Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 48

A prayer – Our Father in heaven.

For the next few days, we’ll be walking through a prayer model Jesus offered to his disciples.

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For some people, the beginning of this prayer feel brutal.

To start with “our Father” brings horrible memories. And the thought, “if God is like that, then I’m not interested.”

As I thought about this beginning, however, I realized that Jesus knew.

Jesus knew that some men would be hopelessly cruel to their daughters. He knew that some families would shatter through the selfishn...

Retelling as a way of being renewed.

I’m teaching a course called Creative Preaching and Communication for the next few weeks. It’s one of the reasons I needed to take a break for a couple days.

One of the texts we’re using is Preaching as Reminding: Stirring Memory in an Age of Forgetfulness.  Often, preachers look for originality and novelty and flash in our preaching. Given that some of us can’t remember how many scoops of coffee we just put in the basket, there a place for review. For retelling. For repeating the stories...

The Last Ride (For Now)

More from Rich Dixon:

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From the beginning, I said Rich’s Ride wasn’t about Rich.

So it’s appropriate, before we loaded the trailer one last time – I didn’t do the very last ride of Rich’s Ride.

I’ve been telling you (here and here) about a great conversation with some folks in New Orleans.

As evening faded, and shadows lengthened, some people drifted away. The handful who remained were intensely curious about the ride’s logistics and equipment. The real fun happened when we ...

Taking a couple days away from here.

Last week, on February 29, I almost wrote about having a bonus day.

I was going to ask what we would do with an extra day. Who would we follow up with? What would we check on? What would we let go of?

I had a whole list.

Somewhere in that thinking, Nancy said, “But it isn’t a bonus day.”

She was right. It was Thursday, with all the usual Thursday things. Getting extra time often means stopping something for a day or two. Sometimes it means stepping aside from something complete...

A prayer for the third Sunday of Lent

God.

I need to find some words, for today, that we can tell you and ask you about. 

What’s interesting to me is that when David, or whoever, talks about your law, your directions, your commands, the images are delightful. Perfect, refreshing, radiant, pure. 

Those aren’t the words that come to mind when we think about rules. We think about restrictions. We think about limitations, about strictness. 

We could be Americans, of course, raised to value independence and freedom no matt...

One little difference

When it snows on the foothills near Denver, the snow lingers on part of one hill and quickly melts off a different part of the same hill.

Same snowstorm. Same amount of snow falling.

Why the contrast?

The difference is that one side has a lot more sun exposure and the other is in the shadows for most of each day.

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When I spend time with some people, I often judge them for why they don’t do something I consider normal and expected. Or I wonder why they can’t do that easy thi...

More on the long story – and a chance to tell part of my story.

Before I finish a story from Tuesday, a quick note.

I mentioned that Elijah was the only person who hadn’t died between Abraham and Paul. And someone asked about Enoch who, according to Genesis 5, “walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” But Enoch lived, and disappeared, before Abraham. My statement was technically and poetically true, but it wouldn’t have hurt anything for me to be more complete.

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And that’s the invitation from Jesus.

A...

Design specifications

More from Rich Dixon:

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Last time I left you with two questions.

Who’s them…and us? Who’s handicapped…and able-bodied?

I believe these questions cut much deeper than physical impairments.

I obviously face a unique set of physical challenges. But words have incredible power to shape our attitudes. Description becomes perception, and perception becomes reality.

Handicapped, disabled, physically challenged – what should others call me? Personally, I prefer “Rich.”

I’m not ...

More about a longer story.

Picking up from yesterday

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In the course of this story, Abraham dies. So does Sarah. So does Isaac, and Jacob, and generation after generation. From Abraham to Paul, the only people who didn’t die were Elijah and … nobody.

The only people who died and came back to life are… Jesus.

The rest of us are guaranteed a physical death.

And between birth and death, there will be illness. There will be business failures and coffee spills. There will be hilarious stories and moments of...

A story that is longer than me.

When I was a kid, we’d read John 3:16 this way. “God so loved Jon that he gave his only begotten son that if Jon believed in him, Jon would not perish but have eternal life.”

It was a way of personalizing the immensity of God’s love for each of us.

But there was a danger to that.

It puts us at the middle of the whole way God was working in the whole world.

We can move from “I am important to God”, to “I am the most important one to God.” And we can, I fear, from what I hear, move ...