Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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Pastor’s Prayer for 30 October 2016 –All Saints Day
ALMIGHTIE God, whiche haste knitte together thy electe in one Communion and felowship, in the misticall body of thy sonne Christe our Lord; graunt us grace so to folow thy holy Saynctes in all virtues, and godly livyng, that we maye come to those inspeakeable joyes, whiche thou hast prepared for all them that unfaynedly love thee; through Jesus Christe.
–Thomas Cranmer (the 1549 Prayer Book)
A Cornucopia of Information
“In 1976, there were 9,000 products in the average grocery store, and now it’s ballooned to 40,000 products. And yet most of us can get almost all our shopping done in just 150 items, so you’re having to ignore tens of thousands of times every time you go shopping.”
What Too Much Information is Doing to Us
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Willful Blindness
Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril
By Margaret Heffernan
Review by Douglas Balzer
Willful Blindness engages the complexity of one of the most pervasive issues we face as human beings: not recognizing what is right in front of us and visible. There are things we do not see, because we choose not to, because, in the words of Margaret Heffernan, “we are willfully blind.”
If you are not familiar with Margaret Heffernan, she is a Texan born, Cambridge-educated, raised in the Netherlands, entrepreneur. She has championed allowing employees to have an active role and voice within companies. Her background in business is impressive.
A reading of the title itself caused my curiosity to swirl. How do we intentionally diminish the ability to comprehend what we are seeing? In narrative style, Margaret weaves a tapestry that combines social anthropology and real life examples of human behavior with perilous results. She examines the common dilemma we all face: the act of being willfully blind, denying truths that are “too painful, too frightening to confront.” read more…
Was Marx Right?
Was Marx Right? Lectionary 23 October 2016 23rd Sunday After Pentecost Joel 2:23-32 Psalm 65 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Luke 18:9-14 Text to Life No one wants to be “misquoted,” but it happens all the time. Everyone knows the architect of ruthless political success, Machiavelli, famously proclaimed, “The ends justify…
Mending Fences
Mending Fences Story Lectionary 23 October 2016 The Making of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32) David Takes What is Not His and is Confronted by Nathan on God’s Behalf (2 Samuel 12) Gehazi’s Greed (2 Kings 5) King Hezekiah’s Offer of Monetary Retribution to the King of Assyria (2 Kings…
Join the Choir
If you have been reading Sound Theology for a while, you may recall a post where I encouraged you to join a choir. Well, this fall I took my own advice, and joined the Concert Choir at the College where I work. One of the songs we are learning has a line that has been stuck in my head: “But music and singing will be my refuge. Music and singing will be my light …”
Yes! This has certainly been my experience. Music is a creative outlet, a source of joy, and a place of refreshment. I also know stories of others whose musical experiences have literally saved their lives. read more…
A Holey Sermon is a Wholly Holy Sermon –Preaching Tip for 23 October 2016
One thing a preacher knows how to do –talk! And most of the time, we probably talk way too much. We need to learn to leave some “holes.” Holes for thought, pauses for emphasis, waits on answers so that the sermon can be participatory, and most of all, fermatas that…
Pastor’s Prayer for 23 October 2016
Dear Lord,
Help me to expect miracles.
Help me to get past the borders of my eyes,
the roadblocks of my mind,
the narrow door of my heart.
May my soul embrace the mystery of Your magnificent love!
May my heart rejoice over the unexpected and undefined!
May my mind and body sigh with the sheer awe of it all.
Amen.
Perfect Square
Perfect Square
by Michael Hall
Review by Ashley Linne
My schedule is pretty crazy. I bet yours is, too. I’m a doctor of ministry student and also a mom of a preschooler, so there are days I spend hours upon hours in books. If that’s a result of a busy schedule, I’m certainly not complaining!
Recently as I was reading to my son at one of his classes, we ran across Perfect Square on the library shelf. We read through it and it seemed to deeply resonate with us both. Isn’t it wonderful how children’s books can capture the hearts of adults?
Perfect Square is a short picture book that chronicles a week in the life of a colorful, perfect square. The square is perfectly happy. But then a series of seeming tragedies happen—on Monday the square is torn into pieces and has holes poked in it; another day it’s cut into ribbons. But each day the square uses the pieces to transform itself into something beautiful—a park, a mountain, a bridge. The end of the story finds the square on Sunday when, surprisingly, nothing happens to it. Instead, it finds its corners and edges confining, so it turns itself into a window. Through this window the square looks out over the beautiful things it had become. read more…
News!
The Distracted Mind
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/distracted-mind read more…