Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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Lord Rowan Williams, The Wound of Knowledge
“Our healing lies in obedient acceptance of God’s will: but this is no bland resignation. It is a change wrought by anguish, darkness and stripping. If we believe we can experience our healing wihtout deepening our hurt, we have understood nothing of the roots of our faith.” Lord Rowan Williams,…
Preaching Tip – 4/26/15
Before you say a word, scan the congregation with your eyes, and smile as you do so. Create a connection.
Tinnitus
A Glorious Dark
Finding Hope in the Tension Between Belief and Experience
by A.J. Swoboda
If you haven’t choreographed your own personal happy dance yet, now is the time, because you are going to want to do one while you read this book by Dr. A.J. Swoboda. The title, A Glorious Dark — Finding Hope in the Tension Between Belief and Experience may not indicate it, but this volume of Holy Week reflections might cause you to do some hand clapping and toe tapping. read more…
Notes are Nice, But They’re Not the Main Thing
In the opening book of his Narnia series, C. S. Lewis describes Aslan “singing” creation into being.
“A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the Earth herself. There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard.” read more…
My Prayer For You – 4/26/15
God, I want to give you my best, even when I don’t strive as hard as I might. My heart’s desire is to show you my love with my preaching. But I balk and halt sometimes . . . What will people say? What will you say? What if it’s not good enough? What if I’m not good enough?
May I find comfort and courage from the woman who anointed you by pouring out a fortune in perfume all over your body just before your crucifixion. She did so in love and humility amid insults and judgments. Yet you received her and loved her and defended her. In humility and love, I bring to you my fortune in words and images and stories. Please receive my gift as an expression of my love and devotion. Amen.
Broken Yet Sincere
Story Lectionary for 4/26/15: Hebrew and New Testament Scriptures to Accompany this Week’s Gospel: Psalm 34 (Taste and See) Exodus 23 (God’s Promise) Isaiah 52, 53 (Jesus’ Suffering Foretold) Zechariah 12 (Great Mourning) Jeremiah 33 (The Promise of the Messiah) Hosea 6 (I Will Raise You in Three Days) The…
Lay it Down
Acts 4:5-12 Psalm 23 1 John 3:16-24 John 10:11-18 Fourth Sunday of Easter The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most sizzling-hot, celebrity events of the star-studded cinema world. It takes place in the sun on the French Riviera, just when the rest of us are still shivering…
Just BE
One of Bonhoeffer’s close friends (Eberhard Bethge) tells of the time the two of them walked home from church together. They were discussing the sermon when, suddenly, Bonhoeffer’s friend told him that there was something about him that he found upsetting unsettling, and hard to take. “There are times when…
Good News
The above symbol was placed at the head of certain periodicals to indicate that the contents were drawn from the four corners of the earth. This is how we got the word “newspaper.” Perhaps it’s time for the church to put a similar symbol on all it does, indicating that…