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Signs of the Times  •  9 April 2016  •  No. 67

Abbreviated issue

This edition of “Signs of the Times” is abbreviated to clear space for hiking in Utah, with some of our kiddos, pictured at right, in Dead Horse Point Park: Rich, Jonathan, Jessica, Sydney and (behind) Nancy and Ken.

¶ Processional. Grammy winner Rhiannon Giddens and friends sing at a College Park Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC, rally against HB2, a draconian piece of North Carolina legislation aimed primarily at gay and transgendered persons but also threatens, in the guise of “religious liberty,” discrimination against others (including, of all things, the rights of NC cities to establish minimum wage laws). (3:17. Thanks Jane)

¶ Call to worship. “Psalm 23,” Bobby McFerrin, The 23rd Psalm (a stunning rendition, with feminine pronouns).

¶ Invocation. “Oh may Your Favor be restored, to creatures great and small. / Restore to us the confidence of bountiful enthrall. / And haste the day when righteousness and peace embrace, caress. / When Rizpah’s vigil, bold and brave, heals all the earth’s distress.” —continuing reading Ken Sehested's new lyrics to “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need"

¶ Extraordinary news (that won’t likely make your news feeds). Next week, 11-13 April, the Vatican is hosting the first-ever conference on “Nonviolence and Just Peace: Contributing to the Catholic Understanding of and Commitment to Nonviolence,” co-sponsored by the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace and Pax Christi International. Read more.

¶ When Easter’s shout is choked by the hangman’s noose. In 1945, the Western church celebrated Easter on 1 April. Eight days later, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a leader in the “Confessing Church” movement opposing Hitler’s reign of terror, was hanged. (Right: Bonhoeffer portrait by David Levine.)

¶ “We must acknowledge the essential defect in the just war tradition, which is the assumption that violence can somehow achieve justice. And we must with equal courage acknowledge the essential defect in pacifism, which is the assumption that justice can somehow be achieved simply by opposing violence.” —Ivan J. Kauffman, “If War is Wrong, What is Right? The New Paradigm,” in Just Policing, Not War: An Alternative response to world violence

¶ Hymn of praise. “Hallelujah,” Leonard Cohen, performed here by Rob Landes (multiple violin parts) and Aubrey Pitcher (piano).

¶ Confession. To live a “forgiven” life is not simply to live in a happy consciousness of having been absolved. Forgiveness is precisely the deep and abiding sense of what relation—with God or with other human beings—can and should be; and so it is itself a stimulus, an irritant, necessarily provoking protest at impoverished versions of social and personal relations. —Rowan Williams, former Anglican Archbishop of Cantebury

¶ Words of assurance. Post-Easter poem on hope—Wendell Berry reads his poem. (5:30. Thanks Dennis.)

¶ A Cuban pastor responds to President Obama's visit. Shortly after President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba, Rev. Eduardo Gonzalez, pastor of Iglesia Enmanuel in Ciego de Avila, Cuba, wrote a letter to his congregation’s “partner,” Northminster Church in Monroe, Louisiana, and copied others here in the US who have visited. Here is the text, along with a brief response of my own. (Read Eduardo’s letter.)

¶ Musicians have long known this intuitively; but having neuroscientists document it, and NPR report, makes it legit. “When Choirs Sing, Many Hearts Beat.” —Anna Haensch

¶ This is stunning. Sand art by Sandy Tales (4:58), this one depicting Good Friday and Easter. (She has a series of such.) (Thanks Sharon)

¶ The recent terror attack in Lahore, Pakistan, almost certainly was aimed at the city’s Christian population, many of whom were celebrating Easter in a city park at the time of the explosion. If you are curious about Pakistan’s Christian population, the BBC has produced a concise profile: “Who Are Pakistan’s Christians?” (Thanks Dennis)

¶ Preach it. “The resurrection isn’t an argument. It’s the Christian word for defiance. . . . It is who we are—our word for how we go on in the face of overwhelming odds.” —Giles Fraser, The Guardian

¶ Call to the table. “We cannot say that in the process of revolution someone liberates someone else, nor yet that someone liberates him or herself, but rather that people in communion liberate each other.” —Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

¶ Altar call. “[The Eucharist] only makes sense as the beginning of the gathering of semi-penitent former participants in the violence of the world, who, on a day-to-day basis, are learning to live in a way which does not require sacrifice.” —James Alison, Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay

Left. Art ©Julie Lonneman

¶ Benediction. “Hallelujah,” with lyrics drawn from Psalm 23, by Ken Sehested, performed by Ken Medema.

¶ Recessional. “Sing Me Back Home,” Merle Haggard, R.I.P. (Thanks Tim)

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “The One on the Throne will pitch his tent there for them: no more hunger, no more thirst, no more scorching heat. The Lamb on the Throne will shepherd them, will lead them to spring waters of Life. And God will wipe every last tear from their eyes." —Revelation 7:15b-17

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks:

• New lyrics to “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need”

• A new batch of annotated book reviews in “What are you reading and why”

• A Cuban pastor’s response to President Obama’s visit.

• New lyrics to the Leonard Cohen song, “Hallelujah,” drawn from Psalm 23.  9 (Listen to the Ken Medema's performance.)

©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.

 

Signs of the Times  •  1 April 2016  •  No. 66

Abbreviated issue

This edition of “Signs of the Times,” (and next week’s) is abbreviated to clear space for hiking in Arches National Park in Utah. (You’ll be jealous when you view these National Geographic’s photos of the park.)

Above. Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah. Photograph by Thomas Piekunka.

¶ Processional. Riverdance longest line world record (3:01).

¶ Invocation. “Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice, / arrayed with the lighting of his glory, / let this holy building shake with joy, / filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.” —Exsultet, “a dramatic invitation to heaven and earth to join with the Church in joy and jubilation.”  (click the “show more” button to see lyrics) 

¶ Call to worship. “We are kindred all of us, killer and victim, predator and prey, me and the sly coyote, the soaring buzzard, the elegant gopher snake, the trembling cottontail, the foul worms that feed on our entrails, all of them, all of us. Long live diversity, long live the earth.” —Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire, a classic in earth-anchored spirituality, written in the mid-‘60s while he was a park ranger at Arches National Park

¶ I love it when geriatrics draw a crowd. In case you haven’t already seen this video of The Stones roll into Cuba. (1:13. Thanks Dan) Crowd estimates range from several hundred thousand to over a million.

¶ Put chocolate back in Easter!!! “Chocolate manufacturers in the U.K. have removed the word ‘Easter’ from the holiday egg candy that has delighted millions of children for generations. But a demand that manufacturers put Easter back on the packaging of chocolate eggs has become the latest culture war issue on the eve of Christianity’s most important holiday.” —Trevor Grundy, Religion News Service

¶ This is pretty amazing. A restaurant owner in Noble, Oklahoma, was so dismayed over state budget cuts for human services that he took to Facebook to alert fellow citizens and then offered free meals over the next three months to those directed affected. —Dallas Franklin, KFOR News Channel (Thanks Roger)

¶ Visualization of how small efforts can lead to big changes: Domino chain reaction. (2:33 seconds)

¶ Hymn of praise, as gardens are prepped for spring. “Garden Song” (“Inch by Inch”), Pete Seeger.

¶ We all have have multiple images, stories, experiences, and memories through which we “read” Easter’s import. The church’s triumphal clamor has often been that Jesus emerged from entombment kicking butt and taking names. I think it’s more like cellist Vedran Smailović’s decision to play in Sarejevo’s streets during the city’s long siege (5 April 1992-29 February 1996) by Bosnian Serbs. Nearly 14,000 were killed.

Right. Vedran Smailović, cellist of Sarejevo.

        •Listen to this recording of his performance of the “Albinoini Adagio” as a protest against the war and a prayer for peace.

        •Read Dan Buttry’s profile of Smailović at ReadTheSpirit.

¶ Confession. “Donald Trump is a reflection of the ugliness within us, but only that. The ugliness itself is ours and we are long overdue to face it.” —Leonard Pitts, “Defeating Trump won’t erase the forces that made him possible”

¶ Recommended longer read. A debate over the relative value of protesting Donald Trump events has been underway in certain circles. If this is a topic of interest, I highly recommend George Lakey’s “What Trump protesters can learn from the civil rights movement.” —Waging Nonviolence

¶ Words of assurance. For what can we hope? “Only this: confidence that / the dust is not that of / abandonment, but / of adama, of earth, earth / from which all adam receive / breath, and shall again, on / that rapturous occasion when / creation comes / unbound.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Psalm 30 interrogation: For Madeleine, too soon departed”

¶ “Stretching back to the Book of Exodus . . . the first two women in recorded history moved from dialogue to action, when Miriam, sister of Moses, reached out to the daughter of Pharaoh. In a joint effort to defy the royal decree and kill the baby boys of the Hebrew slaves, these two women, both princesses, saved Moses, who grew up to become the liberator of the House of Israel. . . .
            “When Pharaoh’s daughter goes to bathe in the Nile, she hears the cries of the infant and is filled with compassion and seizes the moment to act. Some verses later, when Moses is already grown, and God reveals God’s self to Moses, God uses the same words; I heard the cries of my people, and indeed it was to time act. So what we have here is not Imitatio Dei. . . . [H]ere we have a story, where God imitates us, a woman no less, and an Egyptian daughter of the tyrant. This to me is the essence of dialogue, to be able to hear the cry of the other, to literally reach out and act, intervene. . . . And in the process . . . change the course of history!” —Rabbi Naamah Kelman, “The holy work of dialogue,” Changing the Present, Dreaming the Future: A Critical Movement in Interreligious Dialogue

Right: Photo by Malcolm Marler.

¶ Preach it. “We are Muslims, Hindus, Copts, Evangelicals and Catholics, but we are all children of the same God who want to live in peace.” Pope Francis, speaking to hundreds of asylum seekers on 24 March to draw the world's attention to the dramatic plight of refugees and migrants in Europe and elsewhere. —Gerald O’Connell, America

¶ Watch Pope Francis (4:00) washing the feet of refugees on Maundy Thursday. (Thanks Deborah)

¶ Call to the table. “We created a version of Christianity where Jesus saves but he doesn’t teach.” —Alan Bean, “Do not despise the day of small things,” Friends of Justice

¶ Altar call. “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

Left: Photo by American Friends Service Committee

¶ Benediction. “May Easter’s affection / spawn many children / who know / despite the trouble / the toil / the rubble strewn soil / the way of the cross leads home.” —"Easter's affection," a post-Easter poem by Ken Sehested

¶ Recessional. “Easter Song,” Keith Green, Post resurrection-blues turned to joy.

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Discard your reluctance, you saints and you sinners: / Shout vowels of praise, sing consonants of delight. / On you, Dear Beloved, have I cast my care and / entrusted my fare. Let none rejoice over my sorrow; / let none reprise my grief.” —“Weeping may linger,” a litany inspired by Psalm 30

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks:

• “Weeping may linger,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 30

• “Psalm 30 interrogation: For Madeleine, too soon departed,” a poem

• “Easter’s aftermath,” a poem

Right. Artwork ©Julie Lonneman.

©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.

 

Signs of the Times  •  21 March 2016  •  No. 65

Special "Good Friday" edition

¶ Recommended music for Good Friday. Henryk Górecki’s Third Symphony, Opus 36 (“Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”), second movement (“Lento e Largo,” 9:10).
        “No, Mother, do not weep, / Most chaste Queen of Heaven / Support me always.”
        This is the opening line to the Polish prayer to the Virgin Mary. The prayer was inscribed on wall 3 of cell no. 3 in the basement of the "Palace," the Nazi German Gestapo's headquarters in Zadopane, Poland. Beneath is the signature of Helena Wanda Blazusiakówna, and the words "18 years old, imprisoned since 26 September 1944."
        You can listen to the entire symphony here. (56:13)

 

Let the women talk! Let the women act!
Commemorating Women’s History Month

Below is the text of a peace petition issued 19 October 2000 from Jerusalem Link,
a partnership between Israeli women represented by Bat Shalom (Daughter of Peace)
and Palestinian women who were involved in the
Markaz al-Quds la l-Nissah (Jerusalem Center for Women – JCW).

We know that two peoples can live in this land. We know that our children deserve a life of dignity and peace. We do not want our children to be killed, nor do we want them to be killers. We must stop this madness. We must stop the use of brute force.

Let the women talk. Let the women act.

Let Palestinian and Israeli women lead the way. It was Israeli women who changed public opinion about the terrible and pointless war in Lebanon. It was Palestinian women who were courageous enough to engage in joint peace initiatives with Israelis. We the women can find an end to this cycle of violence as well.

Let the women talk. Let the women act.

The men tell us not to be scared. They all tell us to be strong. We are scared, and we want them to be scared too. We do not want to be "strong". We don't want them to think that they are strong enough to make the other nation disappear or go down in defeat and disgrace. We want each and every person to have the right to live in peace and dignity.

Let the women talk. Let the women act.

We want to share the resources of this land, its water, its vines, and its holy places. Jerusalem can be shared; this whole area can be shared between two independent and equal nations. Israel should not rule the lives of Palestinians. Neither Palestine nor Israel should believe that peace can be won through violence and force.

Let the women talk. Let the women act.

There are too many men with too many egos involved in burning this piece of land.

Let the women talk. Let the women act.

Bring the women in. The men have not done a good job here. They talk of a security based in might. We know that security means being good neighbors. Without forgetting the wrongs of the past, nor the unequal distribution of power, we will focus on how to live here in peace. We do not want the next generation of children to wear uniforms, to go to war. We want them to know self-determination and dignity, without the need to fight for them.

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¶ Formed in 1993, Jerusalem Link was one of the most famous and internationally acclaimed women’s programs. Unfortunately, this collaboration failed.

“In spite of attempting to overcome oppressive ethno-national discourses affecting individual and collective identities,” this and other similar organizations “have not been able to dismantle the source of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, namely the power asymmetry between the ‘occupier’ and the ‘occupied.'" —“Jerusalem Link: Feminism between Palestine and Israel," Giulia Daniele

¶ Such failures, too, are part of our story. There will be many more before the dawn of the Beloved Community. Despite the brutal disappointments, such defeats need not immobilize us. Though it will chasten, break our hearts, make us limp, in the end despair is a form of narcissism. To carry on we must ripen, and find a way to get over ourselves—come to sense, intuitively (that is to say, in prayer), that more is at work than we can see or measure or predict. —Ken Sehested

¶ Preach it. “It’s Friday But Sunday’s Coming,” a short clip (3:34) from Tony Campolo’s most famous sermon.

¶ Benediction. “Two thousand years ago Jesus is left there hanging / Purple sky slowly turning golden / Cowards at his feet loudly laughing / Loved ones stumbling homeward / their worlds reeling / Red Tail above my head quietly soaring / Water turns from ice, creek is roaring / He says enough of all this shit, I am going."  —“Good Friday," Cowboy Junkies

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Featured this week at prayer&politiks:

• “Open Letter to My Daughter: Easter morning, with the stench of death still in the air,” a reflection on celebrating Easter when all is not well

• "Both enchantment and chore: A poem about vocation"