Jon C. Swanson's Blog, page 7

Perfection In Jesus’ Name

Rich Dixon wants us to think about the actual task.

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Do you ever read one of Jon’s posts and find you can’t stop thinking about it?

I’m guessing we all identified to some extent with his comments last week about Hallmark Families. But as I cranked my bike the last few days, I found myself wondering if I expect a Hallmark version of the FREEDOM TOUR community.

I thought about my classroom. I began each year by articulating high standards and knowing kids would make mistakes. It...

We often forget parts of the story.

God.

We need your rest. Give us your peace.

Amen.

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My friend Bill said Sunday night that we always read the 23rd Psalm, but that we don’t pay attention to the 22nd or the 24th. I think it came from a sermon he’d heard. I smiled and nodded and racked my brain to remember what those other two psalms are.

I think the point of the three psalms, at least for the preacher, was that together they tell a story. We know about the shepherd, we are grateful for the promise of rest a...

A prayer for the twenty-second Sunday of ordinary time.

God.

We hear Jeremiah’s words to you, and they could be our words. You spoke to him. You said, “I know you.” You said, “speak for me.”

Jeremiah said, “I don’t know how to speak. I am too young.”

You speak to us and we say, “I’m too young.  I’m too old. I’m too uncertain. I’m too different. I’m too tired. I’m too outside the cool people. I’m too ignorant. I’m too confused. I’m too involved with these other things you gave me to do.”

But what we are really saying is what Jeremiah wa...

What if there is more than you thought?

We have family from out of town visiting. Andrew, our son, hasn’t been in the US during the summer for a few years. So everyone went to buy Amish sweet corn. (It’s just like regular sweet corn, for the record. Which means fresh from the field and wonderful.) I stayed home.

I made a short list. Clean the acorns off the deck. Make sure there is gas for the grill. Inflate the air mattress one last time before throwing it away, in case there was a loose valve that left me resting mostly on th...

A challenge

Rich Dixon is back with an invitation.

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A while back a friend told me a story.

With his permission, I’ll share three things he repeated to his kids nearly every day from the time they were old enough to understand. Each day at breakfast he would recite these principles:

Be a leader.Walk with the King.Serve others.

I’m sure lots of conversation happened around each one, but the main point is that he tried hard to never miss a day without beginning with those statem...

Working for the good of all.

So there will be tensions that happen when someone chooses to live their life following Jesus.

Not, of course, that following means being mean, being divisive, being demeaning, being critical.

The two greatest commandments are, according to Jesus, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Too often we hear people who say that they are following Jesus and then are mean and critical and condemning to others.

That’s not the invitation...

Hallmark families

Sometimes as chaplains we have to say tough things.

Perhaps the toughest thing for many families is this:

“Hallmark families don’t exist in the real world.“

You know, families where the story turns out perfect. If there is tension, a card makes it all better. If there are siblings, they may be cranky on the outside, but down deep, they are always together. If there is death, everyone is reconciled and forgiven.

I walk into so many rooms, I have so many conversations, where Hallmar...

A prayer for the twentieth Sunday in ordinary time

God.

We’re stopped now.

Our bodies at rest, sitting or standing, or laying here.

But our minds are not at rest, racing around a track to catch understanding of what is happening, why we are in this situation, now, in this place.

Our hearts are beating faster with the adrenaline of fear of what could have happened, what might happen, what has happened.

We are stopping, but we are not at rest.

We are afraid that for all our work, we do not have good grapes, and so we worry har...

The one who wipes tears.

Some connections to my writing and speaking about grief.

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There is, in the Bible in Revelation 21, an image of tears being wiped away. And no more tears or death or mourning or crying or pain.

It’s a fixture in funerals, it’s a last reading.

I hear it, from time to time, used as a reason to stop feeling bad. “Because of that then, you should feel better now.”

Imagine running up to a cluster of people standing in the hospital parking lot after the death of their mom and wif...

Love and anticipation

So what do we do? If we’ve been given our standing in the kingdom, our place. If we don’t have to worry about making God happy enough to love us, being strong enough to fight our way in, being amazing enough to earn our way in, if we don’t have to worry about all that anymore, what do we do with the time we used to spend in worry and fear?

Do not be afraid. Live in love and anticipation.

Knowing that even though we will die, this life isn’t all there is.

The story Jesus tells is abou...