Author: John Tillman

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5.8-9
If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still. The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.

Reflection: Unsurprising Oppression
By John Tillman

The teacher of Ecclesiastes and the teacher of Galilee seem to agree that oppression and poverty are a condition of the world that should not be surprising to us, but that doesn’t make them apathetic laissez-faire economists.

Solomon, the teacher of Ecclesiastes, says we should be unsurprised to see oppression of the poor and systemic corruption in the government.

Jesus, the teacher of Galilee, says the poor will always be with us.

Neither of them would have expected their words to be portrayed as endorsements of a laissez-faire attitude toward poverty or oppression.

Rather than an endorsement, Solomon’s statement is a confession of complicity. The king himself profits from the fields. The profit of the corrupt system, and the guilt for it, passes up the chain of authority and distributes itself throughout the entire economic system to every citizen. And Solomon calls this profit, “meaningless.”

And in the case of Christ’s words, often misquoted by politicians looking to cut social spending, Jesus is referencing an Old Testament passage everyone in the room would have instantly recognized. The other half of the sentence from Deuteronomy that Jesus is referencing is, “Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”

Jesus is specifically referencing the abandoned economic practices of Jubilee. Under this system, debts (regardless of their origins or the wisdom of the debtors) were to be forgiven every seven years, including a complete reset of property rights once in a generation.

There is little biblical evidence that the system was ever followed as God prescribed it. If it had been followed generational poverty would be impossible. However, the pull of meaningless profit and gain for gain’s sake was too strong for ancient Israel and is too strong for us today.

As the teacher says:

Whoever loves money never has enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
This too is meaningless.

The meaninglessness of accumulating wealth is a universal symptom of our sinful condition. We are all affected by it, from the top economic strata to the bottom.

May we be generous not just with tangible resources, but by influencing the way our culture thinks about poverty.

In a world in which the poor and oppressed are too often excoriated as complicit in their own oppression, may we speak words of truth and comfort backed up with tangible aid.

Prayer: The Morning Psalm
Though the Lord be high, he cares for the lowly; he perceives the houghty from afar. — Psalm 138.6

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

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ecclesiastes 5 (Listen – 2:50)
2 Timothy 1 (Listen – 2:37)

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3.16
And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

Matthew 23.29-30
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

We cannot say we want your blessing God, but don’t disturb us too much. — Dr. Russell Moore

Am I buggin’ you? I don’t mean to bug ya. — Bono, speaking about apartheid in the middle of “Silver and Gold” — Rattle and Hum Live Concert Recording

Reflection: Decorating the Tombs of the Prophets
By John Tillman

Two weeks ago in Memphis, the city where 50 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated outside the Lorraine Motel, many brought wreaths to place at the motel, which now houses the National Civil Rights Museum.

Oh, how we love to decorate the tombs of the prophets.

The remarks below are excerpted from Dr. Russell Moore’s opening keynote address to the MLK50 conference, hosted in Memphis by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and The Gospel Coalition.

Jesus says you honor the prophets, and yet what the prophets said to you was from God, and the prophets told the people of God that they could not serve Baal and God…And yet time and time and time again, when told they could not serve both, the people of God tragically often chose to worship Baal but to rename him God.

And time and time again, in the white American Bible Belt, the people of God had to choose between Jesus Christ and Jim Crow. Because, you cannot serve both. And tragically, many often chose to serve Jim Crow and to rename him Jesus Christ.

“Your fathers,” Jesus says, “would not have minded the prophets either, if the prophets were dead. Your fathers would not have minded the prophets either, if the prophets would not speak. And now that there is no need to worry that they will say anything else it is easy to honor them.”

Martin Luther King is relatively non-controversial in American life, because Martin Luther King has not been speaking for 50 years. It is easy to look backward and to say “if I had been here I would have listened to Dr. King,”—even though I do not listen to what is happening around me in my own community, in my own neighborhood, in my own church.

But Jesus Christ is not dead anymore.

The most difficult thing about following a risen and reigning prophet, priest, and king, is that he will not leave us alone. He will keep bugging us. He will keep saying uncomfortable things to us. He will not stop challenging us to break down our idols.

We cannot say we want your blessing God, but don’t disturb us too much; we want your blessing God, but don’t change our order of worship; we want your blessing God, but don’t change our institutions of power; we want your blessing God, but don’t change our systems.

And if we have to change our worship styles, let’s crucify our worship styles. If God’s way upsets our political alliances, let’s crucify our political alliances. To be a gospel people means that we don’t seek a cheap reconciliation, but a cross reconciliation.

On The Park Forum, we have written extensively on the subject of race and racism. Why would we devote so much time and so many words to the attempt to break down the cultural idol of racism?

Because it is the idol that our culture can’t seem to eradicate. Just as there were always idols of Baal to be found around Israel, there always seem to be idols to racism standing in corners of our hearts, our homes, our cities, and even our churches.

May we seek Christ’s mercy and give ourselves to him as instruments of his suffering pursuit of justice, instruments of his reconciling love, and instruments of his restorative redemption.

Jesus say something
I am someone, I am someone
I am someone — Silver and Gold, U2

Prayer: The Morning Psalm
For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, and evil cannot dwell with you. — Psalm 5.4

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

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ecclesiastes 3 (Listen – 3:02)
1 Timothy 5 (Listen – 3:22)

Further Posts on Racism

Racism Wears a Mask
Racism is not just an individual crime or action, it is an unseen burden we are forced to carry by our culture and our history.

Putting To Death Racial Hostility
Christians must take the lead in racial issues because we have the only viable ideology that, if we let it, will counter the ideology of hate. We cannot grow weary. We cannot tire of addressing the issue. We have the only answer.