The Park Forum

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 29 Listen: (6:23) Read: Luke 11 Listen: (7:33)

Scripture Focus: Exodus 29.44-46

44 “So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. 45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 46 They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

Reflection: Concentric Consecration

By John Tillman

Consecration means being “set apart for” or “devoted to” a sacred purpose.

God gives Moses long and complicated instructions “to consecrate” priests and spaces. But ultimately, the Lord says, “I will consecrate…”. Consecration is God’s doing for God’s business. Concentric circles of consecration existed in the Israelite community.

All Abraham’s children, and especially Israel’s gathered tribes were a consecrated community of holy people. Within that community, Levi was a consecrated tribe of holy workers. Within that tribe, Aaron’s was a consecrated family of priests. Within that family Aaron was the consecrated High Priest.

The Israelite camp and Tabernacle revealed a similar concentricity.

The center was the mercy seat, where God offered atonement. The mercy seat was above the Ark of the Covenant which held reminders of Israel’s history and law. The Ark was in the Holy of Holies, where one chosen priest ministered before the Lord. The Holy of Holies was in the courtyard where the Altar of God received the people’s sacrifices. The Altar was within the Tabernacle where God’s people directed their prayers. The Tabernacle was the center of the camp, with tribes arranged on all sides. The nation of Israel was a testimony of Yahweh’s power and blessings offered to all people.

The sacred purpose of Israel’s consecrated spaces and people was blessing. From the innermost ring of concentric circles of consecration, God’s presence, power, love, light, wisdom and mercy flowed outward. The priesthood blessed Tabernacle worship, worship leaders blessed the people, and the people were to bless the nations. (Genesis 12.3; 18.18; 22.18; 26.4; 28.14)

If you follow Jesus, you are consecrated by God for his purpose. Jesus is greater than Moses, Aaron, the Tabernacle, and Temple. (Hebrews 3.3-6; Matthew 12.6) Jesus consecrates those who come to him into his priesthood. (Hebrews 4.14; 1 Peter 2.9-10; Revelation 5.10)

You have a place in the concentric circles of consecration. Your purpose is to carry the blessings of Christ’s gospel, proclaiming his atonement and the wisdom of his teaching to the outermost ring.

Consecration ceremonies are reminders. Remember the cost of your consecration. Be worthy of your calling. Remember the blood that was shed.

Concentric circles share the same shape and centerpoint. Is the shape of your life and teaching concentric, centered on, Jesus? Does your life demonstrate to the world the concentric shape of Jesus’ beauty, justice, and mercy?

Be re-consecrated. Realign with him. As he perfectly reflects God’s nature to us, may we reflect his nature to the world. (Colossians 1.15; John 14.6-9)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

God is King of all the earth; sing praise with all your skill. God reigns over the nations; God sits upon his holy throne. — Psalm 47.7-8

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

Read more: Portrait Shaped by Scripture

Lord, help us to remember that some have been wounded by scripture. Help our lives to be shaped by scripture into a beautiful artistic portrait of you.

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 28 Listen: (5:54) Read: Luke 10 Listen: (5:40)

Scripture Focus: Exodus 28.2-4

2 Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor. 3 Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest. 4 These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash.

From John: With so much strife, derision, and contempt in our public discourse, we return today to this guided prayer from 2021 about the priestly garments of peace. Peace is not neutral or weak. Peace does not surrender but stands calmly in God’s truth, protecting the vulnerable, warning the sinful, and guiding the humble. Dress yourself in peace with this prayer.

Reflection: Garments of Peace — Guided Prayer

By John Tillman

In Ephesians, Paul gives a metaphor of spiritual armor for spiritual battles but in the Old Testament we get a literal God-ordained “anti-armor” which priests will wear. These are not garments for a spiritual war. Instead, they are garments for the spiritual work of making peace with God.

Pray this prayer over the garments described for the priests and ask God to make you a peacemaking priest of God.

Garments of Peace
Dress us, Lord, that we may serve.
Fit us for your work.

For our breastpiece, Lord, keep the burden of your mission close to our heart
Aaron’s heart felt the weight of the names of Jacob’s children
May our hearts be weighted with loving concern for our communities.
May our hearts beat with love for our brothers and sisters in the faith.
May our hearts break with compassion for the suffering and oppressed.
May our hearts love through actions aiding those around us.

For our ephod, Lord, mark us as yours, called and set apart for your work.
May it carry our breastplate of burden.
May it show the beauty of your grace.
May it glint with colors showing your love for all people.
For our robe, Lord, give us righteousness.
Remove our filthy rags. Wash and dress us in your robes.
Let the sound of your righteousness go before us,
The tinkling echoes of your mercy, as bells on Aaron’s hem.

For our woven tunic, Lord, make us one with you.
Weave your Spirit into our lives.
Seamlessly cover us with your dignity and honor.
Let us walk before you, with the golden threads of your life gilding the material of our lives.

For our turban, Lord, guard our minds.
May we have affixed on our foreheads and in our thoughts
The immutable truths that we are loved by you, holy to you, and will be used by you.
Let no thought or desire cause us to forget we carry your name and your love

For our sash, Lord, bind our vestments as one.|
Let us hold firmly to all your gifts:
The burden of our mission
The beauty of your calling
The joyful sound of your righteousness
The seamless covering of your Spirit
The firm security of your love for us.

Make us a holy priesthood, in garments of peace, not holding ourselves above others, but lifting them up and carrying them to you.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Love the Lord, all you who worship him; the Lord protects the faithful, but repays to the full those who act haughtily. — Psalm 31.23

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

Read more: Priests of Life and Peace

God’s purpose is not to end the priesthood. Instead, through Christ’s sacrifice, he instituted a new priesthood for all who follow Jesus.

Read more: At The Mercy Seat

Aaron and the priests met with God to confess and atone for their own sins and the sins of the people.

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 25 Listen: (4:20) Read: Luke 7 Listen: (7:14)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Exodus 26 Listen: (4:18) Read: Luke 8 Listen: (8:09)
Read: Exodus 27 Listen: (2:52) Read: Luke 9 Listen: (8:05)

Scripture Focus: Exodus 25.19-22

19 Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. 20 The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. 21 Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. 22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.

Reflection: At The Mercy Seat

By John Tillman

The presence of the Lord went with Israel from the time they left Egypt. The pillar of cloud and fire was the visible sign of God’s presence.

In the instructions for the Ark of the Covenant, God defined a new physical representation of God’s presence. The Spirit of God would “rest” or sit above the mercy seat between the wings of the angels on the cover of the Ark.

The Ark was the centerpiece of the Tabernacle and the liturgy of worship that began in the wilderness journey. Before this time, followers of God sacrificed to him wherever they were, building altars and offering worship in place after place, even in foreign lands. The Tabernacle and the Ark represented a shift. God was still God out on the hilltops and under every spreading tree. But after the Ark and Tabernacle, God called all the people to worship under one roof, at one place, and in one specific way.

The Ark’s mercy seat was a throne for God’s presence. At the mercy seat, God’s people, represented by Moses, Aaron, and the prophets to follow, met with God. Moses met with God for guidance, wisdom, and to seek God’s will. Aaron and the priests met with God to confess and atone for their own sins and the sins of the people.

The access to the Ark was tightly controlled. Very few people ever directly entered God’s presence there. But today, every follower of Jesus has this level of access. Jesus made a new covenant that tore open the curtain hiding the mercy seat.

Instead of a gold-covered lid, Christ’s mercy seat is a blood-soaked hilltop. Instead of hovering between angels’ wings, Jesus hung between two thieves. Instead of us bringing blood to atone for our sin, the atoning work is finished in Jesus. Instead of a representative going to the mercy seat once a year, we can go directly to him at any time.

Through the Holy Spirit, go to Christ’s mercy seat today. Like Moses, speak to God face to face.

Make Jesus the centerpiece of your daily and weekly liturgy of worship. Find forgiveness and mercy. Find friendship and acceptance. Find guidance and wisdom. At Christ’s mercy seat, fulfill your priestly and prophetic role. Confess the sins of your nation, then speak to your community the commands and wisdom of Jesus.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Then, speaking to all, he said, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.” — Luke 9.23

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

Read more: Mercy Seat and Manger

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.

Read more: Bread and Oil

In the Tabernacle and the Temples, only priests could eat the bread or tend the lamps. But Jesus tore down the curtains and barriers.

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 23 Listen: (4:44) Read: Luke 5 Listen: (5:04)

Scripture Focus: Exodus 23.2

2 “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd…

Reflection: Being a Crowd Unfollower

By Erin Newton

Following the crowd promises security and power, in the form of conformity. The temptation to follow is rooted in one’s insecurities.

In the story, Wicked, the main character Elphaba is born with green skin—a condition she is relentlessly ridiculed for. When her chance comes to ask the wizard to change her appearance, she is encouraged, “You can have all you’ve ever wanted.” To which she softly replies, “I know.” But what she has come to learn is that she doesn’t (can’t) want it anymore. To get what she had always wanted would mean following the crowd—and abandoning her convictions.

The truth learned in this Broadway show (now movie) is a timeless, biblical truth—following the crowd is not always in step with righteousness.

What’s the difference between finding community and just following the crowd? Aren’t both just finding a place to belong in a group of people? And even better, like-minded people?

Studies show that we are a lonely generation, brought on by global events and various other factors that are part of our everyday lives. Many of us work remotely, attend school at a distance, work long hours, and are hindered by a lack of finances, impending health crises, and even social anxieties. But we want to belong. We want to be known by others.

Crowds are the easiest places to fit in. You find a crowd, you join, and voila! Loneliness is, seemingly, solved.

But in cases where the crowds are doing the wrong thing—fitting in just makes you an accomplice.

The latter half of Exodus is a series of laws and instructions for God’s people. I found this one interesting and refreshing. The instruction is simple and evergreen. (Not like those festival laws or dress codes or dietary restrictions.) This law will last for eternity.

Crowds are not inherently bad. Following actually has biblical support. “Follow me,” Jesus said, and the Gospels recount many crowds in his presence.

Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. You can be in a crowd. You can even follow along. But what is that crowd doing? What are your affiliations known for?

Many groups today will vie for our allegiance. It’s best to know your crowd before joining, but sometimes the crowd veers off the narrow path. Are we prepared to not follow?

Jesus calls us to abandon some of the groups we are in and follow him.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Another said, “I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say good-bye to my people at home.” Jesus said to him, “Once the hand is laid on the plow, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” — Luke 9.61-62

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

Read more: A Bad Day Fishing

Every time we see him fishing in the scriptures, he is failing at it…we see Peter fishing on the worst days of his career.

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