The Park Forum

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 24 Listen: (3:21) Read: Romans 4 Listen: (4:08)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 24.14-18

14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. 16 Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin. 17 Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

Reflection: Do Not Take Advantage

By John Tillman

We live in an exaggeratedly opportunistic culture and economy.

We are pressured to compete with one another because life is a zero-sum game where my profit can only come at your loss. If I win and you lose, I should be praised, not shamed. Right?

In that kind of system, it is foolish to not take advantage of every opportunity. We must exploit weakness to gain an advantage in the marketplace. After all, doesn’t a meritocracy mean that winning, no matter how I do it, proves I deserve it and you don’t? Doesn’t the survival of the fittest imply the elimination of the weak?

But the weak are also our neighbors. Can Christians exploit our neighbors in the market while saying we love our neighbors in our churches? If not, how can we live in this system of cruelty and greed?

The Old Testament has a reputation for harshness but a reality of mercy. Old Testament law has a recurring pattern of aggressively protecting the vulnerable. Our culture has a history and pattern of aggressively taking advantage of the vulnerable.

Over and over the Bible commands those with means, power, or opportunity to not take advantage of those weaker, poorer, and less fortunate. God takes special interest in their welfare.

The marginalized groups God mentions most include widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor. Tim Keller referred to them as the “quartet of the vulnerable.” He said, “If you aren’t intensely concerned for the quartet of the vulnerable…it’s a sign your heart is not right with God.” (Church Leaders) If we take advantage of them, we will answer to God sooner or later.

Profit and growth are part of our human calling. The first divine command was to cultivate and flourish. So the answer is not to eschew profit, competition, or efficiency. Rather, we must remember that our gains must not come by causing losses for those on the margins. Rather than profit at the expense of the poor, we should profit along with them, building opportunities for them to rise, rather than rising by pushing them down.

It is not evil to make a profit any more than it is evil to be poor. However, the poor are God’s special concern. If we profit by taking advantage of them, the wealth we pile up testfies against us and we store up judgment for ourselves rather than security.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

No good things will the Lord withhold from those who walk with integrity. — Psalm 84.11

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Vulnerable Quartet

The “quartet of the vulnerable” is a term for those vulnerable to harm, particularly in the Bible: the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, and the poor.

Read more: Why The Cross?

Every good thing before the cross pointed to it. Every good thing after the cross is evidence of the power broken on it.

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 23 Listen: (3:10) Read: Romans 3 Listen: (4:30)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 23:15-16

15 If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.

Reflection: Blurred Borders

By Erin Newton

In most cases, borders are invisible lines. The border between my house and my neighbor’s exists on some land survey stored at the courthouse. For us, it tends to be where someone stops mowing. To get from my state to the next, we cross a river, but I’m not entirely sure which part of the river belongs to which state. If I drive east or west, the border is somewhere lost in the pine trees or in the sand.

Our world is made up of lines. Some lines have been given walls or are naturally bound by water. Borders serve the purpose of separating us from them.

We read about God’s people needing to separate themselves in the foods they eat or the way they worship, conduct business, and relate in marriage and family. Such a separation allowed them to establish their new identity as God’s people.

Some of their laws, however, were similar to the laws of other nations. The “eye for an eye” rule is one that echoes the laws of Hammurabi, an eighteenth-century BCE ruler. This shared principle highlights how sometimes borders were blurred. Such is the case in Deuteronomy 23.

Edward Woods points out in his commentary on Deuteronomy, “While international treaties often required the return of fugitive slaves, Israel was not to follow this practice.” The refusal to return the refugee slave meant allowing the us/them divide to dissipate. The fleeing person could abide with the Israelites, under the protection of God. This call to acceptance showed that the people had utmost allegiance to God.

Despite this call for acceptance, biases and prejudices were likely to happen. So another important piece of instruction was given: “Such a slave was not to be oppressed” (Woods). Oppression was part of Israel’s past. Oppression was the reason for the exodus. The oppressed should not become the oppressor.

Even if the Israelites remembered their years of slavery in Egypt, God instills this direct command for compassion. Let them stay. Leave them alone.

As Christians, we remember that we are not to be conformed to this world. Such separation establishes the basis for our ethical and moral behavior. There are many behaviors and beliefs in the world that we cannot align with. But that does not mean we create walls of hostility.

Living among God’s people should be a place of refuge and welcome, not oppression.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. — Psalm 31.1

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Jesus on the Border

Whether Jew or Samaritan, Red or Blue, or any other worldy division, Jesus stands calling everyone to acknowledge him.

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 22 Listen: (4:13) Read: Romans 2 Listen: (4:13)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 22.26-27

26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.

Reflection: Abusive Assumptions

By John Tillman

A court’s verdict is just a number on the scoreboard or the snapshot of a referee holding up one fighter’s glove. When we see an article about a Supreme Court ruling, that’s typically all we get—a snapshot. Detailed legal opinions from the justices give graphic, blow-by-blow accounts of how every punch landed and every point was scored.

The “Majority Opinion” shows the reasoning that won the majority of the court over. We learn the evidence the majority found compelling and vital. The “Minority Opinion” details the other justices’ disagreements with their colleagues, including evidence they weighed differently, and reasons they would rule differently.

Moses became the de facto Supreme Court for Israel. He daily heard case after case of everyday mishaps, typical crimes, and outright scandals during the desert sojourn. Eventually, Moses created a court system, appointing judges over successively smaller groups of people. These judges decided simple cases and sent only the most difficult cases to higher judges and eventually to Moses.

Moses had, or developed, a refined legal sensibility and the writings of the law reveal this. They often read like a listing of old case decisions. Sometimes we get only a ruling or verdict, but often, we get hints of Moses’ reasoning. Without familiarity with the cultural context, sometimes we scratch our heads at the verdicts we see. However, it can be helpful to keep our ears open to the compassionate reasoning we find.

In this case of two people in a sexually compromising situation, Moses gives the benefit of the doubt to the party more likely to be victimized. Abuse is assumed by the more powerful and the best is assumed about the target of abuse, not the worst. In Moses’ day, it was assumed that when someone cried out regarding abuse, help would come. In our day, this assumption has often proved false.

God expects us, like Moses, to use our logic to apply his love for others in our interactions with them. Whatever judgments we make about others should be humble (because we are also sinful), compassionate (assuming the best about the victims), and without bias (allowing no excuses due to someone’s prior status, wealth, or “importance”).

Moses’ task was to establish justice. Ours is as well. God will judge organizations, nations, churches, and individuals by how well we carry out justice—especially for abuse victims. May we avoid abusive assumptions and act to rescue them.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. — Psalm 92.12

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Beyond Consent

The very first step of abuse is to groom victims until they consent to abuse.

Read more: Not a Temptress but an Abuser

Any sexual abuse victim would spot the familiar pattern Joseph faced: unwanted attention, comments, messages, and contact, followed by the attack.

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 21 Listen: (3:33) Read: Romans 1 Listen: (5:02)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 21.6-9

6 Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. 8 Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for, 9 and you will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Reflection: Cold Case Justice

By John Tillman

Crime dramas usually start with a dead body.

In the mid-2000s, Cold Case, flipped that script. The show’s detectives investigated unsolved murders from decades past. The story moved simultaneously on two timelines. In the present, you watched the detectives investigate. In the past, you got to know the victim as they moved inevitably toward the day of their demise.

Cold Case typically started in the past with the sympathetic victim’s story. We developed a saying: “Don’t get sucked into Cold Case. We know how it ends!”

Knowing the victim’s fate was morbid, but seeing them first as a person, instead of an unidentified body, created a unique emotional dynamic. There was a poignant satisfaction when justice finally came for the long-unsolved crime, right before the credits rolled.

As Moses reviewed the law, he described a crime scene identical to the first murder. Like Abel, a body was found in a field, with the victim’s blood crying out to God for justice. Moses prescribed a ceremony, atoning for the community’s guilt. They confessed their failure to provide justice and pleaded for God’s mercy on the community and the victim.

Unsolved crimes are a failure of the community to establish and enforce justice. If you look up crime statistics in your county, you’ll find unsolved murders and open cases. If we observed Mosaic law, we’d be out in the field, sacrificing a cow every week.

Thank God that ultimately Jesus will bring justice for everyone. On the day of judgment, every “cold case” will be solved and every perpetrator punished as the credits of history roll. However, even though we know that no victim’s cry will go unanswered in eternity, that doesn’t mean we shrug our shoulders today and neglect our calling to establish justice and repent of our failures.

Flip the script. Think about the victims before they are statistics. Don’t merely say, “Our hands did not shed this blood,” and “Our eyes did not see it.” Let us open our eyes to see the causes of crime and suffering in our communities. Let us work with our hands to prevent poverty, lack of opportunity, and social inequality—the precursors of crime.

Are there church or community groups or programs near you addressing these problems? Devote prayer, time, or money toward them. Establishing justice is a Christian calling and preventing crime is as much a part of it as investigating crime.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm

Wait upon the Lord and keep his way; he will raise you up to possess the land, and when the wicked are cut off, you will see it… — Psalm 37.34

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Do You Feel Like It?

Despite questions, fickle desires, favorites, frustrations, or vindictiveness, we are called to remain rightly responsive to the realities of who God is, and who we are.

Read more: Degrading Each Other

“You have done it unto me.”…Whether we help or harm others, Jesus steps into the interaction.