of self-subjugation.

        “Is Luke’s story a case of a colonized mind? Did she actively concede to her own binding and bonding? Should we insist on a more assertive, individuated figure to front the Christmas story?

        “I, for one, think not.

        “Does the manger’s straw have a ghost of a chance against sharpened steel? Can there be any lingering question about the dominance of shock and awe’s rule?

        “I, for one, think so. . . .” —continue reading “The renewing significance of Mary’s Magnificat,” an essay

¶ Hymn of intercession. “When I find myself in times of trouble / Mother Mary comes to me / Speaking words of wisdom / Let it be / And in my hour of darkness / She is standing right in front of me / Speaking words of wisdom / Let it be / And when the broken-hearted people / Living in the world agree / There will be an answer / Let it be.” —The Beatles, “Let It Be”

¶ “Then [Mary] conceived him; and withdrew with him to a remote place. ‏And the throes of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree. She said: Oh, would that I had died before this, and had been a thing quite forgotten! ‏So a voice came to her from beneath her: Grieve not, surely thy Lord has provided a stream beneath thee. ‏ And shake towards thee the trunk of the palm-tree, it will drop on thee fresh ripe dates. ‏So eat and drink and cool the eye.” —Qur'an 19:22-26

¶ Hymn of prophecy. “Canticle of the Turning”

From the halls of power to the fortress tower, not a stone will be left on stone
Let the king beware for your justice tears every tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more, for the food they can never earn;
There are tables spread, every mouth be fed, for the world is about to turn.

¶ Preach it. “It’s time to put Herod back in Christmas.  Not because we need any more Herods, but because it reveals that the sweet manger was placed in the midst of grave danger.” —continue reading Nancy Hastings Sehested’s “All’s wild with the world: A sermon on Mary’s Magnificat”

¶ “We are all meant to be mothers of god. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within myself? And what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to [God’s] Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture. This then is the fullness of time: When the Son of God is begotten in us.” —Meister Eckhart

¶ Call to the table. ““Oh, Sweet Deliverer, fruit of Mary’s annunciation, / troubler of worlds and troubadour of heaven’s fidelity, / whose call to the table gathers the lame and binds / every shame with the promise of feast for the lost, / for the least, for the last, and all willing / to sing the angels’ insurrectionary song.” —continue reading “The Manger’s Reach,” a poem for Advent

¶ Satire alert. The Supreme Court has ruled that there cannot be a live Nativity Scene on Capitol Hill this Christmas Season. This is not for any religious reason, they simply have not been able to find three wise men in the Nation's capitol. The search for a virgin also continues. There was, however, no problem finding enough asses to fill the stable. —from the internet (thanks Heidi)

¶ Altar call. “The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paintings; this is the passionate, surrendered, proud, enthusiastic Mary who speaks out here. . . . This song . . . is a hard, strong, inexorable song about collapsing thrones and humbled lords of this world, about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind.” —German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer

¶ Benediction. “If / you want, / the Virgin will come walking down the road / pregnant with the holy, / and say, / ‘I need shelter for the night, please take me inside your heart, / my time is so close.’ / Then, under the roof of your soul, you will witness the sublime / intimacy, the divine, the Christ / taking birth / forever, / as she grasps your hand for help, for each of us / is the midwife of God, each of us.” —St. John of the Cross

Left: "Our Lady Mother of Ferguson and All Those Killed by Gun Violence" icon by Mark Dukes

¶ Recessional. “Canticle of the Turning”

Though the nations rage from age to age, we remember who holds us fast;
God’s mercy shall deliver us from the conqueror’s crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard is the promise which holds us bound,
Till the spear and rod can be quelled by God who is turning the world around.

¶ Lectionary for this Sunday. “Do not say with your lips, ‘The Spirit of the Lord! The Spirit of the Lord!’ when your hearts are shackled in fear, enslaved to security. / The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed. / Anointed you for what?! Have you grown confused by the barking of market reports? / By the demands of national security? By your 401K addiction?”  —continue reading “Anointed,” a litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 61:1-4 and Luke 4:18

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Open your mouths, oh people of praise. Unchain your lungs and unleash your lips. / Let joyful noise erupt from every muted tongue, thankful hymns from every muffled mouth. / Compose a new song for the Chorister of Heaven. A cappella or symphonic, let the sound rise like leaven. / Whether big band or bluegrass or rhythm and blues.” —continue reading “Big band or bluegrass,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 98

¶ Just for fun. “If you were a sibling of Jesus,” Michael Jr. (Thanks Kyle.)

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “My soul magnifies you: A contemporary midrash on the Magnificat, inspired by Luke 1:46-55”

• “All’s wild with the world: A sermon on Mary’s Magnificat,” by Nancy Hastings Sehested

• “Annunciation,” Mary’s song of praise, inspired by Luke 1:46-55

• “The renewing significance of Mary’s Magnificant”

• “The Manger’s Reach,” a poem for Advent

• “The Manger’s Revolt,” a sermon on Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55

 
Other features

• Planning a “Watch Night” service on New Year’s Eve? See Ken Sehested’s “Watch night history: Awaiting the quelling word,” written against the backdrop of New Year's Eve services, 1862, when African Americans gathered to await news of US President Abraham Lincoln's promised "Emancipation Proclamation."
• “Silent night,” a new Advent poem
• “Advent & Christmas resources for worship: Litanies, poems, sermons & articles”
 

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