Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
Here, you can comment on any post to participate in the discussion.
Rejoice!
Christmas is coming. You cannot avoid the sights and sounds of the season. And the white flakes of winter have already come to some of our homes!
But the Christian Calendar reminds us of another reality: the close of Ordinary Time links Pentecost with the Reign of Christ. We enter Advent through the remembrance of Christ the King! The baby, whose birth we long for and whose incarnation makes us sons and daughters, reigns now and forever. One God, the beginning and the end, held together here, as we tell the stories on this Christ the King Sunday.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. (Rev 1:8) read more…
Pastor’s Prayer –29 November 2015
“I know I am dust, that one day my body will return to the earth, that I am finite and limited, self-centered and sinful: but I know equally that I am capable of giving myself in love to others and taking delight in receiving love from them. I am dust that dreams of a different destiny, for I know that I am a ‘lover-in-the-making’, and that the surest way to my true destiny is to reflect upon, give my attention to, and respond to, the one whose nature and whose name is Love. We have a natural desire to respond to beauty and truth and goodness, a natural sense of thankfulness when we are pleased or happy or in love, a natural desire to feel we are loved when we are sad or in pain or grieving, a natural sense of shame when we have caused hurt to others. Which is why ‘I love you’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘I trust you’ and ‘I am sorry’ are the basic ingredients of prayer life.”
Michael Mayne, Prayer (2013).
Goodness and Light
Goodness and Light
Readings for Advent and Christmas
This year, November 29th is the first Sunday of Advent. Do you re-adjust your daily rhythms to make room for Advent? For many years I ignored Advent – the season in the Christian church that is intended to help believers prepare spiritually for the holy day of Christmas. I chose to ignore it because it seemed to me that Advent wreaths, candles, prayers, songs and devotions were too time consuming. Observing Advent was just one more thing to do, one more obligation, one more expectation to jam into the family schedule. I felt I could manage the spiritual side of the Christmas-scramble better without trying to get all high church-y. So Advent “went away” in our home. read more…
The Light That Dwells Among Us
The Light That Dwells Among Us Story Lectionary 22 November 2015 [Christ the King Sunday] The Transfiguration [Story Lectionary] Genesis: Let There Be Light (1) Exodus: Moses and the Burning Bush on God’s Mountain (2); Witnesses to Moses on Sinai and the First Covenant (24); Moses in the Tent of…
Prayer of Thanksgiving for 11-22-15 and 11-26-15
Gracious and powerful God, we thank you for your bountiful mercy, your abundant love. Even a thread grasped from your cloak of righteousness is like a mighty river of forgiveness and grace to your faithful servants. We are immersed in your love, overwhelmed by your presence. Our mouths sing forth refrains of mirth, sweet melodies of thanks for your wondrous gift of life, for salvation granted, sacrifice made. We are your faithful Lord. May your blessings continue to abound. May our thanks and prayers be neverending, as is our joy in You. Amen.
The Boy on the Wooden Box
The Boy on the Wooden Box
How the Impossible Became Possible…on Schindler’s List
A Memoir by Leon Leyson
What is the power of one? What can one human being do to “stand up to evil and make a difference”? Leon Leyson gives us his answer to that question in The Boy on the Wooden Box (2013) published by Simon & Schuster. With Marilyn J. Harran and Elisabeth B. Leyson, Leon Leyson has written a moving memoir which tells of his life as the youngest survivor of the Holocaust from Schindler’s list. To Leyson, Oskar Schindler was that one who made the difference between life and death for himself, several of his family members and over a thousand other Jews.
The Boy on the Wooden Box is a Young Adult book (10 years and up) which was a New York Times best seller and received a Christopher Award in the Books for Young People category in 2014. One might consider this book comparable to the fiction novels The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2006) by John Boyne, or The Book Thief (2005) by Markus Zusak, but The Boy on the Wooden Box is non-fiction, and carries the weight of reality in its detailed stories and descriptions of the Nazi plans to “cleanse” the Jews from Poland. In addition to writing his memoirs in The Boy on the Wooden Box, Leon Leyson, who died on January 12, 2013, video-taped his story as a Jewish Survivor for the archives of the University of Southern California Shoa Foundation, and spoke to countless organizations about his experiences of living through the Holocaust. read more…
Our Reply to Violence
It was November 1963. In Texas, a great statesmen, a young vibrant idealist, and a harbinger of hope, was killed in a shocking act of violence. The world stood still as people tried to understand what had happened and how this single event would change . . . everything.
In New York, Leonard Bernstein was in a meeting with his assistants discussing the next day’s Young People’s Concert when they heard the dreadful news. The Philharmonic’s afternoon concert, conducted by George Szell, was already underway when the news of Kennedy’s death was announced. The concert was immediately halted and, following a minute of silence, the remainder of the program was cancelled.
Of course, many events were cancelled in the days that followed, as people mourned and processed the unfolding news. read more…
Abandon Control
“We live under the illusion that if we can acquire complete control, we can understand God or we can write the great American novel. But the only way we can brush against the hem of the Lord or hope to be part of the creative process, is to have the…
Come Back to Your Heart
“Come back to your heart, and from there, to God, for the path is not long from your heart to God. All of the difficulties that are troubling you come from what is outside of you, you who are the exile of your own heart. You let yourself be moved…
The Spirit of Love and Compassion
“We all need to have beliefs, we are all in need of instruction, but the following of Christ is not primarily about our creeds; it is about letting God be the Spirit of love and compassion to us and through us in every moment of our lives. All our creeds…