Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 3

The Bible is full of humans

This was originally posted in September 2018.

I often think that the Bible is full of ideas on living a more perfect life – and how I am not measuring up to the way I should be.

There are lots of life instructions in many parts of the Bible. I’m glad, as they correct me when my ways are getting skewed away from healthier paths.

But there are also tons of stories of people who failed – and how God used them anyhow. Or how God used their failure for His best purposes.

Sometimes...

Terrible

Last week, we went to a Terrible Orchestra concert.

That’s their name. The Fort Wayne Terrible Orchestra.

In Fort Wayne, there is a Philharmonic Orchestra, there is a community band and a community orchestra and an American Legion band and a couple other groups. And then there is the terrible orchestra. The conductor is a member of the Phil. Other people play with other groups. Others play at church.

But this one, meeting in a church gym, playing a couple concerts a year for fami...

About trust.

Rich Dixon is building reliable connection.

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Trust is becoming more and more difficult.

Spam email that’s indistinguishable from the real thing. AI bot calls with too much specific information.

We might respond with fear. Don’t trust anyone. They’re all scammers and thieves.

There might be a better idea.

Be more human. Create communities, whether digital or face-to-face, in which trust is foundational.

Like most human problems, this lack-of-trust problem isn’t new. In ...

The invitation.

Jesus went up into the hills near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. He spent the night talking with God, as he often did. And after that conversation, he called together the core of the people who had been following him. Maybe 100 people scattered out in little groups, maybe with campfires, sleeping under the stars.

They woke up to the voice of Jesus, calling out across the hillside.

Maybe he whistled. Maybe he shouted with a voice that could be heard by thousands. However he calle...

Remembering those who sing with us.

Saturday was All Saints Day in the Church calendar.

The point of All Saints Day is to remember those who have died and to do so in the context of their faith and God’s faithfulness.

Hebrews 11 is, for me, a great model of how to remember those who are gone. They lived in anticipation of what had been promised but hadn’t happened yet. They died in the confident anticipation that God would do what was promised. They are a crowd of witnesses, like bleachers at the end of a marathon full of...

A prayer for the twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God.

We are weary and worried and wishful.

We are weary from all the voices and all the choices and all the things that break.
We are worried from all the stories of what might go wrong and who might go wrong.
We are wishful for escape and order and answers.

We’re not sure whether it helps to know that your people have been weary and worried and wishful for thousands of years.

When we know that this is human, it is a little helpful.
When we know that you haven’t fixed it yet, it’s no...

The margins

From Rich Dixon

Last time I talked about a bunch of questions about building bridges to what I see as an increasing population of people living on the margins.

As frequently happens, my conversations with Jesus about this quandary brought me an insight in the form of a quote from Father Gregory Boyle. Speaking at Boston College to a group of students studying to be social workers, Father Boyle said,

“You don’t go to margins to make a difference. Then it’s about you. But you go to mar...

A prayer for the twenty-eighth Sunday in ordinary time.

God.

We feel forgotten.

We know that we should remember that you are with us. We know that we should turn to you and be comforted by you when we are in trouble. We know that we feel abandoned by you. We are sure that it’s our fault, the abandonment, or your fault, the abandonment. And we don’t know what to do.

We confess.
We confess that we’ve been frustrated by where we have ended up.
We confess that we’ve looking around for someone to blame.
We confess that we’ve remembered some of yo...

Questions About Privilege

Rich Dixon asks tough, honest, helpful questions.

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It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say we are living through some difficult times.

Just in the last week or so we’ve encountered a few people who thought things were okay. Suddenly, through circumstances they couldn’t have foreseen or controlled, they find themselves living on the margin.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t uncommon. Seems like more and more folks are encountering physical, financial, social, or emotional situations b...

A brief note on faith.

I have heard people in hard situations, in grief-filled moments, in procedure-pending moments say, “I don’t understand.”

And I have heard well-meaning people say to them, “Don’t question God. You need to have faith.”

I usually turn to the one in the pain.

“I don’t understand either,” I say. “I’m not sure why you need to be sitting here in this pain, waiting on this procedure, knowing that it may not work. And God’s not mad when you say you don’t understand. Not at all. That doesn’t i...