Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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The Living Creche –Preaching Tip for 12/27/2015
The Christmas season is a time when people need to be able to “understand” Christmas in a way different from the glitz of shopping, the twinkling of lights and smell of turkey and ham, the sounds of Christmas music, and the excitement of presents. Take them back to the baby…
Leaning into Darkness
The longest days are coming to close for this year. The leaning into darkness will begin to tilt in a different direction soon. The promise of light is on the horizon.
But for a few more cycles, the earth’s angle impedes the light . . . the light is shining, but it’s not visible to us.
And so we lean into the dark, again. read more…
The Pageant, A Christmas Poem
[Ed. note—Jaime was a close friend and colleague who served in the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. She died tragically last year, and this Christmas poem was one of the last things she sent me. I don’t know when she wrote it, but I send it to…
Christmas Day Greeting for you to use
“There can be no sadness when life is being born.” St. Leo the Great (400-461). Happy Birthday, Jesus.
Ladder or Drill?
“Christmas does not give us a ladder to climb out of the human condition,” Avery Dulles wrote. “It gives us a drill to burrow into the heart of everything that is, and there, find it already shimmering with divinity.” At Advent, flesh is enspirited and spirit is enfleshed.
Don’t Forget The Flea
“This story my own father told me years ago from his own experience as a teacher. It was near Christmas time and, as classes often do at that time of the year, various projects were being done relating to Christmas. My father was headmaster and went to visit a primary…
“Sharon’s Christmas Prayer”
John Shea has a book of poetry called “The Hour of the Unexpected.” In this collection is a poem “Sharon’s Christmas Prayer:”
She was five,
Sure of the facts
and recited them
with slow solemnity,
convinced every word
was revelation.
She said,
They were so poor
They had only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
to eat
And they went a long way from home
Without getting lost. The lady rode
a donkey, the man walked, and the baby
was inside the lady,
They had to stay in a stable
With an ox and an ass
but the three rich men found them
Because a star lited the roof,
shepherds came and you could
Pet the sheep but not feed them,
Then the baby was borned,
And do you know who he was?
Her quarter eyes inflated
To silver dollars.
The Baby was God.
And she jumped in the air
Whirled round, dove into the sofa,
And buried her head under the cushion
Which is the only proper response
to the good news of incarnation.
The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Know Him, Love Him
A little boy’s father had been killed in the Iraq War before the boy had ever known him. All he had was a picture of his father, which was placed on an end table in the living room right under the light. One day he said to his mother: “I…
The Everlasting Arms
The same God who says “I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you” (Isaiah 48:4); the same God who promises to be our “dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27) so we can sing “Leaning, Leaning, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms;”…
3-Fold Conviction
Christmas involves a three-fold conviction of faith: Jesus has come, born to a humble couple in the village of Bethlehem, during the reign of Caesar Augustus: Jesus comes now, saying “Follow me.. . . Love one another.” Jesus comes again in glory at the end of history . .. When…