The Commons
A preaching blog with ideas and for interactive story sermon writing and image exegesis by Len Sweet.
Here, you can comment on any post to discuss its meaning and share your thoughts.
Too Easily Pleased
“Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is…
The Priest and the Pastor
Two pastors in the same town chanced to meet while walking down the street. One was a Roman Catholic priest, the other a United Methodist minister. They began to chat and the Methodist minister was bubbling over with enthusiasm as he talked about the new church he was planning build…
When you are old…
Some of the best lines ever written about love and aging: “How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty, with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face.” William Butler Yeats’ lines…
Bones
When the mother of a family was placed on a strict diet by her physician, her husband decided that it would be a good time to change the whole family’s eating habits. No red meat. No heavy gravies. No sugary deserts. Most fish, chicken, vegetables and fruit. The first evening’s…
Good Specimens
I am always looking for new ways to introduce someone. Here’s an idea: In the 1930s there was a play, made into a movie, called “The Green Pastures.” In the play the archangel Gabriel is depicted as a hothead who is fed up with humanity. Ready to blow his horn…
Our Stance
The newest member of the country club was taking his initiatory round of golf with the club’s officers. He was nervous about making a good impression. He teed up the ball, spread his feet apart, fixed his stance, and took a healthy swing. The golf club removed about a pound…
Habit Formation
An experiment in habit formation was conducted in which two fish were laced in a large tank of water. The fish were separated from each other by a sheet of glass set in the middle of the tank. The two fish quickly settled into a routine. Each would swim from…
Beauty
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). True beauty radiates from the transcendentals of being (beauty, truth, goodness) of the Triune God, who dwells within and raptures us with life. A novice once…
Neurotics and the Church
If you ever wonder whether the church attracts more than its share of “neurotics,” you can use this template from Carl Rogers, who said three things make a neurotic: I am right and you are wrong. I am strong and you are weak. I am good and you are bad.…
Patience
A man’s beloved dog went missing, so he offered a $5000 reward for its safe return. He put in ad in the local newspaper to that end, but got no replies. Tired of waiting, he called the office. “I want to see the advertising manager” he demanded. “He’s out,” said…