John Tillman - The Park Forum

October 24, 2023October 22, 2023

A Scandalous Mercy

Scripture Focus: 2 Kings 5.1-3
1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.
2 Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

Reflection: A Scandalous Mercy
By John Tillman

It’s easy to get desensitized to the scandalous mercy of God that he offers freely—even to the worst people we can think of. Naaman’s story brings all of that home to us.

God used Aram (modern-day Syria) to punish Israel. Naaman, an Aramean general, had led many battles and ordered many raids into Israel, winning victories against Israel’s wicked kings. He had killed many Israelites. He also took a captive Israelite girl as a slave for his wife.

In today’s terms, Naaman would be a warlord, a kidnapper, a human trafficker—a terrorist. He was one of Israel’s great enemies. This enemy, this terrorist, this slaveholder made another trip to Israel. This time, instead of violence, he brought treasures. He wanted to buy a miracle.

Imagine it happening today. Imagine one of Putin’s commanders arriving in Kyiv, asking to be healed. Imagine a Hamas commander arriving in Tel Aviv, expecting a blessing.

Israel’s king can’t handle it. He tears his clothes, thinking that Aram is picking a fight. Gehazi, Elisha’s assistant, can’t handle it. He chases after Naaman to make him pay. Centuries later, Jesus’ hometown crowd in Nazareth can’t handle it. When Jesus references Elisha healing Naaman over native-born Israelite lepers, they try to throw him off a cliff to his death.

The king couldn’t handle it because he suspected it was a trap. Not only did he believe it was impossible to heal Naaman’s leprosy, but he also believed a man like Naaman couldn’t make a sincere request. It had to be a scam, and he refused to fall for it.

Gehazi couldn’t handle it because he believed Naaman deserved to pay for what he had done. He couldn’t accept the injustice of offering mercy to a killer, even after his conversion to worship God alone. He wanted Naaman to pay and set out to collect that payment.

Nazareth couldn’t handle it because it short-circuited their selfishness. They loved the idea of “setting captives free,” so long as they were the captives and their oppressors were thrown down. But when Jesus implied that even oppressors could be saved, they tried to murder the former hometown hero.

The enslaved Israelite girl initiated the healing of her oppressor and enemy. Could you do so? Could I?

God has mercy on whom he has mercy. Can we handle God’s mercy? Can we proclaim it to our enemies? Can we celebrate it?

From John: On the weekend the Israel-Hamas war broke out a member of our church who is from Israel led prayer. He prayed for peace, healing, and protection not only for Israel, but for people in Gaza. This is how we continue to pray. For cautious restraint of military leaders so that innocent lives would be spared. For peace and freedom for Israel and Gaza and all Palestinians. We pray that those with a righteous cause would pursue a righteous course, for the path of rage and vengeance never leads to peace.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
He has not dealt with us according ot our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so is his mercy great upon those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us.
As a father cares for his children, so does the Lord care for those who fear him.
For he himself knows whereof we are made; he remembers that we are but dust. — Psalm 103.10-12

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

Today’s Readings
2 Kings 5 (Listen 5:13)
Psalms 50 (Listen 2:26)

Read more about When God Has Mercy…Will We?
Jonah seemed to believe mercy should be limited to his own tribe and country while everyone else burned. How many of us are like him?

When God Has Mercy…Will We?

Read more about Radical Outreach to Outcasts
Jesus will say something that makes us want to throw him off a cliff in anger. He will ask us to allow someone in we would prefer to keep out.

Radical Outreach to Outcasts :: Epiphany

October 23, 2023October 21, 2023

The Promise of Justice

Scripture Focus: Psalm 49.5-15
5 Why should I fear when evil days come,
when wicked deceivers surround me—
6 those who trust in their wealth
and boast of their great riches?
7 No one can redeem the life of another
or give to God a ransom for them—
8 the ransom for a life is costly,
no payment is ever enough—
9 so that they should live on forever
and not see decay.
10 For all can see that the wise die,
that the foolish and the senseless also perish,
leaving their wealth to others.
11 Their tombs will remain their houses forever,
their dwellings for endless generations,
though they had named lands after themselves.
12 People, despite their wealth, do not endure;
they are like the beasts that perish.
13 This is the fate of those who trust in themselves,
and of their followers, who approve their sayings.
14 They are like sheep and are destined to die;
death will be their shepherd
(but the upright will prevail over them in the morning).
Their forms will decay in the grave,
far from their princely mansions.
15 But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead;
he will surely take me to himself.

Reflection: The Promise of Justice
By John Tillman

The Bible is the most grounded and realistic of holy texts. Scripture doesn’t blink when things go bad. It weeps. Biblical authors don’t shy from distressing realities. Cries for justice ring out in every book.

Modern people deceive ourselves that evil is only a disagreement about mutual benefits. The Bible knows that evil is real and people both cause and suffer from it.

Complaints and cries for justice come from an awareness of its lack. Deep down, humans know a moral standard exists. Those who deny moral absolutes cannot show that they lack anything. Without a moral ideal, no complaint regarding justice can be made. Without some measure of wrongness, there is no reason to expect goodness. How can a world with no absolutes be upset about evil? So you suffered or were harmed… Well, what did you expect? Who promised you something else?

Only amidst the Bible’s moral absolutes do we find a promise of justice.

We know, soul-deep and sinew deep, that sin exists. This is what it means to have partaken of the fruit. We KNOW evil. It looks good and tastes sweet, but soon, it cramps us up, doubling us over. The knowledge of good and evil sickens our stomachs and rumbles through our guts. We soil ourselves with it, and the runoff soils the earth, awakening Death.

The psalmist pulls no punches about death, the greatest evil of all. Death is the last enemy to be defeated. (Even though he has already lost.) Death treats rich and poor with perfect and efficient equity, yet every death is unjust to the Lord of life.

We work whatever justice we can on earth, but when death comes, human justice is insufficient. We cannot restore or repay, even with our lives, the loss of a victim of murder, cancer, starvation, Covid, or any other cause. But just as evil exists, righteousness does too. Whatever meager form of justice humans offer, Christ’s justice is incomparably greater.

Death’s victims need not stay in his grasp. Death’s grasping arms were broken in a wrestling match lost at the cross. Christ kicked in Death’s doors, opening the pathway to life for all who believe.

Like Old Testament sacrifices, human justice is not meaningless, and we must enact it, but it is a mere shadow of the justice wrought by Christ. We do justice, as we do all else, in remembrance of His promise.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord. — Psalm 31.24

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

Today’s Readings
2 Kings 4 (Listen 6:17)
Psalms 49 (Listen 2:10)

Read more about Justice Starts Within
Justice starts within. It doesn’t stop there. May we answer the call…shining a light of justice and truth

Justice Starts Within

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Supporting our Work

October 17, 2023October 15, 2023

Kings Like Ahab

Scripture Focus: 1 Kings 20.28
28 The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans think the Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

Reflection: Kings Like Ahab
By John Tillman

Ahab is the anti-David. If David shows us “a man after God’s heart,” Ahab is the mirror image. (1 Samuel 13.14; Acts 13.22) Ahab and David become moral measuring sticks. Scripture describes bad kings as following Ahab’s ways and good kings as following David’s.

Ahab gets the most ink in Kings. He’s unquestionably wicked, yet God used and spoke to him frequently. Why?

It may shock us that God blesses Ahab with victories and with his presence and voice, spoken through many prophets. Humans aren’t perfect, yet God works through them. We know this academically, but emotionally, we feel God should find someone else when he uses the wicked. We can learn from this.

God uses wicked kings to accomplish good things. This doesn’t make them good kings. God used Ahab as a mercy to the people of Israel and for the glory of his own name, not because Ahab was good. Victories don’t grant leaders a never-expiring stamp of God’s approval or mean a leader is “God’s man or woman.” They don’t suddenly deserve praise, adoration, or unquestioning, unshakable devotion.

God pursues the wicked for salvation. God repeatedly tells Ahab, “You will know that I am the Lord.” God wanted Ahab to know him and offered himself to Ahab, who repeatedly rejected God. We typically think of God pursuing the wicked, seeking to punish or destroy them, but God also pursues the wicked to turn them to him and change their hearts.

We are among the wicked. Ahab was wicked and God used him. David was wicked and God used him. We are wicked and God will use us. Our wickedness is different by degrees when we compare them humanly, but to God wicked is wicked. Just as God pursued wicked kings for repentance, he has and will pursue us.

Jesus is the only righteous king. God did find a better, righteous king to do the work that no imperfect king could do. Jesus is the king who accomplishes all that God wants. He is the only king to whom we can be unswervingly loyal because he is the only righteous one.

Like Ahab and all wicked kings, we are wicked ones repeatedly called to repentance. Ahab and David differ in their response to God, not in God’s offer. May we respond like David and not like Ahab.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “I tell you, if anyone openly declares himself for me in the presence of human beings, the Son of man will declare himself for him in the presence of God’s angels. But anyone who disowns me in the presence of human beings will be disowned in the presence of God’s angels.” — Luke 12.8-9

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

Today’s Readings
1 Kings 20 (Listen 7:03 )
Psalms 40-41 (Listen 3:57 )

Read more about Ahab and David
Even Ahab, the wickedest of wicked kings, obtained a measure of mercy from God when he showed humility and grief.

Ahab and David

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October 16, 2023October 14, 2023

Tongues, Thumbs, and Prayers

Scripture Focus: Psalm 39.1-3
1 I said, “I will watch my ways
and keep my tongue from sin;
I will put a muzzle on my mouth
while in the presence of the wicked.”
2 So I remained utterly silent,
not even saying anything good.
But my anguish increased;
3 my heart grew hot within me.
While I meditated, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:

Reflection: Tongues, Thumbs, and Prayers
By John Tillman

The psalmist, presumably David, suffers in silence. He muzzles himself, not even saying good things because of the wicked. Silence increases his anguish. Inner turmoil heats up. He turns to meditation, but heat becomes a burning flame. So, he opens his mouth to speak…

If we stopped at verse three, we might assume the psalmist’s unsheathed speech became a sword, fighting for God. We might think his words laid waste to the wicked. We might imagine ourselves following the psalmist’s example by opening a social media app and delivering a diatribe of harsh truths to destroy ideological opponents. We’d be wrong.

The psalmist spoke to God, not humans. He had questions, not claims. He sought truth. He didn’t weaponize it. His faith was mixed with doubts. His courage was mixed with fears. His prayers were mixed with weeping.

Don’t forget the first verse of this psalm: “I will…keep my tongue from sin.” The Bible repeatedly warns us of sinning by speech. If James had seen us on mobile devices typing in our social media apps, he might have written “thumbs are a restless evil” instead of “tongues.” (James 3.17)

Should we—can we—use our tongues to speak or our thumbs to type without falling into sin?

Do we need better vocabulary? Surely if we eschew harsh, foul, or insulting language, our speech can’t be sinful? No.
Do we need to be less dogmatic? Surely we can avoid sin by placating both sides and avoiding hard stances? No.
Do we need greater intellect? Surely intellectualism, facts, and data can keep us from sinning by speech? No.

It is not our tongues or our thumbs that cause us to sin. It is our hearts. (Matthew 12.34; Luke 6.45) A better vocabulary won’t heal our hateful hearts. A more understanding tone won’t calm our heart’s fear of confrontation. The brightest of intellects can’t enlighten the sin-darkened pathways of our hearts.

When avoiding sinful speech, the factor that is more important than our vocabulary, our sensitivity, or our wisdom is prayer. Our prayer life changes our hearts.

The psalmist is brutally honest with God. Are your prayers honest?
The psalmist seeks forgiveness and help. Are you confessing and requesting?

There is a time to speak up, testify to the truth, and defend what we believe. When that time comes, will our prayer life have prepared us to speak?

Divine Hours Prayer: The request for Presence
O Lord, my God, my Savior, by day and night, I cry to you. Let my prayer enter into your presence. — Psalm 88.1-2

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

Today’s Readings
1 Kings 19 (Listen 3:53 )
Psalms 39 (Listen 1:49 )

Read more about Prayer When None Are Faithful
We are dismayed, Lord…
We are sheep among wicked shepherds…
Will only braggarts lead?
Will only the boastful hold sway?

Prayer When None Are Faithful — Guided Prayer

Read more about Cultivation Requires Planning
For a mustard seed faith to grow, it must be cultivated. Do you have a plan to cultivate your spiritual growth?

Cultivation Requires Planning

October 10, 2023October 8, 2023

Nameless Prophets

Scripture Focus: 1 Kings 13.29-33
29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!”

31 After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”

33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways…

2 Kings 23.4-24
15 Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin—even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also. 16 Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.

17 The king asked, “What is that tombstone I see?”

The people of the city said, “It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it.”

18 “Leave it alone,” he said. “Don’t let anyone disturb his bones.” So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

Reflection: Nameless Prophets
By John Tillman

It is one of the strangest stories in the Bible.

Three powerful and frightening signs.
Jeroboam was offering a sacrifice on the altar of Bethel when the Judean man of God prophesied to the altar. At the prophecy, two signs occurred. The altar split and the ashes spilled. The third sign came when Jeroboam threatened the man of God and his hand instantly shriveled. Jeroboam repented of his threat and at the prophet’s prayer, the hand was restored.

Two nameless prophets.
The mysterious “man of God from Judah” is identified only by gender and geography. He confronted a powerful king with powerful signs. Yet, he became so hungry he made a serious error in judgment.

The “old prophet” from Samaria was unscrupulous and ambiguous. Did he attempt to save a fellow prophet from starving on the side of the road? Did he sabotage a rival prophet who destroyed an altar his family served? Where did his loyalty lie? He lies to the man of God, then lies with the man of God, side-by-side in the same tomb. His dying wish implies he meant no harm, but we can’t be sure.

One corrupt, wicked king.
God promised Jeroboam a kingdom “as enduring as the one I built for David” if he would walk in obedience. Instead, he became as corrupt as the son of Solomon he rebelled against. (1 Kings 11.34-40)

One reforming, destroying future king.
Josiah is the greatest reformer of any biblical king. (2 Kings 23.25) He is known more by what he tore down than by what he built. David fought for political peace against outer threats, armies entrenched at the borders. Josiah fought for spiritual peace against inner threats, foreign gods entrenched in hearts and culture.

The Bible is not a curriculum. Many tales, like this one, lack obvious takeaways. However, we know that God is on a mission of reformation and restoration. The process will be painful. Errors in one generation harm those following. Future generations must tear down errors before harms can be healed.

Jesus is a greater reformer than Josiah. When Jesus sets things right, they will stay that way. Are we willing to be nameless prophets, announcing the coming king? God seeks the repentant and the faithful for nameless missions whose happy endings may come after our death.

Come soon, King Jesus.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.” — Luke 12.32

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

Today’s Readings
1 Kings 13 (Listen 5:14 )
Psalms 33 (Listen 2:08 )

Read more about Incomparable King and Kingdom
Scripture’s accounts of kings are focused on the only statistic that matters—righteousness.

Incomparable King and Kingdom

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