Author: John Tillman

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Tasting Eternity :: Readers’ Choice

This speaks to a practice that has become vital to my relationship with Christ, my growth as a believer–particularly my faith in God as my Father and my Lord (not just my genie or vending machine). That practice is, of course, a day of sabbath rest once every week. It takes discipline and planning to make it happen but I have no idea how I functioned without it previously.  — Sam

Readers’ Choice (Originally published April 19, 2017)
It must always be remembered that the Sabbath is not an occasion for diversion or frivolity; not a day to shoot fireworks or to turn somersaults, but an opportunity to mend our tattered lives; to collect rather than to dissipate time.

―Abraham Joshua Heschel

Scripture: Leviticus 23.3

[The Lord spoke to Moses saying,] “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.

Reflection: Tasting Eternity
By Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972)

He who wants to enter the holiness of the day must first lay down the profanity of clattering commerce, of being yoked to toil. He must go away from the screech of dissonant days, from the nervousness and fury of acquisitiveness and the betrayal in embezzling his own life. He must say farewell to manual work and learn to understand that the world has already been created and will survive without the help of man.

Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else. Six days a week we seek to dominate the world, on the seventh day we try to dominate the self.

The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life. Man is not a beast of burden, and the Sabbath is not for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of his work. “Last in creation, first in intention,” the Sabbath is “the end of the creation of heaven and earth.”

The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.

Three acts of God denoted the seventh day: He rested, He blessed, and He hallowed the seventh day. To the prohibition of labor is, therefore, added the blessing of delight and the accent of sanctity. Not only the hands of man celebrate the day; the tongue and the soul keep the Sabbath.

Labor is a craft, but perfect rest is an art. It is the result of an accord of body, mind, and imagination. To attain a degree of excellence in art, one must accept its discipline, one must adjure slothfulness. The seventh day is a palace in time which we build. It is made of soul, of joy and reticence. In its atmosphere, a discipline is a reminder of adjacency to eternity.

The Request for Presence
Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.

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

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Joshua 7 (Listen – 4:58)
Psalms 137-138 (Listen – 2:13)

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Transitions

I find it wonderful (even slightly curious) that there is still room in our culture for a devotional series. — The Park Forum

Scripture: Psalm 133:1
How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!

Reflection: Transitions
by John Tillman

In Roman towns the forum bell would ring throughout the day. It marked the first hour at 6 AM, then the 3rd hour at 9 AM, and on through the day at the sixth hour, ninth hour, and finally at the end of the business day at 6 PM. Its purpose was to mark the work day, contributing to efficiently moving the empire and the economy forward.

But alongside that empire God’s kingdom moved, using the forum’s convenient chime to advance its devoted followers closer to God and closer to each other through spiritual practice including prayer and reading. The early church’s rhythmic practice of daily prayer and readings unified them across the known world.

Compared to today, the ringing forum bells of Rome may seem quaint and stately. Our empire runs on a technological litany of bells, beeps, dings, reminders, and pop-ups that push us toward a spinning whirl of profit, ROI, and materialism. Those in the marketplace feel a very real pressure to profit or die. This type of environment is exactly the place a respite in the rhythms of regular prayer and devotion is most needed.

Our purpose at The Park Forum is, and will continue to be, to aid believers working in the economy of a secular empire to hear the chime of God’s kingdom and to connect their spiritual practice to their practical, physical life.

It was Benedict who first said, “To pray is to work and to work is to pray.” In so doing he gave form to another of the great, informing concepts of Christian spirituality—the inseparability of spiritual life from physical life. — Phyllis Tickle in her Introduction to The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime

Reading The Park Forum may have started as an individual act of devotion, but just as the rhythm of daily prayer united early Christians across the geography of the Roman empire, we who are scattered across time zones are united by the communion we pursue.

There is value in celebrating our individual relationships to God and equity in the fact that each stands uniquely before God—loved not just collectively, but individually. But there is power in joining together in a communal celebration and a unified cry to God.

Though the voice may be different, the text we read and the God we seek communion with remain the same.

Readers’ Choice will begin July 5th. Follow this link to submit your favorite post from this past year.

The Cry of the Church
In the evening, in the morning, and at noonday, I will complain and lament, and he will hear my voice.

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

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Joshua 5-6:5 (Listen – 7:25)
Psalm 132-134 (Listen – 2:22)