Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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Tell the Story –preaching tip for January 10, 2016
Don’t be afraid to tell the “Story.” Sometimes we are so intent on making our own “points” that we forget that people need to know and hear the Story. As we enter into this time between the Christmas season and Lent, make sure that people truly “hear” the Story of…
Rising Strong –a Review by Landrum P. Leavell III
Rising Strong
The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution.
by Brene’ Brown
This week The Open Table features guest reviewer, Landrum P. Leavell III. Lan is a friend, avid reader and a pastor at The Village Church in Denton, Texas.
I have had the chance to hear Brene’ Brown three times now. She is engaging, disarming, and somewhat naughtily charming and funny, both in speaking and writing. She loves Texas (who doesn’t?), likes to flip people off in traffic, and has a propensity to curse. Thousands of people have listened to her TED talk. Rising Strong is the first book of hers that I’ve read, although I have Daring Greatly cued up. She has come to be known as the “vulnerability lady.” She defines vulnerability as “the willingness to show up and be seen with no guarantee of outcome, the only path to more love, belonging, and joy.” (xvii)
She practices what she preaches/teaches as a social scientist and research professor. She puts herself out there. The opening, foundational illustration is her personal “Rock the Speedo” story. (You’ll have to read it for yourself.” And she’s honest about the journey into vulnerability: “You’re going to stumble, fall, and get your ass kicked.” Introductory statements like that let you know that she’s real, candid, and won’t blow smoke up your dress. Describing the progression of her work, she summarizes this book as “Fail. Get up. Try again.” Brown works off the metaphor from Theodore Roosevelt’s 1910 “Man in the Arena” speech, referring to the person who is “facedown in the arena.” Who hasn’t been there, figuratively if not literally? Everyone fails, and isn’t it a no-brainer that what we do with the experience/s of failing is what shapes us as people? read more…
God is Everywhere
Rabbi Joshua ben Karhah was once asked, “Why did the Holy One, blessed be he, speak to Moses out of a thornbush?” The rabbi replied “To teach you that there is no space free of the divine presence, not even a thornbush” (Exodus Rabbah 2:9).
Holiness
A nine-year-old kid was swimming at the hotel where his parents were staying. He walked up to a woman who was sunbathing beside the poor and asked, “Are you a Christian?” She replied, “Why yes, I am.” He went on: “Do you read the Bible and pray? Do you follow…
God IS
My brother, Dr. John D. Sweet, is a teaching elder in the Philadelphia Presbytery (PCUSA). This meditation was part of his Christmas letter: “G > /\ + \/ . . . These 4 symbols mean that God (G) is greater than (>) our ups (/\) and downs (\/), God is…
Knowledge
A five-year-old girl asks, “Daddy, where was I when you were a little boy?” The question prompts Dad to look in the direction of her brother, a twelve-year-old growing by leaps and bounds. The father remembered his own early adolescence, and decides that now is the time for bold action.…
Bible
There is a tale from Tanzania about a woman who was asked why she always carried the Bible around with her, and never any other books. She replied, “You can always read books; only the Bible reads you.”
Prayers –10 January 2016
May the God who called our father Abraham to journey into the unknown
and guarded him and blessed him
protect us too and bless our journey.
May his confidence support us as we set out.
May his spirit be with us on the way.
May he lead us back home in peace.
Those we love, we commend to his care.
He is with them. We shall not fear.
As for us, may his presence be our companion so that blessings may come to us and everybody
we meet. Blessed are you God Almighty
whose presence travels with his people.
—ancient Jewish prayer
God, who called our Father Abraham to journey
into the unknown,
Who led him, protected him, and loved him, be
known to us on our journey through life.
May our eyes see you in all whom me meet.
May we learn to laugh at your presence:
To rejoice in you and your faithfulness to us
For as you blessed Abraham we are blessed by you.
You are our Father, we are your children,
With you we are on our way to the Promised Land.
—David Adam
Commandments
A Sunday School teacher was talking to a class of five-year-olds about the Ten Commandments. “Can you give me a commandment with only four words?” she asked. “I know,” said a little girl: “Keep off the grass.” The discussion turned to family and the teacher brought in the commandment, “Honor…
How Many of Us Run Away From Our Sickness and Suffering
A woman was listening to Sunday’s homily from the pastor who was preaching on Peter’s mother-in-law who was ill with a fever. She found it boring, so she left the church unfulfilled. Consequently, she decided to go to church again, this time out of city to a church where she…