The Park Forum

Links for today’s readings:

Aug 25  Read: Jeremiah 19 Listen: (2:58) Read: 1 Thessalonians 4 Listen: (2:24)

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 19.1-4, 10-15

1 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. 4 For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

10 “Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, 11 and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. 12 This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. 13 The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’ ” 14 Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people, 15 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.’ ”

Reflection: When Truth Provokes Violence

By John Tillman

Immediately after Jeremiah’s message, a priest, Pashhur, had Jeremiah seized, beaten, and put in stocks (Jer 20.1-2).

Jeremiah suffered seven recorded instances of physical violence, threats, and arrests—more than any other prophet. However, Jeremiah’s message was not unique.

Moses and Joshua warned that if Israel was unfaithful, God would remove them from the land (Deut 4.23-30). God warned Solomon that he would destroy the temple and exile his people for unfaithfulness (2 Chron 6.36-39; 7.19-22). Micah, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah repeated and amplified these warnings (Mic 3.12; Amos 5.27; Hosea 9.3, 17; Isa 5.13; 39.6). Jeremiah was just telling Jerusalem’s leaders what scripture said would happen.

Despite the fact that Jeremiah’s warnings were “biblical,” his message was unwelcome and unthinkable. To religious leaders, like Pashhur, it was unthinkable that the temple would be destroyed. To political leaders, Jeremiah’s critiques of corruption, cruelty to the poor, idolatry, and wicked alliances were unwelcome.

Rather than repent, they called Jeremiah a liar and traitor. They accused him of allying with the Babylonians and sabotaging soldiers’ and citizens’ morale. They falsely accused him of defecting to the Babylonians (Jer 37.12-14). They labeled his moral critiques as political threats to justify responding with political violence.

Most of our readers live in places with legal freedoms of religious expression and speech. Jeremiah didn’t have that. But such protections are only effective if leaders follow them. Also, some powerful political movements are attacking these rights. Violent attacks against those speaking God’s truth can happen anywhere and at any time, even in places that guarantee freedoms of religion and speech. We need to be ready for moments when speaking unwelcome biblical truths is labeled treasonous, unpatriotic, or criminal. 

It can be tempting to back away from scripture when its teachings against greed, lust, sexual promiscuity, power, and favoritism or its teachings about helping the poor, immigrants, and outcasts are labeled as a political movement instead of a moral imperative. We must be willing to stand faithfully even if Pashhurs of the world slap us verbally or physically. However, “getting slapped” doesn’t mean you are being faithful.

Some Christian “truth-tellers” today are persecution farmers, provoking others to claim persecution. They are Pashhur, pretending to be Jeremiah. They are bullies pretending to be prophets. They don’t weep over the lost. They gloat. Being a cruel bully doesn’t make you a faithful prophet and suffering for doing wrong is not persecution (1 Pet 2:20; 3:17; 4:15-16; Gal 6:7).

Be a Jeremiah not a Pashhur. Don’t seek persecution as validation but be faithful regardless of the consequences.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm

Show me your marvelous loving-kindness, O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand from those who rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me under the shadow of your wings, From the wicked who assault me, from my deadly enemies who surround me. — Psalm 17.7-9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Stephen, Isaiah, and Confronting God’s People

Stephen and Isaiah stand in a long line of those who were killed for confronting God’s people with hypocrisy. Not pagans. Not enemies. God’s people.

Stephen, Isaiah, and Confronting God’s People

Read more: The Weeping Enduring Prophet

No matter what insults they throw at him or what pit they throw him down into, he holds firm to the truth.

The Weeping Enduring Prophet

Links for today’s readings:

Aug 24  Read: Jeremiah 18 Listen: (3:40) Read: 1 Thessalonians 3 Listen: (1:44)

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 18.3-10

3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. 7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10 and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

Reflection: Hope for Marred Pots

By John Tillman

Watching something you love self-destruct is wearying in a unique way. This is true whether what is self-destructing is a person, a nation, or a political group. It is for this reason that reading through the prophets can be an exercise in endurance. 

If we begin to grow tired of accounts of the sins of Israel and Judah and the judgments coming their way,  we are not alone. The other prophets and priests of Judah grew so sick of Jeremiah’s messages that they conspired against him.

Their opposition would grow from verbal attacks and ignoring Jeremiah to more insidious and violent forms. Their opposition would culminate in a plot to take his life.

They are not alone. Jeremiah grew weary of his own message. Jeremiah’s writings are filled with moments of grief and longing for his people to listen, to change, to repent. 

Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet, but he is not the only one weeping. Many of Jeremiah’s most mournful passages could be read with God as the one weeping rather than Jeremiah. The most likely interpretation is that it is often both, not one or the other. Jeremiah is a weeping prophet because he serves a weeping God.

God, understanding Jeremiah’s grief, sends him to a place where he can see that there is hope for marred and broken things—the potter’s house. 

God tells Jeremiah that it is Israel on the potter’s wheel. Marred, rebellious, stubborn, yet still the artisan keeps the clay in his hands, crushing, spinning, shaping, and reforming the pot.

There is hope for marred and broken things like us. Whether nations, peoples, groups, or individuals, we can be reshaped. We don’t have to remain a useless, malformed pot. If we will stay pliable and stay in the hands of our potter, we can be reshaped. We can become a fitting vessel for the good plans that God has for us.

May we stay humble.
May we stay pliable.
May we stay in the potter’s hands.

Divine Hours Prayer:

Blessed be the Lord! For he has shown me the wonders of his love in a besieged city. — Psalm 31.21

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: The Two Ariels

“Judicial hardening” refers to the way God acts in response to our rejection of him and his messages.

The Two Ariels

Read more: Never Too Far

The fate of Israel is like watching a train wreck…Is there any time when someone is too deep in sin to repent?

Never Too Far

Links for today’s readings:

Aug 21  Read: Jeremiah 15 Listen: (3:49) Read: Galatians 6 Listen: (2:18)

Aug 22  Read: Jeremiah 16 Listen: (3:52) Read: 1 Thessalonians 1 Listen: (1:27)

Aug 23  Read: Jeremiah 17 Listen: (4:50) Read: 1 Thessalonians 2 Listen: (2:53)

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 15.18-19

18 Why is my pain unending 
and my wound grievous and incurable? 
You are to me like a deceptive brook, 
like a spring that fails. 
19 Therefore this is what the Lord says: 
“If you repent, I will restore you 
that you may serve me; 
if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, 
you will be my spokesman. 
Let this people turn to you, 
but you must not turn to them.

Reflection: The Weeping Enduring Prophet

By John Tillman

Jeremiah was faithful for a long time.

God made Jeremiah a wall of bronze that the people would fight against but never overcome. (Jer 1.18-19) God also warned Jeremiah that the people would not listen or respond to correction (Jer 7.27-28).

For Jeremiah, telling the truth has not brought measurable success. He has been rejected rather than revered and persecuted rather than praised. Earlier in his writings, he complained that the people had been deceived by false prophets of peace.

Even though God told Jeremiah from the beginning that the people wouldn’t listen, he must have hoped that they would. Now, that frustration spills out. Jeremiah complains to God that he has been “like a deceptive brook” or a “spring that fails.”

We often call Jeremiah the “weeping prophet.” He is open with his emotions about both national and personal issues.  He mourns the events he prophesies against Judah. He laments the rejection, abuse, and torture he endures at the hands of religious and political leaders.

But Jeremiah is also the enduring prophet. No matter what insults they throw at him or what pit they throw him down into, he holds firm to the truth.

Jeremiah was never taken to Babylon, but in many ways, he was an exile right in his own country. Most of us will never know what it was like for Daniel to be kidnapped and taken to a distant country as a slave. But we might identify with Jeremiah who watched his own country change for the worse despite his best efforts. Judah became a place where, “Truth has perished…vanished from their lips.” (Jer 7.27-28)

Learn from Jeremiah’s determination, toughness, and emotional vulnerability. Jeremiah cries, but never compromises. He complains, but never surrenders. He calls for rescue, but never stops resisting. It’s good to weep, but we must also endure.

Also, learn that God was not upset with Jeremiah either for the failure of his message or his complaining about it. God heard Jeremiah’s complaint and reconfirmed his promise to him that he was and would be God’s faithful spokesman.

We aren’t facing anything as awful as Jeremiah did. But if you are frustrated with stubbornness, corruption, and people refusing to listen, share that with God. God will not be upset with you either. He’ll confirm his promise to you too. Stay faithful to the truth and repent of any bitterness or apathy creeping into your heart.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

But I will call upon God, and the Lord will deliver me.
In the evening, in the morning, and at noonday, I will complain and lament, and he will hear my voice.
He will bring me safely back…God, who is enthroned of old, will hear me. — Psalm 55.17

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: The Wall or the Wrecking Ball

As a wall, Jeremiah would stand against his peers as they pushed against him, trying to make him crumble.

The Wall or the Wrecking Ball

Read more: Mock, Mock. Who’s There?

Paul warned…investment in fleshly, worldly things, would not yield spiritual, eternal things. To expect so, is to mock God.

Mock, Mock. Who’s There?

Links for today’s readings:

Aug 19  Read: Jeremiah 13 Listen: (4:11) Read: Galatians 4 Listen: (4:13)

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 13:7–10

7 So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless!

Reflection: Burn Out, Rust Out, or Rot Out?

By Erin Newton

There was a saying I heard in seminary: Better to burn out than rust out. A friend would quip: “But either way, you’re out.”

The saying was meant to encourage people to enter ministry with passion and fervor. The saying helped keep the flames of motivation going when long years of service weighed you down. The contrasting negative option was the picture of doing nothing—either through laziness or apathy. Those people rusted. Obviously, fire sounds cooler than oxidation. Duh.

Yet the friend’s retort was telling: Neither ash heaps or rust are helpful tools.

Then there’s a third image of being “out”—Jeremiah’s depiction of the rotten linen belt.

Linen is a fiber, one we tend to relate to for its coolness, comfort, sturdiness, and breathability. But it’s a natural fiber which means it’s of this earth—from dust it came and to dust it shall return. (Which in its purest state means it won’t leave pollutants in creation.)

While linen can start decomposing within weeks, this belt is meant to be purposefully worn. Belts are utilitarian. Belts are secured to their wearer.

Israel and her pride were this belt. But they had turned to worshiping other gods. They became stubborn and neglected their duties. The purpose and utility they were supposed to perform were tossed aside. So God says he will bury this belt. To dust it will return. When it is dug up, it’ll be tattered and weak—useless.

So now I amend that seminary saying: You can burn out, rust out, or rot out—but either way you’re out. What’s the better solution? Even if you aren’t in ministry. What if you’re just trying to live your life in a way that honors Christ? 

Burning out might look flashy and impressive, but there is purpose to retreating and relaxing. Some might assume you can only fight fire with fire, but we know that water will also do the trick. 

Rusting out from apathy is truly shameful. Laziness is not any better. I guess rust is still our lesser preference. 

Rotting out would be to deny our call, forsake our God, and refuse to change. The rusty ones might not be too helpful but they are still faithful. Rotting out is the bottom of the list. 

What should we do instead? 

Look out – for God’s direction. 

Cry out – for God’s wisdom. 

Work out – our salvation with fear and trembling.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive us our sins, for your name’s sake. — Psalm 79.9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: A Neglected Garment

Let us consider ourselves with sober judgment. Do we treat our status under Jesus with disdain? Neglect? Pride?

A Neglected Garment

Read more: Why the Cross?

Why the cross?…people express discomfort with the cross. “Isn’t it gross?” “Isn’t it violent?”

Why The Cross?