“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who’s Your Nathan?
You Need an Editor
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the story of Nathan confronting King David is found in 2 Samuel 12.1-14
Overview
Nathan the prophet was a gift to King David, giving him counsel on issues from
architecture to music to succession and, most importantly, the heart of the king himself.
Without Nathan, David would have continued his adulterous, murderous behavior,
ultimately corrupting the Davidic line.
Who is your Nathan?
Who has the authority to haul you before the tribunals of truth?
From Accountability to Editabilty
“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
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Joe Myers, author of Organic Community, argues for “edit-ability” rather than
accountability
o Accounting is a fiscal term, focusing on numbers and not relationships
o The accountability mentality looks for offenses, monitoring others for
sins and trespasses
o The problem with accountability is that it’s too easy to keep ‘double
books’, one for your accountability team and another secret book for
yourself
ƒ Consider the tragedy of Ted Haggard as one recent example of
this
o conversely, an editor is someone who is trying to help you get your
ideas out as powerfully and as truthfully as you can
o an editor tries to make your voice stronger, to speak truly and from
your heart
o when you lose your voice, an editor helps you hear it again, not telling
you what to think but reminding you what to think about
o just so you know, being edited isn’t always fun – it’s very painful to
have someone cut parts out of your ‘manuscript’
the real question isn’t “are you accountable?” but rather “are you editable?”
Nathan, A Welcome Intruder
• Nathan was a welcome intruder
o Could pop in unannounced to take the moral temperature of a
particular moment, especially at the most inconvenient and disturbing
time
• as a trusted advisor, Nathan wasn’t a general nuisance to David
o he had access because he had a valued relationship with the King
o he had a standing invitation to drop by and carpe momentum when the
King’s script ‘needed a rewrite’
• Every Nathan has a modicum of Machiavelli
o Editors know how to spring traps with stories, not to beat around the
bush or play games, but because stories are infectious transmitters of
truth
• Nathan wasn’t an executioner, but a trusted surgeon who heals the heart with a
scalpel
o The cut hurts, but heals
o Nathan is able to wield what William Blake calls “the spiritual sword
that lays open the human heart.”
o Nathan speaks the “truth in love”
ƒ Consider Paul’s instructions:
• “if someone is detected in a transgression, you who
have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a
spirit of gentleness.”
“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
•
A Nathan isn’t someone who rushes to tell you the truth, but someone who
helps you “do the truth.”
A Nathan Will…
• Get Under Your Skin
o The problem is never “out there”, the problem is always “in here”
o A Nathan helps you see inside yourself
ƒ But often with the intrusion comes the irritation
o the same thing that stirs our basest motives also inspires our noblest
acts
ƒ that’s why the more you allow God to use you, the more you
need a Nathan
• Ask Questions
o It’s not a Nathan’s job to help you find a way out of your problem, but
to ask intrusive questions about those ill-fitting parts of our
personalities and problems that need fixing
o Questions are intrusive
ƒ they comfort (“Is there anything too hard for God?”)
ƒ they challenge (“Adam, where are you?”)
ƒ they convict (“Peter, do you love me?”)
o it’s an editor’s job to get you asking the question: Is God’s name
glorified or smeared in my life?
• Tell the Truth
o A Nathan helps us see the truth about ourselves
o A Nathan finds ways to come and get us and make us own up to the
truth
ƒ Nathan’s editorial eye helps you see the very things you’re
running from
ƒ There may be kinder words that could be said to you, but not
truer ones
o because of this, our spouse often makes our best Nathan
Conclusion: tie a gift to the saddle
The seventeenth-century haiku master Basho was walking around the island of Japan in
1689 and got lost. He asked a farmer for directions, but the farmer said, “It’s easier is
you just take my horse. He knows the way. When you get to the next town, just let him
go and he’ll come home.”
So Basho let the farmer’s horse lead him. Once they arrived safely at the next town, he
sent the horse home. But not before tying a gift to the empty saddle.
Naming his son Nathan was David’s way of tying a gift to the saddle, fulfilling the
obligation of oblation.
“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
It’s incredibly important to tie a gift to the saddle for all your Withnesses.
“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips featuring a Nathan character
The TV show House has a spectacular Nathan character, Dr. James Wilson, played by
Robert Sean Leonard. Consistently throughout the show Wilson has checked the egotism
and thoughtlessness of the show’s namesake, while regularly defending him against his
would be detractors. Wilson is a faithful and loyal friend who loves House enough to tell
him when he’s way out of line.
Unlike King David, however, House refuses to listen. He has genuine respect and
affection for Wilson – who is perhaps his only true friend – but bears none of the penitent
heart of Israel’s great king.
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In the 2005 film The Kingdom of Heaven David Thewlis plays a character known as
Hospitaler. He is a knight sword to protect Jerusalem and doubly-sworn to advise and
accompany his master, Godfrey de Ibelin played by Liam Neeson.
“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
In opening third of the film we follow Godfrey as he searches for his illegitimate son
Balian, played by Orlando Bloom. Ever the trusted friend and counselor, Hospitaler
checks Godfrey’s motives making sure his quest for redemption does not do more harm
than good to both the land and the boy.
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*
In the 1995 blockbuster film Braveheart we are introduced to a classic Nathan character
known as Hamish, played magnificently by Brendan Gleeson. Despite William
Wallace’s incredible success against the aggressive armies of England, Hamish is
convinced that Wallace has more than simply ‘freedom’ on his mind. Hamish thinks
Wallace is out for revenge, or glory, trying to impress the spirit of his deceased lover as
she looks down from heaven on his heroic deeds. Hamish is the only character in the
film to challenge Wallace’s motives, and his courage in questioning his friend may have
proven to be the purifying influence in Wallace’s fight for Scotland.
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The short Popnovella film, “About Trains,” gives an excellent perspective on the
temptations we face. We seem compelled to ‘play with fire’ and this short film would
have been an excellent warning to King David prior to his mistakes with Bathsheba and
Uriah.
Think of it as a film directed and produced by someone like Nathan. Preview it for free,
and download for $, from popnovella.com.
Interactive Worship Suggestion: tie a gift to the saddle
The story of Basho is a great reminder that we often forget to thank those who have loved
us ‘toughly.’ Can you think of anyone who has fulfilled this role in your life? Do you
have, or have you ever had, someone playing Nathan to your David?
Now, you can imagine that a typical ‘interactive’ at this point would have you write a
very heart-warming note to thanks to your Nathan. This is not a bad idea at all. Take
some time and collect your thoughts and write them a very sincere card expressing your
gratitude.
If, however, you are looking for a way to thank them beyond mere words I suggest a
thank you card a la Knock Knock. These playful cards allow us to have a little fun, but
also provide space for a genuine moment at the bottom of each page.
These cards can be obtained from knockknock.biz for $4.50/50.
“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
I have also reworked the cards and re-contextualized them (see below) for less silly
moments.
“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
•
Suggested Service Order
see following two pages
“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Nathan?” corresponds with Chapter 1
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Jonathan?” corresponds with Chapter 2
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who’s Your Jonathan?
You Need a True Friend
•
•
the story of Jonathan and David’s friendship is found in 1 Samuel 18-23
David’s lamentation in response to Jonathan’s death is found in 2 Samuel 1.26
Overview
Considered by some to be the “Elvis of the Bible”, King David nevertheless needed a true
friend. Jonathan was that friend, who loved him without thought of gain or advantage
through adverse circumstances and trials. Jonathan was willing to lead a life of
decreasing significance in order that David might be exalted by God.
Who is your Jonathan?
Who can you count on for unconditional love in the face of life’s darkest circumstances?
Your Second Self
• a Jonathan believes in you when no one else does
• a Jonathan is loyal even when you make it hard to be loyal
“Who’s Your Jonathan?” corresponds with Chapter 2
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
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a Jonathan is the first to call in good times or in bad
a Jonathan gives and gives and wants no payment
a Jonathan walks with you in all seasons
a Jonathan won’t let you surrender to your dark side
a Jonathan has seen you naked, in all your treachery and lechery, and loves you
anyway
a Jonathan keeps you in check
a Jonathan grants you grace when you take them for granted
a Jonathan sacrifices himself for you
Not “Best,” but “True”
• Jonathan is not your best friend any more than the other Withnesses are
o They are all your best friend
o It just depends on where you are in life which “best” is “best”
• The Irish defined Jonathan as the anam cara, the “soul friend”
Endangered Species
• what makes a friend like Jonathan so rare?
o 3 syndroms/SINdromes
ƒ egosystem syndrome
• “what’s in it for me?”
• today’s friendships seem to be all about networking, rather
than true friendship
• when the network doesn’t work, it seems that many of our
friendships fade
• only when our ego is banished can we have true friends
ƒ “no down elevator” syndrome
• men, in particular, have a difficult time entering into deep
relationships; if we conceive of relationships as having
heighth/depth, then many of us struggle to take the elevator
down to the lower floors (cf. psychologist Dan
Montgomery)
o lobby floor: façade
ƒ small talk, social custom
ƒ this is valuable and necessary for meeting
new people and doing business with people
we don’t know well
o basement floor: acquaintance
ƒ we reveal some of our private sentiments
and opinions
ƒ there is some risk here that people will take
offense, though most know how to interact
in these exchanges without taking anything
personally
“Who’s Your Jonathan?” corresponds with Chapter 2
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
ƒ
o sub-basement floor: friendship
ƒ we must willingly experience emotional
vulnerability
ƒ we look for compatibility, empathy, and
mutual trust
o bottom floor: intimacy
ƒ we share the heart’s desires
ƒ we come clean with our dark side
“what, me sacrifice?” syndrome
• perhaps the truest cost of friendship is our most precious
commodity, time
• a relationship that requires sacrifice is not well suited to
21st C life – but sacrifice is the embodiment of a Jonathan
relationship
Conclusion: something that feels warm
If you find a Jonathan, then you’ll have something that feels warm, like a familiar song:
All you have to do is call,
And I’ll be there, You’ve got a friend
- Carole King (sung by James Taylor)
“Who’s Your Jonathan?” corresponds with Chapter 2
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips featuring a Jonathan character
As Len mentioned in the text, the Harry Potter books and films provide the hero with a
true friend, Ron Weasley. Throughout the series Ron defends Harry, sticks by him
through danger, peril and scorn, and is also willing to place his own life on the line so
Harry will not have to.
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Perhaps the greatest, truest, friendship of 20th Century film and literature is that of Frodo
and Samwise in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Leaving behind his
comfortable life to follow Frodo into almost certain death (and hunger), Samwise
Gamgee makes good on his promise to look after his friend. Of particular significance is
the moment, towards the climax of the final book/film, where Frodo has collapsed from
exhaustion on the slopes of Mount Doom. Samwise knows they must continue their
journey – not simply to rid the world of evil, but to rid Mr. Frodo of the evil that plagues
him personally – and heroically lifts Frodo onto his shoulders and carries him the rest of
the way up the mountain.
“Who’s Your Jonathan?” corresponds with Chapter 2
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
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John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey have a fantastic life as daytime attorneys and weekend
Wedding Crashers. That is, their lives are fantastic, until John falls in love and their
sport is ruined. Ever the true friend, Jeremy follows John along on a family vacation with
a high profile senator, keeping up appearances so John can have a shot at true love and
happiness.
Only a real Jonathan would endure what Vince Vaughn (Jeremy Grey) endured in the
filming of that movie, let alone having those things actually happen to someone.
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In the new NBC series Chuck the show’s namesake is a computer retail tech. turned
secret agent. In his clandestine profession he is protected by the NSA and CIA jointly; in
his real life he is protected by his faithful friend Morgan Grimes (played remarkably well
by the lovable Joshua Gomez). Morgan is always most concerned with Chuck’s
happiness, wellbeing, and the preservation of their close friendship no matter what he has
to endure in the process.
Interactive Worship Suggestion: something that feels warm
Arrange some tables around the entrance to the auditorium. Have some inside the
auditorium and some still in the lobby. Cover these tables with table clothes and some
misc. art/artifacts. Smother the table with found pictures of great friendships, perhaps
some that are even ‘vintage’ looking. Have some pens/writing utensils handy for
participants to interact with these pictures. Print instructions and place them on placards
at each of these tables. Use these to guide people that they should:
•
•
take a moment and think about the great friendships in your life
o is there someone who has been a friend to you in difficult times?
o Is there someone who has stuck by you when you were otherwise alone?
ƒ How did you thank that person?
ƒ Have you ever been such a friend to someone else?
Take one of the pens provided and write directly on one of these pictures you see
before you
o Write the name of your great friend
o Briefly write why you’re so thankful for them
Examples:
“Who’s Your Jonathan?” corresponds with Chapter 2
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Sample Frame for Instructions:
“Who’s Your Jonathan?” corresponds with Chapter 2
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Suggested Reading (St. Seraphim of Sarov, as quoted in Jim
Forest, Praying with Icons (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997), 134)
"You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your
treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of
him who gives and kindles joy in the heart of him who receives. All
condemnation is from the devil. Never condemn each other. We condemn
others only because we shun knowing ourselves. When we gave at our own
failings, we see such a swamp that nothing in another can equal it.
That is why we turn away, and make much of the faults of others.
Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep
silent, refrain from judgment. This will raise you above the deadly
arrows of slander, insult and outrage and will shield your glowing
hearts against all evil."
Suggested Service Order
•
see following page
“Who’s Your Jonathan?” corresponds with Chapter 2
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Jethro?” corresponds with Chapter 3
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who’s Your Jethro?
You Need a Butt-Kicker
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the story of Moses meeting Jethro is found in Exodus 2
the story of Jethro sending Moses is found in Exodus 4
Overview
Jethro was Moses’ father-in-law who ‘blessed him forward’ into the mission God has
placed upon Moses’ life with the enigmatic saying ‘Go to Peace.’ Jethro was a Midianite
High Priest – a kind of Bedouin prophet – who refused to let Moses grow comfortable
with his life of seclusion in the desert.
Who is your Jethro?
Who kicks you around when you’re intellectually/morally/spiritually lazy, dumb, and fat?
Little Things Mean A Lot
• when Jethro said farewell to Moses the literal translation of his parting words is
“Go to Peace” (lech l’shalom)
“Who’s Your Jethro?” corresponds with Chapter 3
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
o there is a difference between ‘go to peace’ and ‘go in peace’
• after Jethro blessed Moses (‘go to peace’) Moses returned
to Egypt and liberated his people
• after David blessed Absolom (‘go in peace’) Absolom,
David’s son, died
ƒ ‘go in peace’ is the blessing of death, a resting
wholeness/perfection attainable only in another life
ƒ ‘go to peace’ is the blessing that wrests beauty, truth, and goodness
out of the jaws of death and pushes you to make the most of your
time alive
o the ‘peace’ spoken of in Jethro’s blessing is not ‘peace and quiet’
ƒ the life of faith is not the life of peace and quiet – not for Moses,
not for Jesus, and not for us
ƒ this ‘peace’ is the peace-making sense of shalom, the channeling of
energies that bring wholeness and wellness to the world
o one of the most powerful things you can do is to bless someone forwards
ƒ when you’re spiritually neutered, or when you become complacent
and complaisant, when you shrink from your mission you need a
Jethro to wake you up and tell you to ‘go to peace’
ƒ you can’t BE AT PEACE until you GO TO PEACE so that one
day you can GO IN PEACE and REST IN PEACE
Get Your Kicks from Jethro
• everyone needs someone (often older) who is wild and crazy about them, who
believes in them, and cares enough about them to wake and shake them up to
dream big and live large.
o A Jethro is a blesser, not a flatterer
o A Jethro tells you to live life with both brain and backbone
o NOTE: Jethro was not part of the Hebrew community
ƒ You need people in your life who are not part of the community of
faith, people who are more ‘doers’ than ‘believers’
ƒ We need people of other cultures/faiths, not just to ‘witness’ to
them, but to keep us honest about our own faith and understanding
You’re History, Sweet
• ultimately, we all end up in the same box…our lives stop and we die
o that’s why we need Jethros to hear the two shaloms every day
ƒ lech l’shalom (go to peace): live every day as if it were your first
• with everything you do you’re making history
• “you’re history”
ƒ lech b’shalom (go in peace): live every day as if it were your last
• every day could be my last, and at any moment it could be
over
• “you’re history”
“Who’s Your Jethro?” corresponds with Chapter 3
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
The Breath of Life
• in both the First Creation account in Genesis and the New Creation passages in
the gospels, the Spirit of God “breathes” new life into the world.
o Jesus breathed on his disciples in John 20.19-22
ƒ “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
ƒ The same Spirit that incubated the deep in the beginning was
released upon Jesus’ followers
o with this second breath, however, two things are different
ƒ the curse of the garden is reversed and our connection with the
earth is reinstated
ƒ when Jesus breathes life into the new Adam the church is
conceived and sent out into the world in peace, not to rest but to
charge and champion God’s healing work in the world
Conclusion: the way will open
As you recall, your Jethro pushes you forward, not backward. And that forward might be
into someone else’s life, someone else who needs a Jethro to bless them. That’s the
ongoing challenge of the Withnesses; seeing them around you and being them to others in
your life.
Who is in your life right now that needs a good butt-kicking? Remember, the buttkicking startles, not bruises – above all, do no harm.
The Quakers have a saying: “The way will open.” Jethro pushes us out the door while
telling us to trust God…the way will open.
“Who’s Your Jethro?” corresponds with Chapter 3
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips featuring a Jethro character
Coach Carter is a film about an inner city basketball team that is literally whipped into
shape by their new head coach. Though this plotline has become all-too familiar over the
years, Samuel Jackson’s portrayal of the coach and his tough love approach to basketball
is not to be missed.
We can easily understand the significance of Coach Carter as a Jethro, evidenced by his
no nonsense approach to academic standards for his players, lifestyle restrictions
(including prohibitions against drug and alcohol abuse and gang activity), and his ever
present concern that his team gets the best out of life because they deserve it.
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Master Chief John James 'Jack' Urgayle (played by Viggo Mortgensen) from the film
G.I. Jane seems, at first, far too sadistic to truly be considered a Jethro. Yet, as the move
“Who’s Your Jethro?” corresponds with Chapter 3
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
continues, we see the Drill Instructor’s true colors shine through. He respects Jordan (a
female Navy Seal played by Demi Moore) and truly has her best interests at heart.
There are, however, times in the movie where this motivation seems to be in question.
But there are also enough payoff moments where the grim exterior of the Master Chief
softens into something concerned and even affectionate.
The most poignant of the interactions between the Master Chief and Jordan come during
a time where she feels she is being persecuted by her Drill Instructor. The Master Chief
responds by quoting from D.H. Lawrence’s poem Self-Pity:
I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself
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Patches O’Hoolihan is a famous Dodge Ball player who slithers out of retirement to
coach Peter LaFleur’s (Vince Vaughn’s) amateur team in the American National
Dodgeball Association of America’s big tournament. Sound silly? That’s the point. If
you’re in need of a little levity, than Rip Torn’s portrayal of patches is the perfect
comedic compliment to any teaching on Jethro.
He’s brutal.
He loves Peter LaFleur.
And he certainly loves to kick butt.
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Interactive Worship Suggestion: the way will open
If you’ve got the technology and the space, there is an excellent opportunity to make
good use of Youth for Christ’s (UK) online prayer labyrinth. It is a website designed to
virtually allow each user to walk through a prayer labyrinth constructed of shapes and
sounds, and you use it almost like a contemplative video game (see also prayground.tv
for something similar).
For this interactive, I’d suggest setting up multiple internet stations (if you don’t have
them set up already) and inviting people before/after your worship gathering to navigate
the site and use it as a prompt to ask themselves the following questions about their lives:
• where I am headed in life?
“Who’s Your Jethro?” corresponds with Chapter 3
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
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From where do I get my orientation?
Do I feel like I’ve stalled?
Am I at an impasse?
Do I really believe that God will open a way for me?
Are there people in my life that God is using to show me that way?
Am I open and willing enough to the Spirit to be used to show someone else the
open way?
The YFC-UK prayer labyrinth can be accessed for free at:
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/paradigm/
Other, similar, prayer sites can be found at:
http://www.prayground.tv
http://www.comeclean.com
http://www.vurch.com
Suggested Service Order
•
see following page
“Who’s Your Jethro?” corresponds with Chapter 3
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Timothy?” corresponds with Chapter 4
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who’s Your Timothy
You Need a Protégé
•
Our primary source of information about Timothy are Paul’s epistles, particularly
(of course) 1 & 2 Timothy
Overview
Timothy was Paul’s protégé, his heir and apprentice. Historically, scholars gather than
Timothy was probably about 16 when he was first called “my son” by Paul (the same
term of endearment Peter used to refer to his protégé, John Mark). Paul brought Timothy
along on his travels, elevating him beyond his station and introducing him to a larger
context. Paul vouched for Timothy, thereby lending the young man some credibility in
the newly founded Christian church.
Not every pupil inherits the mantle of his master: sometimes the cream of Peter and Paul
turns out of be skimmed milk. But of whom can you say “my son” or “my daughter?”
Will you have any heirs? Who will inherit your work? Who will continue your legacy?
• we must consider whether we will have descendents
“Who’s Your Timothy?” corresponds with Chapter 4
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
o not children of our own line, but descendents of life and faith – people to
whom and through whom the lessons of faith we have learned are passed
on
Ministry Reproduction
• Before Paul had a Timothy, he first had to be a Timothy
o Every great leader and teacher has been a Timothy
ƒ Paul was a protégé of Gamaliel, the most important rabbi in
Jerusalem in the 1st Century
ƒ Jesus apprenticed to John the Baptist
ƒ Elisha apprenticed to Elijah
ƒ Joshua apprenticed to Moses
• Paul always did what he could to advocate for Timothy, evidenced by pushing
Timothy to the front of his letters and bringing greetings from both of them
o Consider:
ƒ 2 Corinthians 1.1: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of
God and Timothy our brother…
ƒ Philippians 1.1: Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus…
ƒ Colossians 1.1: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
and Timothy our brother…
ƒ 1 Thessalonians 1.1: Paul, Silas, and Timothy, to the church of the
Thessalonians…
ƒ 2 Thessalonians 1.1: Paul, Silas, and Timothy, to the church of the
Thessalonians…
Shunamitism
• the Bible references two Shunamite women, both unnamed
ƒ one provided hospitality for preachers and prophets
• 2 Kings 4.8-37 tells the tale of Elijah and the Shunamite
woman
ƒ one provided warmth for an ailing king
• 1 Kings 1:1-4 tells the tale of elderly King David being
warmth in a nonsexual embrace by a Shunamite woman
o Shunamitism is the cultivation of leadership by the old in the young
through the hospitality of teaching, mentoring, and deploying
ƒ Shunamitism keeps the old young and gives age and wisdom to
youth
Sharonism
• Ariel Sharon was famous as Prime Minister of Israel for his advances in the
Israeli/Palestinian peace talks
o As Defense Minister and Minister of Agriculture he had been a notorious
hard liner
o Upon becoming PM he changed his tune dramatically
“Who’s Your Timothy?” corresponds with Chapter 4
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
•
He died suddenly, leaving no heir apparent to his advances in peace
o You need heirs
o Sometimes you can’t even do what God is calling you to do without them
Where Have All The Timothys Gone?
• if you’re going to have a Timothy, or be a Timothy, you’re going to have to learn
the ways of holy dissonance
o Ministry by Osmosis
ƒ A Timothy cannot develop without the patience of presence
ƒ A lot of life is sheer osmosis, and we don’t have the patience to
allow the slow labor of apostolic exposure and experience to take
place
• Evolution in the Church
o If church members have a responsibility to replicate themselves in the
form of new converts, how much more should church leaders replicate
themselves in the form of new ministerial candidates?
o When the baton is passed, however, Timothy typically tries to grab the
wrong end
ƒ Timothys are heirs, not clones
• Reproduction is a process of inaccurate, flawed selfcopying (a.k.a. evolution, not cloning)
• Joshua was not a Moses clone, Timothy was not a Paul
clone
ƒ instead, we are each “mashups”
• a mashup is a musical term referring to a song that’s been
remixed with other musical elements – differing beats,
rhythms, keys, etc… - to create something new
• in order for a mashup to work, what Timothys need most
are “sounding boards”
o the process of being a Timothy is a gradual
revelation of the song your life is composing…that
one song that only you can sing
• the Ears Have it
o leadership is more a sound test than a vision check, and the primary
Timothy organs are the ears
o the challenge for a Timothy is to learn how to hear
The Church as only Half a Brain…and it’s the Wrong Half
• in the 20th C, a Timothy’s key assets were a right arm and a left brain – this is no
longer true
o the future belongs to the right brained and the left armed
ƒ the right side of the brain is where inventiveness, empathy, and
meaning predominate and where the forces of creativity and
imagination will be most important for every Timothy
“Who’s Your Timothy?” corresponds with Chapter 4
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
The Meaning of More
• Humans are made less in God’s image and more in God’s imagination
o We are invited to participate in the divine imagination ourselves
o Imagination is participation in the divine nature
• There are two kinds of imagination
o More as better
ƒ “more as better” means doing what you are already doing with
greater efficiency
• “better” has given us mega-churches, IKEA, Microsoft, and
spiritual gifts inventories
• “better” is perhaps best typified in the Xbox 360 and
Playstation 3
o each far more powerful, with superior graphics and
extensive online services, to any previous video
gaming system
o More as different
ƒ “more as different” means doing something unique, embracing
change, and trying new things
• “different” has given us co-housing, non-congregational
churches, Linux, Google, Apple, and spiritual weakness
inventories
• “different” is perhaps best typified in the Nintendo Wii
• only 1/10 as powerful as the Xbox 360 and PS3, it
nevertheless far outsells its more powerful competitors
because it focuses on the power and pleasure of
participation
• of course, “better” and “different” are both needed, but in our time in history our
mission is not so much to create a “better” world as it is to create a “different” one
o “different” because it ought to pride itself in its force of love instead of its
love of force
o “different” because it ought to foster meaningful relationships instead of
maddeningly climbs up the ladders of success
Conclusion
In August 1953, a truck driver arrived at a Memphis studio and announced that he wanted
to start a singing career. “What do you sound like?” asked the secretary.
“I don’t sound like nobody,” answered Elvis Presley.
“Who’s Your Timothy?” corresponds with Chapter 4
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips featuring a Timothy character
In the film Taladega Nights, there is a hilarious scene in which aspiring race car driver
Ricky Bobby (played by Will Farrell) learns from his deadbeat father how to drive a race
car blindfolded (and accompanied by a mountain lion in the back seat). It is one of the
all-time classics of post-SNL modern comedy, and the scene paints a light, funny picture
of what its like to apprentice with a mentor.
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All six of the Star Wars films provide excellent material for illustrating the role of
protégé/mentor. Whether that’s Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi, or Obi Wan and
Anakin, or Obi Wan and Luke Skywalker, all of the films demonstrate the necessity of
being both protégé and mentor at various stages of our development.
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“Who’s Your Timothy?” corresponds with Chapter 4
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
The 2001 film Spy Game, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, depicts the CIA
training of a younger agent by an older, more experienced one. In a fascinating turn of
events, we watch Tom Bishop (Pitt) learn the ropes, forget the ropes, and then by saved
off the ropes by his mentor Nathan Muir (Redford) whose only real connect to Bishop is
the hope that the younger agent will be the ‘one good thing’ he leaves behind.
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In 2006’s Departed we see many obvious and rewarding mentoring relationships at
work: Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg),
Seargeant Sullivan (Matt Damon), and undercover agent Billy Costigan (Leonardo
diCaprio); also Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) and both Sullivan and Costigan. This
movie plays both mentors and their relationships with their shared, duplicitious, protégés
with real world affection and disarming ambiguity. You never relax in the film, always
concerned about who is going to double-cross who and how, and you feel yourself
emotionally invested in every character and every relationship. This movie gives viewers
an excellent, albeit vulgar, window into the hopes of two aging men for some kind of
lasting legacy, and into the ambitions of two younger men for some kind of significance
and future.
Reading, walk in (various quotations on mentoring/apprenticing)
We're here for a reason.
I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.
Whoopi Goldberg
A mind is a fire to be kindled not a vessel to be filled.
Plutarch
Mentor: A trusted adviser or guide, characterized by wisdom and loyalty. An all-in-one
teacher, counselor and coach.
anon (taken from Susan’s Scrapbook Shack blog, where scrapbookers can find
mentoring)
...a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of
caring, ALL... have the potential to turn a life around.
Leo Buscaglia
Reading, Catherine of Siena
Everlasting God said, “Doing good to your neighbors proves your love for Me.
And there’s more. The virtue of patience in you is tested when your neighbors
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insult you. Your humility is tested by the proud. Your faith is tested by the
unfaithful. Your hope is tested by the person who’s hopeless. Your fairness is
tested by the unreasonable. Your compassion is tested by the cruel. Your
gentleness and kindness are tested by ‘rage-oholics.’ Your neighbors will test
your goodness, and through these tests your virtues will be born and strengthened
and grow.”
Suggested Service Order
•
see following page
“Who’s Your Barnabas?” corresponds with Chapter 5
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who’s Your Barnabas?
You Need an Encourager
•
the conflict between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark is found in Acts 15:35-41
Overview
Barnabas was a respected leader within the early church. When the apostles were wary
of Saul, Barnabas vouched for him; when Paul was fed up with John Mark, Barnabas
gave the young man another chance.
A Barnabas is an encourager, someone in your life who is constantly saying, “Atta boy!”
or “Atta girl!” You need affirmation, attention, and encouragement as much as you need
food, shelter, and rest. You need what church culture calls an “acolyte” – someone to
light your candle, to keep it lit, and to encourage you when it does get dark.
Do you have a Barnabas – someone to pick you up? Someone to gives you permission to
fail? Remember, a Barnabas is an encourager, not a flatterer.
“Who’s Your Barnabas?” corresponds with Chapter 5
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
And, to whom are you a Barnabas? To whom do you regularly speak word that put wind
into their sails?
Two Kinds of Handlers
• we all need two kinds of handlers, or ‘hands on’ Withnesses
o the fist
ƒ the fist-handler is your Nathan, someone to sort you out when you
need to be corrected
o the palm
ƒ the palm-handler is your Barnabas – someone to give you strokes,
to pat your back, and to feel your pain
• the word “feel” derives from the roots meaning “palm of
the hand”
• there will always be moments of weakness – of compromised resolve – in each of
us
o when this happened to John Mark, Paul lost faith in him and discarded
him, but Barnabas gave his young cousin another chance
ƒ Paul took Silas and went off in one direction
ƒ Barnabas took John Mark and went off in another
ƒ Only later did Paul reconcile with John Mark, even asking the
younger man be present at his death
The House of Barnabas
• Barnabas is a multi-dimensional character, a ‘house with many mansions’ if you
will
o The Good-Samaritan Barnabas
ƒ The Good Samaritan Barnabas makes ‘support a sport’
• Says things just to cheer you up, to lift your chin
ƒ This kind of Barnabas is admittedly more style than substance,
more good-manners than good works, but we should not forget the
importance of the shallow in the midst of our pursuit of depth
• The smile, the wink, the slap on the back, etc…is simply
the beginning for us all (dipping our toes at the shallow end
of the pool, prepping for deeper waters)
ƒ your Barnabas is often found in the shallows, but a spontaneous
Barnabas helps you see life’s inexhaustible epiphanies even from
the shallow end of the pond
o Onesimus-Big Brother Barnabas
ƒ The Onesimus Barnabas encourages us by name, not by number
ƒ Who knows your name well enough to understand the hesitancies
of your heart, and yet helps you know that every hesitant moment
you are loved, and out of that love you are an instrument of God’s
love?
“Who’s Your Barnabas?” corresponds with Chapter 5
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
ƒ
Paul was fixated on John Mark’s defects, Barnabas on his promise
– who reminds you of your promise?
o The Epaphras-Prayer Barnabas
ƒ This is your dangerous Barnabas – the one who keeps the prayer
wheel turning in your direction
ƒ This Barnabas has entered into a covenant of prayer for you
ƒ Epaphras was a member of the Colossian community who was
always ‘wrestling in prayer for you’ (as Paul put it)
• An Epaphras Barnabas does wonders for your ears
o your ears are imperative to your sense of hearing
ƒ prayer is another way of listening
ƒ a Barnabas helps us to hear God
o your ears have EVERYTHING to do with your
sense of balance
ƒ your Barnabas helps you stay on course and
not drift away
o your ears pick up the vibrations of life before your
vision brings them into focus
ƒ your Barnabas helps you prepare for the
sudden faults and seismic shifts that crack
open on your path and threaten to swallow
you up
o The Sarah-Humor Barnabas
ƒ This type of Barnabas is someone who supports you – not by
always agreeing with you – but by propping you up or poking fun
at you
ƒ Sarah is remembered for her laughter, which followed the angelic
announcement that she and her husband Abraham would conceive
in their old age
• Her laughter was not sarcastic or disbelieving, but genuine
– her comic ear picked up the humor of the whole scenario
ƒ faith and humor are tightly allied
• Sarah humor laughs in the midst of life’s jokes and twists,
and makes fun of the cussed ironies of existence
o The Ruth-Endurance Barnabas
ƒ This is the Barnabas that stays with you when you’re weak and
abandoned
ƒ They pledge to you like Ruth did to Naomi (her mother-in-law):
“whither thou goest, I will go.”
ƒ The Greek word for patience is most properly translated as “a
conquering endurance”
• Who conquers your depression with sheer endurance?
Conclusion
“Who’s Your Barnabas?” corresponds with Chapter 5
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
I have met more ministers than I care to count who, after thirty years of ministry, are so
beaten and discouraged that I call them “Tin Men,” after the Tin Man from the Wizard of
Oz: if he only had a heart. The truth is he once did: a heart with a calling, a heart with a
passion. But without a Barnabas, those ministers succumbed to the bloodsucking despair
that can leech into the heart itself. At the end of the brick road, there is only a lie hiding
behind the wizard’s curtain. The lie goes like this: “You can go it alone.”
The word encouragement is from the French couer: it means to put “heart” into someone.
Your Barnabas is a heartening presence and power in your life. Your Barnabas helps you
life, not by rote or by rules, by “by heart.”
“Who’s Your Barnabas?” corresponds with Chapter 5
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips featuring a Barnabas character
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Finding Nemo is undoubtedly one of the greatest children’s films of all time. And, of
course, the character of Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) is just one of the many memorable
features of the film, particularly in her cheery support of Nemo’s Dad whom she instructs
to ‘just keep swimming.” This relationship typifies what Len means when he says we
often find our Barnabas in shallow waters/relationships and then have them go much
deeper (both literally and figuratively portrayed here).
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In 3:10 to Yuma (both versions, though I’ll reference the remake here), criminal Ben
Wade is being led into custody by crippled rancher Dan Evans. Evans is desperate to
collect the reward money for wade in order to save his family’s farm, but even more
desperate to look a hero for his son. Throughout this gripping film, Wade – a clever,
“Who’s Your Barnabas?” corresponds with Chapter 5
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
skilled, and notorious train robber – provides opportunities for Evans to shine, including
(in the final scenes of the film) helping Evans fight off his own gang in their attempted
rescue of their leader, Wade.
Wade is a stellar, non-typical, Barnabas character who will provide great conversation
fodder for this series.
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In 2007’s animated feature Surf’s Up, a young Macaroni penguin is plucked from surfing
obscurity in the Antartic and taken to the “Big Tourney.” There he meets Lani, a penguin
who plays Barnabas to him and to fallen ‘John Mark,’ character Big Z. Lani is
supportive, funny, and tender – refusing to allow either man to be swallowed up by the
tidal waves of their fears.
Communion
The elements should be set up around the room, at different stations, with time/space
available for each person to either participate in communion alone, with their family, or
serve it to one of their fellows. These details should be explained by the worship leader.
As several worship songs are played, the following reading should be displayed on the
screens as a prompt for reflection and contemplation. This reading can be found in the
book “Alternative Worship” by Jonny Baker and Doug Gay with Jenny Brown and is
titled “The Guest.”
Jesus himself was a guest at a wedding in Cana
We’ve all heard it before
He turned water into wine
(it’s our proof text against puritans)
Vintage stuff
Jesus was a guest…of humanity
The heavenly host who laid on a harvest of abundance for the world
The creator
The provider
Became the guest of the animals in the stable
The villagers in Nazareth
The religious leaders in the temple
The prostitutes
Drunkards
Tax collectors
He let us play host,
“Who’s Your Barnabas?” corresponds with Chapter 5
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Did away with the VIP pass
Ate, drank, and was probably merry
Became one of us
Dined at our table
Ate the same bread, drank the same win –
Everybody having a good time
Shared stories
Shared our story
When he left the table
He left bread and wine
He left himself
But left himself
The guest
Once more
Became the consummate Host.
Benediction (from Len’s conclusion)
Long life,
Honey in the heart,
No evil,
And 13 thank yous.
a parting blessing of the Tzutujil Indians of Guatemala
Suggested Service Order
•
see following page
“Who’s Your Barnabas?” corresponds with Chapter 5
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Paul/Peter?” corresponds with Chapter 6
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who’s Your Paul/Peter?
You need a Yoda
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the story of Paul’s first missionary journey is found in Acts 13
the story of Peter’s vision illuminating his understanding of clean and unclean is
found in Acts 10.9-16
Overview
Each one of us needs an older, wiser person to look up to. We all need someone who can
help us find our way through this new and unfamiliar landscape called life. Paul
mentored Timothy, Silas, and several others; Peter led many within the Church in
Jerusalem.
Who do you look up to? Who do you see and say, “I want to be like them someday?”
Who is your Yoda – the person who sets the standards to which you aspire?
Whose blessing do you seek?
“Who’s Your Paul/Peter?” corresponds with Chapter 6
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
The Abbas and The Ammas
• in the desert tradition, venerable masters and sages were known as abbas (some of
whom were holy hermits) and their female counterparts, ammas
• there is always someone wiser than you with whom you will need to apprentice
o you need to attach yourself to someone further down the road than you are
ƒ not too much further, but just a little
• the issue in finding such a person is not their level of education, but their
instruction by the Spirit in life and in what the Scriptures meant and in what they
mean for your duty and destiny
• there is even a chance that your Yoda may be younger than you
o Father Baltazar Alvarez and St. John of the Cross both served as St.
Teresa of Avila’s spiritual directors when they were 25 & 27 yrs her
junior, respectively
o Many of us have younger techno-Yoda’s who teach us which generation
iPod to buy, which computer to use, or how to wire surround sound in our
basements
ƒ In these ways, Peter and Paul need to sit at the feet of Timothy
Your Yoda or your University?
• question - which is more important: your Yoda or your university?
o The answer used to be the latter, but in the future your Yoda will be far
more important
Learning the Finer Things
• a great spirituality is like great art
o for there to be truly original art, there must be submission to discipline, a
mastery of the basics, close brushwork accomplishments, a tutoring in the
traditions and texts, etc…
• we have to learn apprenticeship before we can offer mentorship
o we have to serve sages if we are ever to grow to become a sage
• the failure to appreciate art is the failure to make “fine” distinctions – between the
good and the excellent, between artiness and art
o these distinctions cannot be picked out on our own
o they are acquired tastes, and you acquire them from sitting at the feet of a
Yoda who trains your tastes to be discriminating
ƒ the key to discrimination is recognizing what makes for differences
and what makes for distinctions
• the failure to distinguish between the two leads to
indiscriminate sex, indiscriminate talk, and indiscriminate
lifestyles
• but you’ll never be aware of the need to distinguish without
a Yoda
Peter/Paul Withnesses
• there are two different kinds of Yodas: a Peter and a Paul
“Who’s Your Paul/Peter?” corresponds with Chapter 6
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
•
•
•
Peter
o Is like a sociologist – he helps us understand ourselves
o Intellectually and culturally slow, but interpersonally very quick
o Had a relational verve
Paul
o Is like an anthropologist – he helps us understand the world around us
o Paul was intellectually and culturally quick, but interpersonally very slow
o Had a polemical verve
it took a while for Peter to understand that the gospel was addressed for all
humanity; Paul got it immediately
All of the Above
• you will study with several Peter/Paul Withnesses
o you will form a different relationship with each one
o this means that each relationship will play a different role in your life
• not every Peter/Paul is equally accomplished
• the appropriate relationship between you and your mentor depends on the spiritual
level of each of you
• your relationship with your Peter/Paul Withness will deepen and change as you
proceed along the spiritual path
• you will never cease apprentice work
How to Choose a Yoda
• Choose your Yodas carefully
• Don’t hitch your wagon to any single star
• Just because someone is famous or renowned doesn’t mean they’ll make a good
Yoda
Three Wise Points
• if you could only base your choice of a mentor on three things, then choose these:
o watch how they treat their spouses
o watch to see if the walls of their study are permeable to their kids
o watch to see if they spend time reading and reviewing, blurbing and
blogging other people’s books and manuscripts, or do they consider
themselves too famous for that?
• Don’t forget: others will be watching you for these traits as well!
• additional things to look for:
o humility
ƒ wisdom comes over time – a Yoda accepts fallibility and makes it
into a driving force of their life
ƒ an ideal Yoda is one-who-knows…that they don’t know it all
ƒ a true Yoda wants to study WITH you, not wants you to study
under them
“Who’s Your Paul/Peter?” corresponds with Chapter 6
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
ƒ
a true Yoda knows that the truth about God is more than what s/he
happens to be thinking about God at that moment
ƒ the gold standard for Yodas is not who was the most right answers
but who has the most right spirit – not who has it all worked out,
but who has an awareness that he doesn’t have it all worked out
and needs others to help him/her
o honesty
ƒ the best Yodas will be honest enough to share their secrets with
you
ƒ your Yoda will also be honest enough to tell you the truth, even to
rebuke you, when you settle for easy answers
ƒ you are going to get crucified on some cross in ministry, a Yoda
will help you to carry your own cross, make sure it is big enough,
and remind you why it’s worth it
ƒ the mentor/student relationship is more an exercise in subtraction
than addition; less adding new knowledge to our data-base than
disabusing us of false notions, misleading navigations and trapped
assumptions that become theological pitfalls and pratfalls
o honor
ƒ you become what you honor
ƒ a Yoda is someone who has won their honors fair and square – that
means they will want people to mentor who will honor them both
by demonstrating a love of originality and a love of conformity
ƒ Yodas love questions – they love to ask them and they love to
listen to them, and they really love to turn them into more and
better questions
• Every good Yoda trains a student to ask questions like
lawyers are trained: to think otherwise and to find their own
way to think and do such things
• Indeed, you honor a mentor when you take them seriously
enough to ask hard questions, argue with them and disagree
with them
o But there are ways to argue and disagree without
dishonoring the person
ƒ You can honor the difference without
dishonoring your Yoda or the integrity of
your own commitments
o Always speak well of the bridge that carried you
across
Conclusion
Part of a Yoda’s value is their loving explanation of their work. There is something
contagious about their affection. Here is poet Mark Van Doren honoring the teacher he
remembered most:
“Who’s Your Paul/Peter?” corresponds with Chapter 6
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It must unfold as grace, inevitably, necessarily,
as tomcats stretch: in such a way he lolled upon
his desk
and fell in love again before our very eyes
again, again – how many times again! –
with Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton’s
Satan,
as if his shameless, glad, compelling love
were all he really wanted us to learn…
However, a Yoda goes beyond conveying knowledge yoked to love. A Yoda reveals
secrets and awakens your own revelations. They disabuse us of our false notions and
share their secrets.
But rest assured, Yodas don’t tell all their secrets. The Persian poet Sa’di tells the story
of the master wrestler who taught his favorite pupil all his tricks except one. The
inevitable happened: the pupil challenged the master, who only won the bout when he
employed that one trick he held back from his best student.
“Who’s Your Paul/Peter?” corresponds with Chapter 6
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips featuring a Yoda character
In the text of this chapter, Len outlines several films with Peter/Paul Withness characters.
I’ve reprinted them below, with a recommendation that – instead of simply showing one
or two clips – someone spend a little time with some editing software and create a video
montage of these memorable cinematic moments:
• In Star Wars, Yoda was a Paul to Luke Skywalker
• In Good Will Hunting, Ben Afflect was a Peter to Matt Damon
• In Spy Game, Robert Redford was a Paul to Brad Pitt
• In The Matrix, Morpheus was a Peter to Neo
• In Spiderman, Uncle Ben was a Paul to Spiderman.
Benediction
The Mark Van Doren quote will work really well as a benediction.
Part of a Yoda’s value is their loving explanation of their work. There is
something contagious about their affection. Here is poet Mark Van Doren
honoring the teacher he remembered most:
“Who’s Your Paul/Peter?” corresponds with Chapter 6
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
It must unfold as grace, inevitably, necessarily,
as tomcats stretch: in such a way he lolled upon
his desk
and fell in love again before our very eyes
again, again – how many times again! –
with Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton’s
Satan,
as if his shameless, glad, compelling love
were all he really wanted us to learn…
Suggested Service Order
•
see following page
“Who’s Your Deborah?” corresponds with Chapter 7
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who’s Your Deborah
You need a back-coverer
•
the story of Deborah is found in Judges 4-5
Overview
In this history of Israel, only three people combined the offices of prophet, judge, and
military leader: Moses, Samuel, and Deborah. When you add to the mix her ability as a
poet, as revealed in the victory duet she sang with Barak, this “fiery spirit” is in a
category all by herself.
She accompanied the reluctant General Barak onto the Theatre of Battle, there to cover
his back and offer moral and spiritual support.
Who do you have to watch your back?
Who is providing cover for you?
The Truth
• behind every great man or woman there is a back-coverer
• there are four truths that illustrate the need for and the need to be a Deborah
“Who’s Your Deborah?” corresponds with Chapter 7
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
o you’re going to get it in the back (Et tu, Judas)
ƒ the world is full of people who like nothing better than to kill you –
your reputation, your spirit, your mission
ƒ if your life is on mission for good and for God, you’ll be the first to
be fired on by enemies and by friends
ƒ for leaders in the church today, the read guard is needed for
protection more than ever, since so much of the church is opposed
to advancing and is clumped together at the rear where all they see
is your back
ƒ behavioral geneticists call the predisposition to be crabby, critical,
and irritable “negative affectivity”
ƒ when you’re not where you’re supposed to be – when the church
digs in its heels or brings up the rear rather than positions itself in
the vanguard of change – negative affectivity fears its ugly head
o sometimes Deborahs fight alongside you on the front lines; but mostly
they cover you with prayer from a distance (From a Distance)
ƒ it is not always those who are closest to you that determine your
level of success
• Deborah didn’t fight next to Barak, but she covered Barak’s
back with the fire of her words, her spirit, and her courage
• She was always close enough to catch Barak’s eye, and the
presence of her spirit bolstered his own
ƒ Sometimes we need a Deborah to protect us from ourselves – from
our gaffs and our moods
o you can Deborah people you don’t even know (Timeless Little Debbies)
ƒ there are little Debbies we can do to cover the backs of people we
don’t know
ƒ scripture refers to little Debbies as looking out for the least of these
o you can Deborah generations that come after us and before us (Timeless
Little Debbies, redux)
ƒ you can cover the backs of people who aren’t even there
• example: French PM Clemenceau removing the black
shroud draping Monet’s coffin at his funeral
o Monet refused to paint with black paint
o Clemenceau wouldn’t allow Monet’s funeral to be
violated by the inclusion of black
Conclusion
Centuries ago it was the function of “knights” to be back-coverers for the weak and
wounded. The role of medieval knights, especially in the age of chivalry, was to be
protectors of the weak and unarmed, the priest, the peasant, the poor and the child in a
violent world. Like law enforcement officers and military personnel today, knights often
put their lives in jeopardy for the sake of others,even strangers, and an ethic of
“knighthood” found classis expression in the “Knights of the Round Table.” In the ethic
of the Round Table, personal glory came from royal service and selfless sacrifice.
“Who’s Your Deborah?” corresponds with Chapter 7
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Today we call knights “Deborahs,” a cardinal member of your round table of Withnesses.
“Who’s Your Deborah?” corresponds with Chapter 7
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips featuring a Deborah character
Enemy at the Gates, starring Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes, has several great scenes in
which WWII snipers pair off and cover each other in enemy territory. There is a great
playing off of ideas here as well, as Fiennes (playing the role of a propaganda officer)
also supports Law (a great sniper) in the media and at home.
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In the 2007 film We Own the Night, Mark Walberg and Joaquim Phoenix play brothers
on opposite sides of the law. At first, the tension between the two of them (heightened by
their father) looks like it will explode; but, following the old adage that blood is thicker
than water, ultimately the brothers reconcile. Throughout the bulk of the film they watch
one another’s back, looking for any possible threat to the safety of their family.
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“Who’s Your Deborah?” corresponds with Chapter 7
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
One of the quirkier films of 2007 was the fantasy piece, Stardust. In the film, Robert de
Niro plays a fearsome lighting pirate (he’s a minor character) who is terrified that the
world will find out his secret…that he’s a “whoopsi.” It is honestly one of the strangest,
and funniest, subplots of any film in the last ten years. Thankfully for Captain
Shakespeare (de Niro), his pirate crew keep their Captain’s secret.
Interactive
Your Deborah is a back-coverer. Nature has its own defense mechanism, for some
animals, against rear assault. Consider the turtle: could not a turtle’s shell be easily
conceived of as a ‘natural Deborah?’
Take a few moments and allow your people freedom to move around the room in order to
make origami turtles. Take decorated paper – either covered in vector illustrations, or
perhaps the text of Judges 4-5 in Hebrew or English – and fold it according to the
illustrations below. Have people keep it at their desk, or hang it from their rear view
mirror, as a simple reminder of the inevitable: we all need someone to watch our backs!
“Who’s Your Deborah?” corresponds with Chapter 7
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Deborah?” corresponds with Chapter 7
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
diagrams taken from http://dev.origami.com/images_pdf/8by11turtle.pdf
for a video tutorial on another method,
see http://www.metacafe.com/watch/705522/origami_turtle/
“Who’s Your Deborah?” corresponds with Chapter 7
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
NOTE: if the idea of paper-folded turtles seems a little pedestrian, I suggest trying
something a little more mischevious. Readymech.com has a great assortment of more
fantastical creatures, many of whom are armored like a turtle (see below for example).
Instead of creating a turtle, why not create a readymech instead?
Readymechs are free, downloadable pdf files designed for you to print and build provided
courteously and courageously by fwis.com
http://www.readymech.com
“Who’s Your Deborah?” corresponds with Chapter 7
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Suggested Service Order
•
see following page
“Who’s Your Deborah?” corresponds with Chapter 7
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who’s Your Zaccheus?
You Need a Reject
•
the story of Zaccheus is found in Luke 19
Overview
One of the oddest people Jesus ever befriended was a short, wealthy, self-made
entrepreneur named Zaccheus. He was a tax collector, the chief of sinners, and the
ultimate social outcast. Jesus associated with people who scandalized the gossips of
Palestine.
Which gossips are you scandalized? Or have you made your network as hypoallergenic
as possible?
As you think about who your Zaccheus is and who you are a Zaccheus to, keep this in
mind: most of the 11 have something to give you; Zaccheus requires something from
you.
A Zaccheus is someone who is “up a tree”
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
•
•
they are in some kind of worst-case scenario either socially, mentally, physically,
or economically
o there is a rich vocabulary of human dysfunction in the Bible that is not
adequately conveyed by the English word “sin”
ƒ “sin” is used to translate at least 6 Hebrew and 7 Greek words
ƒ each one refers to relational dysfunctions of responsibility
• to ourselves
• to others
• to creation
• to God
Jesus didn’t relate to men as men and women as women or rejects as rejects
o He met every person and encountered them as a person in need of love
o If Jesus is to be believed and followed then we cannot continue to think of
other people as “other” any longer
ƒ “they” are one of “us”
ƒ there is not “other” only “oneanother”
A Zaccheus is one-of-a-kind, an iconoclast
• more than any Pope or King, more than any totalitarian regime consumerism
makes “coping” the same as “copying”
o in a world of franchised everything (even churches) and cloned dreams,
we are programmed to be types following preordained circuits – talk about
predestination!
o A Zaccheus prompts you to knock off the knock-offs, and reminds us that
copying is an expression of inauthentic living and inauthentic faith
o A Zaccheus helps us to be iconoclasts, image-breakers, so we can be better
incarnations, image-bearers
• A Zaccheus is empowerd by his/her refusal to conform to the conventions of
Western culture
o Your Zaccheus often turns out to be one of the most important people in
your life – your zero-to-one person
ƒ The distance from 0-1 is greater than any distance from 1 to any
other number
o Don’t forget that there are moments when YOU are needed to be that
zero-to-one person for someone else
Be mindful that Zaccheus is “out there”
• We have to go looking for Zaccheus-types because they know they can’t “fit in”
church culture
o It is time for Christians to “get out more,” beyond the walls of our church
buildings
ƒ Out there in love
ƒ Out there in service
ƒ Out there in relationships
ƒ Out there in compassion
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Be aware that Zaccheus is Trouble
• A test of whether you have a Zaccheus is whether you are now taking criticism
for making room in your life for one of these unperfumed personalities
o When we are criticized for befriending “unsavory” types we might do well
to acknowledge that we are condoning them
ƒ The word condone means:
• To pardon
• To forgive
• To overlook
o You can condone an action without approving it
• Your Zaccheus doesn’t just disturb others, they rub you the wrong way too
o This Withness will get you into trouble
Zaccheus is inefficient, but their inefficiency reshapes you into the image of Christ
• Life runs so much more smoothly and efficiently without a Zaccheus, but maybe
it’s time to make effigies of efficiency
• You need a person who is mocked by others
Conclusion
One of the most fascinating but least explored aspects of Jesus’ life was his never-failing
tender spot for “finding room” – whether in our homes or at our tables or in our hearts.
Who knows the ways his mother’s constant telling of the no-room-at-the-inn story shaped
his soul and psyche. But the no-room-refrain of Jesus’ life is evident everywhere: from
his promise “I go to prepare a pleace for you” to the sensitivity about Jesus having no
“place to call his own”to the poignant detail ending the story of the Good Samaritan:
finding room in his home for the wounded man. In fact, Jesus had a ready eye for
chances to eat and spend the night with village fools and outcasts wherever they may be
found: lepers, tax collectors, mentally and physically disturbed, prostitutes, sex offenders,
etc. For Jesus, it waasn’t a sacrifice to do this – it was a passion.
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips featuring a Zaccheus character
Perhpaps the movie that most endeared John Candy to the world was the comedy classic
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987). In the film Candy stars as the perfect reject –
shower curtain ring salesman Del Griffith. Griffith gloms onto respectable businessman
Neal Page (Steve Martin) after their shared flight home for Christmas is cancelled. The
two make their way back to their respective home for the holidays and in the process
Page does not muder Griffith, in fact – he comes to love him as the archetypal Zaccheus.
Warning: do not try and get a John Candy look-a-like to climb a syccamore tree as an
illustration.
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The 1991 film What about Bob stars Bill Murray as Bob Wiley, an obsessive
compulsive patient of psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss) who invites
himself along on the good doctor’s family vacation. Hilarity ensues. Ultimately,
Marvin’s family realize that they’d rather than screwed-up Bob than uptight Leo and
everyone learns a lesson about priorities.
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
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In 2000’s High Fidelity John Cusack, an independent record store owner named Rob
Gordan, is beset by two Zaccheus characters – Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack
Black). They drive him nuts – but, as he so delicately puts it in the film – I hired them
for 10hrs a week…and they just started showing up every single day.
Samples: World’s Ugliest Dog
• taken, royalty-free, from Animal Planet (http://www.animal.discovery.com )
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
The Lethe Lectures: Amnesia (a short theatrical sketch by the Riding Lights Theatre
Co.)
From The Best Time to Act, 1995
•
note: this skit paints a great picture of a Zaccheus/outcast type character, full of
foibles and fumblings
Enter Lecturer, despositing sheaves of notes on a lectern.
Tonight my subject is the mental health problems of rural clergymen in 1922 –
no, I’m sorry, that was yesterday. Tonight, of course, my subject is ‘Amnesia.’
Amnesia. Many things are brought to mind by a subject like Amnesia. It haunts
its victims like a…like a …like the problem that it is. Anyone who has
experienced this disease commonly known as…this awful predicament which in
laymen’s terms is known as…Now, perhaps one of the greatest unexplained
factors in the death rate of Cornish clergymen in the early 1920s is the massive
number of – sorry? Yeserday?...Did I? I must apologize, of course, my subject
for tonight is…Sorry, I’ve just lost my place in my notes. It’s Amnesia, of
course! Over thirty percent of amnesiacs suffer precisely because…the other
seventy percent are in such a similar predicament. (He looks around awkwardly)
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
The laymen will talk, often casually, of a ‘writer’s block,’ whereas the actor may
well talk of…(He receives a prompt) of ‘drying.’ All these aspects – the ‘mental
relapse,’ the writer’s…problems, or the actor who…who wonders what the next
words are…all these are, in miniature, forms of…(He receives a prompt)
Amnesia. John Keats aptly sums up the experience of Amnesia with the words of
the poem ‘Ode to a bird’: (reciting quickly)
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk.
(He gives a short laugh of relief) Perhaps only Shelley could have expressed it so
beautifully. He refers to ‘Lethe’, the famous river of forgetfulness, one draught of
which can cause total oblivion. (Long silence…then emphatically) What is
it…about…Amnesia that presents…(Silence, he bites his lip) two of the greatest
challenges to the patient? The first is, the person cannot remember why he came
to the doctor and so cannot give him the slightest indication of his problem. The
second is, the person cannot remember why he came to the doctor and so cannot
give him the slightest indication of his problem. ‘The rest is silence,’ in the words
of the greatest poet and dramatist n the English language – sorry, I’m terrible with
names – the fellow with the beart, a little pointy beard…bald head and a –
(gestures to his neck) – what do you call them? The bard? The bard. William the
Bard. That, I think, wraps it up for tonight, althought it might be added that
Prussian military ambitions were evident, of course, in the Balkans. Tomorrow
we’ll enjoy a complete change of subject when I’ll be discussing Amnesia.
(exits confidently)
Reading: Invitation, from Alternative Worship, pp.118-119
The table of Jesus is your place of gathering
Here you are welcomed, wanted, loved
Here there is a place set for you
So come all you who thirst
All you who hunger for the bread of life
All you whose souls cry out for healing
Come all you who are weary
All you who are bowed down with worry
All you who ache with the tiredness of living
Come all you poor
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
All you who are without food or refuge
All you who go hungry in a fat land
Come all you who are lost
All you who search for meaning but cannot find it
All you who have no place of belonging
Jesus invites you
Draw near with faith
Receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ which he gave for you and his blood which he
shed for you
Eat and drink in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him ni your hearts by
faith with thanksgiving
Benediction
Just remember, the sweet is never as sweet
without the sour, and I know the sour…
which allows me to appreciate the sweet.
- Jason Lee as Brian Shelby, Vanilla Sky, 2001
•
Suggested Service Order
see following two pages
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Zaccheus?” corresponds with Chapter 8
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who’s Your Rhoda?” corresponds with Chapter 9
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who’s Your Rhoda?
You Need a “Little One”
•
the story of Rhoda is found in Acts 12
Overview
Rhoda was a doorkeeper in the house of Mary in Jerusalem. During a lengthy prayer
vigil, Rhoda got up to answer the door – and there was Peter, unexpectedly and
supernaturally freed from jail! She got so excited, she forget to let him in and instead ran
to tell her companions that their prayers had been answered.
They, however, didn’t believe her. They told her she was crazy; but, when she wouldn’t
let up, they finally came and saw for themselves that she was indeed quite sane.
Sometimes it takes a child to point out the obvious. And a child shall lead them.
Who are the children in your life that keep you believing?
Wifeless, Childless, Children-First Jesus
“Who’s Your Rhoda?” corresponds with Chapter 9
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
•
•
Jesus lived without children of his own, but when he wants to show what
discipleship is like, he plops a child in front of his disciples
o Why a child?
ƒ Because children were of no account in Jesus’ day
• They were worth less than women and only slightly more
than animals
ƒ The gospel showed that, in Christ, the last shall be first and the
weak shall be strong
• Jesus’ whole ministry was a sign system in how to be
retrievers of the neglected, the maligned, the misfits and the
little, and how to trust the God of history to act in history in
the Spirit of the Magnificat – who fills the hungry with
‘good things’ and empties the pockets of the rich
o ‘children first’ was the Jesus motto because in the kingdom of God the last
are first
there is a vast difference between ‘childish’ and ‘child-like’
o a childish faith needs an answer to everything and needs it right now!
o A child-like faith trusts the one in charge, not understanding it all but
loving and honoring the authority
Once, Twice, Three Times a Rhoda
• Jesus weaves three mantles of spiritual maturity
o Affirmation
ƒ “Let the little children come to me, for such is the kingdom of
heaven.”
o Ideal
ƒ “Unless you turn and become again like children, you will never
enter the kingdom of heaven.”
o Warning
ƒ “If you harm a child it would be better for you if a great millstone
were fastened around you neck and you were drowned in the
depths of the sea.”
Re-membering When You Were a Rhoda
• childhood is vital to our entrance into the Kingdom
• Kierkegaard tells of the only two good ways to read a story to a child:
o Either so live the stories that you “own” them and in telling them you
become a child yourself
o Or fake it – and stage the story as if your life depended on it
ƒ Only when the child himself detects that the teller does not believe
stories are the stories damaging – yet not because of the content
itself but because of the untruth in regard to the teller – because of
the mistrust and suspiciousness which the child gradually develops
“Who’s Your Rhoda?” corresponds with Chapter 9
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Rhodas Don’t Live by Bread Alone
• to starve the child of the spell of a story, or the cantor of a poem, oral or written,
is a kind of living burial
• if the child is left empty of texts, in the fullest sense of that term, he will suffer
and early death of the heart and of the imagination
o that is why it’s better to have literalists read the Bible to our children than
liberals, and why the reproduction rate of liberal Christianity is so low
ƒ they have broken the spell with critical detachment and
demythologized discourse
• a Rhoda keeps once upon a time alive and well and happily ever after something
to be hoped for
Rhoda Disciplines
• the five recurring themes in Griswold’s classic book on children’s literature are
the five reasons why you need a Rhoda as one of your Withnesses
o Rhodas keep you snug
ƒ It is that snugness that makes dreaming possible
ƒ Without the snugness of blankets at night, the snugness of the
shelter by day, dreaming is difficult, not safe
ƒ Just as we have a biological need to dream while sleeping, we have
a spiritual need to dream while waking
• These day dreams are shaped around narratives and
metaphors that make sense of our lives
• By night you’re a poet working on a palette of images
• By day you’re a novelist, creating on the canvas of life your
imagination at play – a dream sequence of “make believes”
made real in narratives of attachment and abandonment
ƒ Rhodas unite our day-dreams and our night-dreams
ƒ God is both at work and at play in our lives
• Being able to listen to your heart – to dream the dreams
God has planted within you – sounds like good reason to
have and be a Rhoda
• Rhodas keep you scared
o Witches, warlocks, vampires, etc… are the stuff of children’s literature
and they play an important role in teaching us to face our fears
ƒ Monsters are real, not just under-the-bed or over-the-rainbow
monsters, and we need to face our monsters and turn them into
instruments of creativity and growth
• Besides, you can’t become a hero without a villain
• Rhodas keep you Small
“Who’s Your Rhoda?” corresponds with Chapter 9
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
•
•
o A rediscovery of the little, and a contrite sense of our smallness in the
grandness of the universe, is high on the list of “agenda items” if our 20th
C children are to make it through the 21st C
ƒ Meaning and significance are in the small things
• Jesus took bread and wine and infused the elementary with
the elemental
ƒ Living large and loving little
• A little vegetable garden in the midst of a squatter camp is
a miracle and a beauty
ƒ Ask, Seek, Knock
• A child’s simple questions are often the most profound
• The greatest teachers are those who ask the greatest
questions
o Who do people say that I am? (Mark 8.27)
o Who do you say that I am? (Mark 8.29)
o What good is it if you gain the whole world yet lose
your soul? (Matthew 16.26)
o Why are you thinking these things? (Mark 2.8)
o What is written in the Law? (Luke 10.26)
o What do you want? (John 1.38)
o Do you see anything? (Mark 8.25)
Rhodas keep you light
o A Rhoda is filled with light-hearted, even light-headed air-borne
characters (Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, Marry Potter, etc.) that are
enchanting contrasts to the prosaic, predictable, grounded, weighed-down
world of adults
o Gravity is an adult disease that leads to the grave
ƒ The more your body succumbs to gravity, the more it sags, sheds
desire, and the more dissolute it becomes
o Children of all types keep us young because they keep us flying
ƒ Once you discover lightness, the lightness of grace, the lightness of
laughter, the lightness of music, you can fly again
o For a child, it’s natural to be an idealist; but it takes miracles for them to
be turned into realists
o Children play not for entertainment or distraction but to concentrate better
and be creative
ƒ This is what Plato called ‘serious play,’ which he believed was the
calling of the true philosopher
Rhodas keep you alive
o If you have children you know about ‘animations’
ƒ The word leads right into the universe of the child: ‘animation’ is
‘anima,’ which means ‘alive’
ƒ In the world of a child everything is alive, from talking animals to
talking toys
o A child is never alone, and a child’s friends come in surprising shapes and
sizes
“Who’s Your Rhoda?” corresponds with Chapter 9
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
o The world of magic is the world of a child, because magic pulls the
heartstrings of the universe
o Rhodas animate the stale, pale platitude of the psalmist and make it into a
living manifesto
o If spirituality means ‘waking up,’ then your Rhoda is one of your prime
spiritual directors for they help you to ‘wake up’ to live, to come alive into
existence
Conclusion
Without Rhodas and their animations, our souls can shrink, our minds can turn to mush
or machines, our awareness atrophied by a consumer culture that defines reality in terms
of trades and terminals. Rhodas keep the glint of adventure in our eyes, and when the
Rhodas are released, doors previously closed for your whole life start to open up.
“Who’s Your Rhoda?” corresponds with Chapter 9
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips featuring a Rhoda character
The 2006 Spanish Language Film, Pan’s Labyrinth, is a visually stunning and
narratively compelling work of modern cinema. In the film, a young girl named Ofelia
(Ivana Baquero) is forced to live with her step-father (an officer 1944 fascist Spain) in a
military camp. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the
center of the labyrinth. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by
surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the the true
princess and will never see her real father, the king, again.
This is an adult farie tale, one that allows us all inside the imaginative mind of a beautiful
child.
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“Who’s Your Rhoda?” corresponds with Chapter 9
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
In MirrorMask (2005) author and screenwriter Neil Gaiman shows us what life is like in
his fantasy world of opposing kingdoms. In the film, we follow the story of a 15 year old
girl, daughter to circus performers, who imagines she must find the magical Mirrormask
to restore health to the ailing While Queen. The audience is never sure whether or not
they’re in a dream, an imagination of the girl, a parallel universe, or something worse.
It’s great!
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NOTE: in addition to including a list of films with a Rhoda character, I’ve included a list
of the Top children’s films. These can be used during worship gatherings to illicit that
‘childlike’ spirit in all of us firsthand, rather than portraying someone on screen doing
that for someone else on screen.
Top 25 Children’s Films
25.
24.
23.
22.
21.
20.
19.
18.
17.
16.
15.
14.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
Watership Down
Antz
Beauty and the Beast
The Jungle Book
Holes
Prince of Egypt
Babe
Bambi
Toy Story 2
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
E.T.
Sleeping Beauty
Toy Story
Aladdin
Cinderella
A Bug’s Life
Bend it like Beckham
Shrek
Cars
Meet the Robinsons
Whale Rider
The Lion King
The Incredibles
Monsters Inc.
Finding Nemo
“Who’s Your Rhoda?” corresponds with Chapter 9
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
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A Child's Prayer
(reprinted from www.invitationtoprayer.org, Church of England)
Lord in heaven,
please listen to all those
who are praying to you now.
Those who are sad and crying,
those who have lost friends and family.
Those who are alone
and frightened.
Help them to remember,
that you are there
and you are listening.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
Suggested Service Order
•
see following page
*
“Who’s Your Rhoda?” corresponds with Chapter 9
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Who Are Your VIPs?” corresponds with Chapter 10
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who Are Your VIPs?
You Need a Lydia and a Lazarus
•
•
•
the story of Lydia is found in Acts 16.11-38
the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is found in John 11
the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man is found in Luke 16.19-31
Overview
Setting aside for a moment that it is better to give than to receive, let’s simply
acknowledge that it is actually harder to receive. Typically when people arrive at a
mission (or charity, or soup kitchen, etc.) they immediately want to serve and go into
default giving mode; however, they forget that the poor and the dispossessed also want to
give.
We must learn how to receive from the poor. Before we can give, we must first learn
how to receive.
Who are you learning to receive from? Who is your Lydia, your sponsor, patron, and
provider? Who is your Lazarus, your impoverished friend and true companion?
The rich need to discover their poverty, and the poor need to discover their riches.
“Who Are Your VIPs?” corresponds with Chapter 10
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Who’s Your Lydia?
• Lydia was a merchant of purple dyed garments in Philippi
o After she and her entire household received baptism she hosted house
churches, and presided at meetings
o Patrons practice hospitality and philanthropy, and Lydia’s house of
worship became a center for evangelization and education as well as
worship
• We do wrong by villifying the rich
o True: the very rich have access to levers and resources beyond most
people and can use those to destructive ends
ƒ BUT: we all have that power – the power to ruin a person by
destroying their reputation with our gossip, slander, and malice
o True: the rich have sins that garner a lot of attention – sex, greed, poweraddiction, cheating
ƒ BUT: the poor have their sins too – jealousy, resentment, cheating
o True: the rich are spiritually more vulnerable than the poor
ƒ BUT: when Jesus said ‘happy are the poor’ [ptochoi] he used a
word that means poverty in the sense that we are totally dependant
on God
• The danger of wealth is that the default position moves us
further from God and deeper into the refuge of our own
self-sufficiency
• The strength of poverty is that its default position is to be
totally reliant on God
o True: income inequality is at a 40 year high
ƒ BUT: let’s be aware of two interrelated things
• First, the world as a whole is getting richer, and the poor
are doing it faster than the rich
• Second: the wealth of the wealthy is not the problem
o “You don’t make the poor rich by making the rich poor.” [Abraham
Lincoln]
ƒ our problems are not globalization, or global inequality, or unfair
trade, or market injustice
ƒ our problem is the failure to address the poverty of the rich and the
richness of the poor
• you need VIP “providers,” persons who will lift up your arms financially for the
ministry and mission to which God has called you
o your success hinges on one thing: is there somebody out there who
believes in you enough and believes in the mission of your organization,
to pony up to the table and put money where your mouth is
Who’s Your Lazarus?
“Who Are Your VIPs?” corresponds with Chapter 10
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
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there are two people, one real and one fictional, named Lazarus in the Bible
the real one was Jesus’ true friend
the fictional Lazarus (Hebrew for ‘God helps’), the only character to which Jesus
ever attached a name in a parable, was the disabled, skin-diseased beggar who
eked out a living by begging outside the mansion of Dives (Latin for ‘rich man’).
o Dives is a counterpart to Lydia – a person of wealth who is barred from
paradise
The fact that wealth per se is not the problem is a significant reason why both
liberal and socialist attack-the-rich approaches to poverty have failed
o These attacks don’t even resonate with the poor – instead, what the poor
seem to find most appealing is the ‘prosperity gospel’ preaching of
Pentecostalism
ƒ Why is this true?
• Because the poor have dreams, dreams of being wealthy
• To attack the rich and to villify abundance is to attack the
poor by taking away their dreams
The problem with Dives was not his wealth, but that he lived without being in
relationship to Lazarus or any other poor person
o What the rich need, even more than digging deep into their pin-striped
pockets, is a relationship with the poor
o The rich write checks and “visit” the poor all the time
ƒ The problem is that the rich don’t “know” the poor or become
friends with the poor
ƒ It’s one thing to have a heart for the poor, it’s another to use their
bathroom
Top-down solutions to poverty will never world because anonymous relationships
between donors and recipients are doomed to failure
Conclusion
God is giver. We are receivers. God’s fundamental category is “giving.” Our
fundamental category is “receiving.” Not to like to receive is to prefer God’s category.
When we do so, we demonstrate one of the worst spiritual problems anyone can have –
we get a God complex. To refuse to receive is tantamount to declaring war against “The
Gift” (Holy Spirit) which proceeds from the “Giver of Life” (Father and Son).
“Who Are Your VIPs?” corresponds with Chapter 10
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Films featuring a Lydia/Lazarus Character
Throughout the nine seasons of the TV Show X-Files, FBI agents Mulder and Scully
were beneficiaries of both the illusive Deep Throat and the misleading Smoke Man in
their quest to uncover the Truth. Deep Throat and Smoking Man often gave Mulder
information about the existence of non-terrestrial life forms, and acted as his protects and
benefactors in the grand narrative of the show.
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In the 1998 cinematic version of Les Mis, we see a classic example of a Lydia character –
the priest/bishop who gives Jean Val Jean (Liam Neeson) a gift of incredible riches to get
him started on his new life. Val Jean had been taken in by the priest and shown
incredible kindness after his period of imprisonment, by repays the priest by robbing him
“Who Are Your VIPs?” corresponds with Chapter 10
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
of his fine silver candlesticks and fleeing the home. When the police catch up with Val
Jean and try to arrest him, the priest tells them the candlesticks were a gift and
accompanies that ‘gift’ with many other things Val Jean had ‘mistakenly’ left behind.
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In 2007’s License to Wed Robin Williams plays a mischevious priest who’s assigned to
do pre-marital counseling for a young couple. Williams irritates the groom-to-be to such
a degree that he, Ben Murphy played by John Krasinski, does a background check on
Williams and finds out that he’s already been married…and divorced (oh…the plot
thickens). When confronted with his ‘secret sin’ Williams confesses, claiming that he
married an impoverished widow from a foreign country simply to help her and her ten
children gain access to a better life in the USA. Once they got here, they were divorced
and Williams became the children’s benefactor. The youngest, in the film, has just
graduated from Medical School.
Web Resources for DEMO
http://www.kiva.org
http://www.freerice.com
Benediction
I would like to leave this world having asked less of it than I have given to it, without
having much said about the matter either way.
- Paul Escamilla
Suggested Service Order
•
see following page
“Who Are Your VIPs?” corresponds with Chapter 10
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Where’s Your Jerusalem?” corresponds with Chapter 11
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Where’s Your Jerusalem?
You Need a Place
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the story of Jerusalem is woven throughout the pages of the First and Second
Testament
of particular significance is the occasion where Jesus wept over Jerusalem in John
11.35
Overview
Every person needs a place, and everyone needs to live in a landscape. In order to know
who we truly are, we must be grounded in an understanding of our spiritual placement:
our heritage, traditions, and geography.
What places represent holiness in your life? The places where you find it easiest to
connect with God, to pray, and to hear His voice?
What are the coordinates of your holy ground? The intonations of your holy space?
Roots and Wings
“Where’s Your Jerusalem?” corresponds with Chapter 11
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
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Every plant grows in two opposite directions at the same time: downward, more
rooted and bound, clinging to the ground; but also upward, more free and open,
swaying in the breeze
all storytelling emerges from two fundamental experiences: the state of being
rooted to a particular place, and the act of traveling
o there are two kinds of stories to tell: moving in stories and moving on
stories
ƒ Moving in stories are stories with roots: home-sweet-home books
about sanctuary, security and solitude
• Roots: Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like
treasure hidden in a field …”
ƒ Moving on stories are stories with wings: blue-highways books
about pilgrimages, on-the-road-again restlessness, homesickness
• Wings: Matthew 13:46 “The kingdom of heaven is like a
merchant in search of fine pearls …”
o there is a major homecoming component that
sometimes makes it more about a “home” place
than even the storytelling of moving in
o In postmodern culture our moving on, blue-highways books have no
home-coming or home-sickness
Much of contemporary spirituality is placeless and homeless
o With no sense of place (location, grounding), our specious species has
turned this planet into a consumer hell lined and linked with shopping
malls, drive-thrus and big-box megastores
becoming “native to our place” involves living out three questions
ƒ Can you find your place?
ƒ Can you live in place?
ƒ Can you speak our place?
Finding Your Place
• We read of Jesus weeping twice, both times over “locals:” once over a local
person (Lazarus), the other time over a local place (Jerusalem)
• Just as you give yourself heart and soul to a lover, so you give yourself heart and
soul to a landscape
o Only the language of love seems to work when we’ve found our place.
Living in Place
• Where are you “situated?” Where do you “situate” yourself?
• Is part of our struggle to find our “place” on earth that we try to get “situated”
without truly situating ourselves?
o Might not our uncommittedness be a reflection of our unplacedness?
• Benedictine spirituality is by design a community in place
o The elixir of place is partly the elixir of community
“Where’s Your Jerusalem?” corresponds with Chapter 11
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
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ƒ the natural comes first, then the supernatural
o Benedictines take a different vow than other monastic communities
ƒ Obedience
ƒ Stability
ƒ Community
• Who we are is shaped by where we are
An embodied faith involves emplacement—learning the local narratives,
developing rituals that celebrate the local, conducting local conversations not just
with other humans but with the native landscape, its terrain, its climate, its colors,
its creatures
o Unfortunately, “local” is the last thing the “local church” often is
ƒ For the church to be “local” it needs to incarnate the life of faith
within the local culture
ƒ A truly “local church” would enjoy an intimate familiarity with the
world that lies outside its walls
• It would experience God through local elements and
expressions while recreating the local with transcending
universals
• An aboriginal community will have a unique personality
that reflects the quirkiness of the place where it lives and
moves and has its being
ƒ Instead, too many churches “do business” like too many stripmalls: cookie cutter planning from detached, centralized corporate
offices
Living in place is an emblem for new types of spiritual practices and postmodern
spiritual disciplines
o Example 1: Eat locally, buy locally: The more we globalize, the more we
need to de-globalize and localize
o Example 2: Eat seasonally
ƒ Why not celebrate the glory of life by feasting on seasonal glories:
daffodil cakes in the spring, peach cobbler in the summer, grape
pie in the fall, plum pudding in the winter—and Sharon’s carrot
cake all year round?
o Example 3: Eat genius: Love and live genuinely
ƒ Both the words “genuine” and “genius” come from the same
German word “genie.”
ƒ A genie is, in its oldest and broadest sense, the unique character of
a person or place.
• Everyone has a “genie,” a spirit that inspires and animates a
person with the gift of genius, which is both a blessing and
a curse: its puts you in a special posture and place, but
separates you from the everyday.
• If you keep your genie corked, eventually there may be no
genie to come out
People suffer today from both a nature deficit and a spiritual deficit.
“Where’s Your Jerusalem?” corresponds with Chapter 11
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
o In biblical Hebrew there is no word for “nature,” because “nature” is not
something separate from us. We are a part of it, and it is a part of us.
Speaking Our Place
• Every place has a personality.
o When you speak, can people hear the personality of your place? Do you
speak with an accent? Does your “speech betray you,” as it did Peter with
the servant girls?
o The incarnation means that disciples of Jesus speak not only with a gospel
accent, but with a geographic accent as well. The intonations of place get
deep inside and change us. If you’re a part of a “place,” it changes you.
Conclusion
Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I Have A Dream” has now become part of the sacred
canon of USAmerican civil religion right up there with Abraham Lincoln’s Second
Inaugural Address and the Declaration of Independence. This speech is perhaps best
known for its ending words: “Free at Last, Free at Last; Thank God Almighty I’m free at
last.”
But these aren’t King’s words. They are the words of a Charles A. Tindley song called “I
Shall Get Home Some Day.” What made King’s words resonate so powerfully is that
they were spoken out of the accent of the black church. The pain and particularity of the
struggle for freedom gave King’s words universal resonance.
It is only when we’re bound and bonded to a place that we can be free to inhabit all
places.
“Where’s Your Jerusalem?” corresponds with Chapter 11
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips featuring a “Place” theme
The 2004 Argentinean film The Motorcycle Diaries chronicles the adventures of a
young, idealistic Che Guevara and his companion as they explore the countryside of
South America looking for a better understanding of their home. Heartbroken by the
injustice and corruption they see all around them, the two young men are forced to come
to terms with their own inadequacy and the need for change in their homeland.
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The fascinating-yet-bewildering film, Waterworld (1995), almost made Kevin Costner a
laughing stock and a pauper in one fell swoop – but the movie did have some redeeming
characteristics. Of particular interest was the idea that, since all the world seemed to be
covered in water, there may still be some “dry land” somewhere inhabitable by humanity.
In the beginning of the film Costner, The Mariner, scoops sand from the ocean floor and
“Where’s Your Jerusalem?” corresponds with Chapter 11
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
sells it to deluded hopefuls; but, in the film’s climax, he becomes a Moses-figure and
leads the human race back to solid earth. P.S. I’d suggest renting this one before
spending anything over $3.50.
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2007’s I am Legend featured Will Smith as the lone survivor in a post-apocalyptic New
York, ravaged by zombies. When he discovers another uninfected human being (and her
son), Robert Neville takes hope that there may be, in fact, a new home awaiting him off
the island of Manhattan. Their journey home is a remarkable adventure, full of dark
symbolism and a foreboding warning about the recklessness of mankind.
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The dark horse of 2006 was Children of Men, a P.D. James novel about a barren world
and a scholar who is bound to protect the first pregnant woman on earth in almost 20
years. The two of them run and hide, duck and dive, to a promised safe haven where the
baby can be born and raised to survive.
Benediction
If you want to see where you are you will have to get out of your spaceship, out of your
car, off your horse, and walk over the ground.
— Wendell Berry from his home in Port Royal, Kentucky
Suggested Service Order
•
see following page
“Where’s Your Jerusalem?” corresponds with Chapter 11
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“The Invisible 12th” corresponds with Chapter 12
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
The Invisible 12th
You Need the Paraclete
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the story of the Paraclete is woven throughout the pages of the First and Second
Testament
of particular significance is the occasion where God promises through Isaiah that
“when you walk through the waters I will be there; and through the rivers, they
shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned;
neither shall the flame kindle upon you” (43.2)
similarly, we might well note the Day of Pentecost when the Paraclete descended
upon the disciples in the Upper Room (Acts 2)
Overview
Sometimes all of your Withnesses will fail you and that is why we have another promise:
God will work the late shift. God will watch your back.
In sports it’s common to refer to the crowd at a football game as the 12th man on the field.
Disciples of Jesus, similarly, have a 12th Withness, known as the Paraclete. The word
paraclete is most often used for the Holy Spirit. But it is also the same word Jesus
sometimes uses to describe himself. We translate “Paraclete” as “comforter.” But the
“The Invisible 12th” corresponds with Chapter 12
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Holy Spirit as “The Comforter” doesn’t mean a cuddly blanket or a hot-water bottle but a
bracing friend who helps us bear every burden, lift every load, climb every mountain,
fjord every stream.
Our greatest asset is invisible and intangible. The Paraclete goes out into life’s conflicts
with us and protects not only our backs, but our sides, our fronts, our insides, the whole
being! In the Harper's Bible Dictionary the word Paraclete means "one called to the side
of." 5 This is the job description of the Holy Spirit: to stand at the side of all those who
follow Jesus.
Under no circumstances and in no condition do we not have the Withnessing presence of
the Holy Spirit. We are never without what we need for life’s missions, the guards and
guides, the goads or gifts. “The Twelfth” enables us to have the attitude of St. Paul:
“With God on our side who can be against us?”
Friends of God
• One of the most astonishing claims of the Bible is that God created humans to be
the “friends” of God
o Jesus calls us no longer “servants” but “friends.”
o God calls Abraham and his offspring “God’s friend,”
o God speaks to Moses “as one speaks to a friend.”
ƒ Thomas Aquinas believed that the life of faith was nothing more or
less than this: a life of friendship with God.
• There is closeness and intimacy with Christ, in the Paraclete Spirit, but do not
mistake the near for the casual.
o Our relationship in the Holy Spirit is not one of equals, though it is one of
lovers.
o The Paraclete covers, surrounds and fills us, protecting our hearts and our
minds in righteousness and love.
• A friend of God means more than to love God.
o It means to be in a right relationship with God where three marks of the
Paraclete, three signs of the Spirit, reign supreme: confidence, humility,
and courage.
• The three-pronged strategy that gets you through every challenge in life is:
o the confidence of “I can do all things”
o the humility of knowing that the only way you can do “all things” is
“through Christ”
o the living out of the “strength” or “courage” that comes from a nondual
experience of life and of God that connects the humility of “And yet!” to
the confidence of “But God!”
• with the Paraclete Withness at your side, you bring together two extremes:
pessimism of the mind with optimism of the will, a full awareness of your worth
and worthlessness, a sense of your importance and impotence at the same time.
“The Invisible 12th” corresponds with Chapter 12
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
The Trifecta of Truth: Confidence, Humility, Courage
• Confidence
o Because of the Paraclete, disciples of Jesus can be “confidence men” and
“confidence women.”
ƒ Our confidence is not an earned confidence, it is an alien
confidence.
ƒ Our confidence is not in ourselves, in our own greatness and
goodness, but in God’s grace and goodness and greatness.
• Humility
o Without humility, confidence is always pride, always overconfidence.
ƒ Humility comes from humus which means “good earth.”
ƒ A humble person is rooted in the earth, is grounded in reality.
o Ancient societies regarded humility as a vice, but the biblical virtue of
humility stands that kind of thinking on its head
ƒ We are called throughout the Scriptures to “humble ourselves” and
to serve God “in all humility of mind” or “lowliness of mind.”
• In fact, in an inversion of the world’s hierarchy of values,
the meek inherit the earth, the last are first, and in the
famous refrain from the Magnificat, “Deposuit superbos et
exaltavit humiles” (“He hath put down the proud and
exalted the humble”).
• Courage
o The Withnessing power of the Paraclete brings along with it Jesus’
ultimate gift: the courage of his "peace," the "peace" that Paul said "passes
all understanding" in this world, and in its storms.
ƒ Jesus promised his "peace" to all who live with the Paraclete
courage of humble confidence.
Conclusion
The Invisible Twelfth means we are never alone, never abandoned, never at the mercy of
the world’s whims and wickedness. The Paraclete Withness enables us to live our lives to
the fullest, to face our greatest fears, to be more than conquerors in life’s conflicts and
confusions.
“The Invisible 12th” corresponds with Chapter 12
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Additional Resources
TV/Movie Clips with a Paraclete Character
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In the 2004 film Hidalgo, Viggo Mortgenson plays a cowboy racing across the deserts of
Arabia. About 2/3 of the way through this 3,000 mile journey Frank Hopkins
(Mortgensen) collapses, exhausted, and finds it impossible to continue. At this point
something strangely mystical happens, and Hopkins is visited by the spirits of his First
Nations ancestors. As they dance around him, he is invigorated by their presence and
finds the strength to go on and win the race.
This is a very strange clip, and will require some patience on the part of the pastor (or
some other voice box) to authenticate the ways in which we are encouraged by the
invisible presence of a comforter. That said, it is also a very powerful clip – one that
illustrates the potency of the Paraclete.
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“The Invisible 12th” corresponds with Chapter 12
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
“Run, Luke, Run” has been forever etched into my mind – despite the fact that I hate
running and my name does not even rhyme with Luke. These words, spoken by the
disembodied spirit of Obi Wan Kenobi in 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope, are
representative of the closest thing Americans have to a mythology.
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Cate Blanchett, as Galadriel, visits Frodo at the end of his ordeal against Shelob in The
Two Towers (though the Peter Jackson films moved them to the third movie, The
Return of the King). After Frodo has been exhausted and cannot continue to fight for
his life, Galadriel’s voice presents itself to him and gives him courage and strength to
fight the scariest monster in any film ever.
Interactive: Who are your 11?
At the end of the series it’s probably important for each person to try and identify who
they are in relationship with right now. To be fair, not everyone will be in relationship
with all 11 right now – and that’s ok – we just want them to acknowledge their need to be
in relationship, and to be looking for others of the missing 11.
Print off the map below and give one to each person. The image you see below you has
been scaled down from its original 11x17 (ledger) size. The Adobe Photoshop file is
available for download (for higher quality printing or if you want to make any changes).
Use this map as a way for each person to interact with their life. Have them write the
name(s) of any of their 11 next to the appropriate logo. Also, have them write the names
of the people TO WHOM THEY SERVE as each of the 11 – to reinforce the idea that we
need to be Withnesses, not just have 11 Withnesses.
At the end, encourage them to keep this map with them in their Bible, car, desk or
wherever as a reminder that we all need to be in these 11 indispensable relationships.
“The Invisible 12th” corresponds with Chapter 12
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
Benediction
May the Spirit
Bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and
Superficial relationships so that
You will live deep in your heart.
May the Spirit
Bless you with anger
At injustice and oppression,
And exploitation of people and the earth
So that you will work for Justice, equity and peace.
May the Spirit
Bless you with tears to shed
For those who suffer
So that you will
Reach out your hand
To comfort them.
And may the Spirit
Bless you with the foolishness
To think you can make a difference
“The Invisible 12th” corresponds with Chapter 12
of 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without!
by Leonard Sweet
In the world,
So you will do the things
Which others say cannot be done.
Suggested Service Order
•
see following page