Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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Pastor’s Prayer for 21 October 2018
Lord Jesus, who prayed that we might all be one,
we pray to you for the unity of Christians,
according to your will,
according to your means.
May your Spirit enable us
to experience the suffering caused by division,
to see our sin
and to hope beyond all hope.
Amen.
Written by the Chemin Neuf Community
The Excellent Meal Ticket
The Excellent Meal Ticket Story Lectionary 14 October 2018 The Lord’s Covenant with Abram of Chaldea and the Gift of the Land of Canaan (Genesis 15) The Story of Joseph and His Brothers from Canaan (Genesis 37) The Land of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh is Established East of the Jordan…
October Miscellany
The Theology of Monsters
Summary: Since we are in the month of October, I thought it would be nice to introduce you to a blog series by Richard Beck written back in 2009 on The Theology of Monsters. Here is the first installation and you can click through and view them all.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/TheologyofMonsters read more…
Surprised by Beauty
This week I discovered a new artist: Eva Cassidy. She’s not a youngster, or a newcomer to the creative scene. She can’t be pigeon-holed or limited by genre tags. And you won’t be able to see her in concert. But, thankfully, you can listen to her limited discography online, and that is truly a gift.
The friend who posted a link to Eva Cassidy’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow this week has impeccable taste and is a notable artist herself, so I trusted her recommendation. But I was not expecting the beauty and surprising genius that I heard. I finished listening to Over the Rainbow and searched for more. Eva’s authentic, inner, confident strength was tangible; her musical skill on the guitar, evident. But her voice – clear, gentle, direct – took my breath away. Her use of melody, and its improvisation, drew me in. I can’t get enough. read more…
Binge-Live
Binge-Live Lectionary 14 October 2018 Job 23:1-9, 16-17 Psalm 22:1-15 Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10:17-31 Text to Life Fall is settling in. The days grow shorter and the nights longer. We are drawn to the warm, flickering glow of luminous light in our living rooms. No, it’s not the fire place.…
Say It Slant! –Preaching Tip for 14 October 2018
This week, I am bringing up a “Sweetism.”. One of Len Sweet’s favorite sayings is “say it slant!” It means, “make the familiar strange.” Find a way to tell the story in a fresh way with a fresh slant that intrigues, invites, and invigorates. Look at the story from a…
Pastor’s Prayer for 14 October 2018
O Lord my God,
Teach my heart this day where and how to see you,
Where and how to find you.
You have made me and remade me,
And you have bestowed on me
All the good things I possess,
And still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that
For which I was made.
Teach me to seek you,
For I cannot seek you
Unless you teach me,
Or find you
Unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire,
Let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
Let me love you when I find you.
–St Anselm
A Light So Lovely
A Light So Lovely:
The Spiritual Legacy of the Life of Madeleine L’Engle
by Sarah Arthur
–Review by Teri Hyrkas
When she was a teenager, Sarah Arthur knew of Madeleine L’Engle’s award winning book, A Wrinkle In Time, but didn’t read it because she was not drawn to what sounded like science fiction. Later, while a student at Wheaton College, Arthur went through a “dark night of the soul” in her faith. During this time her college roommate shared some of L’Engle’s nonfiction books with Arthur, among them, The Rock That Is Higher: Story As Truth and Walking On Water. Arthur writes: “I can’t overstate the gift that Madeleine was to this mainline evangelical.”
Sarah Arthur’s biography of L’Engle, A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of the Life of Madeleine L’Engle (Zondervan, 2018), tells the story of the beloved author, educator, and mentor who Arthur describes as “[A] Christian author who could function quite unperturbedly from inside paradox, who dared to question the assumption that everything must be either/or. Why can’t it be both/and? What is this nonsense about “secular”? Why can’t God use those things if God wants to? Why can’t God speak through this or that person (if God can speak through a donkey, for instance)? Who says?” read more…
Let It Loose!
Let It Loose! Story Lectionary 7 October 2018 The Story of Noah When the Floodgates of Heaven Were Opened Up (Genesis 7) The Enabling of the Tongue of Moses (Exodus 4) Korah and Those Who Defied Moses are Swallowed Up When the Earth’s Mouth is Opened Up by God (Numbers…
The Maker’s Mark
The Maker’s Mark Lectionary 7 October 2018 World Communion Sunday 20th Sunday After Pentecost Job 1:1; 2:1-10 Psalm 26 Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12 Mark 10:2-16 Text to Life Some days it’s “Good morning, God.” Some days it’s “Good God, it’s morning.” Sometimes it seems like life is just one big “rat…