Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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Divers Diseases
Two small-town brothers were walking home from Sunday-school and discussing the lesson where the teacher had talked about Jesus’ healing of “divers diseases” in Luke (4:40): “ all that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and…
Hanging On
A child had been cautioned never to touch a vase on the mantel, a rare and priceless heirloom. One day he found himself tall enough to reach it, so he pulled it down and got his hand caught inside. The aghast parents applied soap suds and cooking oil with no…
An Imperial Message
Frank Kafka (1883-1924) is one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century. In his parable called “An Imperial Message,” he asks the reader to imagine that the emperor of your country is dying. He has an earth-shaking message to leave before he dies, and he decides on…
The Wood of the Cross
During Lenten matins (morning prayer) in Eastern Orthodox churches, one prayer reads: “Let us venerate the Cross of the Lord, offering our tender affection as the cypress, the sweet fragrance of our faith as the cedar, and our sincere love as the pine; and let us glorify our Deliverer who…
Holy Week Listening
In the next seven days we will experience the most theologically rich, densely packed, emotionally exhausting week of the Christian year (not to mention physically exhausting for those involved in these services). From Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday, the lectionary provides text for each day of this procession: on the road to Jerusalem with the spring lambs, washing feet and sharing a meal in the Upper Room, waiting and praying in the garden of Gethsemane, outside and in the midst of the trial, the Via Dolorosa, Calvary, the burial, the waiting, and finally … resurrection! read more…
Surprised by Scripture
Surprised By Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues
by N. T. Wright
Are you someone who loves surprises? Surprises can happen in all areas of life, but to those who are familiar with the Bible and have heard its stories from childhood, being surprised by scripture may sound a little odd. Yet if anyone can find and share an unexpected and startling slant on the text, N.T. Wright is one who can. Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues (2014, Harper Collins) by Bible scholar, author and retired Anglican bishop N. T. Wright, is a collection of essays that seems to have taken Wright by surprise, also. “In almost all cases, I did not take the initiative to write on these subjects. I was responding, as best I could, to questions that others had raised, and to the frequent invitation to explore contemporary issues from a Biblical perspective.” As one who, due to his training and vocation, is uniquely prepared to speak from a Christian worldview, Wright offers his insight on matters of concern to Christians in the West, particularly Christians in the United States. read more…
Bearing the Cross
What if wearing a cross were the sign of bearing the cross? Wearing crosses is a decoration. Bearing crosses is the discipline of discipleship
A Terrible Dream
Graham Greene’s novel Monsignor Quixote (1982) has a moment when the Spanish priest has a “terrible dream” that stays with him “like a cheap tune in the head.” He had dreamt that Christ had been saved from the Cross by the legion of angels to which on an earlier…
The Crossed-Out “I”
Nicholas Buxton, The Wilderness Within: Meditation and Modern Life (2014), 95: “The mysterious and paradoxical truth revealed in the death of Jesus on the cross—-that through suffering there is ultimately an end to suffering–can thus be seen as a kind of ‘homeopathic’ remedy for spiritual disease. By the shocking sin…
He’s Alive! –Preaching Tip for Easter 27 March 21 2016
Easter Sunday is a time of celebration, singing, dressing to the hilt. It’s especially challenging to make sure that in the midst of the celebration, people know what they are celebrating. Make your sermon on Easter something new and fresh that will capture attention by using resurrection metaphors that will…