Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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Follow the Star
This series of song-a-week postings will conclude with Epiphany. And of course, the only music for this week is We Three Kings. Written in 1857, We Three Kings was one of the first home-grown, American Christmas hymns to find wide popularity. Its author and composer, John Henry Hopkins, Jr., was the head of music at the Episcopal Seminary in New York City. He composed the hymn for a Christmas pageant at the seminary, but for a number of years it was sung only in family gatherings, before its inclusion in a published collection in 1862. This carol is still popular during nativity plays, as it is one of the very few settings of this part of the story!
Star of wonder … still proceeding. Do we still follow?
Incense … prayer and praising. Is our worship never ceasing?
King and God and sacrifice. Is our desire to behold Him!
During these weeks of Epiphany may we pursue, and be guided to, the perfect Light. read more…
Mid Christmas
We now find ourselves in the midst of Christmas, which, like other important celebrations of the liturgical year, is a season, not a single feast day. There is movement and direction leading us through the story, providing time and space for the marvels and mystery to unfold. Culture is unable to sustain its attention once the gifts are opened and the turkey eaten. But our story calls us to pay attention to the details, to take time to read both Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts of the Christmas wonders. The first chapter of John inspires us to keep the eternal perspective always in view. The liturgy creates space to keep singing the hymns that connect these dots, the poetry that links temporal with eternal, the carols that otherwise would be abandoned with the Christmas wrapping paper. read more…
Treasure Hunt
Treasure Hunt Lectionary 8 January 2017 Epiphany / Baptism of Our Lord Epiphany Isaiah 60:1-6 Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12 Baptism of Our Lord Isaiah 42:1-9 Psalm 29 Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 3:13-17 Text to Life As of today, it is now officially too late to give a “Christmas”…
The Order of the Magi
The Order of the Magi Story Lectionary 8 January 2017 The Visit of the Magi The Priest of the God Most High Melchizedek (Genesis 14) Joseph is Given Asenath Daughter of Potiphera the Egyptian Priest of On to be His Wife (Genesis 41:41-52) and They Bear Ephraim and Manasseh Moses…
Give Your Sermon a Sense of Smell
Frankincense and Myrrh are available in anointing oil or incense form and can be bought easily over the internet or in religious shops. This Epiphany, try adding a sense of smell/scent to your sermon or worship time with the sweet smells of frankincense and myrrh. You may also want to…
Pastor’s Prayer — 8 January 2016 (Epiphany)
O my God teach my heart where and how to seek you,
where and how to find you…
You are my God and you are my All and I have never seen you.
You have made me and remade me,
You have bestowed on me all the good things I possess,
Still I do not know you…
I have not yet done that for which I was made….
Teach me to seek you…
I cannot seek you unless you teach me
or find you unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire, let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you, let me love you when I find you.
–Anselm of Canterbury
The Bad Habits of Jesus
The Bad Habits of Jesus:
Showing Us the Way to Live Right in a World Gone Wrong
by Leonard Sweet
–Review by Teri Hyrkas
Happy New Year! Have you made any New Year’s resolutions yet? If not, maybe this is the year to think about initiating some “bad habits.” The Bad Habits of Jesus (Tyndale, 2016) by Leonard Sweet is a fascinating commentary on this very edgy aspect of Jesus’ ministry style. Sweet’s cliché-crushing book is captivating and provocative: while it extols Jesus’ reputation as a remarkable teacher, it also addresses many questions about Jesus’ radical approach to life. Sweet, with his sagacious wordsmithing skills, has given readers a world-tilting look at the way in which Jesus, through his unorthodox bad habits, refracted, refashioned, and redirected the Jewish lifestyle of his day.
Written in short, fast-paced chapters, Sweet has chosen to present fifteen of Jesus’ surprising behaviors — activities that would probably raise eyebrows in polite society even now. Jesus frequently did and said things in his ministry that pushed past well-established societal and religious boundaries. As Sweet reviews these controversial events he brushes back familiar notions about the accounts as though they were cobwebs and presents to the reader fresh and culturally perceptive impressions of the incidents. read more…
2016 in Science and Technology
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom!”
― Isaac Asimov
Canada declares ‘high-speed’ internet essential for quality of life
Summary: Broadband internet access has become a necessity in the 21st century yet is it essential for one’s quality of life?
Read more at http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/22/14052368/canada-broadband-internet-essential-service
Digitally mined from www.theverge.com
The 11 best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2016
Summary: Many of our cultural and social advances along with numerous technological achievements were first theorized in great works of science fiction. Here is a list of books to help the burgeoning futurist glimpse what may occur over the coming years.
read more…
Receive the Day
Receive the Day Lectionary 31 December 2016 / 1 January 2017 Watch Night / New Year’s Day / The First Sunday After Christmas Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 Psalm 8 Revelation 21:1-6e Matthew 25:31-46 —- Isaiah 63:7-9 Psalm 148 Hebrews 2:10-18 Matthew 2:13-23 Text to Life It is hard to think “New Year’s”…
Joy to the World
We have waited. We have been silent. We have anticipated. We have remembered.
The day is here. The baby—the promised one—has come!
However, lest we begin to imagine that this longed-for arrival was the result of our waiting, or our silence, Isaac Watts’ lyrics challenge us to find our appropriate place in the story.
Receive! Make room! Sing! Share the joy! Do good! Rejoice! Wonder! Love! read more…