The Park Forum

June 10, 2026June 8, 2026

Letters for Tomorrow’s Folk

Links for today’s readings:

Jun 10 Read: Isaiah 6 Listen: (2:24) Read: Psalm 102 Listen: (2:45)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 102:4, 17-18

4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass;

I forget to eat my food. …

17 He will respond to the prayer of the destitute;
he will not despise their plea.

18 Let this be written for a future generation,
that a people not yet created may praise the Lord

Reflection: Letters for Tomorrow’s Folk

By Erin Newton

I was sitting by the pool with a friend, our kids swimming nearby. I was enjoying the sunshine and sounds of laughter when my friend turned and said, “How are you doing since her death?” The question jolted me out of my blissful daydreaming. “Oh, fine. I’m doing ok.”

I went home and got the kids dried off. Looking around my house, it was clear I was not ok. My house had become a mess. Every inch was a pile of neglected chores. Dishes piled and overflowing the sink. Laundry baskets spilling out into the kitchen and hallway. Wrappers of

half-eaten granola bars littering my desk.

My best friend died unexpectedly a month ago today. The anguish and grief in my heart were visibly evident in my house. I often forgot to eat. Just like the psalmist’s prayer, eating was a task and no longer enjoyable.

Pain, suffering, grief, depression, anxiety, and a host of other emotional states often have physical signs. As much as I like to muster up the “I’m fine” statements, one step in the door and you’d know.

I’m relieved to see that such reactions were common thousands of years ago. We are not sure what has happened to the psalmist, but the author is in pain. Appetites are poor; hope is fading.

The prayer here is not a plea for amnesia. He does not ask God to make his troubles a distant memory. He simply states reality: I am miserable, emotionally and physically.

And then he turns to looking at God. Words of praise and admiration fill the next verses. There is the recognition of God’s power and sovereignty, his love for his people, and his promise to hear their cries.

Then we get a lesson that still rings true today: This can be recorded for someone else’s benefit. Why record your misery? Why put on paper a time when life sucked? Why testify to your own frustrations? The answer, for others.

The psalmist is suffering for an unknown reason. Perhaps it was deserved, or natural consequences, or completely unwarranted. We have no information to claim his suffering was for others—but his testimony is.

Have you told someone a story of God working in your life? Take time to record your own story. We might think our lives are too simple for archiving, but testimonies are an act of remembrance and a light for the future.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

O God of hosts, show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80.7

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

Calling Darkness Light

Links for today’s readings:

Jun 9 Read: Isaiah 5 Listen: (4:48) Read: Psalms 99-101 Listen: (2:42)

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 5.7, 20-23

7 The vineyard of the Lord Almighty

is the nation of Israel,

and the people of Judah

are the vines he delighted in.

And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;

for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

20 Woe to those who call evil good

and good evil,

who put darkness for light

and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter.

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

and clever in their own sight.

22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine

and champions at mixing drinks,

23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,

but deny justice to the innocent.

Reflection: Calling Darkness Light

By John Tillman

God compared his people to flocks of sheep and vineyards. Leaders were compared to shepherds over flocks and servants in charge of vineyards.

We are less familiar with agricultural metaphors than Isaiah’s readers. Have you harvested a vineyard or overseen a flock? Can you tell which grapes are good or bad for wine or which sheep are healthy or unhealthy? Can you prune vines or shear sheep? Most of us can’t.

We don’t have to understand agriculture to know what God is saying. When God looked at the vines, he didn’t see subtle hints that the juice was bitter, he saw injustice and bloodshed. When God looked at the sheep, he didn’t notice telltale signs on hoofs or teeth that indicated a bad diet, he saw abuse and neglect.

We should be able to tell justice from bloodshed, sweetness from bitterness, good from evil, and light from dark. But do we?

Failing to notice wicked things that anger God is bad. A greater danger is seeing what God calls wicked and calling it good. We might look at bloodshed and call it justified. We might look at abuse and call it “tough love” or “strong leadership.” We might look at neglect and call it a matter of “personal responsibility.”

In a famous Star Trek episode, the Cardassians capture Captain Picard and repeatedly show him four lights, asking how many there were. When he answered, “four,” they tortured him and insisted there were five. When finally released, Picard turned defiantly and yelled one final time, “There are four lights!” Later, he told Counselor Troi that the torture had caused his mind to actually think he saw five.

Sinful forces push us to hallucinate and justify violence, abuse, and sin. Those “wise in their own eyes” encourage bitterness toward enemies. They say cruelty shows strength and kindness is weak and dark means are justified by noble ends. They say bloodshed is the only way to deal with those labeled “dangerous.”

Don’t give in. For us, there is one light—Jesus. Don’t let selfishness and fear define good and bad. Let Jesus define it. He is both the true vine and the vinedresser. He is both the lamb of God and the good shepherd. It is good to answer the distressed, help the weak, and oppose the proud. The example of Jesus leads to light. Every other path leads to darkness.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

May God be merciful to us and bless us, show us the light of his countenance and come to us. — Psalm 67.1

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

Pillars of Society

Links for today’s readings:

Jun 8 Read: Isaiah 3-4 Listen: (4:34) Read: Psalms 97-98 Listen: (2:19)

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 3.4-8

1 See now, the Lord,

the Lord Almighty,

is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah

both supply and support:

all supplies of food and all supplies of water,

2 the hero and the warrior,

the judge and the prophet,

the diviner and the elder,

3 the captain of fifty and the man of rank,

the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

4 “I will make mere youths their officials;

children will rule over them.”

5 People will oppress each other—

man against man, neighbor against neighbor.

The young will rise up against the old,

the nobody against the honored.

6 A man will seize one of his brothers

in his father’s house, and say,

“You have a cloak, you be our leader;

take charge of this heap of ruins!”

Reflection: Pillars of Society

By John Tillman

When a person is praised as “a pillar of society,” it should mean that they do good that supplies and supports the community. But when I hear this term, I’m usually reminded of crime and courtroom dramas.

When someone is described as a “pillar of society” on a police procedural show, they are usually the villain, using the term to deflect suspicion of criminal activity. “How dare you make such charges against a pillar of society!”

Isaiah wrote at a time when people would say to him and other prophets, “How dare you make such charges against the pillars of society!” Jerusalem and Judah saw themselves as God’s nation and God intended them to be pillars of wisdom and righteousness. Their kings claimed to be heroes and warriors. Their judges and prophets promised peace and safety. Their leaders declared a golden age. But it was all a smokescreen for corruption, greed, and wickedness.

Pillars of society should lift and hold things up. Instead, they pushed things down. Rather than supplying and supporting the community, they despoiled and degraded the vulnerable. Instead of elevating others, they crushed them. Instead of maintaining justice, they manipulated it. They plundered the poor to enrich themselves. (v 14) They were “grinding the faces of the poor.” (v 15)

Do we not see ourselves, our communities, our cities, and our nation in this passage? Don’t we see the poor being ground down? Corrupt leaders declaring their righteousness? Wealth accumulating in the houses of those who oppress the poor? Brazen parading of such sins? These are the sounds of pillars cracking.

God promised to knock down false “pillars of society” in Isaiah’s day. May he do it in ours. There is a courtroom where God sits as judge. There, corrupt pillars will crumble. What kind of pillars are you celebrating or leaning on? What pillars will be left?

When God knocks down false pillars, there will be widespread panic and instability. We cannot completely avoid these natural consequences, but God promised that the righteous would “enjoy the fruit of their deeds.” (v 10) We must stand ready to be true and virtuous pillars in the house of God as he intends, regardless of what happens around us (Rev 3.12; Gal 2.9; 1 Tim 3.15). We must be pillars of wisdom and righteousness, that uplift instead of crush and supply instead of steal.

Take care what kind of pillars you are celebrating and what kind of pillars you are becoming.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

You strengthen me more and more; you enfold me and comfort me. — Psalm 71.21

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

Break the Silence

Links for today’s readings:

Jun 5 Read: Malachi 4 Listen: (1:06) Read: Psalms 92-93 Listen: (2:09)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Jun 6 Read: Isaiah 1 Listen: (4:36) Read: Psalm 94 Listen: (2:08)
Jun 7 Read: Isaiah 2 Listen: (3:00) Read: Psalms 95-96 Listen: (2:37)

Scripture Focus: Malachi 4.1-6

1 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. 3 Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.

4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. 5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

Reflection: Break the Silence

By John Tillman

Christians and Jews agree on some writings that we both call “scripture” or “God’s Word.”

The Jewish arrangement of these texts, which we call the Old Testament, is different. We close with the shorter prophetic books, ending with Malachi. They close with Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah (as one united book), and Chronicles. However, Christian and Jewish sources agree that Malachi was the last prophet chronologically. They also agree that prophecy fell silent following Malachi.

No prophets saw dramatic visions. No one said confidently, “Thus saith the Lord.” However, the silence wasn’t total.

People still prayed and God still answered. Wise teachers, scholars, and scribes still wrote new books. But no one held the intertestamental books with the same reverence as Malachi and his predecessors.

God’s people, living between the testaments, recognized a difference in what they and we call “God’s Word” and the other spiritual and religious writings. The scriptures from which God had spoken become all the more important during this period of silence.

Some silences of God might be him politely allowing us to speak first. Some silences of God are him waiting patiently for us to pass on what we already heard. Some silences of God are him asking us to spend the silence by deepening our understanding of his scriptures.

God promised on Malachi’s final page that it would not be the last page of prophecy to his people. God promised to break the silence. Jesus said John the Baptizer was, if we will accept it, the “Elijah” that Malachi promised (Luke 1.17; Matthew 11.14; 17:12). But John didn’t end the silence alone. Through Joel, God promised to pour out his Holy Spirit, not on just one man or even twelve apostles, but on a multitude of sons and daughters who would prophesy (Acts 2.16-21; Joel 2.28-32).

All God’s children are part of breaking the silence.

Are you fulfilling the promises God made through Malachi and Joel? Are you fulfilling the promises made through John the Baptizer and Jesus? Are you participating in God’s promise to break the silence?

Here’s some quick guidance as to how.

Devote yourself to prayer and God’s word. (Acts 2.42-47) Eat this book. (Eze 3.1-4; Rev 10.8-9) Open your mouth. God will fill it. (Psalm 81.10; Eze 2.7-10) Open your mind. God will transform it. (Rom 12.2; 1 Cor 2.13-16; 2 Cor 3.18)

Adjust your life to scripture, not scripture to your life. Trim your life like the wick of a lamp, (Luke 12.35; Matt 25.7-9) then watch the Holy Spirit ignite it, shining the light of truth and salvation.

Break the silence.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

The Song of Zechariah

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has visited his people, he has set them free, and he has established for us a saving power in the house of his servant David, just as he proclaimed by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times, that he would save us from our enemies, and from the hands of all those who hate us, and show faithful love to our ancestors and so keep in mind his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, that he would grant us, free from fear, to be delivered from the hands of our enemies, to serve him in holiness and uprightness in his presence all our days. And you, little child, you shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare a way for him, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the faithful love of our God in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us, to give light to those who live in darkness and the shadow dark as death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. — Luke 1:68-79

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

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June 4, 2026June 2, 2026

The Dissonant Notes of Hope

Links for today’s readings:

Jun 4 Read: Malachi 3 Listen: (3:13) Read: Psalm 91 Listen: (1:39)

Scripture Focus: Malachi 3.13-18

13 “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord.
“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’ ”

16 Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.
17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

Reflection: The Dissonant Notes of Hope

By John Tillman

Micah’s audience of exiles didn’t have a rosy, happy homecoming to Jerusalem. They met opposition and oppression, financial problems, political problems, and threats of violence. They were disillusioned, discouraged, and doubtful.

They noticed that those “winning” in life were arrogant evildoers. Two groups responded differently to these observations. God said one group spoke “arrogantly” and called the other his “treasured possession.”

One group spoke to each other, asking, “What do we gain by obeying God? What’s the ROI?” If cruelty wins, why be kind? If crooks prevail, why follow rules? They concluded that character was nice but winning was better and morality was negotiable if tradeoffs accomplished their goals. They called the arrogant blessed. God condemned the arrogant group.

Another group “feared the Lord.” They spoke to each other, but did so “in his presence” through prayer and scripture. The Lord listened and heard their prayers. They studied and remembered those who feared the Lord and honored his name, writing out a “scroll of remembrance.”

God answered this “remembrance group” with a promise that they would see a distinction between those who were “winning” now and those who followed God’s ways.

In every age, God’s people experience the dissonance of hearing the promises of righteousness and seeing the payouts of wickedness. Corruption blooms. Integrity wilts. The arrogant gloat. The humble are shamed. We don’t resolve this dissonance by modulating our morality to modes fitting the key of corruption. We don’t give in.

In the film, Casablanca, Nazi soldiers sing a German anthem in a crowded bar. Spurred by Victor Laslow, the band plays, “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem. The Nazis were winning the war at that time. But the bar patrons, with tears and defiant hope, out-sing the group of soldiers.

Today, we watch this scene knowing the outcome—the Nazis lose. But in 1942, when Casablanca was produced and in 1938 when the play it was based on, Everyone Comes to Rick’s, was written, no one knew. They wrote it anyway, filmed it anyway, and sang it anyway.

When wickedness seems to be winning, and singing loudly about it, God’s people don’t sing along. We sing the song of the kingdom to come. We remember the promises of the past and anticipate joyous victories to come.

Hold out a dissonant note of hope. Sing, even through tears, and remember.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. — Psalm 51.16

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

Posts

Letters for Tomorrow’s Folk

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Psalm 102:4, 17-18

Reflection: Letters for Tomorrow’s Folk

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Read more: Temple Confrontations

Read more: Baring Your Soul

Calling Darkness Light

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 5.7, 20-23

Reflection: Calling Darkness Light

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Read more: Bad Crop

Read more: Christ, the True Hero

Pillars of Society

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 3.4-8

Reflection: Pillars of Society

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Read more: Hope Amidst Destruction

Read more: Ways of Canaan, Ways of Christ

Break the Silence

Links for today’s readings:

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Malachi 4.1-6

Reflection: Break the Silence

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Read more: Destiny of Grass vs Cedars

Consider Supporting Our Work

The Dissonant Notes of Hope

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Malachi 3.13-18

Reflection: The Dissonant Notes of Hope

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Read more: Bearing Reproach

Read more: God’s Feathers