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When the Wine Runs Out

Sermon on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday

by Nancy Hastings Sehested
Text: John 2:1-11, the wedding at Cana

It was Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and I was preaching at the prison. There was a shortage of officers that day, so I was on my own with 70 inmates for the worship service.

All was going well. The choir singing. The prisoners praying. The chaplain preaching. The gang members whispering.

It was a predictable sermon, with my words reminding the men that Martin Luther King’s dream for peace and justice came straight out of Jesus’ dream.

I started reading a passage from King’s book The Strength to Love. It was the poignant story of the time when King felt like the wine had run out on his strength and courage. He’d received a late night threatening phone call. He was overcome with a sense of powerlessness. He prayed to God at his kitchen table and received the sense of a divine presence like he’d never known before. So I read his words:

"After a particularly strenuous day, I settled in bed at a late hour. My wife had already fallen asleep and I was about to doze off when the phone rang. An angry voice said, ‘Listen, nigger, we’ve taken all we want from you. Before next week you’ll be sorry you ever came to Montgomery.’"

Just as soon as the “n” word came out of my mouth, I knew I’d made a terrible mistake. The gang members on the back row jumped up, yelled “You can’t get away with this, Chaplain.”  Six of them stormed out the door. They hadn’t heard one word I’d said, except that one word. Then three officers came in the door.

I ended my sermon quickly. The choir to lead us in singing a closing song, “Precious Lord.” I offered a benediction and the service ended.

First thing Tuesday morning, after the Monday holiday, I was in the administrator’s office answering questions.

“Yes,” I said, “I did use the “n” word. Yes, it did happen in the worship service. Yes, I did know it was against policy to use derogatory language. Yes, I did understand there were racial tensions in the prison.”

It was a kitchen table despair time, a time when I had failed, when I felt that the wine had run out on my strength and ability.

What do you do when the wine runs out on your vitality? What do we do when the systems we swirl in have more power to change us than we have to change them? What do you do when weariness sets into body and soul?

The prison was a large canvas for seeing the way humans can be, the good and the bad, the conniving and the creative, the powerful and the submissive, the kind and the cruel. Every day the tables could spin around. The kind could become the cruel. The cruel could become the kind. I was never clever enough to predict human behavior, even my own.

A day could start off with a renewed sense of commitment, a concerted effort to see and encourage the good and by the first coffee break I was sinking down. A new policy would arrive similar to the old policies that made for additional punitive rules.

Or there was the inmate who arrived in my office smiling and asking for a phone call to his girlfriend whose great aunt was sick. When I said it didn’t constitute an emergency phone call, his face contorted and he yelled: “You don’t care about us. Stop acting like you care. You’re nothing but a damn babysitter.”

Those were times when the wine ran out, and I was overwhelmed with my smallness. A sad place got sadder.

There were days that I was not prepared for the little crucifixions…hurtful or humiliating words that were hurled my way. Or my exasperating inability to protect and control my reputation. And there were the little deaths to my ego needs of feeling like I was making a difference that could be seen.

The little traumas added up, leaving me drained and wondering, can I go on? And if I go on, who am I becoming?

Who are we when we feel our resources are depleted? How do we restore vitality?

There are many things we know for restoration of body and soul. How to stop, look and listen. Breathe. Walk. Pray. Call a friend. Listen to music. I offer one of my practices in the prison.

I looked for a map, wanting to orient myself again to where I was. I saw many lines. W.E.B. Du Bois famously wrote in 1903: “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line” (The Souls of Black Folk). And we know that it is still a horrifying problem of the twenty-first century, along with the gender line, the sexual orientation line, the immigration line, the religious line, the economic line, the class line. The lines are drawn along the ancient human problem of entitlement, with one group feeling entitled to have power and control over another group. The problem of the twenty-first century is the problem of the past centuries, the problem of the power line.

I’ve found myself on both sides of that line, at once powerful and then powerless. But in prison, it was clear that I was on the side of the line of privilege and power.  

How could I understand these power lines, and what they do to us? And what is the power available to us that is life-giving and hope-bearing?

I kept three books within reach near my desk. The Bible offered me psalms of lament to pray, the imprecatory psalms when the wicked prosper, as well as the story of Jesus to ponder. 

I also kept my worn and tattered copy of Etty Hillesum’s An Interrupted Life, who faced her violent world of the concentration camp with a beating heart of love.

The third book was one that Martin Luther King Jr. carried with him throughout his life, Jesus and the Disinherited. In this thin volume famed theologian Howard Thurman takes up the question of what Jesus’ teachings have to say to “those who stand, at a moment in human history, with their backs against the wall.” (As you can see, my copy is tattered and stained and so well worn that it's coming apart.) The book examines power lines, and what happens to the people who are experiencing the relentless pain and humiliation of being disinherited.

Thurman was my teacher. He wrote that there are three “hounds of hell that track the trail” of the disinherited people: fear, deception and hatred. I needed to be reminded that people who are pushed to the limits find ways to not feel so limited.

Thurman described fear as a climate that closes in like a fog. “It is nowhere in particular and it is everywhere.” Living in fear has always meant living with the real possibility of cruelty or violence at the hands of the powerful at any moment.

He named deception as the oldest technique by which the weak have protected themselves against the strong. “The weak have survived by fooling the strong.”

The third hound of hell is hatred, born out of great bitterness, bottled and distilled. Hatred is understandable. It can be an effective fuel for the work of justice. But, writes Thurman, “it can dry up the springs of creative thought.” Furthermore, “it ultimately it destroys the core of the life of the hater.”

Jesus rejected all three responses, wrote Thurman. “Jesus message focused on the urgency of a radical change in the inner attitude of the people. He recognized fully that out of the heart are the issues of life, and that no external force, however great and overwhelming, can at long last destroy a people if it does not first win the victory of the spirit against them. . . . To revile because one has been reviled, this is the real evil because it is the evil of the soul itself.”

He placed Jesus ethic of love at the center of transformative living. King vividly and courageously embodied Jesus’ witness of love in powerful and courageous ways in the face of horrors and heartbreak.

In the story at the wedding at Cana, back in the kitchen where the wine had run out, where the problems seemed insurmountable, where the emptiness was evident, the Spirit in Jesus was doing improvisation. Jesus improvised with the materials at hand, ordinary water held by ordinary people. He took what was available, what was right there with them. Through the ordinary an extraordinary transformation happened. The wine of courage, strength and hope was poured out. And it was the servants that participated in it, that helped make it happen. It was a communal effort. The servants were the first to see the miracle happen. They were the first to proclaim the power in the water turned to wine.

It confirmed for me that I want to hang out in the kitchen with those who can see and taste the miracles first.

Life is poured out, plenty of life in love, plenty to keep our hearts beating with compassion, with more than enough to go around.

So drink.  Drink deeply of this love. And let’s pass around the joy!

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Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC, January 17, 2016

Sehested is co-pastor, Circle of Mercy Congregation, interim chaplain at the Swannanoa Correctional Institution for Women, and was for 13 years prior a chaplain in medium and maximum security men's prisons.

©Nancy Hastings Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Mercy’s requite

A litany for worship inspired by Jeremiah 1:4-10 & Psalm 71

“I am but a child!” you say.
“What business do you have with people of no claim,
of no clout, of no clue about the road to repentance
and the return from exile?”

Aahh, O clueless one, of no claim and no clout,
you know not that of which you speak!
Before your mother’s maiden life, I knew you;
before your father’s toddling feet,
I planned your sinews and mapped your countenance.

O child of consecrated lips and covenant voice,
      relinquish your fear!
            You shall not be put to shame.
                  Your Refuge is secure.
It is you, O child of destined grace,
      who will utter the Word that will shatter all enmity.

So let the nations tremble at the
      joy-filled cymbal-clapping songs
                  of redemption’s approach.

Let every wicked grip and cruelty’s grasp
      be loosed by the grammar of praise.

No scorn, no disgrace, can ever erase
            the full pleasure of Mercy’s requite.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Realm of earth, rule of Heaven

Bodified faith and environmental activism

by Ken Sehested

        The greatest failure in the history of Christian thought is the separation of souls from bodies, spirit from soil, the wrenching of hearts from habitation—all representing the abdication of the realm of earth from the rule of Heaven. It is the great anthropomorphic heresy: that redemption is for humans alone, and then only for some ethereal essence: no bodies, no biology, no hills or dales, neither minnows nor whales.

        As Tom McMillan has noted, for 200 years we've been conquering nature. Now we're beating it to death. To be saved we must cultivate a bodified faith.

        Mostly, communities of faith, along with others, have largely acquiesced in the profiteers’ auction of oceans and forests, fields and fowl, to the highest bidder. Among its elite are the environmental gangsters and their bankster backers in the fossil fuel industry. (Though, forego all moral posturing—we all drink from a common pool of blindness. The focus of repentance is not punishment but reparation.)

        The result, in the vivid language of Leviticus, is that the land in its fury has begun to “vomit out its inhabitants” (18:28). Our ecosystem would prosper if Homo sapiens were extinct; but if ants and bees and bats are gone, so are we.

        If we are to reclaim a theological vision sturdy enough to sustain the integrity of creation, to restore the created order to its rightful place in redemption’s destiny, we must reread Scripture in a way that does not effectively empty the text of its fleshly preserve.

        Be forewarned, however. A lot of money is at stake, not to mention the human fetish for consumption and convenience. Resistance will be intense. Advertisers are already adept in their “greenwashing” techniques—the disguising of degradation under the cover of shallow sentiment. Recycling and Prius purchases are little more than spitting in the wind of nature’s squall against human presumption. (This is not to despise small, incremental practices—we need to take every such step as possible, for the retraining of our wayward desires.) The bottling of air and the rationing of sun are but the latest market maneuvers to avoid environmental accountability.*

        Our textual eyes need recalibrating and refocusing. Here are a handful of passages we need to bring back into our field of vision.

        •In the beginning, starting in Genesis 1, God’s admonition that humankind exercise “dominion” (v. 28) over creation is not a license to kill. The Hebrew word for dominion is more akin to the work of a gardener than a monetizing CEO.

        •Then, in v. 31, the “good” that God experienced is more than a nice feeling—the word is more like “delight.” (With poetic license, “magnisplendificent” would work.) God’s delight is the first doctrine of Scripture, not the “Fall” text of chapter three. In spite of the agony through the ages, God’s delight has never been annulled.

        • When covenant faithfulness is ruptured, thorns and thistles abound (Genesis 3:17-19); rain is withheld (Deuteronomy 11:11-17); the land languishes and mourns (Isaiah 16:8, 33:9; Hosea 4:3); the stone cries out from the wall, and the beams from the woodwork respond (Habakkuk 2:9, 11); light disappears from the heaven, mountains waver, hills palpitate, gardens become wastelands (Jeremiah 4:23-26); the earth itself withers (Isaiah 24:4).

        •On the other hand, when righteousness and justice abound, mountains drip sweep wine (Amos 9:13); rough places are smoothed (Isaiah 40:4); the sun lifts its hand in praise (Habakkuk 3:10); the seas roar and the fields exult (Psalm 96:11); fire and hail, snow and frost, fruit trees and cedars offer praise (Psalm 148:8-9); the wilderness shall be glad, the desert rejoice and bloom (Isaiah 35:1); trees will clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12) and sing for joy (Psalm 96:12), the firmament echoing such ovation (Psalm 19:1).

        •The covenant of peace will free creation from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:21); beasts and birds and all creeping creatures are heirs to this covenant (Hosea 2:18); the earth shall be satisfied (Psalm 104:13); sabbath applies even for cattle (Leviticus 25:7); the leaves of the trees will provide healing (Revelation 22:1-2).

        •“If [my people’s] uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob . . . and I will remember the land” (Leviticus 26:41b-42).

        •At the very beginning of Jesus’ petition, the hallowing of God’s Name is preface to “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

        •In his cosmic announcement to the church at Rome, Paul insisted that “from the beginning” God’s provenance has been on display in “things” (1:20).

        •Possibly the greatest confusion we experience is caused by the word translated as “world” in the New Testament. On the one hand, as John’s Gospel notes, “God so loved the world (3:16). . . .” On the other hand, as the epistle of First John says, “Do not love the world ” (2:15). In the former, what is meant is the cosmos, the created order. In the latter, the world represents that complex web of brutal, unjust arrangements and powers which now agonize the earth. Living at odds with the world is the direct result of immersion in God’s Genesis-to-Revelation purpose, promise and provision for creation.

        •In general, remember that the Hebrew words for “compassion” and “womb” are derived from the same root. God’s birthing of creation, as with human birthing, is accompanied by water and by blood. As such, we ritually affirm environmental commitments in baptismal and Eucharistic practice.

        •In the end, God does not suck us up to heaven but establishes heavenly terrain amid bodified life. Here we linger beside “the river of the water of life,” whose monthly harvest is our provision and whose leaves are for the healing of the “nations” (the Bible’s code word for the cosmos).

        Here every terror-bred tear is dried, every mournful voice comforted, every pain eased, and death itself comes undone. Here the realm of earth is sheltered in the rule of Heaven. Here we linger ‘neath the throne of God, and of the Lamb whose reign came by means we humans consider defeat: The Vanquished become Victorious by means of relinquishing the logic of domination (Revelation 21:3-4; 22:1-2).

        The Lord who unravels all lording is our host. The Spirit and the bride say "Come.”

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*A Canadian company is now selling bottled air in the Chinese market. Many utility companies in the US are heavily taxing, even prohibiting, local solar power initiatives.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

 

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  14 January 2016  •  No. 54

Processional. “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.”

Right: Photo by Alexey Kljatov. See more of Kljatov’s macro photos of snowflakes’ impeccable designs.

Invocation. “Who is this Christ, who interferes in everything?” —Rainer Maria Rilke

Intercession. Bluesy rendition of “Stand by Me” by Rory Block.

¶ “Six Hopeful Breakthroughs from 2015. Despite conflicts and crises at home and abroad, 2015 offered glimpses of the road to a more just, compassionate, and sustainable world.” —Sarah van Gelder, Yes! Magazine

Hymn of praise. “Lamma badaa yetathaana” (When s/he begins to sway), "hobbii jamaluu fataana" (my love, the beautiful one, attracts me). Traditional Syrian song performed by Lena Chamamyan.

Confession. “We know too much, but are convinced of too little.” —T. S. Eliot

¶ “The number of cubic feet of snow that falls on the planet each year is about 1 followed by 15 zeros, which is a million billion, estimates cloud physicist Jon Nelson at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, who has studied snowflakes for 15 years. Similarly, all this snow weighs about a million billion kilograms. [For us metrically-challenged folk, that's 2,204,622,800,000,000 pounds.] A typical snow crystal weighs roughly one millionth of a gram. This means a cubic foot of snow can contain roughly one billion crystals. A rough estimate of the number of snow crystals that fall to Earth per year is “about 1 followed by 24 zeros,” Nelson told LiveScience. “If another scientist says that I'm off by one or two zeros, then I won't quibble.” —Charles Q. Choi, livescience.com

It’s not widely known that, for 25 years, the US provided refuge for one of El Salvador’s most brutal human rights violators. Gen. Jose Guillermo Garcia, former Salvadoran defense minister, played a key role in the murders in 1980 of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the rape and murder of four US churchwomen and, in 1981, nearly 1,000 defenseless peasants of the village of El Mozote. Finally, on 8 January, US Immigration officials deported Garcia back to El Salvador, his plane landing at the San Salvador airport renamed in honor of Romero. —Linda Cooper & James Hodge, National Catholic Reporter

Words of assurance. “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy” (aka “Let the Lower Lights be Burning”), old school hymn in tight a cappella harmony, sung by Dan Ellison, Spencer Ellison, Steven Jensen and Trevor Nielsen.

This is significant. “The pension board of the United Methodist Church—one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States, with more than seven million members—has placed five Israeli banks on a list of companies that it will not invest in for human rights reasons, the board said in a statement on Tuesday. It appeared to be the first time that a pension fund of a large American church had taken such a step regarding the Israeli banks, which help finance settlement construction in what most of the world considers illegally occupied Palestinian territories.” —Rick Gladstone, The New York Times

For commentary on the “boycott, divestment and sanctions” movement opposing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank of Palestine, see Ken Sehested’s “Boycott, divestment and sanctions: Israel and the occupation: We cannot ignore this contentious conversation.”

News of Israeli human rights activists get little attention here in the US. We need increased awareness of their work and build closer alliances. For a start, read Michael Sfard’s “Israeli Human Rights Activists Aren’t Traitors” to their own country.

If you’ve read Clarence Jordan’s work, you know his reference about the church needing to be a “demonstration plot” for what he called “the God Movement.” If you want to learn of an actual form of large-scale, sustainable agriculture—a demonstration plot for agriculture that regenerates both the soil and communities from its abundance—you should watch this inspiring video (“Life in Syntropy,” 15:28 minutes) on “agroforestry” underway in the Amazon region of Brazil. (Thanks, Greg.)

At the close of a recent worship service, members of my congregation, Greg Yost (standing at right in photo, by Marc Mullinax) and daughter Anna Farlessyost, displayed a banner made by some of Greg’s high school math students. Greg invited our members to participate the following week in an action at a local Exxon gas station. Greg organizes with “Beyond Extreme Energy”  whose strategic focus is on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission which issues the licenses—and thus is the gatekeeper—for much new fossil fuel infrastructure.

¶ “Arch Coal, the United States' second largest coal supplier, on Monday filed for bankruptcy, signaling what environmentalists described as the "end of an era" as the country moves to more renewable, less polluting energy sources. ‘Arch Coal’s bankruptcy is the latest sign of a profound shift in America’s energy landscape,’ said Mary Anne Hitt, director of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign.” —Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

It wasn't just Exxon that knew fossil fuels were cooking the planet. New investigative reporting by Neela Banerjee with Inside Climate News recently revealed that scientists and engineers from nearly every major US and multinational oil and gas company may have for decades known about the impacts of carbon emissions on the climate. Between 1979 and 1983, the American Petroleum Institute (API), the industry's most powerful lobby group, ran a task force for fossil fuel companies to "monitor and share climate research," according to internal documents obtained by Inside Climate News. —Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

If you want investigative details of how fossil fuel companies have since the 1970s covered up scientific research indicating their product caused climate change, read Robert Brulle’s “America has been duped on climate change,” in The Washington Post.

Good news from the heartland. “A new climate narrative is emerging among farmers in the American heartland that transcends a lot of the old story lines of denial and cynicism, and offers an updated tale of climate hope.” —Jeff Biggers, The New York Times (Thanks, Dick.)

¶ “'The Tides Are Turning': Portland Passes Landmark Resolution Against Fossil Fuel Infrastructure. It’s a powerful sign that the fossil fuel era is beginning to come to an end.” —Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

This animated statistical graphic shows how each state’s electricity fuel sources (coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydro, renewable, oil) have changed from1990-2014. The graph is in a loop, so you don’t need to catch everything in one viewing. —Union of Concerned Scientists (Thanks, Tom.)

According to federal authorities' own predictions, potentially deadly oil train accidents are likely to be commonplace in the United States over the next two decades, with derailments expected to occur an average of 10 times a year, costing billions of dollars in damage, and putting a large number of lives at risk. The grim projection was revealed exclusively by the Associated Press, which cites a previously unreported analysis by the Department of Transportation from last July. —Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

“These Technologies Will Shift the Global Balance of Power in the Next 20 Years.” “The next shock will come from clean energy. Solar and wind are now advancing on exponential curves. Every two years, for example, solar installation rates are doubling, and photovoltaic-module costs are falling by about 20 percent. . . . By 2030, solar power will be able to provide 100 percent of today’s energy needs.” —Vivek Wadhwa (Thanks, Paul.)

Public subsidy of the fossil fuel industry. “One of the greatest contradictions of our time is that while world leaders profess concern over a rapidly warming planet, they continue to spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing the fossil fuel industries that are driving climate change. In fact, according to a new report released on [21 September 2015] by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—a global forum on economic policy—the world's richest nations spend roughly $160-200 billion each year supporting fossil fuel consumption and production.” —Lauren McCauley, “Amid Runaway Warming, Richest Nations Spend $200 Billion Backing Fossil Fuels”

“Why Bernie Sanders Was Right To Link Climate Change to National Security.” “For over three years, leading security and climate experts—and Syrians themselves—have made the connection between climate change and the Syrian civil war. Indeed, when a major peer-reviewed study came out on in March making this very case, Retired Navy Rear Admiral David Titley said it identifies “a pretty convincing climate fingerprint” for the Syrian drought. Titley, a meteorologist who led the U.S. Navy’s Task Force on Climate Change when he was at the Pentagon, also said, “you can draw a very credible climate connection to this disaster we call ISIS right now.” —Joe Romm, thinkprogress

The text of Pope Francis’ amazing encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home,” is available free for downloading.

Preach it. “The greatest failure in the history of Christian thought is the separation of souls from bodies, spirit from soil, the wrenching of hearts from habitation—all representing the abdication of the realm of earth from the rule of Heaven. It is the great anthropomorphic heresy: that redemption is for humans alone, and then only for some ethereal essence: no bodies, no biology, no hills or dales, neither minnows nor whales.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Realm of earth, rule of Heaven: The need for a bodified faith”

Altar call. “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Lectionary for Sunday next. “Throw off the covers of earth’s darkened slumber! Unplug your ears, you creatures of flesh! From deepest sigh of tear-stained eye, set your sight on Heaven’s resolve.” —continue reading “Blessed intention,” a litany inspired by Psalm 19

Just for fun (especially for you percussionists). “Top 20 2015 Video Countdown Montage,” Drum Talk TV (2:28 minutes).

Benediction. “Shed a Little Light,” by James Taylor, performed by two a cappella groups, The Maccabeats (Jewish) and Naturally 7 (African American), in memory of Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. —bangitout

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks:

• “Faithful Witness: The testimony of Scripture and of Martin Luther King Jr.,” a litany for worship

• “What of it?”, a litany for worship inspired by 1 Corinthians 12

• “Realm of earth, rule of Heaven: Bodified faith and environmental activism,” commentary on the needed theological basis for sustained action on climate change

Other resources for commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday

• “We, too, have a dream,” a litany for worship commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday 

• “Dr. King didn’t do everything.” We miss the significance of the Civil Rights Movement if we attribute everything to Dr. King.

• “Hear this, O People of the Dream,” a litany for worship commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

• “Write the vision, make it plain,” a sermon on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday

• “Hold Fast to Dreams: Defaulting on the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” a theological conference lecture

©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 klsehested@gmail.com.

 

Faithful Witness

The testimony of Scripture and of Martin Luther King Jr.

Peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew.

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace. . . .” —Isaiah 32:16-17

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.

Do not be overcome by evil; but overcome evil with good. —Romans 12:21

Love is the more durable power in the world. . . . Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. —Romans 5:10

There are some things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted.

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. —Romans 12:2

Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men [and women] and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is dry-as-dust religion.

But if you have the world’s goods and see neighbors in need, yet you close your heart against them, how does God’s love abide in you? —1 John 3:17

Our world is a neighborhood. We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters], or we will perish as fools. For I submit, nothing will be done until people put their bodies and souls into this.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. . . . But love your enemies . . . and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High. —Luke 6:32-33, 35

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. . . . When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. —James 4:1-2

Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter—but beautiful—struggle for a new world.

We exhort you, brothers and sisters, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances. —1 Thessalonians 5:14-15

Let the people of god say: Amen!

Complied by Ken Sehested for the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America

Blessed intention

A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 19

by Ken Sehested

Throw off the covers of earth’s darkened slumber! Unplug your ears, you creatures of flesh! From deepest sigh of tear-stained eye, set your sight on Heaven’s resolve.

For the sky’s bright luster, alive with motion, shows the wonder of Blessed intention.

The Word—shorn of words—springs from every nick and cranny. By night and by day the silent sound of Wonder drenches every listening ear.

The tent of heaven, filled with sun’s splendor, springs from its gloomy eclipse.

Like the joy-faced groom, the eager-armed bride, our Lover’s embrace lingers near.

The Sovereign’s sure guidance parts seas of confusion. Instruction in reverence prompts joyous acclaim.

Every mouth, every tongue: Exclaim your profession. And proclaim earth’s restoration: every head, every hand.

Now let the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in Your sight, O Rock of Redemption and Ransom’s release.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  7 January 2016  •  No. 53

Processional. Berzeit University (Ramallah, Palestine) performing the Palestinian Dabka folk dance. (58 seconds) (Thanks, David.)

Right: A ring of fire—the aurora borealis (“northern lights”) as photographed from a NASA satellite. It is caused by the interaction of charged particles from the sun with atoms in the upper atmosphere.

Invocation. “To be hopeful in bad times . . . is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.” —Howard Zinn, “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A personal history of our times”

Oregon standoff. “These aren’t the first armed whites to take over that Oregon land: Just ask the native Paiute people.” —Amy Goodman interviews Jacqueline Keeler, Democracy Now

More satire from The Borowitz Report. “A majority of Oregonians favor building a twenty-foot wall along the border of their state to prevent angry white men from getting in, a poll released on Monday shows. The survey indicates that Oregonians are fed up with irate male Caucasians pouring into their state and bringing with them guns, violence, and terrorism. ‘This used to be such a nice state,’ said Oregon State Senator Carol Foyler, a pro-wall lawmaker. ‘Since the angry white men came here, parts of it are unrecognizable.’” —Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

Blues praise music. “I am marching every day / I’m meeting trials on my way / Short of blessings, but I’m going on just the same / Folks complaining on every side / Except me, Lord / I’m satisfied.” —Maria Muldaur, “It’s a Blessing” (Thanks, Stan.)

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.”  —“Maybe I Can Paint Over That,” Guy Clark

Words of assurance. “Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record / One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word; / Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,— / Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, / Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. —James Russell Lowell, “The Present Crisis”

¶ A largely unknown story of grace. “Bob Fletcher, a former California agriculture inspector who, ignoring the resentment of neighbors, quit his job in the middle of World War II to manage the fruit farms of Japanese families forced to live in internment camps, died on May 23 in Sacramento. He was 101.” —William Yardley, New York Times

¶ “I keep flashbacks on the bombings and I get flashbacks of all the killings, but I’m thankful for this great country, that is the county of human rights, to allow us to have new lives here,” he said. “And we are here to contribute to this country.” —testimony from Samir Alraschdan, a recently-landed Syrian refugee, in Hamtramck, Michigan (part of metro Detroit), a town which recently elected the nation’s first Muslim-majority City Council

Personal note. For Christmas my wife enlisted a friend, singer-songwriter Ken Medema, to record a new arrangement of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” using new lyrics drawn from Psalm 23. Listen on YouTube.

Amazing news. “More than 200 Muslim youth volunteers are part of those protecting Christians during church services to celebrate this year’s Christmas in Kaduna [Nigeria], says Pastor Yohanna Buru. Buru, a cleric of Christ Evangelical Church, Sabon Tasha, Kaduna South, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday. He confirmed that over 200 Muslims were at his church to help protect the faithful from any attack during the church service." —Daily Post

Resources for understanding the Sunni-Shia conflict.
        •“Sunnis and Shia: Islam’s ancient schism,” a brief primer from BCC. And here is a brief (6:22 minutes) video introducing Sufism, a minority movement within Islam.
        •“Reality Check: The myth of a Sunni-Shia war” is a helpful short video (2:47 minutes) by Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan explaining how the Sunni-Shia religious conflict is overplayed.
        •If you want a more thorough analysis of this same point, read Max Fisher’s “The real roots of Sunni-Shia conflict: Beyond the myth of ‘ancient religious hatred,’” Vox World.
        •This map is useful. “Behind the stark political divisions, a more complex map of Sunnis and Shiites,” Sarah Almukhtar, Sergio Peçanha and Tim Wallace, New York Times.

¶ “Did we ever think that, instead of enemies, an albeit small group from within the Islamic world using the language of Islam, would present it as the religion of killing, violence, whips, extortion and injustice?” —Reuters new story, quoting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani calling on the Muslim community to correct Islam’s tarnished public image

Right. Islamic calligraphy: Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim ("In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate")

Recovering the discipline of lamentation.
       • #ForTamirRice “We must grieve a Prophetic Grief: Grief that tells the truth, grief that unmasks the powers, the forces, the systems.” —Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews, director of clergy organizing, Pico National Network
       • “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.” —2 Corinthians 7:10
       • “Prophetic mourning demands that we be neither comfortable nor cynical in the face of violent death. We must mourn over it and we must stand against it. Pope Francis challenges us in Laudato Si ‘to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening in the world into our own personal suffering, and thus to discover what each of us can do about it.’ And so today we mourn and tomorrow we work to transform crucifixion into resurrection and become what the prophet Isaiah calls ‘the repairers of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.’” —Rev. Dr. William Barber, leader of the Moral Monday Movement, “Grief at the Heart of a Moral Movement: A Personal Meditation for 2016”

¶ “There is a strange comfortability with black death. Even grief is subjugated by an imagination birthed by race where victims are always culpable for their own demise. Black tears are of no consequence because they come from bodies deemed defective by the myths of racialized thinking. Until all hearts begin to break and mothers of privilege join the funeral procession only then will sorrow cease to be our song.” — Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago

1,052 mass shootings in 1,066 days. See this dramatic  visualization of what America’s gun crisis looks like. —The Guardian

Americans make up about 4.43 percent of the world's population, yet own roughly 42 percent of all the world's privately held firearms. If more guns make us safe, shouldn't our streets be absolutely serene?

Can’t make this sh*t up. In early December 2015 Republican senators had the opportunity to approve one common sense measure—to restrict gun sales to those on the FBI’s terror watch list. With the exception of Mark Kirk of Illinois, they all voted against it. Senator Coryn of Texas expressed concern over violation of constitutional rights. —see more at Mark Silk, Religion News Service

Ban on gun violence research. “Researchers from federal agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) have largely been mum on the public health issue of gun violence—not by choice, but because of a 20-year-old congressional ban on federally funded gun violence research.” —Linda Poon, Citylab

Testify. War veteran Joshua Casteel is a former US Army interrogator at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Listen to his story   (9:37 minutes) of how he became a conscientious objector.
        Our friends at the Mennonite Central Committee’s Peace Education office have put online a large collection of personal stories of faith from veterans. I've put the descriptive list, with weblinks, at “Conscientious objection: Faith stories from veterans." (Thanks, Titus.)

At bottom are links to several preaching, teaching and worship planning resources for commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. In preparation, we need reminders of what has been edited out of his public witness.
       • “The Martin Luther King You Don’t See on TV,” by Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon, FAIR.
       • We forget that following his famous “Beyond Vietnam” speech on 4 April 1967—exactly one year before his assassination—King was savaged in the media. Life magazine called it “demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi.
       • The Washington Post said “King has diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.”
       • Reader’s Digest warned it might provoke an “insurrection.”
       • The New York Times ran an editorial, “Dr. King’s Error,” chiding him for linking foreign policy (the US war in Vietnam) with domestic policy.
       • The Federal Bureau of Investigation privately called King the "most dangerous and effective negro leader in the country."
       • “Racial apprehension before [the 1963 March on Washington] drove the federal government to furlough its workers for the day. The Pentagon deployed 20,000 paratroopers. Hospitals stockpiled plasma. Washington banned sales of alcohol, and Major League Baseball canceled not just one but two days of [Washington’s baseball games], just to be sure.” —Taylor Branch, author of Parting the Waters, Pillar of Fire, and At Canaan’s Edge, a three-volume history of the modern civil rights movement, in “Dr. King’s Newest Marcher,” New York Times, 5 September 2010
       • According to Roger Mudd, who covered the March on Washington for CBS News, the Kennedy Administration drew up in advance a statement declaring martial law, in case it became necessary.

Preach it. “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today—my own government. For the sake of those [soldiers], for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence,” —Martin Luther King Jr., “Beyond Vietnam,” The Riverside Church, New York City, 4 April 1967

Call to the table. “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination, / calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting— / over and over announcing your place / in the family of things.” —Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese.” Listen to Oliver read her poem.

Altar call. “If Ye Love Me,” Thomas Tallis.

Just for fun. Bobby McFarrin and Esperanza Spalding jam at the 53rd Grammy Pre-Tel.  (Thanks, Graham.)

Left. Dancer at the 35th Annual Paiute Restoration Gathering, Paiute Tribal Center, Cedar City, Utah, June 13, 2015. Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News.

Benediction. “I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean, / Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens, / Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,  / And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance. / I hope you dance. I hope you dance.” —Lee Ann Womack (singing at Maya Angelou's memorial service),  “I Hope You Dance”

Recessional marching consequences: “Eyes on the Prize” performed by Mavis Staples.

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks:

• “We, too, have a dream,” a litany for worship commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday 

• “Dr. King didn’t do everything.” We miss the significance of the Civil Rights Movement if we attribute everything to Dr. King.

• “Hear this, O People of the Dream,” a litany for worship commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

• “Write the vision, make it plain,” a sermon on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday

• “Hold Fast to Dreams: Defaulting on the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” a theological conference lecture

©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 klsehested@gmail.com.

 

Conscientious objection

Stories of faith from veterans

Few testimonies about nonviolence are stronger than those from war veterans. Our friends at the Mennonite Central Committee's Peace Education Office have compiled the following online resources. (For those who work with young people: These would be excellent resources for discussion, particularly for those approaching the age of mandatory Selective Service registration.)

•Reflections from Iraq War veteran Ben Peters. Six video clips (each 4-7 minutes long) with study guide for high school students/adults.  Ben discusses the identity-shaping experiences of boot camp, his struggles with post traumatic stress syndrom, the question of whether violence can be redemptive, biblical frameworks and more.  Ben is thoughtful, articulate and a compelling presenter.  

•Reflections from Iraq War veteran Logan Mehl-Laituri and Marine Joe Gibson. 
Five video clips that feature reflections on conscientious objection, moral injury and contrasts between the call of the armed forces and the call of God.

•Reflections from Iraq War veteran and Abu Ghraib interrogator, Joshua Casteel. One video clip featuring a remarkable story of Joshua's encounter with a Saudi jihadist in an interrogation room about the Sermon on the Mount, the cycle of vengeance and more.  It was a life-changing encounter for Joshua that led him out of the military.

•Reflections from conscientious objectors who did their alternative service in Vietnam during the war.


•World War II veteran databases and stories. 
This website is dedicated to the experiences of conscientious objectors in WWII.  It includes a searchable database of records for the nearly 12,000 people who served in civilian public service camps, as well as a database of the more than 150 camps in which they served.  It also includes scores of stories.

Hold Fast to Dreams: Defaulting on the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Lecture at the "Protestantism, Public Theology and Prophetic Relevance" conference

by Ken Sehested

"Protestanismo, Teologia Pública e Relevância Profética: Diálogos
com as éticas teológicas de Martin Luther King Jr. e Richard Shaull"
(“Protestantism, Public Theology and Prophetic Relevance,
in light of the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dr. Richard Shaull”)
Centro Cultural da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
24-26 May 2007, Aliança de Batistas do Brasil

            It is a rare privilege to take part in this historic occasion. My prayer is that, years from now, you will look back on this occasion as the starting point of a powerful movement in shaping the faith and witness of the church in Brazil. And maybe for the whole world.

            Let me say a few words of gratitude before I begin my prepared comments. First, I want to pay homage to two Brazilian theologians that have shaped my thinking. They are Reuben Alves and Dom Hélder Câmara. In my writing and speaking over the last 30 years I have often used quotes from both. And I suspect all of us in this room would be in very different places had it not been for the pioneering pedagogical work of Paula Freire.

            I also want to lift up the name of Sr. Dorothy Stang, the courageous and devoted woman who was murdered two years ago because of her defense of the rights of exploited peasants, and of the land itself, in the Amazon region. I’m sure your prayer is the same as mine: that the Gospel testimony and witness of Sr. Stang will overshadow the witness of the Roman Pontiff during his recent visit here.

            I also want to greet you on behalf of the Alliance of Baptists in the U.S., and on behalf of my own congregation, the Circle of Mercy. I am here officially on behalf of the Alliance to further strengthen our partnership with the Aliança de Batistas do Brasil. This past Sunday members of my own congregation gathered around to lay hands on me with a prayer of blessing for this journey. Strangers whom you have never met, in a far away place, are praying for all of you in this room and giving thanks for your faithfulness to the Gospel.

            All of my life I have strongly believed that this work of building relationships across national and cultural and racial and class boundaries is among our most important weapons in the struggle against those who would keep us divided.

            When biblical people gather to interpret the word of God, the first question to be asked is not about the text. It is about the time—what time is it? The first question is always: Where in our lives, and in the lives of our people, is the Spirit being quickened and where is it being quenched?

            To ask, “what time is it?” is not to look at the clock but to ask where are we in the season of God’s Dream for the world? Where are the places where that Dream, which Jesus referred to as the “Kingdom of God”—which Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of as the “beloved community”—where is that Dream being fulfilled, and where is that Dream being turned into a nightmare?

            My title comes from a line by the African American poet, Langston Hughes: “Hold fast to dreams,” he wrote, “for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird. Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow.”

§  §  §

            Last Sunday, when I invited our congregation to the communion table, I reminded them that coming to the table is a form of fear displacement. By ritually recalling Jesus’ own last meal with his disciples, we are being cleansed of our fearfulness and being filled with courage.

            As the first epistle of John (4:18) reminds us, the opposite of faith is not doubt. Rather, the opposite of faith is fear. This is why, every time in Scripture when an angel appears to humans with a message from God, their opening greetings is always, “Fear not!”

            “Fear not” has been the nonviolent war cry of the people of God ever since Moses stood with the escaping Hebrew people on the banks of the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army bearing down from behind. “Fear not,” be still—don’t panic—see this day that the Lord your God will fight for you. Fear not, you prisoners of hope—as the prophet Zachariah wrote—for the One who bore you in mercy has not abandoned you.

            Fear not—take courage, be of good cheer (John 16:33), Jesus instructed his followers. You are safe, and because you are safe, you can risk much.

            Fear displacement is the most important pastoral duty we have with our people in order to unlock their prophetic courage.

            More than ever, we need to come to this table—and bring our people with us. For these are fearful times. Fear is a kind of polio of the soul. It stunts our growth and makes us ever more dependent on those that tell us constantly that safety and security can only be found with more money and more guns.

            Though we do not speak of it much anymore, the struggle against idolatry is still the believing community’s greatest challenge. Idolatry is not about religious artifacts. It is about decisions over the location and source of our true security.

§  §  §

            These are fearful times. Nearly 20 years ago, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, many in my country thought that a great opening had arrived—that this reduction of threat might be the occasion when a new future could be created, one based on mutual respect within the family of nations. According to the Department of Defense, during the Cold War 60% of the U.S. military budget was devoted to “containing” the Soviet imperial threat. Now, we thought, billions of dollars can be redirected away from the preparation for war and toward the preparation for peace.

            In that hope, in that dream, we were badly mistaken. We were seriously disappointed. Maybe we were very naïve. It seems that the leaders of my country get lonely when there is no enemy to focus on, no enemy to carry the weight of our sins. And so we thrashed around to find another enemy.

            For a few short years that new enemy was the “war on drugs,” was the scourge of drug trafficking–of narco-terrorism—particularly by organized gangs here in Latin America.

            But soon we found a more fitting enemy, in the form of Islamic “terrorists.” Yes, we said to ourselves, this is a better enemy. Because lands in which these Islamic terrorists live have great reservoirs of gold—black gold—petroleum. Gold was what brought the Conquistadors to the American continent. Gold was needed to fund the European imperial wars. Now much of that gold is in the Middle East, in the form of oil. As former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in the early 1970s, “Oil is too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs.”

            The prophet Habakkuk describes such imperial aspiration in this way:

            “…they are a law unto themselves and promote their own honor. Their own strength is their God” (1:7, 11c)

            These are fearful times. But, as Scripture testifies, it is in the situation of fearfulness—in the midst of things falling apart—that God’s dream for Creation’s redemption and renewal is most apparent to those with eyes to see.

            •It was in the context of the Hebrew people’s suffering cries that God called Moses to go tell Pharaoh to “let my people go”!

            •It was the prophet Isaiah (33) who reported: “The envoys of peace weep bitterly. And the land mourns. Now will I arise, says the Lord, and bring them to the safely for which they long.”

            •And it was during the Passover meal, when Jesus gathered his disciples for one last supper—“on the night he was betrayed” to the Roman imperial army—that Jesus spoke of his coming resurrection.

            These are fearful times, and so we must hold fast to dreams.

            In 2003 I traveled to Iraq with the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT). The CPT deploys Christians trained in conflict mediation and violence reduction strategies to many places in the world where social conflict has broken out into violence. Our task in Iraq was to listen to the Iraqi people. CPT had had representatives stationed in Baghdad since 1996, and they had developed friendships with people in all sectors of life.

            Our job was also to tell a different story in the media, to try and break through the lies that the Bush Administration was using to justify the resumption of war with Iraq.

            It did not matter than the U.S. had played a major role in putting Saddam Hussein into power. It did not matter that the U.S. had sold him the components of the poisonous gas he used against his own citizens and against the Iranians. It did not matter than none of the September 11 terrorists who crashed planes into the world trade center in New York had any connection with Iraq.

            Empires do not pay much attention to facts. The psalmist describes them in this way:

            “Pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out with fatness, their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth” (73:6-9).

            In a news conference in Baghdad, a top aide to former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was responding to press reports of complaints from U.S. soldiers. Rumsfeld’s aide said in response:

            “This is the future for the world we’re in at the moment. We’ll get better as we do it more often” (quoted in Harper’s Weekly, 22 July 2003).

            The U.S. imperial dream is not new, of course. Despite the truly revolutionary nature of our founding as a republic—despite the profound commitment to the principles of democracy (which is, fundamentally, a commitment to nonviolence)—our nation has engaged in numerous imperial episodes. But when we did so, we always had to turn our backs on our own historical commitments.

            But I think there is something new about our national character. In 2002, on the first anniversary of the September 11 assault, the Bush Administration issued a new National Security Strategy. For the first time in history a political doctrine was put in place that provides legal authority for attacking any other nation, even if they pose no immediate threat to our security. All the President has to do is say, “They are a threat to our national security.”

            To better understand the implications of this new national security strategy, you need to understand some of the background. Listen to the advice given in 1948 by George Kennan, then the U.S. State Department’s planning staff director and later the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union:

            We have about 50% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its population. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives.

            We should dispense with the aspiration to “be liked” or to be regarded as the repository of a high-minded international altruism. We should stop putting ourselves in the position of being our brother’s keeper and refrain from offering moral and ideological advice. We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogan, the better.

            The prophet Haggai has this to say: “You have sown much and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you put the wages you earn in a bag full of holes” (1:6).

§  §  §

            Sisters and brothers, these are fearful times. John of Patmos’ dream of a new heaven and a new earth (21:1), of the day when all tears will be dried and death itself will be no more (21:4), is now considered to be an “idealistic slogan,” a “day-dream,” and an “unreal objective” in the corridors of power. The really unfortunate thing is that many in the church feel the same way.

            So where do we turn to for hope? Where do we go to “hold fast” to the dream? What disciplines do we need to nurture God’s dream of salvation and liberation?

            One of the most important sources of hope for me is the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an African American Baptist preacher in the U.S. Dr. King’s dream was pivotal in saving my soul—saving me from an empty religious dogma and a religious piety filled with arrogance.

            When I was a teenager, I worked at a gas station on Saturdays, pumping gas and washing cars. This was in 1965 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

            I was barely aware of Dr. King and other civil rights activists. It wasn’t that I was opposed to them. It’s just that they did not seem to matter in my religious worldview. I was already preaching at that young age, calling people to give their hearts to Jesus. I wanted to be the next Billy Graham. And Dr. King’s dream had nothing to do with the religious dream that filled my heart.

            Early one morning, before the sun had risen, I was helping Mr. Cagle, the station owner, open up the shop. The radio was on, and a news story told about some incident involving Dr. King from the day before. I don’t remember the content of the story. But I do remember Mr. Cagle’s response:

            “That Dr. King, he ain’t no Christian! Everywhere he goes he causes trouble!”

            It would be many years before I realized you could say the same thing about Jesus. Jesus frequently warned his disciples that their lot would include persecution (Matt. 5:11). As Clarence Jordan, one of our Baptist saints in the U.S., says so well: “The Spirit doesn’t roost on a person who’s afraid of getting hurt.”

            These are fearful times, but the Table of our Lord brings fear displacement therapy.

            Dr. King is well known outside the U.S. The famous song from the Civil Rights Movement—“We Shall Overcome”—has been sung in the struggle against South African apartheid. It was sung in the struggle to overcome Soviet domination in Eastern Europe. It was sung in Tianamen Square in Bejing, China. And I have sung it with Iraqi citizens in Baghdad and Basra.

            I know many of you have read Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered during the 1963 March on Washington.

            "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. . .

            "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

            "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill shall be made low, the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

            Dr. King was affirming what the psalmist predicts: “I believe that I shall see the goodness of God in the land of the living” (27:13). He was underscoring what was promised through the prophets (Joel 2:28) and reiterated on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17), that the purpose of God was to “pour out my spirit on all flesh.”

            Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is now taught in school literature classes. It is quoted by presidents and major business leaders. Dr. King’s birthday is now an official national holiday in the U.S., and military bands march in the parades to mark the occasion.

            Empires have a way, over time, of co-opting the threat against their power. Listen to this poem by the African American poet Carl Wendell Hines Jr.

Now that he is safely dead, let us praise him
Build monuments to his glory
Sing hosannas to his name.
Dead men make such convenient heroes.
They cannot rise to challenge the images
we would fashion from their lives.
And besides, it is easier to build
monuments than to make a better world.
So, now that he is safely dead,
We, with eased consciences,
Will teach our children that he was a great man,
knowing that the cause for which he died
Is still a dream,
A dead man’s dream.

            Dr. King’s dream no longer threatens us very much. We forget that by 1965 he was developing a much more profound analysis of the problems that cause racial discrimination. He was beginning to talk about the “giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism.” Following early successes in attempts to desegregate lunch counters and buses, and some initial success in voter registration drives, Dr. King realized discrimination based on skin color had more complex causes. He began to see the deeper economic causes of racism. And for the first time he began to speak out against the war in Vietnam.

            Very few people in the U.S. remember that on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, King gave a speech at Riverside Church in New York City in which he explicitly denounced the war in Vietnam. In that speech he referred to the U.S. as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” When he did, he was harshly criticized by other civil rights leaders and by that part of the media that had been supporting him.

            In his address that evening he greatly expanded the theological vision of us all. He spoke about the need for a “radical revolution of values.” Such a revolution, he said, would make us come to see that “an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” You’ll be especially interested to know that he specifically mentioned U.S. military activity in Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia and Peru. And he said that America’s “alliance with the landed gentry or Latin America” is patently unjust.

            In the U.S. we tend to forget these comments. Like with Jesus, Dr. King is greatly admired. That’s what we do to people who challenge us when they are alive. After they die, we mold their memory to suit our purposes. We heap praise on them and put them on pedestals—as a way to distance ourselves from them. There is some truth in that old saying: “A conservative is someone who admires a dead radical.”

§  §  §

            We have much intellectual work to do. We must always be critically examining our theological statements. While God is eternal, our statements about God are not. We must constantly be reading and rereading our history, for to know where we are going, we must know more clearly where we have been. We must be engaged in a critical reading of Scripture. The “critical” part is not about Scripture, but with our own limited capacity to see what is there, for we are always tempted to use the Bible to suit our own ideologies—however liberal or conservative or moderate.

            We must always be sharpening our ethical insights, and expanding our knowledge of human psychology, to be better agents of moral discernment and more effective counselors.

            But more than anything else, we must be bring our people to the table, to the place where our fears can be replaced with courage, to the place where our own fretful and fragile egos can be relinquished, where we can be fitted with the bold and bright garments of the Spirit. We must bring our people to the table, to find a community of dreamers. For as Dom Hélder Câmara wrote, “When we are dreaming alone, it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.”

            During the early days of the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. King came to such a table. He was already ordained as a minister. He was pastor of a large congregation. He even had a doctorate from a prestigious theology school. But the Spirit was beckoning him toward a more profound conversion.

            Dr. King describes this “table” experience in his book, Stride Toward Freedom. As the boycott expanded and grew more effective, so did the pressures. He was getting a relentless stream of harassing phone calls. Then one night, just as he drifted off to sleep, the phone rang and the voice on the other end made an explicit death threat.

            Unable to sleep, he went into the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. Then he sat down at his kitchen table. Permit me to read an excerpt describing that experience:

            In this state of exhaustion, when my courage had all but gone. I decided to take my problem to God. With my head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. The words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory. “I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.”

            At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: “Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever.” Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.

            Sisters and brothers, these are fearful times. The world is currently ruled not by a dream but by a nightmare. The powers of vengeance and shame and death are heavily armed. But we, too, have a dream. A dream that the wolf and the lamb shall one day lie together, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is. 11:3-9).

            We, too have a dream—the dream that Hannah prayed, that one day the bows of the mighty will be broken, and that God will raise the poor from the dust (1 Sam. 2:1-8).

            We still have this dream, that one day nations shall beat their swords into plowshares (Micah 4:3-4), that the outcast will be gathered and God will change their shame into praise (Zeph. 3:19), and creation itself will be freed from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:21).

            This Gospel dream still lives! We have access to it at the Table of nourishment, in the memory of the Lord who called us “friend.” Come to the table! Hold fast to dreams!

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Write the vision, make it plain

Sermon on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth

by Ken Sehested

Text: Habakkuk 2:1-3  “I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.”

Why do we devote special attention to the “saints,” to those gone before us, to people like Martin Luther King Jr.? When we focus on particular people, don’t we run the risk of turning them into HEROES? By giving certain individuals special attention, don’t we risk distancing ourselves from them? Few if any of us feel heroic. We’re not like Superman: faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. If saints—hero’s of the faith—are so unlike us, can they be of any use, other than as objects of fantasy whom we put on a pedestal to admire? But also to collect dust?

The poet Carl Wendell Hines Jr. once wrote of King:

Now that he is safely dead
let us praise him
build monuments to his glory
sing hosannas to his name.
Dead men make
such convenient heroes. They
cannot rise
to challenge the images
we would fashion from their lives.
And besides,
it is easier to build monuments
than to make a better world.
So, now that he is safely dead,
we, with eased consciences
will teach our children
that he was a great man . . . knowing
that the cause for which he died
is still a dream,
a dead man’s dream.

Often, when we declare someone a saint, it means we don’t have to take what they said and did very seriously. Because, well, they were saints . . . and we’re not saints. Instead of being conduits for the Spirit to get a hold of our lives, we turn our attention instead to heaping praise on them. Adoration becomes a way of dodging the challenge they pose for us.

So, yes, there is a danger of declaring people “saints.” It’s the same danger we face when we acknowledge Jesus as Lord, as Savior. By doing so, vigorously, we exempt ourselves from being implicated in Jesus’ mission. We build churches as memorial societies rather than training camps.

So, yes, saints are important, because they give us flesh-and-blood pictures of who God is and what God wants us to do.

Who was Martin Luther King Jr.? He was born in 1929 in Atlanta. If he were still living, last Wednesday would have been his 74th birthday. Not many people know that his recorded name at birth Michael Luther King. It was a record-keeping error that wouldn’t be corrected until he was 28 and applying for a passport. He graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, among the more prestigious historically-black schools. After that he entered Crozer Theological Seminary, then located in Pennsylvania; and then on to Boston University where he earned a doctorate in theology. In 1954, at the age of 26—eight months before his doctorate was conferred—he was installed as pastor of the Dexter Ave. Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, accompanied by his new wife, Coretta, who had planned a career as an opera singer. His pulpit stood directly across the square from the state capitol, the very place from which, in 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated president of the Confederate States of America and from which the Confederate flag and its white supremacist message were first unfurled.

On Dec. 5, 1955, barely more than a year after Martin and Coretta took up residence in Montgomery, and only two weeks after the birth of their first child, a department store seamstress by the name of Rosa Parks engaged in a spontaneous bit of civil disobedience that would radically alter the King family life, the life of the South, of the nation, even the whole world. In the months and years to come, Martin King would have his home bombed, would repeatedly experience the humiliation and intimidation of being jailed, would be stabbed, stoned, shouted down and, finally, shot down. It all ended, on April 4, 1968, on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a man with a mission from God. He had a dream, he told us—a vision that began with the simple demand that black folk have equal access to city bus seats. Such a modest demand! Such a minimal goal!! But that initial strategic goal soon expanded to equal accommodation at lunch counters, on interstate buses, in the voting booth and equal opportunity in the larger economic life of the nation. And, at least for King himself, opposition to the war in Vietnam.

Most in our nation and in the world remember Dr. King as a proponent of civil rights, as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, as a social reformer and an unlikely political force. But we should never forget that he was, first and foremost, a preacher, a Baptist preacher at that, and that his dream was rooted not so much in the American dream (although he made those connections) but a Gospel dream, in the God-driven and Spirit-fired vision of Scripture.

We miss the significance of the civil rights movement if we attribute everything to Dr. King. In fact, if one studies the record carefully, it is amazing to note that most of the major civil rights movement campaigns were actually initiated by others. And King was initially resistant to many of the projects in which he became involved and which he came to symbolize.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott is a good case in point. it was Rosa Parks, a seamstress, who ignited that episode. It was E.D. Nixon, a railroad porter in Montgomery, who accomplished much of the initial strategy to make Rosa Parks’ case a legal test. When the prominent black preachers of the city gathered to discuss what to do, at first they didn’t want to do anything. It was Nixon (an “ordinary” layperson) who effectively shamed them into having the courage to go public with the plan.

It was Jo Ann Robinson, a professor at the local black college and president of the Montgomery Black Women’s Council, who first suggested the idea of a bus boycott. She and her colleagues literally stayed up all night mimeographing leaflets to inform the African American community of boycott plans.

King was chosen as the first president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the boycott organization’s name, not because of his seniority or political standing. In fact, he was the new kid on the block, a peon in the preacher fraternity’s pecking order, only 26 years ago. He became the default candidate precisely because he was still unaligned in among that legendary fractious and turf-minded group of pastors.

At the time, King himself was hardly a mature proponent of nonviolence. Sure, he had studied Gandhi. But also Reinhold Niebuhr, the most effective spokesperson for justifying violence in the name of justice. Not long after the boycott got underway and violence by whites came unleashed, an out-of-town guest at King’s home nearly sat down on a pistol lying in the chair. King was scared, just like you and I would have been.

A lot of things succeeded in the civil rights movement that shouldn’t have. King’s predecessor at Dexter Ave. Baptist Church had previously attempted a bus boycott but failed. An earlier bus boycott in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, lasted only a couple weeks before it fell apart. The famous lunch counter sit-in movement, which took off after student efforts in Greenville, N.C., was spontaneous and undertaken without the blessing or even advance knowledge of any national civil rights organization and lacked any ongoing strategy. In fact, it had been attempted earlier in Oklahoma City without success. the notorious “Freedom riders” were first commissioned in 1942 by the Congress on Racial Equality based in Chicago. But it didn’t spark a movement.

King’s well-known “Letter from a Birmingham City Jail” was first drafted by hand in the margins of newspapers smuggled into his prison cell. It would be more than a month before any major publication would consider it worthy of printing.

The historic 1963 March on Washington was the brainchild of A. Philip Randolph, head of the powerful Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Union. After the march, only one major newspaper even mentioned King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Only a handful of King’s major engagements were planned in advance. In most, he simply found himself to be the right person at the right time in the right place. Even his final engagement, supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, was felt by his colleagues to be a drain on precious time needed for the Poor People’s Campaign preparation. He went anyway. And his mounting concern about the war in Vietnam, which led to his outspoken opposition in a now-famous sermon precisely one year before his assassination, was bitterly criticized by most other civil rights leaders, including many in his own organization.

Saying all this is not to undermine King importance to the movement, but to set it in perspective. There were countless others who played crucial roles at timely moments. We know some of their names. Most, though, would be unfamiliar to us.

Diane Nash, leader of the very effective movement of students in Nashville at the time and herself among the unheralded leaders of the larger movement, says it well in her memoir:

“If people think that it was Martin Luther King’s movement, then today they—young people—are more likely to say, ‘gosh, I wish we had a Martin Luther King here today to lead us.’ If people knew how that movement started, then the question they would ask themselves is, ‘What can I do?’”

As much as anyone, Dr. King’s life is a testimony to the way in which spiritual formation and prophetic action are linked. We tend to segregate personal transformation from public transformation, piety from politics. But to effectively engage the political and economic forces of oppression—what King referred to as the triple threats of racism, materialism and militarism—requires very personal spiritual transformation. As Gandhi himself once wrote out of his struggle to free India from British imperial control: I constantly have to struggle on three fronts at the same time: with the British, with members of my own movement, and with myself.

King himself went through one very dramatic and very personal transforming experience. Several weeks into the Montgomery boycott, exhausted from attempting to be a pastor, a husband and father of a young child, and director of the local movement; and after a relentless stream of harassing and obscene phone calls, King finally got what he considered a genuine death threat.

“Just as I was about to doze off, the telephone rang. An angry voice said, ‘Listen, nigger, we’ve taken all we want from you; before next week you’ll be sorry you ever came to Montgomery.’” He got out of bed and went to the kitchen to make some coffee. As he sat at the table he began thinking of how he could get out of this involvement without appearing to be a coward. In other words, how could he gracefully back out?

“In this state of exhaustion, when my courage had all but gone, I decided to take my problem to God. With my head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. The words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory. ‘I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it along.’

“At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: ‘Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever.’ Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.’”

Dr. King’s dream, echoing the dream of which Jesus spoke when he talked about the coming Reign of God, is still a dangerous dream. But they’ve both been domesticated in our day. Dr. King is honored in our nation with an official holiday. Military bands now march down Auburn Ave. in Atlanta as part of the King holiday parade, and military jets fly over the marchers. Movements have a way of becoming museums. The dream which once threatened the privilege of the powerful has itself been co-opted, marketed for seasonal consumption and packaged for profit. Did you know that the world’s largest media conglomerate, AOL-Time Warner, now owns the copyright to all of King’s writings?

Which is why we need to underscore the fact that admiring Dr. King’s dream is not the same as being captured by it. The dream tarries; it contains unfinished business. We have inherited an ongoing struggle.

In other words, it is quite possible—likely, in fact—that it is possible to respect the man and relinquish the mission. It’s still possible to revere the day and renege on the dream. We forget, for instance, that in his sermon opposing the Vietnam war King went so far as to say that “America is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.”

He also said: “The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.  One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but means by which we arrive at that goal.  We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.”

And he said: "In the days ahead we must not consider it unpatriotic to  raise certain basic questions about our national character.   We must begin to ask, 'Why are there [tens of] millions of poor  people in a nation overflowing with such unbelievable  affluence? Why has our nation placed itself in the  position of being God's military agent on earth…? Why have  we substituted the arrogant undertaking of policing the whole  world for the high task of putting our own house in order?'"

These and similar thoughts are especially relevant today as our nation’s leaders press for war in Iraq and elsewhere. Also: I can assure you that most of the officially-sponsored King birthday celebrations in our nation will edit these parts of his testimony.

If the vision is slow, if it tarries, wait for it, it will surely come. Let me close with one final comment from King about the implications of dreaming God’s dream:

“ I know you are asking today, “how long will it take” I come to say to you however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth pressed to earth will rise again.

How long? NOT LONG, because no lie can live forever.

How long? NOT LONG, because you still reap what you sow.

How long? NOT LONG, because the arm of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

How long? NOT LONG, ‘cause my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

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©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org
19 January 2003, Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville NC