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Signs of the Times  •  21 October 2016  •  No. 93

¶ Processional. “The Prayer,” performed by busker Call Morris. (Thanks Randy.)

Above: Norwegian summer landscape.

¶ Invocation. “Jump for joy, oh people! For amid the screaming commercials and blithering campaign ads, the Redeemer has heard our aching voice. God hears! God knows! This is our assurance against all blistering deceit.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Bounty and abundance,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 116

¶ Call to worship. “We need the Buddhists and the Baptists / Quakers and Catholics, too / atheists and agnostics / the Muslims and Jews / We need people of all nations / all colors and all creeds / to put an end to war, now / put an end to greed.” —Jon Fromer, "Gonna Take Us All" (Thanks Dick.)

¶ This takes my breath away. “This 8-Year-Old Boy Spent 2 Years Growing His Hair To Make Wigs For Kids With Cancer.” When Thomas Moore saw his mom watching a video on Facebook about a girl who had lost her hair to cancer, he had an idea. He decided to start growing his hair out for kids who had lost theirs to chemotherapy, and so that's what he did. For the next two years. —James Gould-Bourn, boredpanda (Thanks Jo.)

¶ Hymn of praise. “All God’s Chillin Got Wings,” performed by Sons of the Pioneers .

¶ A small turn in the road, but a turn nonetheless. “The president of America’s largest police organization on Monday issued a formal apology to the nation’s minority population “for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society’s historical mistreatment of communities of color.” ­—Tom Jackman, Washington Post

¶ But then there’s this. The Fraternial Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, recently endorsed Donald Trump for president, lauding his support for law enforcement. —Ben Kamisar, The Hill

¶ Confession. “I've tracked blood in on the floor / I put my fist through the wall / I've dragged trouble through the door / And I've spilled wine on it all / Maybe I can paint over that / It'll prob'ly bleed through / Maybe I can paint over that / But I can't hide it from you.”  —Guy Clark, “Maybe I Can Paint Over That”

¶ Wonderful advice for instructing children on how to apologize. “Sometimes people try to pretend that they are apologizing when they really aren’t sorry. They might say: ‘I am sorry if anyone was offended,’ which really means something like: ‘I don’t really think I did anything wrong, but if you do, that’s too bad, and I hope you feel better soon.’” —David Gushee, “Children, here’s how you apologize," Religion News Service

¶ Hymn of lamentation. “268 David’s Lamentation,” Second Ireland Sacred Harp Convention 2012.

¶ Reminder for this electoral season. On the morning of the last presidential debate, my friend Craig White imagined what he wished Hillary Clinton would say:
        "If I am elected to be your president, I will need you. Not just those of you who vote for me, but those who disagree. Supporters of Bernie Sanders, we need your voice to be heard during my term in office, pushing for corporate accountability and living wages and health care reform and above all, a responsible approach to addressing climate change. And to my colleagues on the right, we need you, too. America needs the Republican Party to find its soul again, to find its integrity again. We need to have honest, passionate, respectful arguments on legislation. We need to create common sense policies. Regular Americans do this every day, in every community in America, and they need their leaders to do the same."

¶ To my friends who question the value of voting, or have ethical qualms about choosing between the lesser of two evils.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Vote, or don't: The issues are larger than the election”

¶ "Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them." —Paul Valery

¶ Part of our political cynicism is caused by our own naiveté over what we can reasonably expect from elected officials. Which is why this advice from Arundhati Roy is important.

        "We're told, often enough, that as a species we are poised on the edge of the abyss," Roy concludes. "It's possible that our puffed-up, prideful intelligence has outstripped our instinct for survival and the road back to safety has already been washed away. In which case there's nothing much to be done. If there is something to be done, then one thing is for sure: those who created the problem will not be the ones who come up with a solution." —quoted in Jake Johnson, “No Moral Superpower: Arundhati Roy, Edward Snowden, and the Crimes of Empire,” CommonDreams

¶ “Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics.” —Charles-Pierre Péguy

¶  “Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.” —Ambrose Bierce

¶ “Disciples are called to ‘live your lives in a manner worthy of the Gospel’ (Philippians 1:27). But this translation doesn’t capture the concreteness of Paul’s admonition. The Greek word translated as ‘live your life’ is politeuesthe, from polis, and is more accurately translated as ‘live your lives as citizens,’ or better yet, ‘let your politics be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.’ The word’s clear meaning has to do with living as a citizen, or managing civic affairs, or conducting one's self as pledged to some law of life.” —Stephen E. Fowl, The Two Horizons New Testament Commentary

¶ “Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” —Maria Montessori

¶ “Each of the great social achievements of recent decades has come about not because of government proclamations but because people organized, made demands and made it good politics for governments to respond. It is the political will of people that makes and sustains the political will of governments.” —James P. Grant

¶ Words of assurance. “I will lay this burden down / That I have carried for so long / My own hand placed this mark upon my brow / Don’t need to wear it now / I will water this thirsty heart / With tears of healing rain / I’ll learn to lay this burden down / And never shoulder it again / Never again.” —Aoife O'Donovan and Childsplay, "Tears of Healing Rain/ After the Rain"

¶ “There is no greater perversion of religion than the false piety of insisting on the separation of the political from the spiritual. Since the principle is ‘being is communion,’ how we arrange our common life is central to a healthy spirituality. Politics is simply the means we use to organize our shared lives. It is how we express responsible solidarity. —Alan Jones

¶ “Politics is anything that someone disagrees with you about.” —author unknown

¶ “We are not accustomed to thinking of Jesus as a political figure.  In a narrow sense, he was not. He neither held nor sought political office, was neither a military leader nor a political reformer with a detailed political-economic platform. But he was political in the more comprehensive and important sense of the word: politics as the shaping of a community living in history.” —Marcus Borg

¶ “Politics is really just the art of divvying up the swag.” —attributed to Will Rogers

¶ “Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to sheer wind.” —George Orwell

¶ “It is the wish of the world to find a Church which will not interfere. In Germany, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels said: ‘Churchmen dabbling in politics should take note that their only task is to prepare for the world hereafter.’” —William Barclay

Right: A salvaged chair hangs in a tree amidst nearby homes destroyed by Hurricane Matthew, in a seaside fishing neighborhood of Port Salut, Haiti, on October 9, 2016. Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP.

¶ Hurricane Matthew: A tale of three countries’ fatalities. The storm caused the deaths of 33 people in the US. In Haiti the fatality total is expected to be more than a thousand, and a cholera epidemic—the disease killed 10,000 after the 2010 earthquake—threatens additional long-term consequences.
        But in Cuba, where the eye of the storm raked across its eastern region, the storm’s death toll was zero.
        “Fortunately for us the Cuban Defense System is very effective in saving human lives and material resources,” wrote Rev. Elmer Lavastida, a pastor in Santiago, in a personal email note. “Thousands of families were evacuated before Hurricane Matthew arrived. Even farm animals were evacuated. That is why there are no human fatalities.” A team of volunteers from Lavastida’s church has already visited the most impacted communities—a treacherous journey, since most of the roads were washed away—and is helping coordinate humanitarian relief.

¶ Athletes worth emulating. “He [Dominican Republic-born David Ortiz, aka “Big Papi,” Boston Red Sox star and future hall-of-famer who just retired] added that his kids are into baseball and said, ‘If they ever get up here [to the big leagues], I want people to say to them, I knew your dad, and he was a guy with huge power. But there was something better about him. He was a good person. That’s what I care about the most.’” —Jorge I. Ortiz, USA Today

¶ Preach it. “Whoever believes that my preaching is political, that it provokes violence, as if I were the cause of all the evils in the republic, forgets that the word of the Church is not inventing the evils which already exist in the world, but illuminating them. The light illumines what already exists. It doesn't create it. The great evil already exists, and the word of God wants to do away with those evils. It points them out as part of a necessary denunciation so that people can return to good paths.” —former Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, assassinated while saying Mass in 1980

¶ Call to the table. “Fill My Way With Love,” Iris Dement

¶ For the beauty of the earth. North Dakota night sky (2:31 time lapse video), by Joshua Eckle. (Thanks Sharleen.)

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. More than 4,900 South Korean soldiers were baptized (photo at right) during a worship service at the South Korea Army Training Center in the city of Nonsan on 6 August 2016. Forty local pastors, along with 22 American pastors and US military chaplains, participated. See the photo at right, from Baptist World.

¶ Altar call. “When the stars begin to fall,” The Seekers.

¶ Benediction. “‘O Lord, how long shall I cry for help?’ Then the Lord answered: Stop your whining! Your self-pity is embarrassing. Get yourself a billboard. Set a neon sign in the sky. So that even the most harried soul can see it clearly. And this is what it should say: Don’t let your fears get behind the wheel.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Pound the doors of heaven,” a litany for worship inspired by Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

¶ Recessional. “O see the darkness yielding / That tore the light apart / Come healing of the reason / Come healing of the heart.” —Leonard Cohen, “Come Healing”

Left: “Zacchaeus” painting by Joel Whitehead

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Last week I stumbled on a word I knew but have never used in my writing. The word is ‘corporeality.’ It means “having, consisting of, or relating to a physical, material body.” But then Mr. Webster’s Dictionary goes on to add the phrase: ‘not spiritual’ and the word ‘insubstantial.’ Suddenly I had a clue about why we get so confused about religious faith's relation to public affairs.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s sermon, “The Zacchaeian Encounter: Tell the whole story: A sermon about the wee little man”

¶ Just for fun. “30 Yard Signs That Will Make You Pull Over Your Car to Have a Laugh,” Abby Heugel.

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Vote, or don't: The issues are larger than the election”

• “Suffer the children: A Bible study on Jesus’ teaching about ‘becoming like children’”

• “Pound the doors of heaven,” a litany for worship inspired by Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

• “The Zacchaeian Encounter: Tell the whole story," a sermon about the "wee little man”

• “Bounty and abundance,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 116

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor. 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.

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 October 2016  •  No. 92

¶ Processional. “Am I Wrong,” Damien Escobar. (Thanks Gwenyth.)

Above: Pink-necked Green Pigeon, photo by Rik Seet.

¶ Invocation. “Happy are those who walk in the Way of Beauty, harnessed in the Bridle of Mercy and according to the Weal of Justice. In this Law I delight! May it rule soul and soil and society alike.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “In this Law I delight,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 119

¶ This is amazing. Listen to Alex, age 6, read his letter to President Obama asking him to bring a Syrian refugee child to live with Alex and his family. (1:38 video)

¶ Call to worship. “Wana Baraka” by The Festival Singers of Florida. This popular Kenyan religious song expresses a message similar to that of Psalm 128 : “They have blessings (and, in subsequent verses, “peace”, “joy”, and “well-being”), those who pray.”

¶ This year’s “Children’s Sabbath” observance, 21-23 October, is the 25th anniversary of this Children’s Defense Fund projects. CDF offers free worship and other planning ideas—for Christian, Jewish, and interfaith audiences.

¶ Some numbers on the global status of children and youth:

        •The world today is home to 1.1 billion girls under the age 18. More than half of them live in Asia and a quarter live in Africa.

        •62 million adolescent girls around the world are not in school. Societies with educated girls have lower rates of infant mortality, higher GDPs, and contribute to the financial success of their families.

      •A child dies every 10 seconds due to a combination of undernourishment, impure water and easily preventable diseases.

      •More than 100 million children under the age of five are undernourished.

      •It’s estimated that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year.

      •In the US, 20% of children live in poverty.

        •In the US one child or teen dies from a gun every 3 hours and 28 minutes. Gun violence saturates our children’s lives and remains the second leading cause of death for children and teens ages 1-19.

        • In World War I, nine soldiers died for every civilian life lost. In today’s wars, it is estimated that 10 civilians die for every combatant, the majority of them children.

¶ Listen to Michelle Obama describe “Let Girls Learn,” a joint initiative with the Peace Corps to develop community-based solutions to strengthen girls’ education. Watch Obama’s brief (1:12) video statement about the project. Go here for more photos and action suggestions.

¶ Hymn of praise. “The dance of the thousand hands of Guan Yin” (aka “Saman”) is one of the most popular dances in Indonesia, whose origin is from the Gayo ethnic group in the Ache province on Sumatra. (Thanks Janet.)

¶ A Jewish child asks: “When you’re asleep, you can wake up. When you’re awake—can you wake up even more?” —Rabbi Arthur Waskow

¶ “America’s caregivers find themselves in the middle of a kindness crisis, new research suggests: 70% of parents, and 86% of teachers, often worry that the world is ‘an unkind place for my child.’” Among the findings of a new study:

        •58% of teachers say most children today are disrespectful;

        •67% of parents say most children are disrespectful;

        •52% of teachers say being kind “is not a priority” to most people;

        •58% of parents felt manners are more important than empathy. —Greg Toppo, USA Today

¶ Greatest poem ever on children. “We pray for children / who put chocolate fingers everywhere, / who like to be tickled, / who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants, / who sneak Popsicles before supper, / who can never find their shoes. / And we pray for those / who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire, / who’ve never squeaked across the floor in new sneakers, / who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead, / who never go to the circus, / who live in an X-rated world.” —Ina J. Hughes, “A Prayer for Children.”

¶ Confession. “Shadows are fallin' and I've been here all day / It's too hot to sleep and time is runnin' away / Feel like my soul has turned into steel / I've still got the scars that the sun didn't heal. . . . Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear / It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.” —Bob Dylan, “Not Dark Yet”

Left: “Spirit of Audrey” sculpture by John Kennedy at the United Nations.

¶ Although she is known around the world as the beautiful actress who starred in such memorable films as "Roman Holiday" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's," what Audrey Hepburn was most proud of was how she helped millions of children as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, dedicating the last years of her life to helping impoverished children in the poorest nations, bringing them much-needed food, medicine, and clothing, just as she received when she was a child.
        She would go before Congress to testify: "Taking care of children has nothing to do with politics. I think perhaps with time, instead of there being a politicization of humanitarian aid, there will be a humanization of politics." See this profile.

¶ Hymn of lamentation. “Death hath deprived me of my dearest friend,” Thomas Weelkes, a eulogy on the death of Thomas Morley in 1602, performed by Vox Luminis.

¶ “If a child lives with criticism, she learns to condemn. If a child lives with hostility, she learns to fight. If a child lives with ridicule, she learns to be shy. If a child lives with shame, she learns to feel guilty.” —Dorothy Law Nolte, “Children Learn What They Live”

¶ “What a society does to its children, its children will do to society,” a Roman sage once said. —Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB

¶ These are not “family values.” “One other force opposing paid [maternity] leave is the business community. In 2007, one U.S. Chamber of Commerce official said his organization would wage 'all-out war' against paid-leave laws.” —Danielle Kurtzleben, “Lots of Other Countries Mandate Paid Leave. Why Not the US?”, NPR

¶ Among the 38 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United States is the only nation that does not guarantee paid maternity leave.

¶ Words of assurance. “Avinu Malkeinu” (“Our Father, Our King”), Barbara Streisand. The song is a Jewish song of supplication, sung from Rosh Hashanah until, 10 days later, Yom Kippur.

¶ “While the Republicans are passing a resolution celebrating Christmas, the president was vetoing health care for children. There’s a little bit of irony here.” —US Rep. Jim McDermott, explaining why in 2007 he voted against a congressional resolution recognizing the importance of Christmas, quoted in National Catholic Reporter

¶ Short take. “The catcher in the rye” is what 17-year-old Holden Caufield tells his little sister he wants to be, rejecting her suggestions of lawyer and scientist. Holden, the narrator and main character in Salinger’s classic novel, The Catcher in the Rye, wants to preserve innocence.
        He tells his sister that he imagines thousands of small children playing in a field of rye. At the end of the field is a cliff and if the children in the play wander too close and fall, he would be there to protect them.

¶ “‘Why do you stand?’ they were asked, and / ‘Why do you walk?’. . . Because the cause is / the heart’s beat, and the children born, and / the risen bread.” —Dan Berrigan, in his poem “Some”

¶ “Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” —Albert Einstein

¶ Hymn of intercession. “And you, of tender years can't know the fears that your elders grew by, / And so please help them with your youth, they seek the truth before they can die.” —Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, “Teach Your Children”

¶ Teach your children well. “For they are living messages to a lineage you will not see; to a future beyond your horizon. Devote yourself to the generations to come, so that each newborn ear will attend the decree of deliverance.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Teach Your Children Well,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 78

¶ What to do with violence in Scripture? “Happy shall they be who take your [the Babylonians’] little ones and dash them against the rock!” —Psalm 137:9

¶ “Your children are not your children. / They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. / They come through you but not from you,  / And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. / You may give them your love but not your thoughts.” —Kahlil Gibran. Listen to this rendition by Dorna Djenab.

¶ When only the blues will do. Justin Johnson on a 3-string shovel guitar. (Thanks Dan.)

¶ Preach it. “The greatest threat to children in modern liberal societies is not that they will believe in something too deeply, but that they will believe in nothing very deeply at all.” —William Galston, Liberal Purposes

¶ “Before the recession [of 2007-08], 12 out of every 100 American children got food stamps. After the recession, 20 out of every 100 American children got food stamps. That's nearly a 70% increase, from 9.5 million kids in 2007 to 16 million kids in 2014, at the same time that U.S. wealth was growing by over $30 trillion.”  —Paul Buchheit, “Four Numbers That Show the Beating Down of Middle America”

¶ News to counter the heartache. Though the vast majority of US citizens aren’t aware of it: The rate of uninsured people is at an all-time low, as are the rates of teen pregnancy and crime. —Sarah Kliff, Vox

¶ Call to the table. “The next time someone asks you why there are so many refugees in Europe, show them this. Drone footage of the fallout of the battle of Homs.” —Waking Times (1:29 video. Thanks Ray.)

¶ The state of our disunion. “I don’t think there was any racism until Obama got elected.” —Kathy Miller, chair of the Trump Campaign in Mahoning County, Ohio, in an interview with The Guardian

¶ For the beauty of the earth. Full moon rising over Mt. Victoria Lookout, Willington, New Zealand. (Thanks Paul. 3:45 video, accompanied by Dan Phillipson’s “Tenderness” instrumental)

¶ Altar call. “I was born to ignorance, yes, and lesser poverties / I was born to privilege that I did not see / Lack of pigment in my skin, won a free and easy in / I didn't know it, but my way was paved.” —John Gorka, “Ignorance and Privilege” (Thanks Peter.)

¶ Benediction. “Shalom Aleichem” (“Peace Be Upon You”), Yeshiva Darchei Torah Choir.

¶ “No child ever learned curiosity by filling out curiosity work sheets.” —Paul Tough, Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why

¶ Recessional. “Erev Shel Shoshanim” (“Evening of Lilies [or Roses”]) by Yuval Ron Ensemble. This song, a love song well known throughout the Middle East, is dedicated to the children of Jerusalem, the vision of peace between Jews and Arabs, and peace around the world.

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Two entered in the house of prayer / One anguished, one in pride / Claimed one: Sufficient is my cause / I hath no need beside. / The other, heart undone, no claim / Could make on vain accord / My breast doth beat, with me entreat / with graciousness, O Lord.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s poem, “Till earth receive her rest,” inspired by Luke 18:9-14. These lines may also be used as alternate lyrics to the hymn “Amazing Grace.”

¶ Just for fun. “Atheists Don’t Have No Songs” by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers.

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Teach Your Children Well,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 78

• “Blessed intention,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 19

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

• “In this Law I delight,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 119

• “Till earth receive her rest,” inspired by Luke 18:9-14. These lines may also be used as alternate lyrics to the hymn “Amazing Grace.”

 

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor. 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.

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.