Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 15

God knows about failure

I read the parable of the sower in a new way recently.

Howard Schultz, the most significant CEO of Starbucks, said that he learned about failure when working as a sales representative for Xerox. His job consisted mostly of making cold sales calls. He faced a massive amount of rejection. Obviously, God used that in his life to make him a great leader during the next chapters of his life.

So here’s the parable from Matthew 13:3-9: A farmer scattered abundant seeds across various types of...

Presence: a reminder.

I’ve written here about presence, particularly the presence of God.

Presence: and grief

Presence: and conversation

Presence: and me

Those post are part of a series I wrote when I was teaching a course on Pastoral Care. The idea that God is present with us is significant. Not fixing things, not doing what we want, but with us.

Right now, I’m teaching a class for beginning preachers and I’ve heard a few talks about some sentences in a letter Paul wrote to some people in Philipp...

Is It Worth It?

Rich Dixon asks another important question.

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Last time, I omitted the question that opened our team discussion about risk.

Is it worth the risk?

Unless you’re a teenage male, risk/reward analysis is likely a normal part of life.

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Jesus advised his followers to count the cost of following. I used to think this was all about analyzing risk/reward, being certain our physical circumstances are properly prepared, making sure the potential outcome is worth the risk.

I’...

When Jesus moves the edge to him.

Yesterday we said that Jesus chooses to go to people who admit they aren’t perfect. Here’s the continuation of that story:

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2. But it’s pretty clear that Jesus isn’t willing to leave people where they are, in lives that don’t work.

We think about that often. “Well, Jesus was loving. He wouldn’t reject me.”

Jesus was loving. And, by the way, Jesus IS loving. But it was the kind of love that says, “that pain you are feeling? I can heal that. But you have to follow me.”

That’s ...

What Jesus said on the edge of town

Yesterday was the fourth Sunday of Lent. Easter is three weeks away.

That may feel surprising to you. It does to me. Time is confusing right now. Everything is confusing right now.

In the Gospel text for yesterday, Luke 15, there are three stories that may be familiar to us, even if we haven’t spent much time in church. A lost sheep, a lost coin, and a father and two sons. In the posts today and tomorrow, I’m going to make three observations from those stories.

1. Jesus chooses to ...

A prayer for the fourth Sunday of Lent

God,

We are here.
You are there.

We are not sure where here is, if we are honest. We watch the seasons change, we watch our parents change, our children change. We lose jobs and friends, we change houses and towns, we find callings and cancer. And we feel lost.

And we are not sure where there is. We point up when we talk about heaven, pointing to the man upstairs, pointing to the sky. But we know that Jesus said he would be with us always.

So we are here.
You are here.
But we’re not ...

On helping people get better, not resemble me.

I’m teaching a homiletics (preaching) course right now. I’m still trying to figure out how to be most helpful. In this version of the course, in addition to other course work, learners choose a Bible text (from a list) and prepare two talks. In the first one, they spend time with the text, reading, reflecting, studying. And then they talk for about 10 minutes. Some of us watch the recording and give them feedback. Then, a week later, they record a more structured, more organized talk, again ...

The moment Nehemiah became more than lists.

I thought of this story the other day and decided to share it again.

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Q: What captivated you about the book of Nehemiah?

The more I slowed down and looked at the text to see what was going on, the more excited I got about everything I had missed by skimming. Probably the first really exciting moment, the one that showed me that other people could get excited about Nehemiah, was in teaching about chapter 3 for a Bible study.

It’s a list of names. Like many other lists of names ...

Risky Business

Rich Dixon has thought a bit about risk.

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Road cycling is risky.

Public highways, distracted drivers. Descending steep mountain passes. If you seek absolute safety, a bike tour probably isn’t for you.

Our FREEDOM TOUR 2017 team examined the intersection of risk and faith.

To prepare for the discussion, we read Ecclesiastes 10: 8-9, Matthew 22:37-40, Luke 9:24.

Our conversation focused – initially – onphysical risk. We talked about embracing uncertainty or even danger for...

In front of us.

It was a typically unpredictable couple of days at the hospital.

“Read Jeremiah 29-33.” That’s what a guy who identified himself as a prophet told me in the hospital today. I probably will. I don’t know about his prophetic calling, but I do know those are good chapters.The emergency contact for another person is a pastor I know. And haven’t talked with for four years. It was good to hear his voice. I needed to call a rabbi. We’ve talked before. He helped me figure out a prayer fo...