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September 6, 2024August 20, 2024

Exclusive Claims, Inclusive Hope — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: 2 Chronicles 6.18-21
18 “But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 19 Yet, Lord my God, give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence. 20 May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. 21 Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

Luke 2.28-38
28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”

36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Originally published on December 6, 2023, based on readings from 2 Chronicles 6 and Luke 2.

Readers’ Choice is here: There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or filling out the linked form.

Advent in September: Several of the choices from readers were from last year, during Advent. We are putting these posts together in this first week of Readers’ Choice. We pray as Summer winds down that the spirit of Christmas has continued in your heart and that these posts will help you look forward to and anticipate the coming seasons.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Diane — I absolutely love this paragraph: “God’s exclusivity is not a bragging point or an insult. Our hope is exclusively in God yet inclusively welcomes all people. Jesus is the light of the world, not the light of our region, race, or nation. His existence is exclusive—He is the only God. His invitation is inclusive—He will be anyone’s God.

Reflection: Exclusive Claims, Inclusive Hope — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

It was a common belief in the ancient world that gods were territorial.

When Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel they exiled much of the population and imported captured peoples from other regions to take their place. When animal attacks became a problem, the Assyrians reasoned that the imported non-Israelites were not properly worshiping “the god of that country,” so they sent back an Israelite priest to train the foreigners in worshiping Yahweh. (2 Kings 17.26-28)

Jews did not worship Yahweh as a regional god. Yahweh was God in Israel, Judah, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and everywhere else. Yet, they still struggled to comprehend God’s presence. Solomon marveled that God’s presence would enter the Temple when even the highest heavens failed to contain him. Solomon pondered how this everywhere-god could “dwell on earth with humans.”

God’s enormity does not limit his intimacy, and Solomon’s Temple is not the smallest or humblest place God will enter.

Centuries later, standing in a reconstructed Temple, Simeon held in his arms the same presence that filled Solomon’s Temple. The prophetess Anna, who never left God’s presence in the Temple, recognized it in Jesus and proclaimed about him to Jerusalem.

How astounded Solomon would be at Simeon standing in the Temple holding Jesus in his arms! How astounded we should still be!

Yahweh is God, and Jesus is Lord everywhere, at all times, all at once. This exclusive claim was odd to some and offensive to others. “Who is the Lord that I should obey him?” (Exodus 5.2) “Bow down before this statue I have made!” (Daniel 3.15) “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19.34)Exclusive claims are no less odd or insulting today. Christians face versions of these same objections now. “Why should I obey God?” “You must assent to and support my belief!” “My belief is greater than yours!”

God’s exclusivity is not a bragging point or an insult. Our hope is exclusively in God yet inclusively welcomes all people. Jesus is the light of the world, not the light of our region, race, or nation. His existence is exclusive—He is the only God. His invitation is inclusive—He will be anyone’s God.

The gospel offers everyone, everywhere, an opportunity to say, as Simeon did, “My eyes have seen your salvation.” God is their God, too. Jesus loves them, too. He longs for them and desires to come closer to them than Solomon, Simeon, or Anna could imagine.

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1.14

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 32 (Listen 7:21)
1 Corinthians 8 (Listen 6:09)

This Weekend’s Readings
Jeremiah 33 (Listen 7:21), 1 Corinthians 9 (Listen 6:09)
Jeremiah 34 (Listen 7:21), 1 Corinthians 10 (Listen 6:09)

Read more about He Stoops to Raise
The equally interesting, intimate glory of God is how infinitely small he is willing to shrink in order to meet us, save us, and lift us up.

He Stoops to Raise

Readers’ Choice is here!
During Readers’ Choice, we share your favorite posts from the past year. Tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form.

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September 5, 2024August 20, 2024

Mercy Seat and Manger — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: 2 Chronicles 3.1
1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.

Luke 1.34-38
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Originally published on December 4, 2023, based on readings from 2 Chronicles 3 and Luke 1.

Readers’ Choice is here: There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or filling out the linked form.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Peter — John, thank you for this gift. Your explanation of how God’s temple on Mt. Moriah (and ultimately through Jesus’ own mediation) deepened and enriched my understanding of how God brings life out of our death for us.
Russell, Japan — This is wonderful. So much to meditate on and absorb. Thank you.
Susan — This reminds me of a medieval formulation, concerning Mary’s womb, or rather, the Holy Contents thereof, one runs across in the sayings of mystics: “We found heaven and earth in a little space.”

Reflection: Mercy Seat and Manger — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

Temples intend to overlap the mundane and the mystical, allowing humans to interact with gods. The holiest place in the Temple was “the mercy seat,” where human guilt was confronted by God’s righteousness and mercy. The Temple site on Mount Moriah was a place of confrontation and sacrifice long before the Temple was built.

David purchased Araunah’s threshing floor as a place of sacrifice for his own sin. (1 Chronicles 21) David chose plague as punishment, but God stayed the sword of the death angel on the threshing floor. Then David said, “I, the shepherd, have sinned…These are but sheep…let your hand fall on me…do not let this plague remain on your people.”

Abraham was sent to this mountain to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, but God stayed his knife, providing a ram in Isaac’s place and fulfilling Abraham’s promise to Isaac as they traveled, “God himself will provide the lamb.” (Genesis 22.8)

John the Baptizer calls Jesus “the lamb of God” (John 1.29, 36) but also describes him as coming “to clear his threshing floor…gather the wheat into his barn, but…burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3.17)

Threshing separates grain from chaff and produces seed and food from grass that would otherwise fade away. It brings life from death. The place where Araunah threshed wheat was a place where the Lord threshed human hearts. It is a place where the holy confronts the unholy. (Isaiah 6.5) In that holiest place, we find mercy and hope.

John says Jesus “tabernacled” among us. (John 1.14) Jesus is where human space overlaps divine space—a Temple that comes to us. Jesus is our mercy seat, the holy one in whom we hope. The mercy seat and the manger represent God’s throne. In the gold-covered room, we glimpse his glory and worth. In the humble manger, he shows us ours.

David met an angel, made a sacrifice, and prepared a place to welcome God’s presence. Generations later, David’s daughter, Mary, did the same to welcome Jesus.

David and Solomon built God a house with rooms covered in gold. Through Mary, Jesus chose to house himself in a poverty-stricken womb.

David, the shepherd, sinned, bringing punishment on his sheep. Jesus, the shepherd, is sinless, taking punishment for his sheep.

Jesus stays the sword of judgment and knife of sacrifice, providing himself as the lamb.

Jesus threshes life out of death.

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1.14

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 30-31 (Listen 7:21)
1 Corinthians 7 (Listen 6:09)

Read more about Becoming Part of the Promise
Rahab asks to be accepted by this powerful God who is not only in the heavens but active upon the Earth.

Becoming Part of the Promise

Readers’ Choice is here!
This month, we are thankful to share your favorite posts from the past year. There’s still time to tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form, so we can repost them.

https://forms.gle/9vyYwVxa1kZZn7AKA

September 4, 2024August 19, 2024

Rahab’s Story — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: Matthew 1.1, 5a
1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab…

Joshua 6.25
25 But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

Originally published on December 12, 2023, based on readings from Matthew 1 and Joshua 6.

Advent in September: Several of the choices from readers were from last year, during Advent. We are putting these posts together in this first week of Readers’ Choice. We pray as Summer winds down that the spirit of Christmas has continued in your heart and that these posts will help you look forward to anticipate the coming seasons.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Barbara, TN — Hallelujah!
Michele, CO — I imagine she [Rahab] must have declared, like Ruth, your God will be my God. And Salmon must have decided that her past was behind her. Imagine that!

Reflection: Rahab’s Story — Readers’ Choice
By Erin Newton

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

Who was this Rahab, the great-great-great-(and so on) grandmother of Jesus? Her identity is somewhat muddled. (Have no fear, she is not the mythic dragon from Job, Psalms, or Isaiah.)

She is likely the woman you remember from Joshua, whose name is rarely said without her epithet, “the prostitute.” How shameful that we demote her to one identity, because she is, in fact, a matriarch of Jesus.

Rahab the ~~prostitute~~ matriarch, like Tamar, was not a member of the Abrahamic family. She did not escape slavery from Egypt nor cross the Red Sea with the multitudes. She was a Canaanite.

Her business was one of pleasure, not love as we dream of it. She used her body in a culture that was more than willing to pay for it. Her job was scandalous and disgraceful to the covenant people encroaching on the borders of Canaan. She is an unlikely character in God’s story of redemption.

The stories of God saving his people reached her ears in Jericho. Stories of wonder and power, stories that herald the supremacy of God. I imagine how she compared the stories to the pathetic notion of her Ba’al killed and trapped by the god of death. Rahab heard and believed in this true God.

By faith, she hid the spies who swore an oath to spare her family. She risked her life to save people who would condemn her land, her friends, her culture, and her job. All because she knew God was coming to her.

The sign of mercy would be the scarlet cord draped from her window. The grandchildren of the people who spread the lamb’s blood across their doorposts would recognize this same sign of faith letting judgment pass safely over her house.

And so she lived among the Israelites. Her old ways would be reformed. Her past would become a testimony. Her future would bear the One whose blood would wash away all sin.

Yes, she was a prostitute.

But she is a matriarch of Jesus. Rahab, the disgraceful member of the enemy nation, is chosen and honored as one of five women named in Jesus’s family. She is not defined by her occupation or nationality.

In the love of Jesus belong the foreigners and the shamed. In the love of Jesus, we are renamed.

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1.14

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 29 (Listen 5:44)
1 Corinthians 6 (Listen 3:03)

Read more about Becoming Part of the Promise
Rahab asks to be accepted by this powerful God who is not only in the heavens but active upon the Earth.

Becoming Part of the Promise

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September 3, 2024August 19, 2024

After Advent? — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: 2 Chronicles 30.18-19
18 Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone 19 who sets their heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of their ancestors—even if they are not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” 20 And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

2 Chronicles 31.1
1 When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.

Mark 1.14b-15
14b Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Matthew 21.31b-32
31b Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

Originally published on December 26, 2023, based on readings from 2 Chronicles 30-31, Mark 1, and Matthew 21.

Readers’ Choice is here: This month means so much to us because we focus on you, the readers, and the devotionals that have been meaningful to you. Each year we send approximately 253 devotional emails. (260 minus a few holidays, like yesterday.) Over 50 percent of our emails get emailed responses from readers like you. It’s over 70 percent when we average the total number of respondents. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your most meaningful comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or filling out the linked form.

Advent in September: Several of the choices from readers were from last year, during Advent. We will put those posts together in this first week of Readers’ Choice. We pray as Summer winds down that the spirit of Christmas has continued in your heart and that these posts will help you look forward to and anticipate the coming seasons.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Barbara, TN — Wow! Poignant exhortation! Thank you!
MT, TX

Reflection: After Advent? — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

2 Chronicles 30 describes a Passover celebration like none since the days of Solomon and David. But not everyone was ready for Hezekiah’s revival.

Whether by ignorance or haste, some failed to come to the feast consecrated, violating the commandments Hezekiah was reinstating. Yet, there was mercy.

Hezekiah prayed that God would not look at their outward adherence to ceremonial rules of cleanness but at the determination of their hearts to seek after God. When God had mercy, the celebration was so joyous that Hezekiah extended the Passover festival for a week.

Many popular songs wish for a continuation of the Christmas season and the “spirit” of Christmas. Can you imagine a Christmas so peaceful or joyous you’d want it to keep going?

Truthfully, Christmas does keep going. Christmastide continues on the church calendar, ending with Epiphany on January 6th. Additionally, Advent’s message of the gospel never expires. We can and should share it all year round. But what comes after Advent? What should follow in our lives after experiencing hope, love, joy, and peace in Christ?

2 Chronicles 30 is followed by 31. Mercy, worship, adoration, and joy bring change. After the festival, the people smashed sacred stones and cut down Asherah poles. They dismantled the infrastructure of false worship, tearing down altars and destroying high places. They acted in faith to turn away from idols they had been devoted to.

Thank God that we can seek him as we are. When we come to him, God will judge us not by our outward adherence to rules but by the determination of our hearts to seek after him. We do not need to perfect ourselves, cover our wounds, or shine ourselves up. Like the unwashed shepherds or the pagan Magi, we can rejoice, knowing we are accepted.

Seeking God’s mercy, however, doesn’t mean continuing in sins. Jesus ate with sinners and preached repentance. Prostitutes didn’t stay prostitutes. Crooked tax collectors became honest. The demonically influenced were set free. Violence-prone fishermen became disciples of love.

Jesus’ advent will not leave us the same. Mercy does not maintain the status quo. Pardon is not perpetual permission. Healing is not the enablement of re-harming ourselves or others.

Continue Christmas by seeking what change Jesus initiates in you. May we act in faith, turning away from what we have been devoted to, smashing our sacred stones and tearing down our altars.

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1.14

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 28 (Listen 3:05)
1 Corinthians 5 (Listen 3:15)

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Supporting our Work

August 30, 2024August 18, 2024

Good and Bad Baskets

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 24.1b-7
1b …the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord. 2 One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten. 3 Then the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “Figs,” I answered. “The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.” 4 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 5 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. 6 My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. 7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.

Reflection: Good and Bad Baskets
By John Tillman

When bananas go bad, you can make banana bread out of them. But neglect them long enough and they are so bad that there is no saving them. You just throw them out.

Like Pharoah’s visions of good and bad grain, cows, and bread, Jeremiah sees a vision of baskets of good and bad food—figs.

Both visions overturn our expectations. Pharoah’s vision seems like a vision of destruction but is really a vision of provision. Jeremiah’s vision seems like a vision of judgment but is actually a vision of promise.

By this point in Jeremiah’s ministry, many in Judah and Jerusalem have already been taken captive to Babylon. At first glance, we might interpret the bad basket of figs as representing these exiles.

After all, exile was punishment, right? Judah had become so bad that these people were “thrown out” of Jerusalem into exile…right? The “good figs” must be the people remaining, the people still fighting to save their country…right?

Wrong.

Jeremiah told the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, that God was setting before the city life and death, salvation and destruction. (Jeremiah 21.8-10) This echoes the language of the covenant ceremony Moses planned and Joshua enacted when the people entered Canaan. (Deuteronomy 30.11-20)At that time, the path to blessings and victory was obeying God’s laws and cleansing the land of injustice and unrighteousness. But now, the people of God had become more unrighteous than those they displaced. Those sworn to establish justice abused the poor, the foreigners, and the widows. The figs had gone bad. Too bad to be redeemed. Now they were the unrighteous who needed to be cleansed from the land.

The good figs were in exile. Exile was punishment, but it was also a path of salvation. The unexpected method of salvation was surrender, not conquest. The unexpected place of salvation was Babylon, not Jerusalem. In Babylon, God promised to bless the people, give them a new heart to worship him, and bring them home renewed.

Which basket are we in? Exile, not conquest, is our reality. We are more like Jeremiah and Joseph than we are like Joshua or David.

May we learn the exiles’ lessons. May we live among the ungodly, yet maintain godliness. May we accommodate culture without affirming culture. May we remember that the only Temple we need is Jesus, whom we worship in Spirit and Truth. (John 4.21-24)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness, … make your way straight before me. — Psalm 5.8

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

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 24 (Listen 1:54)
1 Corinthians 1 (Listen 4:03)

This Weekend’s Readings
Jeremiah 25 (Listen 6:12), 1 Corinthians 2 (Listen 2:26)
Jeremiah 26 (Listen 4:04), 1 Corinthians 3 (Listen 3:05)
Jeremiah 27 (Listen 3:52), 1 Corinthians 4 (Listen 3:15)

Read more about Be Good Figs
In Jeremiah, we find both good and bad figs…The good figs are the Jewish exiles…God had a plan to protect them

Be Good Figs

Read more about Readers’ Choice
Readers’ Choice starts Monday and continues throughout September. Tell us your favorite posts via email, direct message, or the linked form, so we can repost them.

https://forms.gle/9vyYwVxa1kZZn7AKA