Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 37

Jesus asked.

I wrote this for a funeral service I did on Monday. I decided to share it with you.

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When I read the story of Jesus and Bartimaeus, I wish I knew more about Bartimaeus.

We know that he was blind. We know that he made his living by begging for money. He lived from tips from the people who walked past.

It was an acknowledged way of making a living for people who couldn’t make a living any other way. And in the religious system, giving to the poor was an accepted way of demonstra...

A note about a letter.

Hi friend.

It’s Monday.

I should start your week with something encouraging, something thoughtful, something wise. I should point you to some words from God, processed through a writer, and available to us in scripture.

As I’m writing, I’ve got some fragments of a story from Jeremiah written somewhere in my notes. About how he told people that God had plans for people and that the plans apparently included 70 years still in exile. Which meant that most of the people Jeremiah was wri...

A prayer for the eighteenth Sunday in ordinary time

God.

We made it to August.

I’m not sure you care.
About August, that is.

You care deeply about us.
You call us to live in ways that show that kind of care to others.
You point out where we are falling short of caring,
though not to make us feel bad about it or to destroy us.

You point out where we are not loving others so that we can remedy the relationship with repentance and with restoration.
We can apologize. We can acknowledge our responsibility.
We can change how we live.
Even when ...

35 years

On August 4th, I (Paul) celebrate 35 years of marriage to Heather!

I don’t take it for granted and am very thankful.

We are very different but still enjoy finding out more about each other.

For example, we recently came to an understanding about hiking. On the way up, we stay together. On the way down, she likes to go fast. I like to go slow since a twisted ankle would ruin my day. So off she goes.

(That little red person below is Heather, on the way down.)

We make allowances ...

Our uncertainty doesn’t limit God’s capacity to work.

Welcome back to a series of three posts on two stories about prayer and provision.

We’re picking up on the list of some observations from the way Jesus fed the large crowd.

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Our uncertainty doesn’t limit God’s capacity to work.

He told them all what to do, step by step.

And though the crowd saw the food, the disciples saw the process of bread and fish from not enough, and left with more than enough for EACH of them.

Jesus isn’t willing be turned into the kind of king we ...

Snakes?

Rich Dixon is back with a creepy story. Sort of.

But before you read that, I want to point you to his post from this week: Busted. His bike frame broke this weekend, while on this year’s ride. Read his post and join him (and Becky and others) in asking God to support the kids and encourage him.

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The story of the first Freedom Tour in 2013 wouldn’t be complete without “The Snake-Infested Field Incident.”

You might think it’s a silly episode with no deeper message. More about t...

Jesus pays attention to people for different reasons than people pay attention to him.

Picking up from yesterday’s post, Asking God about relationship.

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We get a picture of that compassionate God in our Gospel reading.

It’s a familiar story to many people. We talk about it as the feeding of the 5000, though it more likely is the feeding of the 15,000 or more, since there were whole families present beyond the 5000 men that one of the Gospel writers tells us about.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell this story, each with different details. Sometimes we say, “See? ...

Asking God about relationship.

There are two stories going on in the readings we used in our chapel service on Sunday. (The main texts were John 6:1-21 and Ephesians 3:14-21.)

One story is about provision. One is about prayer.
One is about meeting needs. One is about having needs.
One is about what God does. One is about what we ask.

I’m going to unpack those stories this week.

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Praying in the hospital is hard some days. We know what we want. We ask people to pray for healing. We ask friends to pray. We say, ...

A prayer for the seventeenth Sunday in ordinary time

God.

Paul asked you to help people understand how big your love is.

As they came together and learned together and prayed together,
he wanted them to deepen in your love.
He wanted them to know your love.  

We want to know your love.

We think it looks like enough to eat, even if it takes a miracle.
We think it looks like being able to walk, even if it takes a miracle.
We think it looks like being on the road to life,
even if we know we’re going to die sometime.

We are sure we know w...

Go mow. (or something)

On my list right now are several items.

Mow the yardWrite this postSpend 30 minutes reading anything scholarlySpend 30 minutes sorting in the garageRehang pictures in the living room.

You know the kind of list.

And we struggle to know what to do next.

For some of us, that struggle is about pleasing people. For others, that struggle is about making God happy (or not making God mad). For still others, the struggle is about being as productive as possible or as help...