Reflection: The Energy of Expectancy :: Epiphany
By John Tillman

When we wait for a long time, we can go from patient to despondent to complacent. We begin to wait in boredom, apathy and without expectation. 

One can watch this happen at long traffic lights. The people in the cars at the front waiting on the light stop looking expectantly for the green light. (After all, they have been waiting the longest…) They adjust the radio. They fix a child’s seat belt. They open their phones to text or scroll Facebook. They start fixing their makeup. Then suddenly, the cars behind are honking. They have missed the green light. Not only are they not going, no one else can go either.

In our waiting, we must not let our attentiveness slip. We must not sit at the front of the intersection, under the green light of the gospel, neither moving forward ourselves nor allowing others to move forward either. We must not take our eyes off the concerns of the gospel, turning to concerns of this world. We must not set our hands to the plow and turn back.

Last Friday, we shared a link to an exquisite two-and-a-half hour performance of Handel’s Messiah. Eclectic only begins to describe the shift to the song we share today, “Toy Jackpot” by Professor Break Speed, which was featured in Target ads several years ago. 

Although the song is not explicitly religious and could be interpreted through a solely commercialized lens, there is more here. Besides its themes of thankfulness, respect, sharing, love of family, and joy in togetherness, it illustrates the energetic expectancy with which we should await the gifts we long for in Christ. Paul tells us to “eagerly desire” the gifts of the Holy Spirit and that we should await Christ’s coming with expectancy and hope.

“All the energy is pent up
Time to express
Just waiting for the green light
Right foot press…” — Toy Jackpot, Professor Break Speed

It also hints at the reason for our expectant energy. Energy is stored so that it can be released. We wait and wait and wait so that we can begin to do something, to celebrate something, to enjoy something, and to share something.

Advent, the time of waiting, is past. The light is here. The starting pistol has fired. The gate is open. The race has begun. It is time to run with endurance the race set out before us.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout with joy before the King, the Lord… Psalm 98.6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
2 Chronicles 31 (Listen -4:20) 
Revelation 17 (Listen -3:19)

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Read more about Christmas is Upside Down :: Epiphany
Epiphany means manifestation and refers to Christ being “revealed” to the entire world—not just Israel.

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*Advent is a wonderful time for new readers to join us. At this time of year, we are covering familiar biblical content and people are open to spiritual pursuits. Also at this time, people desperately need the balance of spiritual practice that The Park Forum provides. In this season, consider sharing our devotionals with others and inviting them to join our community. Share this post with others to help them subscribe.

Reflection: The Purchase Price of Peace :: Peace of Advent
By John Tillman

In the warmer climes of the Southern United States, tunes that regale listeners with images of snow, dancing snowmen, and icy winds strike an ironic chord when temperatures call for shorts. But in the Southern hemisphere, where cold days fall on the opposite side of the calendar year, they are openly amusing.

With Christmas falling near summer’s, rather than winter’s, equinox, those in Australia, South America, or Southern Africa have a more accurate weather outlook for what Christ’s actual birth was likely to have been like. Most scholars agree that the shepherds being in the fields indicate that the date of Christ’s birth would be in the Spring or Summer months.

It could have been cold on the night of Christ’s birth. But it would have been the kind of chill that settles in to the desert, arid climates of the world in spring and summer evenings. Although the shepherds were probably not shivering with cold, they definitely shivered in fear when the angel appeared to them even though he spoke to them of peace. (An angel’s first words are almost always some version of “do not fear,” which should tell us something about the awesomeness of their appearance.)

The peace on Earth that the angels proclaimed was not the peacefulness of a sleeping child or the artistic renderings of tranquility that we often see in nativity paintings and creches. That family’s peace would soon be shattered by men of war, sent to kill the child they sought and settling for killing all children his age.

The peace God spoke would come at a cost, and shedding his glory and light to be born in a dim and dirty animal stall, was only the down payment. Further installments of living under a corrupt government and worshiping in a corrupt Temple would come. He would know fear and danger, hunger and pain, poverty and isolation. He would suffer and struggle with sin as every other man. But peace ultimately came through the death he willingly suffered on our behalf. Jesus would not succumb to sin or to death. The final payment would come as an earthquake shook eternity when he stepped out of the tomb. This earthquake did not destroy the world, but instead began to set it right. 

Jesus came out of the tomb carrying the gift we glimpse in the manger—peace.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” — John 14.27

Divine Hours Prayer: The Cry of the Church
Even so, come Lord Jesus!

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
2 Chronicles 29 (Listen -6:49) 
Revelation 15 (Listen -1:29)

Christmas Day’s Readings
2 Chronicles 30 (Listen -4:56) 
Revelation 16 (Listen -3:17)

Thank You, Donors!
Thanks to our donors, in 2019 we have published approximately 100,000 words of free, and ad-free, devotional content. Without donor support, continuing this ministry would be impossible. As the end of the year approaches, consider whether the Holy Spirit might be prompting you to help support our 2020 content with an end-of-year gift or by becoming a monthly donor. Follow this link to our giving page.

Read more about The Peace of Christ :: Peace of Advent
Do you have peace in this season? Or are you finding it difficult to rest in the Lord and allowing God’s peace to comfort and sustain you? You are not alone.

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We could not do this without our donors and we are thankful that God has blessed us to be able to do this work.

*Advent is a wonderful time for new readers to join us. At this time of year, we are covering familiar biblical content and people are open to spiritual pursuits. Also at this time, people desperately need the balance of spiritual practice that The Park Forum provides. In this season, consider sharing our devotionals with others and inviting them to join our community. Share this post with others to help them subscribe.

Scripture Focus: Revelation 14.12
This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

Matthew 23.39
For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Reflection: From Silence, Peace :: Peace of Advent
By John Tillman

Israel’s God was a speaking God. He spoke regularly and directly through his prophets. He did not speak in vague generalities but mandated specific actions. He did not only speak to nations and peoples, but personally to individuals. But Israel repeatedly ignored his words, scorned his pleas, and even his punishments. 

And God went dark. 
He snuffed the light. 
He dried up the prophets’ voices. 

The people suffered exile, slavery, and silence. Israel waited for her messiah not in literal darkness, but in the darkness of a continual silence from God. 

Cracks in that silence began to rumble in the Temple when Gabriel announced to Zechariah the birth of John the Baptist. Another foreshock rattled the town of Nazareth when Heli’s daughter, Mary, reported an angelic visitation. More foreshocks of the earthquakes to come.

Even when the Glory of the Lord shone around the shepherds and the angels appeared proclaiming peace on Earth and their song invaded the night sky, it was only an announcement. It was the invitation, not the party.

The God who turned his back, came back. He came to speak peace to the people who had chosen death instead of life and suffering instead of blessing.

We need the silence, the darkness, the waiting of Advent. 

We need this time to turn off the noise of our self-reliance and to sit in silence listening for God’s words of life. We need the weight of darkness to press out of us all hope of saving ourselves by our own wisdom, strength, wealth, or power. Only when we sit in darkness long enough can we lose the illusion that there is light in ourselves that can lead us anywhere other than deeper into the dark.

In this last week, as we celebrate the peace of Advent, take time to slow down and seek peaceful moments to separate from the seasonal clutter of noise and light and sit with darkness and silence for awhile, seeking God.

May we not wait for God to raise his voice in desperation over the ruckus of our lives to get our attention.
Seek silence and darkness for a time, so that you can meditate and wait to hear his intimate voice and feel the light of his peaceful presence.

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

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
2 Chronicles 27 (Listen -1:28) 
2 Chronicles 28 (Listen -4:59) 
Revelation 14 (Listen -3:51)

Thank You, Donors!
Thanks to our donors, in 2019 we will publish approximately 100,000 words of free, and ad-free, devotional content. Without donor support, continuing this ministry would be impossible. As the end of the year approaches, consider whether the Holy Spirit might be prompting you to help support our 2020 content with an end-of-year gift or by becoming a monthly donor. Follow this link to our giving page.

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Has God granted you a spiritual gift that you haven’t opened out of rebellion or apathy? Confess that to the Lord, and make things right with him.

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*Advent is a wonderful time for new readers to join us. At this time of year, we are covering familiar biblical content and people are open to spiritual pursuits. Also at this time, people desperately need the balance of spiritual practice that The Park Forum provides. In this season, consider sharing our devotionals with others and inviting them to join our community. Share this post with others to help them subscribe.

Scripture Focus: Revelation 11.15
“The kingdom of the world has become
    the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
    and he will reign for ever and ever.”

Reflection: Prayers of Joy :: Joy of Advent
By John Tillman

As we conclude the third week of Advent and move to the fourth and final Sunday of this season of anticipation, we prepare our hearts with the joyful prayers of Revelation which follow the seventh trumpet. The joy we experience now through the Holy Spirit has its culmination here. The joy of Advent is true joy and has been held in hearts across the centuries.

Prayers of Joy
We thank you, Lord, for the true joy, ours in Advent.

Advent’s joy exists despite and within all circumstances. 
It is joy in plenty and pleasure, but also in pain and want. 

It is the joy of Zechariah and Elizabeth
 Who suffered years of hopelessness before a spark of joy came to them
It is the joy in Zechariah’s prophecy
 Seeing an end to earthly suffering
It is the joy Mary sang of
 The lowly lifted and the proud humiliated
It is the joy the shepherds could see
 A child born to Mary and to them and to us
 A child born to fulfill God’s promise to Eve.  

This is the great joy of the good news shepherds were sent to seek.
It is the joy John the Baptist knew
 His ministry faded and suffered, yet Christ’s grew
It is the joy of Jesus
 Healing and feeding masses who did not understand
 Masses who followed with wrong motives
It is the joy of Christ on the cross
 Despising the shame
 Eyes set on the joy before him.
It is the joy of the resurrection
 First witnessed by Mary Magdalene
 The first to tell the gospel to others

This joyful good news, this impossible gospel, passed on to us today is the only source of true and lasting joy that will last into eternity.

We join the prayer of heavenly elders, who fall in worship, saying:

“The kingdom of the world has become
    the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
    and he will reign for ever and ever.”

Come, Lord Jesus! 
Enter our hearts now.
Enter our world through our hands and speech.
And finally, at the day of our Father’s choosing, enter our skies
And rest your feet on Earth, with your restoring justice.

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
    the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
    and have begun to reign.”

Come reign in us, Lord, so that you can reign through us.

Amen.

*Handel’s Messiah, Full Symphony Performance (Recording of Live Broadcast), (2:32) Sydney Philharmonic Symphony and Choirs

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Now his mother and his brothers arrived, and standing outside, sent in a message asking for him. A crowd was sitting round him at the time the message was passed to him, “Look, your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.” He replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers? Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.” — Mark 3.31-35

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
2 Chronicles 24 (Listen -5:07)
Revelation 11 (Listen -3:24)

This Weekend’s Readings
2 Chronicles 25 (Listen -5:12) Revelation 12 (Listen -2:58)
2 Chronicles 26 (Listen -4:00) Revelation 13 (Listen -3:20)

Thank You, Donors!
Thanks to our donors, in 2019 we will publish approximately 100,000 words of free, and ad-free, devotional content. Without donor support, continuing this ministry would be impossible. As the end of the year approaches, consider whether the Holy Spirit might be prompting you to help support our 2020 content with an end-of-year gift or by becoming a monthly donor. Follow this link to our giving page.

Read more about Joy Despite Everything :: Joy of Advent
Martha shows us how to wait…when your faith is crushed into pieces, how to hold out your shattered faith to Jesus.

Read more about The Value of Words
The value of words for Christians is vastly different than others, for our Savior is known as The Word made flesh.

*Advent is a wonderful time for new readers to join us. At this time of year, we are covering familiar biblical content and people are open to spiritual pursuits. Also at this time, people desperately need the balance of spiritual practice that The Park Forum provides. In this season, consider sharing our devotionals with others and inviting them to join our community. Share this post with others to help them subscribe.

Scripture Focus: Revelation 10.8-11
Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”

So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’”I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”

Reflection: Eating the Book :: Joy of Advent
By John Tillman

One of the simplest practices that can make Advent a time of transformative joy is regular Bible reading. But there is more to do with God’s Word than simply reading it. 

Jesus presents himself to us as both Word of God and as the Bread of Life. This connects to the prayer he taught his disciples to pray, seeking “daily bread.” The Bible is not just another book to simply read— it is the required daily diet for spiritual growth. Without it, we atrophy and grow weak. 

In Eat This Book, Eugene Peterson discusses spiritual reading, called by the ancient church, lectio divina. Peterson draws his title and thesis from the command in Revelation’s tenth chapter:

“The most striking biblical metaphor for reading was St. John eating a book…Jeremiah and Ezekiel before him had also eaten books— a good diet, it would seem, for anyone who cares about reading words rightly.”

After recounting the passage, Peterson summarizes:

“He eats the book—not just reads it—he got it into his nerve endings, his reflexes, his imagination. The book he ate was Holy Scripture. Assimilated into his worship and prayer, his imagining and writing, the book he ate was metabolized into the book he wrote, the first great poem in the Christian tradition and the concluding book of the Bible, the Revelation.”

Eating the Bible may be uncomfortable. It means digesting parts we’d rather not swallow. John eats, though he knows it will cause intestinal discomfort. Peterson notes that Oxford don, Austin Farrer, referred to spiritual reading as a “forbidding discipline.” He then lists many ways it is forbidding to us:

“Forbidding because it requires that we read with our entire life, not just employing the synapses in our brain…Forbidding because it requires all of us, our muscles and ligaments, our eyes and ears, our obedience and adoration, our imaginations and our prayers.” 

May we read the scriptures in such a way that, “they become interior to our lives, the rhythms and images becoming practices of prayer, acts of obedience, ways of love.”

Bible reading, as Peterson describes it,  “is an immense gift, but only if the words are assimilated, taken into the soul— eaten, chewed, gnawed, received in unhurried delight.”

May our time in Advent teach us the joy of savoring the reading of God’s Word through the new year.

May we, as a community and in our churches “eat this book.”

*Quotations from Eat This Book, by Eugene H. Peterson

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in the prophet of Isaiah: “Look, I am going to send my messenger in front of you to prepare your way before you. A voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight. John the Baptist was in the desert, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. — Mark 1.1-4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
2 Chronicles 22-23 (Listen -6:51)
Revelation 10 (Listen -1:59)

Thank You, Donors!
Thanks to our donors, in 2019 we will publish approximately 100,000 words of free, and ad-free, devotional content. Without donor support, continuing this ministry would be impossible. As the end of the year approaches, consider whether the Holy Spirit might be prompting you to help support our 2020 content with an end-of-year gift or by becoming a monthly donor. Follow this link to our giving page.

Read more about Joy to the Full :: Joy of Advent
In Advent and throughout our lives, we walk by scripture and prayer. The scriptures tune our ears to recognize Christ’s voice. Prayer teaches how to listen for it

Read more about supporting our work
The Park Forum strives to provide short, smart, engaging, biblical content to people across the world for free with no ads.