Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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Up in Arms: A Sermon for New Year by Jesse Caldwell
Isaiah 63: 7-9 President Calvin Coolidge was known as “Silent Cal”, because when he spoke he got to the point without flowery pontification. A famous anecdote tells of a dinner party during which the woman seated next to Coolidge said, “Mr. President, I have made a large bet that I…
The Birth of the Bridegroom / What’s In a Name
The Birth of the Bridegroom Story Lectionary 1 January 2017 Something New Has Begun: Jesus is Named and Presented It is Not Good for Adam to be Alone / Adam Names the Animals (Genesis 2:18-24) God Calls Himself El Shaddai and Names Jacob Israel (Genesis 35 and 32:22-32) Psalm 8:…
Share the Pulpit
As pastors, we often hate to share the pulpit. We know what we want to say, and we’ve practiced it, and rehearsed it. And now it’s time to “give the speech.” But sermons were never meant to be lectures. When Jesus spoke, it was “conversational” –a time of question and…
Pastor’s Prayer for 31 December 2016
Our Father and our God, as we stand at the beginning of this new year we confess our need of Your presence and Your guidance as we face the future.
We each have our hopes and expectations for the year that is ahead of us—but You alone know what it holds for us, and only You can give us the strength and the wisdom we will need to meet its challenges. So help us to humbly put our hands into Your hand, and to trust You and to seek Your will for our lives during this coming year.
In the midst of life’s uncertainties in the days ahead, assure us of the certainty of Your unchanging love.
In the midst of life’s inevitable disappointments and heartaches, help us to turn to You for the stability and comfort we will need.
In the midst of life’s temptations and the pull of our stubborn self-will, help us not to lose our way but to have the courage to do what is right in Your sight, regardless of the cost.
And in the midst of our daily preoccupations and pursuits, open our eyes to the sorrows and injustices of our hurting world, and help us to respond with compassion and sacrifice to those who are friendless and in need. May our constant prayer be that of the ancient Psalmist: “Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end” (Psalm 119:33).
We pray for our nation and its leaders during these difficult times, and for all those who are seeking to bring peace and justice to our dangerous and troubled world. We pray especially for Your protection on all those who serve in our armed forces, and we thank You for their commitment to defend our freedoms, even at the cost of their own lives. Be with their families also, and assure them of Your love and concern for them.
Bring our divided nation together, and give us a greater vision of what You would have us to be. Your Word reminds us that “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).
As we look back over this past year we thank You for Your goodness to us—far beyond what we have deserved. May we never presume on Your past goodness or forget all Your mercies to us, but may they instead lead us to repentance, and to a new commitment to make You the foundation and center of our lives this year.
And so, our Father, we thank You for the promise and hope of this new year, and we look forward to it with expectancy and faith. This I ask in the name of our Lord and Savior, who by His death and resurrection has given us hope both for this world and the world to come.
Amen
–Billy Graham
© 2008 Saturday Evening Post Society.
God in Public
God in Public– How the Bible Speaks Truth to Power Today
By Tom Wright
ISBN: 978-0-281-07423-5 paperback
Published 2016
Review by Douglas Balzer
God in Public: How the Bible Speaks Truth to Power Today by Tom (N.T.) Wright is a brilliant collection of lectures dealing with the issue of Christianity as a definitive influence holistically in the public environment of Western culture. If you have not heard of N.T. Wright before, he currently serves as a Research Professor and as the Chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary’s College at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, UK. He has been and is one of the leading voices moving working to advance Christianity within the Post-Christian and Post-Modern culture of the UK. He is the retired Bishop of Durham with the Anglican Church of England.
God in Public was recently released into the US market, 2016. It has been available in the UK market for about two years. The contents of this collection of lectures demonstrates the brilliance of Tom Wright as a semiotician and future thinker. If you are a student of Leonard Sweet, the style and content of Wright’s writing will resonate with you. read more…
Remembering Backwards and Forwards
“’It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,’ the White Queen remarked.”
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol
Google’s Year in Search
Summary: Would you like to know what people were searching for on the internet? What were the top searches of 2016? Well, google keeps track of it and lets you look at the results.
Read more at https://www.google.com/trends/yis/2016/GLOBAL
Digitally mined from: www.google.com
Watch Night Service in the Black Church in America
Summary: Does your church have a “watch night service” on New Year’s Eve? John Wesley created a service for Christians to reaffirm their vows to God and many do so each year on New Year’s Eve. For those in Black Churches in America, this tradition has an even deeper meaning.
read more…
Song of Joy
Song of Joy / Breaking News! Story Lectionary 25 December 2016 Christmas Day – The Birth of Jesus The Birth of Sons and the Favor of Abel (Genesis 4) Moses and the Pleasure of the Lord (Exodus 33) The Favor of the Lord Upon Hannah and Samuel (1 Samuel 2:18-26)…
O Come…
The deep and dark of longing presses in on these days of waiting. The ancient traditions spent this last week of Advent meditating on the “O Antiphons,” which are the names and images of the Christ, taken from the book of Isaiah. Each antiphon (the liturgical response, sung or said after the psalm), begins with the exclamation “O!” as if the worshippers’ longing can barely be contained. There are seven verses: O Sapientia, O Adonai, O Radix Jesse, O Clavis David, O Oriens, O Rex Gentium, and O Emmanuel.
For those who watch and wait, each day’s verse is full of depth and meaning, acknowledging the pain of our present reality, and anticipating the now-but-not-yet of comfort and joy. read more…
What Kind of Life?
Almost two centuries ago Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) , the New England novelist and short-story writer, wrote a haunting story “The Christmas Banquet” about a rich man who died and left a strange bequest. He left money to be set in trust. The income was to be used to pay for…
We Are an Extended Family
We Are an Extended Family Lectionary 24/25 December 2016 The Birth of Our Lord Isaiah 9:2-7 Psalm 96 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14 (15-20) Text to Life The story of Jesus commences at a stable, and culminates at a table. But the stable itself had a table called a manger, in…