By Ken Sehested I have a vivid memory of that exact moment. I was in seminary, having fled my native South to Yankeedom to finish college and start theological training, embarrassed at being a Baptist, at being a white Southerner,…
The work of praise
By Ken Sehested The Blessed One does not stand in need of our praise; nor sits impatiently, impudently, awaiting our genuflection; nor strides restively, demandingly, threateningly, toward our cowering pose. No, none of this. There is no protection to be…
We say no, again
By Ken Sehested On the first Sunday in Lent in 2007, when tensions between the United States and Iran were escalating, Circle of Mercy Congregation unanimously adopted a statement opposing an attack on Iran. With the recent assassination of another…
The 20-year war in Iraq
By Ken Sehested I don’t know what it was that penetrated my groggy reading of the Sunday morning paper, sitting at the kitchen table, the coffee maker’s final perks hacking like a smoker’s cough. Something, subliminally, coming from the radio…
A new angle on Advent
By Ken Sehested Reformation Sunday generally has a hard time competing with Halloween — except, maybe, for our Lutheran friends. Six years before Luther commenced his Ninety-Five Theses’ complaint with the Roman church, an earlier but lesser-known reform movement took…
Fasting a Lenten discipline to tame appetites
By Ken Sehested When we hear the word “fasting” — an historic Lenten emphasis — the initial image is associated with dieting. Fasting is a foreign and somewhat threatening notion, conjuring images of self-depreciation and ascetic mortification. In Scripture, fasting…
Giving good gifts
By Ken Sehested We have a problem. On the one hand, gift-giving is not only fun but is also a reflection of our most cherished convictions. Maybe the deepest current of Scripture is God’s gift-giving character, with the parallel notion…
On Valentine’s Day, prisoners and Haitian debt
By Ken Sehested As with many modern cultural traditions, Valentine’s Day draws from a jumble of historical memories. However, the observance’s namesake comes directly from Christian history. The Roman Catholic Church’s official list of saints actually has three entries for…