Erin Newton - The Park Forum

May 13, 2026May 12, 2026

Worshipping Through Horror

Links for today’s readings:

May 13 Read: Habakkuk 3 Listen: (2:59) Read: Luke 4 Listen: (5:27)

Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 3:5-6, 16

5 Plague went before him;
pestilence followed his steps.
6 He stood, and shook the earth;
he looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled
and the age-old hills collapsed—
but he marches on forever.

…

16 I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled.

Reflection: Worshipping Through Horror

By Erin Newton

For my doctoral studies, I’ve been researching terrifying imagery in the Old Testament. This means when I’m reading books with titles like Reading the Bible with Horror in public, people are looking at me funny.

The question I get often is, “Why horror?” Most of us feel more comfortable focusing on the pleasant places in the Bible: the psalm about being a sheep snoozing in a gentle green pasture or the story of Jesus feeding the multitude. Like it or not, however, the Bible has lots of scenes that terrify us. And it appears the prophets were a little shaken too.

Habakkuk has been given a vision from God of the impending doom on the wicked nations. Despite the terrifying revelation, he responds with a hymnic prayer. How many hymns have you sung that speak of God heading out to smite the enemy while being flanked by Plague and Pestilence? This type of imagery is good for our modern cinemas, not really for the church choir.

Habakkuk takes the terrifying image of God’s power and wrath and doesn’t flee from it. He encapsulates it in song. He carves it into history through prayer. But at the same time, he’s scared. This isn’t some machismo war-song. His heart is pounding. His lips are quivering. His knees are shaking. He can feel his own fear. Why? Because the image of God’s power has overtaken him.

Brandon Grafius, in Reading the Bible with Horror, highlights the effect of horror movies and literature in our Christian lives. We are sometimes drawn to such artistic expressions because the images typically encapsulate our fears. We fear dying, so there’s a blood-sucking monster. We fear ravaging illness (or global pandemics or virus-laden cruises), so horror would make Plague a monster.

Horror (well-crafted horror) and the Bible (especially the Old Testament) have something in common: “They both experience the realities of life too deeply to tell us that everything is okay when it’s not,” says Grafius. Habakkuk gets that. He’s scared. It’s terrifying. But his prayer admits to the reality of the darker parts of life. He knows God is working, but that doesn’t make everything sunshine and daisies.

Reading the Bible with horror means not avoiding these texts or rushing to make them more pleasant. Sometimes we need to pray about the terrifying realities of our world, knowing God is in our midst.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

I will bear witness that the Lord is righteous; I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High. — Psalm 7.18

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

When God Is Not Swayed by Gold

Links for today’s readings:

May 6 Read: Micah 6 Listen: (2:28) Read: Psalms 86-87 Listen: (2:26)

Scripture Focus: Micah 6:7, 14

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?

…

14 You will eat but not be satisfied;
your stomach will still be empty.
You will store up but save nothing,
because what you save I will give to the sword.

Reflection: When God Is Not Swayed by Gold

By Erin Newton

Expensive gifts are common throughout the Bible. The magi brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Jesus. The woman poured an expensive jar of oil on Jesus’s feet. The queen of Sheba brought gold, precious gems, and spices to Solomon as a gift.

Is it the financial worth of gifts that determines their value? Sometimes. For gifts exchanged between loved ones, however, the value is something that transcends cost. And so it is with God.

Micah 6 contains the well-known verses about offering gifts to God. “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?,” verse 6 says. The question is rhetorical and introspective. What does God really want from us?

The assumed answer is “expensive things.” Micah’s audience is thinking like common people. We love stuff. We love costly stuff. We value that which is rare and available only to a few—the expensive stuff. Surely, we think, God wants expensive stuff too.

But the verse turns in an unexpected way. “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?” This is generational wealth amounts! This is more stuff than any person would know what to do with. Where do you store rivers of oil? Are you ready for herds and herds of rams (or are you going to eat a thousand rams for dinner)?

No, God doesn’t really want any of this. Micah tells the people that God wants them to be merciful, just, and humble. God desires character over wealth, morality over treasure, righteousness over buyouts.

It’s not that gold is inherently problematic. Gold has been an honored gift to God, but gold offered without integrity and faithfulness is worthless. Such wealth is destined for ruin.

Do I have herds of livestock? No. Do I even know how many crates of olive oil a person can buy at Costco? Not a clue. I might read this and think I’ve been spared from acting like Micah’s community did. I’m not trying to buy God’s favor. Whew!

Yet we offer God paltry gifts of fancy words, our best dress on Sunday, and maybe a portion of our income in tithes. For many, these are worth more than we give anyone else. But without integrity and true faithfulness in how we conduct our lives, I’m afraid we too will be left with empty stomachs and war-torn losses.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Splendor and honor and kingly power are yours by right, O Lord our God,
For you created everything that is, and by your will they were created and have thor being. — A Song To The Lamb

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Won’t He Do It

Links for today’s readings:

Apr 29 Read: Jonah 3 Listen: (1:31) Read: Psalm 78.1-37 Listen: (7:12)

Scripture Focus: Jonah 3:5-6

5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.

Reflection: Won’t He Do It

By Erin Newton

How far gone is too far? How evil can a person be before we declare there’s no going back? Whose repentance do you think is impossible?

Sometimes it’s easier to hope in a miracle of healing than to believe that bad people will suddenly repent. And Jonah agrees.

The story of Jonah is full of impossibilities. You’d think being thrown overboard, not drowning but being swallowed by a fish, not dying but hanging out for three days, and being spewed from the fish onto dry land would make Jonah and us, the readers, staunch believers in anything. (Even if you read the story as hyperbole, the point is the ridiculous impossibility of it all.) But I’ve still got a side eye toward the Ninevites.

Nineveh was a large Assyrian city, serving as the capital. The Assyrians were formidable enemies against Israel and notoriously ruthless. It’s easier to sympathize with Jonah’s reluctance than to hope for their change of heart. But God likes to surprise us.

The prophet Jonah looks at the quest as an exercise in futility. Nineveh, against all expectations, responds in repentance. It was the most improbable outcome, and later Jonah will be grumpy about it.

Why is their reaction shocking? Because we expect people to keep doing what they always do. We expect evil people to keep being evil with little to no hope the word of God will affect them. Is our faith in people too big and our faith in God too small? Perhaps.

We need stories like Jonah to shock us out of our routine expectations. We need to be reminded that the unexpected still happens. We need something to hope in—that the message of God still has power to change people.

I know how tired we are of living in “unprecedented times.” The word has lost its meaning. Each day is a new set of horrors and we are at risk of believing that it will only continue getting worse. It feels a lot more compelling to hop on the nearest boat to get away from it. Even jumping overboard sounds like the reasonable thing to do. How can anything turn out right?

Believe that God calls you. Believe that God can find you in the middle of the sea. Believe that God will use creation to save you. Believe that God will meet you in the depths. And believe that God can change even the worst of humanity.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

The Lord is near to those who call upon him, to all who call upon him faithfully. — Psalm 145.19

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Let Them Eat Cake

Links for today’s readings:

Apr 22 Read: Amos 6 Listen: (2:13) Read: Matthew 26 Listen: (10:01)

Scripture Focus: Amos 6:1, 4

1 Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you notable men of the foremost nation,
to whom the people of Israel come!

4 You lie on beds adorned with ivory
and lounge on your couches.
You dine on choice lambs
and fattened calves.

Reflection: Let Them Eat Cake

By Erin Newton

“Better a low motive than no motive,” my mother used to say. The statement was always somewhat of a joke, noting how action was at least better than inaction. As far as a Christian ethic is concerned, I don’t think it’s really the mindset we are supposed to adopt. But what about inaction? If action is better than inaction, is inaction better than… wrong action? Or are they both just as bad?

Amos declares to Israel’s elite that they are complacent. Complacency is defined as: “marked by satisfaction with the status quo especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.” Satisfied with the status quo alongside obliviousness toward danger. Synonyms are “self-satisfied” or “unconcerned” or “apathetic.” Amos could have just said, Woe to you who are satisfied with how things are and are oblivious to the dangers in Israel.

Do they approve of the dangers in Israel? It doesn’t necessarily say that they are participating in the danger or that they are financing or supporting the evil around them. They simply do not care enough to react.

The “notable men of the foremost nation” implies that these were the elite, the powerful, the important leaders of the community. What are they doing? They are lounging. They are lying around in their fancy furnishings. They are eating their expensive foods. They are comfortable. They lack nothing. But most importantly to God, they lack empathy.

Sometimes we view overt sinful actions as the worst thing we can do. That mindset leads us to avoid evil (which is a good thing) but can lead us to avoid doing anything. Amos reminds us that there is something just as bad as doing evil, it is to care so little that we do nothing.

Why don’t the notable people of Israel do or say something? I assume they fear losing the luxuries they have. Like Marie Antoinette, when faced with the starving multitudes who beg for a crumb of bread, the elite shrug and reply, “Let them eat cake.”

Maybe the fear is not just losing one’s own comforts but not knowing where provisions will come from. In contrast to this apathetic mindset, Jesus faced a multitude of hungry people and told his disciples, “Feed them.”

Complacency is abhorred by God just as much as sinful actions. Let us open our eyes and loosen our grips to see the dangers in our community and then do something.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus said to the disciples: “In truth I tell you, when everything is made new again and the Son of man is seated on his throne of glory, you yourselves will sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times as much, and also inherit eternal life. Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.” — Matthew 19.28-30

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Obliterated Exclusions

Links for today’s readings:

Apr 15 Read: Joel 2 Listen: (5:26) Read: Matthew 19 Listen: (4:04)

Scripture Focus: Joel 2.28–29

28 “And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”

Reflection: Obliterated Exclusions

By Erin Newton

When I first heard the gospel, I lived on an island in a small town and attended a Baptist church that had (if my memory serves me right) a motorcycle riding Methodist preacher. From the beginning, I saw church as a worldwide community without barriers.

The early years of my Christian life, however, were shaped in another church that had more walls and rules. I was told that while God loved me, some places of ministry were off limits. But as Jeremiah once said, “[God’s] word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot” (Jeremiah 20.9). In Acts, the pouring out of the Spirit after the death and resurrection of Jesus descended on the crowd like tongues of fire.

Joel 2 has been the focal point for many discussions on ministry and worship. The verse answers the who, what, and when questions about God’s people.

What is happening? God will pour out his Spirit. This concept of having God’s spirit come upon you in the Old Testament often described a sense of power or revelation. The Spirit comes upon Ezekiel and he is given a vision of God’s restored temple. The Spirit comes upon Saul and David and through such power (and guidance), they rule Israel.

Who is it happening to? Sons and daughters. Old and young. Servants, male and female. This spectrum of God’s people obliterates exclusions that were so common in the ancient world.

When is this going to happen? For Joel, it was a future context. For us, that future is now. This is our current status. We all have the Spirit poured out upon us. This grants us the ability to commune with God directly. And most importantly, no one is excluded.

If we desire to live into the promised future that God gave to Joel, we must obliterate the exclusions we construct against our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The more I read the Bible and see how God promised and used young people like Timothy or older people like Sarah, sons like Micah and daughters like Junia, men in servitude like Onesimus and women in servitude like Esther—the more I am compelled to unreservedly take hold of the power of the Spirit already poured out in my life.

Do not build walls in the church when the Spirit has already torn them down.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

The Lord is near to those who call upon him, to all who call upon him faithfully.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he hears their cry and helps them.
The Lord preserves all those who love him, but he destroys all the wicked. — Psalm 145.19-21

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

Author: Erin Newton

Worshipping Through Horror

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 3:5-6, 16

Reflection: Worshipping Through Horror

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Read more: No, Not Like That

Read more: He Became a Servant

When God Is Not Swayed by Gold

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Micah 6:7, 14

Reflection: When God Is Not Swayed by Gold

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Read more: Leaders Sent by God

Read more: State of Our Souls

Won’t He Do It

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Jonah 3:5-6

Reflection: Won’t He Do It

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Read more: When Ninevites Believe

Read more: The Maddest Prophet, The Saddest Prophet

Let Them Eat Cake

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Amos 6:1, 4

Reflection: Let Them Eat Cake

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Read more: Of Pride and The Sword

Read more: Victims and Victimizers

Obliterated Exclusions

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Joel 2.28–29

Reflection: Obliterated Exclusions

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Read more: Prayer in Relationship

Read more: Hope Consuming Darkness