Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 25

A prayer for the first Sunday after Christmas.

God.

We sit at the transition from one year to the next.
Part of us hopes that things will be different.
Part of us knows that things never are.
Part of us hopes that we will be different.
Part of us fears that we never will be.
Part of knows that you are all powerful, all-knowing, all-present.
Part of us isn’t at all sure that applies to our lives, our problems, our cares.
Part of us wants to know the peace you promise, a peace that we can’t even understand.
Part of us is anxious that it won’...

The day before the day before Christmas.

We’re taking most of the next two weeks away from posting. Rich is on the road. (In a vehicle, not a bike.) I’m still working at the hospital, since we never close. (Please be careful on Christmas Day if you are in Fort Wayne.)

I’ll have Sunday prayers, as usual. And Paul will be here on the first Friday.

And I think I want to write something about completing 16 years of sending these almost daily emails. (We’ll start our 17th year together on January 1, 2025.)

But I think that bein...

A prayer for the fourth Sunday of Advent

God.

We are scared and relieved and anxious and anticipating and hopeful and desperate.

All at the same time.

We are like your people have always been.
Except that they all know how their part of the story ended.
And we do not.

We know that Mary and Elizabeth were uncertain and then scared and then rejoiced.

And then wondered.

We know that the words of the prophets came to them and were said by them without them knowing, sometimes, what the words and the ideas and the promises...

When helping is the offense.

I’m guessing that you know the feeling. You walk into a party, into the dinner, into the gathering. You know that everyone is watching you.

I’m not talking about insecurity or shyness. I mean that everyone actually is watching you. It’s a job interview. It’s the first time together with family after a death or disturbance. It’s a visit to your competitor’s headquarters.

Common sense says that you find common ground, that you smile. Common sense says that you don’t stick your finger in s...

An intimate feast for thousands.

We couldn’t talk about eating with Jesus (our Advent theme) without the story known as “the feeding of the 5000.” But did you know that it could just as easily be called, “the feeding of the Twelve?”

All that food, enough to feed 15,000 people with 12 baskets left over, is part of a story that starts this way:

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to ea...

The fire

If you followed the last few weeks, you’ll know FREEDOM TOUR 2016 featured some intense evening discussions.

You might guess that by the time the ride ended, we were a pretty tight group. That’s what happens in a community that serves and sacrifices together and challenges each other.

You might also guess there had been no small amount of conflict. That’s also part of community – we want to imagine hugs and kumbaya, but the real world isn’t that way. In this kind of environment, hurts a...

A welcoming table

In reading yesterday’s post (though back when it was first published), someone asked, “What was there about Jesus that inspired Matthew and friends to want to eat with him?” I searched for the phrase “with sinners.” Which took me to Luke 15.

It’s a chapter I’ve read often, with three parables I’ve taught about. But I never traced the food through them.

The story starts with tax collectors and sinners gathering around to hear Jesus and the Pharisees complaining that Jesus welcomes sinner...

A big meal at the margins.

Social outcasts still have friends. The rest of the social outcasts. There are always more outsiders than insiders. There are always people at the margins, going about their business, expecting to not be noticed. At least not positively.

When a social outcast is seen, valued, embraced, they–we–want to share the news with friends. “This is the person who notices people like us,” is how the introduction happens.

Matthew was a tax collector, a social outcast. It wasn’t that he was poor. I...

Two prayers for the third Sunday of Advent

God of heaven and earth,
We know that we want joy
and are called to rejoice
and are offered examples of rejoicing.

God of heaven and earth,
we know that we have fatigue
and wander into uncertainty
and see examples of pain and struggle.

Today we light a candle called joy.

We ask you to use its light
to help us see you as a guiding glimmer
to offer joy to our fatigue
and rejoicing to our uncertainty
and sustain us in our struggle.

Amen.

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God.

Paul’s words feel like scolding: “Don...

Bread.

“Our Father, who art in heaven”

It’s the start of a really famous prayer.

It’s full of grand things: hallowedness. trespassing. kingdoms. glory. They are the kind of images that fit well with the majestic songs of Christmas.

Buried in the middle of the prayer is a simple daily request. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

It doesn’t feel like a demand. I hear it as a request, actually. There is a poignancy to it. At a time when day laborers depended on receiving their wages daily s...