Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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A Parable
Here is a Mother’s Day story that is powerful but sad: “Many years ago I came across a little French parable that moved me deeply: a parable of unbreakable sacrificial love. A widowed mother had an only son whom she cherished. Her tireless loving care was repaid with ingratitude. Heartless…
GOOD! –Preaching tip for 8 May 2016
Be a GOOD Church! A good (GOOD) church is a “get out of doors” church! Does your sermon help people “go out” to proclaim the name of Jesus to the world? The end of your sermon needs to challenge people, nudge them, encourage them to be the message Jesus intended…
Pastor’s Prayer –8 May 2016
Commissioning Prayer
In the name of the divine Trinity,
Let us pray.
God, you have called us into being
through love.
You have joined us to one another
In love.
How good and pleasant it is
When your people dwell together in unity.
Shine your light upon your people
That we can see the glory of eternal life.
Grant ____ (name of commissioned) the strength
To carry your blessing from this place to their next.
May they be at home in any land,
For all their earth is yours.
And, with their hopes set on your coming glory in the world,
live also an alien in all lands.
May the lamp of your word
Guide his/her feet on the unsure paths of life.
Our lives are but a breath,
But our breaths are drawn from your divine Spirit.
You have created us as walking paradoxes.
Specs of dust and divine-image bearers.
We are constantly restless,
Until we rest in you.
Grant ____ (name of commissioned) a deeper fullness
Of being and spirit,
By carry our memory with him/her
in the coming journey.
May his/her face be fuller in glory and joy,
Now bearing new shape,
As our faces transform and supplement one another.
Go in the peace of Christ to love and serve the Lord,
All: Thanks be to God!
–The Book of Common Prayer
Zondervan (2010)
Easter –Again!
Although Easter in the Western tradition is coming to a close (two more weeks!), the Orthodox (Eastern) church celebrates Easter according to the Julian calendar, which means that this past weekend they encountered some of the most powerful music of their liturgical cycle. Some estimates project world-wide participants of Orthodox Christianity to number close to 300 million, with about 10% of those in North America.
This week’s musical selections are sung by a choir based in Portland, OR, called Cappella Romana. This group of professional singers is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and has final concerts in Portland on May 13/14, 2016, featuring the music of “new mystics” Michael Adamis and James MacMillan. Their programming combines eastern and western music “… express(ing) the historic traditions of a unified Christian inheritance.” A unified Christian inheritance – I love that expression. Our celebrations vary in date, musical style, and in cultural heritage, but we share a common story: a story of incarnation, passion, and resurrection. read more…
Will Jesus Make Me Happy?
Depression is a worldwide epidemic. It is the main driver behind suicide, which now claims more than a million lives per year. One in four Americans will suffer from clinical depression within their lifetimes, and the rate is increasing with every generation. But it is not a natural disease nor is it an inevitable part of being human. It is a disease (Dis-Ease) of civilization caused by a high-stress, industrialized, modern lifestyle that is incompatible with our past.
Technology has been so helpful in transmitting the Message. The goal is to make sure our so-called sanctified systems (of running church and staff) are not wearing people out or tapping their high tech low touch digitized versions of reality. We need the Spirit’s power and the (sun/Son) light that flows from the heart (light of the world) that illuminates the depths of the human heart, not the fluorescent-lit substitutes that divert our attention for seconds.
Design Like a Child
A leading architect built one of the best elementary schools in Japan by thinking like a child (the end user). Designing or redesigning a kid’s area. Watch them and build around their patterns. So much to learn here.
Good Without a God?
There is a growing conversation about whether a religion is needed in formation of value systems. We might remind those who think they are starting at the beginning: It is far different to have this discussion 2,000 years after Christian concepts infiltrated the world than in world culture pre-Christ. But this line of thought is surfacing more and a ready answer is needed for headlines like this one:
“More children are ‘growing up godless’ than at any other time in our nation’s history.”
Read this Before You Tell Another Story
This is your listener’s brain on your story. We are the first generation in history to see exactly what happens in a mind when we tell a story. Each time a person hears a word or sees an image, a neuron connection is made. Imagine the power at our disposal. We should really make every word count.
Use What You Already Have
There’s $6 Billion Being Wasted in America’s Spare Bedrooms. Cars sit unused 95% of the time. Many church spaces idle throughout the week when they could be used creatively for those looking for homes or offices. So many possibilities to reach out and open our doors and witness new communities of with-ness emerging.
How Much is a Human Life Worth?
What is the value of a human life? Depends who you ask. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget puts the value of a human life in the range of $7 million to $9 million.
Beer, Brats and Bible: Be-ology of Theology
When in Milwaukee, church can be defined as Bible and a brew as groups get together to talk faith over a pint. Where two or more looks different (or should) in every locale. How does your faith expression engage without becoming enmeshed in your spot.
Millennials Overtake Boomers. I’m Cool with That
Millennials overtake Baby Boomers as America’s largest generation. I love my millennial friends and, contrary to the boomer-driven narrative about all of them being lazy and entitled, I have found them to be practical, charity-oriented if not a bit bored. Who could blame them. One thing is for sure, they are the present, they are the future. This might be a good time to tackle that whole “generational thing.” Yes, people of a certain age have common cultural traits but each person is an individual. Scanning the research is not a bad thing but relationships with people in each group keep us dialed into the zeitgeist.
Why Are We Bored?
It’s no secret, “first-worlders” are bored. Our attention spans are now thought to be less than that of a goldfish – eight seconds. How do you speak of Heaven when your hearer fears the ennui of a rainy Monday? A friend of mine, a wealthy man, often speaks about how thankful he is life doesn’t continue on forever. “Can you imagine how boring that would be?” Eternal life has a now-ness to it. The New Testament is the Now Testament. For Christians, the concept of eternality is planted in the human heart and the moment of conversion crystallizes it into a relationship. I would be curious to know how you communicate eternal life, eternal now-ness, in our ennui moment.
The Faith of Christopher Hitchens
The Faith of Christopher Hitchens
The Restless Soul of the World’s Most Notorious Atheist
by Larry Alex Taunton
Larry Taunton has chosen an intriguing title for his book about the late, well known author, literary and religious critic and polemicist, Christopher Hitchens; in the title he has put the words “faith” and “notorious atheist” to describe aspects of Hitchens’ life. For most readers, linking those words, especially concerning Christopher Hitchens, produces an oxymoron, or a paradox, or an irresolvable contrast – yet they act as a good “reader-hook,” too. The title begs the question “What kind of faith is the author talking about?” Since curiosity is one driver of book sales, the title of Taunton’s publication will bring about plenty of book purchases — that’s certainly why I bought it. But is that all there is to this book – a hook and an expose’ of Christopher Hitchens, whose very name brings to mind insistent, unending atheistic prating? Happily, no. read more…
Bearers of the Seed
Bearers of the Seed Story Lectionary 1 May 2016 Jesus’ Commissioning of His Disciples The Story of Noah’s Mission and the Rebirth of the World (Genesis 9) The Story of Tamar’s Mission to Bear a Child of the Covenant (Genesis 38) The Birth and Saving of Moses (Exodus 2:1-10) The…
Go On Strike!
Go On Strike! Lectionary 1 May 2016 6th Sunday of Easter Acts 16:9-15 Psalm 67 Revelation 21:1-10, 22-22:5 John 14:23-29 Text to Life Every US election season it is important for Christians in the US to remember that the kingdom of God and the Church Universal are not same thing…
Act it out! –preaching tip for 1 May 2016
Help people embody your sermon by inviting them to act it out! Use a blindfold to lead them out. Or as our fellow contributor David McDonald did one Sunday to demonstrate Jesus’ burial, wrap them up! You can have them up and moving about the space or participating in what…
Hidden and Mysterious
The featured work this week was “lost,” (actually, unknown) for almost 230 years. Austrian composer and violinist Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber was born in 1644, and he revolutionized the playing of the violin. His most well-known work was not discovered until 1905! Biber literally ‘stretched’ the possibilities, both of the performers and the instruments, of his day. This composition requires scordatura tuning – the strings are crossed or stretched to provide a different tuning and allows the instrument to play unusual sounds.
Biber chose these unusual sounds to depict the story of Christ’s life. His “Mystery Sonatas” are sixteen movements, organized into three parts: three types of mysteries. read more…