Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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The Dummy
“Star Wars: Episode VII.” Is there anyone who isn’t planning on seeing this? It starts on 18 December 2015, so get your ticket now if you can. Everyone needs a Yoda. But our kids aren’t sure that’s it’s not R2D2 that we need the most. Wouldn’t it be nice if…
Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), one of the greatest violinists in history, was accosted after a concert by a fan who cried, “Mr. Kreisler, Mr. Kreisler, I would give my life to play as you do!” To which Kreisler replied quietly, “Madame, I did.”
Weathervane
Charles Haddon Spurgeon visited a farmer friend and spotted a weathervane on his barn. When he looked closer, he saw the words “God Is Love” painted under the weathervane. Mr. Spurgeon asked, “Do you mean to say that God’s love is as changeable as the wind?” “Oh, no,” said the…
Urgent Conversation
A couple from California were traveling by car through Oklahoma. They saw a tornado coming. The husband drove the car off to the side of the road and the couple got out and crouched beside it. The twister was coming directly toward them, but at the last second veered off…
The Truth
There is a difference between “telling the truth” and “telling the whole truth.” I think of that old Peter Sellers routine where he walks up to the register at a hotel and sees a dog lying beside the desk. He looks at the clerk and asks, “Does your dog bite?”…
Praise God! Selah!
His Name is John / Praise God! Selah! Story Lectionary 29 November 2015 First Week of the Advent of Our Lord’s Birth Exodus 4: The Lord Gives Moses the Words to Speak 1 Chronicles 24: King David divides the Priests into Sects, including the eighth –Abijah, descendants of Aaron Nehemiah…
A Surround-Sound Advent
A Surround-Sound Advent Lectionary 29 November 2015 First Sunday in Advent Jeremiah 33:14-16 Psalm 25:1-10 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Luke 21:25-36 Text to Life Finally, it’s over. I thought it would never end. The “it,” of course, is those twenty-seven Sundays designated as “After Pentecost.” Six months is a long time…
He of Little Worth
A famous rabbi asked the Lubliner Hasidim: “Why do so many thousands come to you and not to me? I have learned more Talmud than you, and I can discourse on the Halakhah more profoundly?” The Lubliner replied: “I am likewise surprised at the multitudes who come. Who am I…
A Parable
An ancient Jewish parable: A king sent forth several armies against his enemies, one of them under his son’s command. The son loved his father deeply, and concerned himself only with pleasing him, rather than with his own glory. Hence the victory of his army gave him little joy unless…
Rabbi Moshe Leib
Rabbi Moshe Leib (1745-1807) of Sassov (now Ukraine) has often been compared to St. Francis, whom the Hasidim call a “Catholic Chasid.” He is famous for saying “He who cannot suck the boils of a child sick with the plague has not gone half-way up the heights of love for…