Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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A Piggy Pudding
A Piggy Pudding Story Lectionary 21 August 2016 The Waters Drown the Pursuing Egyptians (Exodus 14 and 15) Guidelines for Clean and Unclean Foods (Leviticus 11) Saul is Tormented by an Evil Spirit (1 Samuel 16-18) Elijah Confronts Ahab and the Prophets of Baal are Slaughtered at the Brook Kishon…
The Amsler Grid
The Amsler Grid Lectionary 21 August 2016 14th Sunday After Pentecost Jeremiah 1:4-10 Psalm 71:1-6 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17 Text to Life Every year over one thousand new words are added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Over two thousand existing words are amended or expanded because of new usage. The…
In the Key of Jesus
Sharps and flats are the tiny symbols that musicians refer to as the key signature. The key signature is a critical component of the music’s framework, setting the tonality and the mood of the work, as well as providing an overall harmonic and melodic structure. When multiple instruments play together, they need this framework: the key signature acts as a shorthand, helping musicians create and/or improvise in a harmonious way. The key signature is a visual image that creates an aural soundscape. read more…
Preach Contextually –Preaching Tip for 21 August 2016
Preach Contextually! If your congregation is not made up of stock brokers and lawyers, don’t speak in business or legal language. Jesus was gifted at making sure he spoke in ways that his people would understand. When he spoke to farmers, he used farming language. When he spoke to fishermen,…
Pastor’s Prayer for 21 August 2016
Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.
May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us. May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors.
And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need.
So that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.
–King Solomon’s Prayer of Blessing
1 Kings 8:56–61
Gringos
Gringos
by Charles Portis
Charles Portis, born in Arkansas in 1933, is a remarkable and distinctive writer. You may know him as the author of the bestseller True Grit, which has been made into a movie twice – first in 1969 and again in 2010. Portis has written several other novels: Norwood, The Dog of the South, Masters of Atlantis and Gringos.
Portis was a journalist for several years prior to his career as a novelist, and the descriptive detail of Portis’ first person narratives show evidence of that. But Portis’ deadpan humor is part-and-parcel of his writing style, too, and what at first sight might be taken as a simple transcription of journalistic facts is often shot through with witty, wry humor: “He was a retired bowler and sports poet, and he maintained that bowling was held in even lower esteem than poetry, though it was a close call.” read more…
Your Biological and Social DNA
Reciprocity begins at age 3
While many attend church hoping to escape from politics, it often follows them there. read more…
Exodus 14
One sermon for 14 August 2016 is “Keep on Walking,” an ancient Jewish reframing of the story of the Red Sea Crossing that is very different from the Hollywood version of the story. I did not have time in the sermon (it came with one additional reflection on the text)…
Holiness
“There is no single definition of holiness: there are dozens, hundreds. But there is one I am particularly fond of: being holy means getting up immediately every time you fall, with humility, and joy. It doesn’t mean never falling into sin. It means being able to say, ‘Yes, Lord,…
Grounds for Blessing
Grounds for Blessing Story Lectionary 14 August 2016 The Purpose of the Seed (Genesis 1) The Story of Cain’s Offering (Bad Ground/A Jealous Heart, Genesis 4) Psalm 1: The Righteous is a Fruit-Bearing Tree by the Water Psalm 37: The Evil Like Plants Will Die Away Psalm 67: A Joyous…