Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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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…
Thanksgiving
Brian Morton is a US writer and professor (Sarah Lawrence College). He conducted a little experiment about thanksgiving: “I examined 20 recent American CDs this morning, pulled at random from the shelf. A remarkable 17 of them offer prominent thanks to the deity in some shape or form, often before…
Kingdom Moments
Kingdom Moments Lectionary 22 November 2015 (26 November 2015) Thanksgiving Joel 2:21-27 Psalm 126 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Matthew 6:25-33 Text to Life Jesus lived a life that straddled the past, the present, and the future. In the time-fulness of the Spirit, the timelessness of God became timely in Jesus the…
Something Unexpected
Everyone is talking about the Country Music Awards that took place this past week. Trust me. This is true. Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton (who won both Male Artist and New Artist of the Year) sang a couple of duets. No big deal right? Well, musicians and journalists across the country thought it was a big deal, and so did a lot of people who were watching. (video below).
Timberlake is a great artist, and so is Stapleton. They obviously enjoy the opportunity to collaborate. That is not surprising. Nor is the music itself; it’s a four-chord, verse, chorus, verse standard. At 1:40’ in the song, they incorporate a pretty typical “trading fours” extended call and response section. They rock it up and stretch it out and then at 3:10’ Timberlake does something that made even Keith Urban smile! He gave us something totally unexpected. read more…