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Signs of the Times  •  6 December 2017 •  No. 146

¶ Processional. “All God's creatures got a place in the choir / Some sing low and some sing higher, / Some sing out loud on a telephone wire, / Some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they've got now.” —Makem & Clancy, “A Place in the Choir”

Above: The Anasazi Family rock formations in Bears Ears National Monument, Utah. (Alamy Stock Photo) This week President Trump dramatically reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, which opens the land for commercial exploitation, particularly by fossil fuel companies.

Introduction
COMMEMORATING THE
75TH ANNIVERSARY OF KOINONIA FARM

Given the stampede of urgent, breaking news in recent weeks, we neglected to mark the extraordinary 75th anniversary of Koinonia Farm in Sumter County, Georgia. The farm was envisioned and launched by two couples—Florence and Clarence Jordan (see their photo below), Mabel and Martin England—who, inspired by the Acts account of the early church, committed themselves to create a “demonstration plot” for the kingdom of God. Clarence Jordan’s writing have been a sustaining inspiration for many, especially those of us with southern-flavored small-b baptist inclinations.

        The community’s name is the Greek word used to describe the early Jerusalem based Jewish-Christian community’s solidarity, including practice of the common purse. (Clarence had degrees both in agriculture and New Testament Greek.) Keep in mind that its use in the larger Greek culture, “koinonia” had a more concrete and sturdier meaning than the word “fellowship” connotes. Its usage included what business partners do when joining assets, each accepting both the costs and rewards of the venture.

        Clarence and Martin moved into a dilapidated farmhouse, surrounded by exhausted land, in November 1942, renovating the structure so that Florence and Mabel could join them. To mark the Farm’s ongoing legacy, selected quotes from Clarence’s writing are scattered throughout this issue of “Signs of the Times,” and a few resources for further background are noted.

¶ Invocation. “God is not in his heaven and all's well on the earth. He is on this earth and all hell's broke loose!” —Clarence Jordan

¶ Feast Day of St. Nicholas – 6 December. For more, see “Who’s St. Nicholas: Tracing Santa Claus’ history to a fourth century saint,” Colleen Kelly, Knowledge News

¶ The “war on Christmas” actually started nearly 400 years ago when Puritans banned it in Boston, charging it was an unholy pagan holiday. —for more, see Petula Dvorak, Washington Post

¶ Call to worship. “They who have an unsatisfied appetite for the right are God’s people, for they will be given plenty to chew on.” —from Clarence Jordan’s paraphrase of the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12, in “Cotton Patch Gospel: Matthew & John”

¶ Good news. “While the federal government hits the gas on fossil fuels, states are speeding ahead to develop renewable energy—and reaching new milestones.” Only it may not be the states you suspect. “The state that produces the most renewable energy in terms of sheer quantity? It's Texas. The states that generate the largest portion of their power from renewables: Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas and the Dakotas.” —Irina Ivanova, “The future of renewable energy is in Texas,” CBSNews Moneywatch

¶ Hymn of praise. “Ndikhokhele Bawo” (“Lead Me, O Father”), sung in Xhosa by the Mzansi Youth Choir.

¶ In an act of opposition to the Republican tax reform bill, 12 Christians were arrested (pictured at left) Thursday, 30 November, in Hart Senate Office Building while reading 2000 verses from the Bible that speak of God’s special concern for the poor. Watch this 2:55 video from the event. —Photo by Heidi Thompson. For more background, see Jack Kenkins, “Faith leaders arrested as major religious groups rally against the GOP tax reform bill,” ThinkProgress.

¶ Short story. “In 1929 [Jordan] enrolled in the Georgia State College of Agriculture in Athens. There, he joined the ROTC. On a summer day in 1933, just days from being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Calvary, he sat on a black horse, pistol in one hand an saber in the other. He had been memorizing passages of Scripture, focusing on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. When his turn came to gallop through the woods, stabbing and shooting at straw and cardboard dummies, the verse ‘But I say unto you, love your enemies . . .’ (Matt. 5:44) kept repeating itself in his mind. Before the drill was over, the Sermon on the Mount urged Clarence off his mount. He walked over to the commanding officer and announced that he was resigning his commission.” —Joyce Hollyday, "Clarence Jordan: Essential Writings"

¶ Confession. [Clarence Jordan] once said to a pastor who had just proudly pointed out the modern $10,000 cross atop a new church that he had been cheated on that price.  "Time was when Christians could get those crosses for free."

¶ Hymn of supplication. “We live in a world  / Of trials and tribulations / People filled / With hatred everywhere / So we bow our heads / And we raise our voices / Offer our petition  / In this prayer / Peace come stealing slow / Fall like silent snow / Swing down sweet and low / Peace come stealing slow.” —Kate Campbell, “Peace Comes Stealing Slow”

¶ The Sermon on the Mount was not a sermon at all, Clarence taught, but the platform of the God Movement. “Its purpose was not to evoke inspiration but perspiration."

¶ Words of assurance. “It is your path I walk / It is your song I sing  / It is your load I take on  / It is your air that I breathe  / It's the record you set  / That makes me go on  / It's your strength that helps me stand  / You're not really  / You're not really going to leave me.” —Michael Callen with Cris Williamson and Holly Near, “They Are Falling All Around Me”

¶ Professing our faith. “I don't think a Christian is worth his salt who has not been called a Communist today. Trying to refute that epithet is about like running for your birth certificate when someone calls you an s.o.b.” —Clarence Jordan

¶ “There just isn't any word in our vocabulary which adequately translates the Greek word for ‘crucifixion.’ Our crosses are so shined, so polished, so respectable that to be impaled on one of them would seem to be a blessed experience. We have thus emptied the term ‘crucifixion’ of its original content of terrific emotion, of violence, of indignity and stigma, of defeat. I have translated it as ‘lynching.’” —Clarence Jordan

¶ Hymn of intercession. “The darkest hour is just before dawn  / The narrow way leads home  / Lay down your soul at Jesus' feet  / The darkest hour is just before dawn.” —Emmylou Harris, "Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn"

¶ Short take. At the peak of controversy surrounding Koinonia Farm, in 1957, a delegation of folk from Americus, Ga., implored the community to go elsewhere. One member of the Sumter Country Chamber of Commerce said:
        “Unfortunately your experiment has not [made brotherly love in the community]. It has set brother against brother; it has created bitterness; it has created hatred; it has created every emotion that is contrary to my concept of Christianity.
        “We want to appeal to your good judgment to pray over it and think over it and see if you don’t think you’ll be serving the best interests of the community and certainly the best interests of your Lord to move and leave us in peace.”

¶ Nevertheless. “In 2009 the Sumter County-Americus Chamber of Commerce presented Koinonia with the Agri-business of the Year Award; and the Americus Mayor and City Council voted unanimously to place Clarence Jordan’s name on the Walk of Fame in downtown Americus for “his outstanding contributions to civil rights and the founding of Koinonia Farm.” —from the “Koinonia Farm Chronicle,” Fall 2009

¶ When only the blues will do. “Blues for Christmas,” John Lee Hooker.

¶ Preach it. “"The dove doesn't roost on a person who is scared to get hurt. If you want to share the life of Christ, you should be prepared for the suffering of Christ." —Clarence Jordan

¶ The state of our disunion. Washington’s subway banned a civil liberties group’s ad consisting entirely of the text of the First Amendment, which ostensibly violated the rule against ads “intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions.” —ACLU

¶ Call to the table. “The Good News of the resurrection is not that we shall die and go home with [Jesus] but that he is risen and comes home with us, bringing all his hungry, naked, thirsty, sick, prisoner brothers with him." —Clarence Jordan

¶ Best one-liner. "We'll worship the hind legs off Jesus, but never do a thing he says." —Clarence Jordan

¶ For the beauty of the earth. “Paul Stamets spent his live exploring fungi, their role in enriching the forest soil with nutrients and ultimately in helping our home planet defend itself against us humans. Unfortunately, unless we learn to communicate with Mother Nature and stop killing Her, all of this won’t be enough.” Watch this extraordinary time lapse video (2:24) of mushrooms growing in the forest.

¶ Altar call. “The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.” —Clarence Jordan

¶ Can’t make this sh*t up. The US Supreme Court is currently deliberating what is considered a significant religious liberty case: Of whether a baker can, on the grounds religious conviction, refuse to create a cake for a same-sex wedding. At the same time, President Trump is dramatically scaling back protected status for two areas in Utah considered sacred land by Native American nations.

¶ “On a brisk October in 1969 [at the age of 57], sitting in his writing shack where he penned his cotton patch translation, Jordan succumbed to a heart attack. He was treat in death as in life—reviled by his enemies and tenderly loved by his family and friends. The coroner refused to come to the farm, so Millard Fuller drove Clarence’s body to town in a station wagon. The body was placed in a cedar crate, of the kind used to ship fancy coffins.” He was buried in an unmarked grave on a hill where the Koinonia community shared picnics. —Joyce Hollyday, "Clarence Jordan: Essential Writings"

¶ Benediction. “Faith is not belief in spite of the evidence. Faith is life lived in scorn of the consequences.” —Clarence Jordan

¶ Recessional. “Muiñeira de Chantada,” Carlos Nuñez & The Chieftains.

Left: "Life and Miracles of Saint Nicholas," painting by Alexander Boguslawski

¶ Resources to learn more about Clarence Jordan and Koinonia Farm

       • Listen as Clarence Jordan (in his downy-soft Georgia accent) tells the story of Koinonia Farm (46:10).

       • Watch this short (4:19) video, “Clarence Jordan: Legacy of Faith.”

       • Rent or buy the PBS documentary, “Briars in the Cottonpatch: The Story of Koinonia Farm”

       • Jordan’s “Cotton Patch” paraphrases of several New Testament books are still available online.

       • Dallas Lee’s The Cotton Patch Evidence: The Story of Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia Farm Experiment is packed full of wonderful anecdotes and short stories.

       • For an essay-length biographical sketch of Jordan’s life, plus a collection of some of the best of his writings, see Joyce Hollyday, Clarence Jordan: Essential Writings.

¶ Lectionary for this Sunday. “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

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “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

¶ Just for fun. Mr. Bean directs the Christmas orchestra. (2:22)

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Who’s St. Nicholas: Tracing Santa Claus’ history to a fourth century saint,” by Colleen Kelly

• “Silent night,” a new Advent poem

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

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

©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  •  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”

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