Author: Erin Newton

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Tamar’s Story — Love of Advent

Scripture Focus: Matthew 1.1, 3
1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar…

Genesis 38.26
26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

Reflection: Tamar’s Story — Love of Advent
By Erin Newton

These are the matriarchs of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. This is Tamar’s story.

Born among the Canaanites, Tamar was not one of Abraham’s kin. She married Er, the son of Judah and Shua, his Canaanite wife, and so became (for a short time) part of Abraham’s lineage.

Marital bliss was not to be found, for Er was evil. I imagine a loveless marriage filled with emotional or physical abuse. Perhaps a husband prone to angry outbursts and critical remarks. Perhaps a husband who sought other women or beat his workers. We are left only to wonder. The wickedness of Er, however, exceeded the tolerance of even God, and God ended his days.

Marital bliss certainly vanished. Tamar was a young widow. Among a people heralded for their covenantal righteousness—bound to be blessings among the nations—Tamar would find another form of abuse.

Judah’s second son, Onan, purposely thwarted his cultural duty to provide an heir for Tamar, though not hesitating to take pleasure in sleeping with her. She is used for her body but denied a child. Such selfishness of Onan exceeded the patience of God, and so God ended his days as well.

The final son, Shelah, is given to Tamar as a vague promise. A long time passes. I imagine Tamar living in her father’s house without a husband or child. Two men had abused her and now she must wait for the third. I imagine she worried he would be as terrible as his brothers.

Judah—a man of the covenant of Abraham, the namesake for the nation of God’s people, the patriarch in charge of Tamar’s honor—seeks out a shrine prostitute without hesitation just as the promises to Tamar have been delayed without hesitation. She takes matters into her own hands, maneuvering the situation so that Judah confuses her with a prostitute. She bears twin boys by Judah and reveals his failure of duty.  

The men tasked to care for Tamar placed their pleasures and priorities over her dignity and honor.

This was no story of godly love. 

But she is not defined by the abuse she suffered at the hands of men or by her assertive (and albeit, morally questionable) actions. Once abused and neglected, Tamar is chosen and honored as one of five women named in Jesus’s family. She is a matriarch of Jesus.

In the love of Jesus belong the abused. 


Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and glorify your Name forevermore. — Psalm 86.12

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


Today’s Readings
2 Chronicles 11-12  (Listen 6:00)
Psalms 119-25-48 (Listen 15:14)

Read more about The Wrong People
Many of us have felt like we’re the wrong people to build up God’s kingdom…God uses the Tamars…Rahabs…And the Pauls. 

The Wrong People

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God Loves Mere Mortals

Scripture Focus: Psalm 103:13-16
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
    he remembers that we are dust.
15 The life of mortals is like grass,
    they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
    and its place remembers it no more.

Reflection: God Loves Mere Mortals
By Erin Newton

I came across a poem recently by Donna Ashworth called “Joy Chose You.” The opening lines read: Joy does not arrive with a fanfare on a red carpet strewn with the flowers of a perfect life. 

The words captured the beauty of joy in the midst of the harsh reality of imperfection. I was struck later by the words of Psalm 103, “The Lord has compassion… for he remembers that we are dust.” How does our mortality relate to divine compassion, I wondered. Is it not also true that compassion does not arrive with fanfare or among those with a perfect life? 

The psalmist begins with praise— Bless the Lord! The psalmist recounts all the reasons we praise God. He forgives and he heals. He redeems and he crowns. He satisfies and he renews. All of this and we are mere mortals. 

As each year passes, we are reminded of our mortality whether it is a new diagnosis for ourselves or a loved one buried within the earth. Only in our fearless youth are we less aware of how not immortal our bodies are. We feel each new ache and see each new wrinkle. Our minds sometimes fade and memory lags. 

But despite our weakness, frailty, and mortality— divine compassion envelops our lives. It does not care that we are fading flowers and withering grass. God’s compassion for us is not measured by our fitness or vitality. The poem also said, “Joy cares nothing of your messy home, or your bank balance, or your waistline.” And neither does compassion. 

We are not made to earn God’s compassion. There is no standard to which we must attain before compassion is given to us. 

We are mortals living a very human life. Our emotions will get away from us. Our faith will be shaken. We will question and complain. We are the Jobs and the Noahs and the Miriams. God knows this. Compassion is still given. 

The psalmist often calls the recipients of divine compassion, “those who fear him.” That is not to say those who reject God are cut off from his compassion. God so loved the world. Compassion stands ready, perhaps just ignored or unembraced. 

But rest assured, beloved, you do not have to earn God’s love. Your mortality does not diminish divine compassion. The days the flesh “wins out” do not diminish divine compassion. God loves you.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
With my whole heart I seek you; let me not stray from your commandments. — Psalm 119.10

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


Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 26-27  (Listen 9:31)
Psalms 103 (Listen 2:07)

Read more about A God Who Celebrates
O God, we are unworthy creatures who rejoice that you rejoice over us.

A God Who Celebrates

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Holidays and Death’s Silence

Scripture Focus: Psalm 94:17
17 Unless the Lord had given me help,
    I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.

Reflection: Holidays and Death’s Silence
By Erin Newton

“What is there really to be thankful for this year?” I sat outside with my dad talking about the upcoming holidays. This is our first major holiday without my mom and there is the painful silence of her absence.

Holidays have all the promises of cheer and merriment as well as the oppressive weight of forced happiness and performative joy. Another friend lamented, “I feel rushed and unable to enjoy the season.” We all feel some sort of pressure from outside circumstances or inward expectations.

Psalm 94 would not be a text you would choose for Thanksgiving and the beginning of Advent. It is a plea for God to enact justice against the wicked. The cry is to God as judge and avenger. But the psalmist’s foot is slipping. Life has become perilous. Anxiety sets in.

In many ways Psalm 94 is a perfect choice for this season. International wars rage around us. Family battles seem no less destructive. Undeserved suffering continues to plague our everyday life.

The Psalmist says, “Unless the Lord had given me help…” The recognition of crises, trauma, grief, pain, hopelessness, and our weakness to remedy it is important. In the same way I have been asked how I manage continuing school or writing or hosting Bible studies in the midst of the never-ending grief. My heart responds, “If it had not been for…,” and I continue with some truth that has anchored me in this turbulent time.

If it had not been for the truth of heaven, I would have dwelt in the silence of death.

If it had not been for the psalms of lament, I would have dwelt in the silence of death.

If it had not been for the hand of Jesus ministering through the hands of a friend who sits quietly next to me as I cry, I would have dwelt in the silence of death.

There are the anchors of faith to buoy us up from the depths of darkness. We remain in the waters, tossing and drifting at sea. But we remain afloat, perhaps just in survival mode as the waves of a busy, social-event-filled month crash over us.

Let us take a moment to consider how God supports us by his unfailing love (v. 18) and gives us joy through his consolation (v. 19). Meditate on how you would finish the phrase, “If it had not been for…”  

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Search for the Lord and his strength; continually seek his face. — Psalm 105.4

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

Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 19-20 (Listen 5:02)
Psalms 94 (Listen 2:08)

Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 21 (Listen 5:03) Psalms 95-96 (Listen 2:37)
1 Chronicles 22 (Listen 3:25) Psalms 97-98 (Listen 2:19)

Read more about Edge of the Abyss
The abyss of despair is like the watery depths of the ocean…The feeling is crushing—helpless, hopeless, vulnerable.

Edge of the Abyss

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Edge of the Abyss

Scripture Focus: Psalm 74:9
9 We are given no signs from God;
     no prophets are left,
     and none of us knows how long this will be.

Reflection: Edge of the Abyss
By Erin Newton

Laments are uttered when we come to the end of ourselves. The strong have no need for laments.

We watch as the psalmist lays before God the wretched state of emotions. The sanctuary is ruthlessly destroyed with wave after wave of terror. There is no hope of relief. The psalmist stands and stares into the darkness. Federico Villanueva aptly describes the collective emotion behind Psalm 74, describing the people as “those who are ‘balancing on the edge’ of such an abyss.”

The abyss of despair is like the watery depths of the ocean. It can be a pool of murky water concealed in a dark cave. The feeling is solitary and overwhelming. It can sometimes be the turbulent whirlpools sending all creatures crashing to the ocean floor. The feeling is crushing—helpless, hopeless, vulnerable.

Not many of us will watch someone physically destroy church buildings or burn places of worship. But the psalmist says, “the place where you met with us.” Humanity once walked among the trees with God in Eden. Now, we meet with God in our prayers, in our meditation, in our worship, in our study, and in our fellowship.

Axmen still come and wield their sharpened tools. Someone can come along and destroy these holy meeting places with lies and deception. Organizations can fell the trees of our faith with silence and threats.

When it seems like hope is lost, each breath becomes the song of the lament. Where are you, God? Why are you not here? How long will this last?

The same images of despair become the beacon of hope. The darkness, the waters, the cold, the monsters— these become the message of promise. What God has done in the past gives hope for what he will do in the future.

God harnessed the expanse of the universe, setting boundaries for the sun and the moon. The seasons were set in motion bringing spring to follow winter. Leviathan, chaos incarnate, was crushed and tossed as food to wild animals.

The God who subdues the terrors of the abyss—infinite space, lifeless winter, raging dragon, soul-crushing despair—is the same God who hears the lament of his people.

Let us call upon the God who closes the mouth of the abyss and ask him to remember the vulnerable and the abused. May no person take an ax to the place where God meets with his creation.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Send forth your strength, O God; establish, O God, what you have wrought for us. — Psalm 68.28


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

Today’s Readings
2 Kings 21 (Listen 4:06) 
Psalms 74 (Listen 2:34)

Read more about The Struggle against Chaos
One of the thoughts we struggle with is the idea that all the events of life are haphazardly occurring, without meaning, spinning out of control.

The Struggle against Chaos—Readers’ Choice

Read more about Anxious Nights Between Destruction and Chaos
From the chaos of the sea and the wilderness wind, God brings order and a highway to salvation.

Anxious Nights Between Destruction and Chaos

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The Plundering of God

Scripture Focus: 2 Kings 14.14
14 He took all the gold and silver and all the articles found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace. He also took hostages and returned to Samaria.

Reflection: The Plundering of God
By Erin Newton

Israel and Judah were cousins, descendants of Jacob, and called and bound to the Abrahamic covenant. But down the line, they traded brotherhood for hostility—peace for enmity.

The divided kingdom is a story of the darkest hours for God’s people. Not only were nations attacking Israel and Judah from the outside, but the two nations were attacking each other on the inside.

The king of Judah, Amaziah, went to battle against Jehoash, king of Israel. Amaziah was captured by Jehoash, and his family was taken captive.

This story is not drastically different from many of the conflicts between Israel and Judah in Kings. After capturing the king, they followed the common practice of looting the temple. Gold and silver were removed from the house of the Lord.

Looting the temple of God? The opposing army was their family! Did they not worship the same God? Were those vessels not designated for the God they also vowed to serve?

The movement of temple treasures reveals how common it was for items to be taken. An Egyptian king took treasures, and twice that was given to the king of Syria and the king of Assyria. In the midst of this plundering, the temple was twice repaired.

There was a tree in the center of my town. For decades it served as the community Christmas tree. Each December, the city came together to sing carols, drink wassail, and watch the lights burst forth on the tree during the crescendo of the final carol.

Recently, people began to take leaves off the lower branches. When those were gone, small limbs were snapped away. Slowly the tree was stripped bare. A storm came through one winter, coating everything with ice. The tree didn’t survive.

When I think about the plundering of the temple, I think of this tree.

I remember how it was my own neighbors and friends who slowly stripped bare the tree. I think of Israel stripping the temple of their God.

I think of Christians today, so caught up in fighting one another that the house of God is robbed, desecrated, and laid bare by the hands of those who say they love the God that dwells there. 

Before we tear at each other, trading peace for enmity, may we pause and remember that we are bound by the same covenant and are branches on the same vine.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Concerning the commandments, Jesus taught us, saying: “This is the first: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the One, only Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” — Mark 123.29-31


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

Today’s Readings
2 Kings 14 (Listen 5:06)
Psalms 64-65 (Listen 2:39)

Read more about Conflict’s Aftermath
When did we forget he is the Prince of Peace? Let us ask God to replace the festering anger in our hearts with love.

Conflict’s Aftermath

Read more about Reflecting the Unity of Christ
Prayers for unity and peace from brothers and sisters worshiping in places where violence is as common as bad traffic, are especially to be emulated …

Reflecting the Unity of Christ :: Worldwide Prayer