Erin Newton - The Park Forum

May 3, 2023May 2, 2023

The Patience of Job

Scripture Focus: James 5.11
11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Reflection: The Patience of Job
By Erin Newton

Some English versions use the phrase, “the patience of Job.” Really? If you remember the book of Job, patience is typically not the description you had in mind. The Old Testament story of Job reveals a man in the midst of great peril and distress. He lays out his petition before God, pleading for an answer, “Why me? What did I do to deserve such suffering?” Job’s words are tense and angry. He speaks openly through his pain and spares no words.

We can look at the end of Job’s story and see that God restores him once more. We might call that “patience,” but it looks very different than what we would expect.

There is another story of Job that you might not know. The Testament of Job is a Greek version of Job’s story and was not included in the Protestant Canon. This story emphasizes the patient, long-suffering nature of Job and includes a message from Job to his children to be patient, for “patience is better than anything.”

Both stories about Job reveal the essence of patience: keeping the faith. Despite the bitterness of Job’s words in the canonical book, he proclaims, “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” Patience turns hearsay faith into realized faith.

Patience has been a theme of James 5. Be patient like a farmer waiting for the Lord. Be patient in your interactions with one another. Be patient like the prophets who spoke of promises and days that they would not live to see.

What is patience? Patience is perseverance. Patience is the long and steady endurance of faith. Patience is waiting for God to answer your prayer. Patience is waiting for the healing of the sick. Patience is asking God to show a miracle and waiting years to see it happen.

The trials and struggles of life will test our perseverance. Our patience with ourselves, one another, and God will wear thin. We will speak angry words in our prayers and speak judgments on our neighbors. James understands the reality of the difficulty of patience.

James’ final words are a picture of patience that wanes during trials. When perseverance fails, a person wanders from the faith. James knows the amount of patience required for one to seek out their lost friend. Yet, we consider it a blessing to persevere for Christ and our neighbors.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone. — Isaiah 9.1

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

Today’s Readings
Numbers 10 (Listen 4:11)
James 5 (Listen 3:01)

Read more about Job’s Christlikeness
Job is an early “type” or example of Jesus. He demonstrates or proves God’s righteousness through suffering and death.

Job’s Christlikeness

Read more about Lamenting With Job
Lament is frequent and important in the Bible and should be in our lives as well.

Lamenting With Job :: Guided Prayer

April 26, 2023April 24, 2023

Open Letter to Students of the Bible

Scripture Focus: Acts 26.24
24 At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you insane.”

Reflection: Open Letter to Students of the Bible
By Erin Newton

To my fellow Bible students, theology readers, church historians, pastors, and professors—to all who take seriously the work of the Lord and the Word of God…

Grace and peace to you, as Paul would say.

The work, I know, is hard. The days are long. When our time is saturated with answering questions about life and faith, we give ourselves over to the strenuous task of gleaning wisdom. When we open a book or sit down to research, our minds are cultivated and poured out for others.

It takes extraordinary effort. We grow in knowledge, mature in ministry, and reshape our understanding of God and the world. Former assumptions are confronted, conflicting theories are presented, and we wrestle with never-ending questions.

In many ways, it can feel like we have lost our minds.

Festus certainly believed Paul was crazy. Was it possible? Had Paul delved too far into religious matters? Had Paul spent too much time talking to the people of “The Way” and read too much of the former prophets?

Paul was well-trained both professionally as a Jew and individually after his conversion. He experienced visions of heaven and Jesus spoke to him directly on the way to Damascus. If it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert, Paul was certainly an expert.

Festus was incredulous, but rightfully so. His logic was grounded in common wisdom, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body” (Eccl 12:12). He was spiritually blind and considered the gospel foolishness (1 Cor 2:14).

Paul, however, was no fool. He was no lunatic either. His life gave testimony of what his mind wrestled to understand. Paul had great learning but a greater ministry.

Let us not miss a real warning here: Great learning, unchecked and untethered, can poison the mind.

Paul was the student of students, the apple of a teacher’s eye. He was brilliant and eloquent, passionate and determined. He cross-checked the Scriptures and reasoned with logic. He was our role model for learning.

Yet he did more than write letters. He was knee-deep and in chains for the ministry. He was tethered to the church through evangelism, discipleship, and prayer.

Dear scholars, do not let your learning drive you mad. Pair your mind with your hands. Let us use our gifts of knowledge to be poured out for the sake of Christ.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; knit my heart to you that I may fear your Name… — Psalm 86.11

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

Today’s Reading
Numbers 3 (Listen 6:01)
Acts 26 (Listen 5:17)

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April 19, 2023April 17, 2023

Holidays are Tabernacles

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 23:2
2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

Reflection: Holidays are Tabernacles
By Erin Newton

Imagine you are far from home, perhaps forced away or maybe you’ve never found a place to call home. It is easy to become discouraged and lonely. You begin to wonder, “Who am I?”

Israel wandered the wilderness for forty years waiting for the place they would call home. In the exile, they watched their livelihood burn to the ground as they were forced into another wilderness.

The book of Leviticus has painstakingly detailed Israel’s religious identity. From the foods to eat to the clothes to wear, this book has covered seemingly every nook and cranny of their lives. Leviticus has brought order to their worship, cleanliness, relationships, and physical bodies. Now God will remind them of the order of time.

Israel participated in seven festivals a year and every seventh day was set aside as holy. The festivals were a periodic means of organizing time, making the calendar something that could define the people even when they were not in their land and felt far from God’s presence.

Richard Boyce summarizes the purpose of the festivals, “Every week, every month, every year now becomes a ‘camp’ wherein God’s holy presence might be manifest, through the observance of festivals.”

Even when they are far from home, God has created a temporal map to routinely bring them into his presence.

As Christians, we mark our calendar with different holy days. We focus on Christmas and Easter with some attention to Good Friday. Some churches also include celebrations for Epiphany, Pentecost, All Saints Day, and others.

We celebrate our holidays, but so do our neighbors. We are not distinguished because of our festivals.

The question becomes: Do we need more holidays to regain our religious identity, or do we need to reclaim our focus on the days already marked out for us?

We may feel lost, homesick, or unsure about where we fit in. We either can’t find our home or it’s out of our reach. It could be strained relationships or spiritual abuse that has created the distance. No matter the reason, at home or in exile, we can remember that our time is marked out for God.

At home or in pursuit of a new community, taking periodic days to focus on our relationship with God will help us gain a sense of identity. There is peace when we take the time to rest, remember, and reunite with God’s presence.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
Let me seek the Lord while he may still be found. I will call upon his name while he is near.

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

Today’s Reading
Leviticus 23 (Listen 6:31)
Acts 19 (Listen 5:47)

Read more about What Time is It?
Today, let us pray that we will understand the times and seasons that we find ourselves in.

What Time is It?

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April 12, 2023April 10, 2023

Two Goats and Jesus

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 16:21-22
21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. 22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.

Reflection: Two Goats and Jesus
By Erin Newton

Easter is over. What if we still don’t understand it?

Two men on Resurrection morning asked, “What just happened?” Jesus of Nazareth, powerful in word and deed, was crucified (Luke 24). They witnessed the horrifying event but walked away with more questions than answers. It was all so confusing.

Cleopas and his friend were called “slow to believe.” I think their slowness in faith was rooted in their inability to understand and not because they were lazy. Not because they needed higher education. Not because they were of lesser genius. Understanding takes time, questions, and pondering what we think we already know.

We have the benefit of the Spirit to help us as we look back on the Old Testament. When we think about Easter, we ponder why Jesus had to die—what was the meaning of his death? For those questions, one place we look is Leviticus 16.

Two goats are gathered for the Day of Atonement. One goat is killed, and its blood is used to cleanse the sanctuary from the innermost rooms to the outer. The second goat bears the fullness of the iniquities of the people and is banished from the community.

Jacob Milgrom explains, “Evil was banished to its place of origin (e.g., the netherworld, wilderness) or to some place in which its malefic powers could work to the benefit of the sender (e.g., to enemy territory) or in which it could do no harm at all (mountains, wilderness).” A ritual designed to purge and eliminate.

Jesus’ death on the cross more fully accomplishes this ritual. His blood purifies our approach to God so we can enter his presence without fear. His death banishes the power of sin to the wilderness, and we can be free from the bondage of evil.

Hebrews 10:10 says, “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The need for ritual atonement is over but we still wrestle with how it all works.

Do we now descend into our daily routines? Do we re-enter the spiritually apathetic weeks on the calendar? I hope we do not. I hope we keep pondering the Gospel. I hope we never tire of asking questions and seeking answers.

Even the disciples left the cross with questions. Faith is a process. May our hearts, just like Cleopas’, burn within us as the Scriptures are opened.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the clouds. — Psalm 36.5

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

Today’s Reading
Leviticus 16 (Listen 5:36)
Acts 12 (Listen 3:49)

Read more about Taking Sin Seriously
Jesus takes sin far more seriously than anyone…sin is deadly serious business to the one who came to die for sins.

Taking Sin Seriously

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March 29, 2023March 28, 2023

Exodus Terminus

Scripture Focus: Exodus 40:1-2, 33-38
1 Then the Lord said to Moses: 2 “Set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month.

33 …And so Moses finished the work. 34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; 37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. 38 So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

Reflection: Exodus Terminus
By Erin Newton

This chapter marks the end of an era and the dawn of a new life. Exodus has taken us on the journey of battered people through their healing and restoration. It has been a story of pain and suffering mixed with moments of joy and bewilderment. It has been everything except for easy.

Exodus began with the fall of God’s people from their favored position in Egypt. It ends with meeting God face to face.
The first sounds to break upon the book were the venomous commands to kill the seed of the people, the infant boys. The final sound is the voice of God promising access to his presence for all generations.
The pained and tortured voices of God’s enslaved children rose to the ears of God. “God of our fathers, deliver us!” Freed, dwelling together in the wilderness, God whispers tenderly to them, “Follow me.”
The sun rises on the banks of the Nile where one faithful mother placed the fate of her child in a basket, an ark upon the water. The sun sets in Exodus upon the family of Moses, washed in the water of purification, ready to meet God.
Exodus followed the life of a man, chosen by God to save the people from bondage. It ends with the picture of priests, ready to intercede on their behalf.
Salvation did not come without trial or tribulation. Exodus closes with the God who sends signs and wonders upon Egypt leading his people to new life.
The entire story held its breath on the precipice of the Red Sea, fearing all hope would be swallowed by the watery depths. The next book will open on the edge of the Promised Land.

Exodus is a fascinating story of an epic hero and triumphant people. It is a story of nature turned upside down at the voice of God. It is a story of faith persevering. It is a story of approaching God—and living.

When we read the story of Exodus, we see many echoes of the life of Christ. His life is threatened from birth to final death. He brings the enslaved people to freedom. He passed through the waters of baptism and the dark shroud of death.

As we enter this next week of Eastertide, marvel at the image of salvation in Exodus and the reality of the true salvation we have in Christ.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone. — Isaiah 9.1

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

Today’s Reading
Exodus 40 (Listen 4:07 )
Luke 22 (Listen 7:58 )

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