Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 18

Anticipating Lent.

Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. It’s the start of the season of Lent.

Maybe the things that go into Lent–-the practices of giving up food or technology, the practices of prayer more often or solitude or silence, the practices of eating together–those things are acts of clearing space in our hearts so we can listen and attend.

Consider one of these exercises over the next few days:

Simply ask yourself, “What helpful, beneficial action do I know would help my relationship with God and...

A little thinking about praying.

Once upon a time, I was told that I was a good prayer. I couldn’t figure out how to respond.

If prayer is talking with God, then to be evaluated on my conversation skills feels strange.

Imagine someone saying, “I was listening when you were talking to Nancy. (She’s my wife). I was so blessed by your conversation.”

It feels odd.

And often, when I am praying with people at the hospital, they end up crying. So do I sometimes. We’re asking God for tough things in tough situations. We’...

Trajectories

Rich Dixon takes us back a few years to a bike tour.

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FREEDOM TOUR 2017 considered the notion of divine appointments.

We read the story of David and Goliath, and talked about the impact of small decisions.

How might this story (and Israel’s story) have been impacted if David refused Jesse’s request to deliver supplies (vs 17-19)?

David was entrusted with the family sheep business. Suppose David decided his father was too old and frail to leave alone.

At the time, David c...

What love might look like.

“When the platform is free, you are the product.” 

Every time Nancy says something about the irrational or illogical responses that people make to posts on Facebook, I remind her of that truth. When seemingly random videos show up in my Instagram feed, I remind myself. 

The other day, though, I watched one of those videos and ended up with tears in my eyes. It wasn’t a cat video. I am not a cat person. I’m not a dog person either. It was a moment of people supporting other people in a s...

10 healings, one cure.

We talked last week about going away from people because of the skin disease. But there were different kinds. Some of them disappeared by themselves. Some of them destroyed the life of the person. So there was a process for deciding which kind this was.

The rule was that if evidence of disease disappeared, the person would go to the Jewish priest who would examine them and permit them back into community. Because the priest was responsible for the health – spiritual and physical – of the c...

A prayer for the seventh Sunday after the Epiphany.

God

We tell ourselves and each other to be still before you.
We tell each other and ourselves to be patient.
We hear that those who do evil will not last,
but we can’t be still and be patient when there is so much anger and fear,
when there are people losing their lives because of our inhumanity.

Or maybe because of our humanity.

We beg you for justice and deliverance
Begging like Joseph must have begged, for year after year after year,
betrayed by brothers, alone in Egypt.

And yet, whe...

10 men want pity.

Jews and Samaritans fundamentally disagreed about theology and practical ways to live it out. But near one town at the border between the two groups was found a group of 10 men that everyone was against. They were, the text of Luke 17 tells us, “lepers.”

It means they had one of a variety of contagious skin diseases, the kind that even before anyone knew about contagion, everyone avoided. Because God said to avoid them.

In the Old Testament, in Leviticus 13, we read that people who have...

Ten men.

May I be a little vulnerable? I don’t like Bible stories about healing.  I’m a hospital chaplain, after all. And I see people who aren’t restored to physical health. And often, as the “official” spiritual person in the room, I can’t simply speak and have them get well, the way that Jesus could.

I’d love to. But I can’t.

So when I read the healing stories in the Bible, the times that Jesus heals, the times that the disciples heal, I feel inadequate to explain God’s ways.  Why were those ...

Misguided Questions

Rich Dixon is back, thinking about questions.

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The Freedom Tour 2017 team spent a second night discussing storms and a well-known passage, Hebrews 12: 1-3.

Opening question: in the context of our conversation about storms, what’s the writer’s main point?

I’ll let you ponder that one. Here’s an idea that came up in our circle.

“WHY?” is a common response to storms.

Why here? Why now? Why me?

And it became obvious there was a companion response: “HOW?”

How could this...

Like a tree

So, I was looking at Psalm 1 for our chapel on Sunday. I’ve looked at it for years. I wrote a paraphrase of it. And I was thinking about sharing it here. And I hesitated.

Because I’ve spent time in the comments sections. And I’ve spent time with people.

The words of the psalm may have been written as a preface, as a summary, to the rest of the collection. It’s a eulogy, good words about a life. It’s not a formula, “do this and you’ll be guaranteed a good and prosperous life, particularl...