Cherishing Chaff

  • July 14, 2020
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Matthew 24.1-2
1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Jeremiah 10.19-21
19 Woe to me because of my injury!
    My wound is incurable!
Yet I said to myself,
    “This is my sickness, and I must endure it.”
20 My tent is destroyed;
    all its ropes are snapped.
My children are gone from me and are no more;
    no one is left now to pitch my tent
    or to set up my shelter.
21 The shepherds are senseless
    and do not inquire of the Lord;
so they do not prosper
    and all their flock is scattered.

Reflection: Cherishing Chaff
By John Tillman

Some buildings are great by age and grandeur and some by the gleam and glisten of modern glass and steel. However, no matter how impressive a building is when you walk, ride, or drive by it regularly, it becomes just a part of the scenery. 

How impressive does a building have to be for you to still comment on it as you pass by, years later? Why would the disciples call Jesus’ attention to the impressive buildings of the Temple that both he and they had been worshiping in their entire lives?

The Temple had been standing for 500 years and had been extensively renovated and repaired by Herod during the disciple’s lifetimes. Perhaps the disciples were happy to see some scaffolding come down on an area that had been newly restored. 

But the Temple’s shiny new sheen couldn’t distract Jesus’ eyes from the self-righteous deceit within and the suffering he saw over the horizon. The disciples saw the Temple as grand, renewed, and a symbol of strength and status. Jesus saw its present and future, sinful, destroyed, and humiliated.

Herod was a ruler of nominal faith at best. (Even that is being extraordinarily generous.) Herod was corrupt, a womanizer, boastful, and lived in a sinful relationship. He “liked to listen” to John the Baptist, but that didn’t stop him from cutting off the prophet’s head. 

Herod’s work on the Temple wasn’t faith-driven. It was a political tactic to boost his status and generate support among the people—and it worked. Even the disciples of Jesus were impressed.

The Temple, and Herod, are just two examples of things unworthy of the esteem and attention the disciples gave them. Many things the disciples prized, Jesus recognized as poison. Many things they cherished Jesus called chaff in the wind. 

What catches our eyes? What chaff do we cherish or poison do we prize? A building? A politician? A charismatic leader? An institution? Point out to Jesus what catches your eye. Seek his opinion on whether you should hold it up for honor or whether it is destined to be thrown down.

Physical idols, whether statues, buildings, institutions, or living humans, are the product of inward sin. We worship them instead of God because inwardly we refuse to trust God or we have denounced God. Allow the revelation of outward idols to lead you to discover inward attitudes that must be torn down.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God. — Psalm 84.1

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

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 10 (Listen – 3:51) 
Matthew 24 (Listen – 5:59)

Readers’ Choice is your time to share favorite Park Forum posts from the year.

What post helped you with loss?
https://forms.gle/DsYWbj45y9fCDLzi7

Read more about Treasuring Our Temples
Judah treasured the Temple’s importance but not its inhabitant. They treasured the regalia, not the relationship.

Treasuring Our Temples

Praying Through Weeping—Guided Prayer

  • July 13, 2020
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 9.17-18
This is what the Lord Almighty says:
“Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come;
send for the most skillful of them.
Let them come quickly
and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears
and water streams from our eyelids.

Reflection: Praying Through Weeping—Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

If prayer is relationship then when God weeps, we should join. What friend would weep, whom we would not join in weeping? Weeping for our own hurts and harms is one thing. Weeping for what grieves God is a prophetic task and a work of faith.

Weep in prayer with the weeping prophet. Jeremiah’s tears, just like his words, are not his own. They are as much a part of the revelation of God as the words he writes.

Oh, that my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
for the slain of my people. — Jeremiah 9.1

Jeremiah expresses our desire to escape evil—fleeing to the desert to be away from wrongdoers.

Oh, that I had in the desert
a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,
a crowd of unfaithful people. — Jeremiah 9.2

We confess we are part of a culture that seeks out its own version of truth.
We confess that we live in echo-chambers of the lies we prefer rather than the truth. Any lie or obfuscation is acceptable as long as it can be weaponized to help us win.

“They make ready their tongue
like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
that they triumph in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
they do not acknowledge me,”
declares the Lord. — Jeremiah 9.3

Weep with Christ prophetically. He weeps that our hypocrisy not only harms us, but blocks the path of redemption for others.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. — Matthew 23.13

“And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.” — Matthew 23.35-36

More specifically, judgment would fall within the next week. And more personally, it would fall on Christ himself.

Christ can weep with us and wipe away our tears because he took the just payment for their cause.

Divine Hours Prayer:
Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Had you desired it, I would have offered sacrifice, but you take not delight in burnt-offerings.
The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; and a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. — Psalm 51.16-18

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

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 9 (Listen – 4:38) 
Matthew 23 (Listen – 4:53)

Read more about Undignified Weeping and Dancing
Hannah carried the weight of her grief to God’s presence and broke open her heart with shameless weeping.

Undignified Weeping and Dancing

#ReadersChoice is time for you to share favorite Park Forum posts from the year.

What post helped you pray more passionately?https://forms.gle/DsYWbj45y9fCDLzi7

Blood Spilled

  • July 6, 2020
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 2.34-35
34 On your clothes is found
    the lifeblood of the innocent poor,
    though you did not catch them breaking in.
Yet in spite of all this
35     you say, ‘I am innocent;
    he is not angry with me.’
But I will pass judgment on you
    because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

Reflection: Blood Spilled
By John Tillman

God made us from the earth. This may be why it is so often noted that the spilled blood of humans “cries” to God from the ground. When the Maker senses his creation unmade, his wrath is justifiably stirred.

Abel’s blood, spilled in an act of jealousy, and revenge, was the first liquid cry in God’s ears but, unfortunately, humanity was not done spilling blood. We spill blood constantly and for many reasons. We spill blood in direct and indirect ways.

One specific way that we spill blood is exactly as Jeremiah describes. We spill blood when we allow the poor to be convicted of crimes without proper evidence and we take their “lifeblood” in execution or by imprisoning them for life. 

We spill blood when we participate in an economy that cheapens our goods by cheapening the lives of workers who put their health and lives in danger in the mines, factories, or sweatshops that produce our goods.

We spill blood when we do not hold those who administer justice accountable for deadly errors or abuses.

We are collectively guilty of spilling blood. As Jeremiah says, the blood of innocents is on our very clothing.

We need the Holy Spirit to confront us with the enormity of injustice around us and to stop saying, “I am innocent. I have not sinned.” Only when we drop our pointless excuses and confess that our clothes are stained with blood and our lips and hands are unclean before God, can we be forgiven and restored.

We can be forgiven of innocent blood we have shed because there is another whose innocent blood cries to God from the ground—Jesus. All the innocent blood we have spilled, from “the blood of righteous Abel” to the blood of the latest innocent to be spilled in today’s news headlines, is answered for by the blood of Jesus. We have spilled the blood of many innocents, but Jesus is The Innocent who spilled his own blood for us. 

His blood cries out not judgment but forgiveness. His blood cries out not curses but blessings. His blood cries out “it is finished.”

When we confess our need for clean hearts, hands, lips, and new garments, Christ clothes us with his righteousness that we may stand and walk in justice.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
“Because the needy are oppressed, and the poor cry out in misery, I will rise up,” says the Lord, “And give them the help they long for.” — Psalm 12.5

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

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 2 (Listen – 5:54) 
Matthew 16 (Listen – 3:43)

Read more about Philemon’s Speck and Our Log
Our existence is supported by the labor of people who directly or indirectly serve us, just as Onesimus served Philemon.

Philemon’s Speck and Our Log

Read more about Blind to Injustice, Deaf to Oppression
Our nations need your forgiveness. We bow deeply before you. We have betrayed you Lord and done evil before you.

Blind to Injustice, Deaf to Oppression :: Worldwide Prayer

Pride and Cowardice :: Readers’ Choice

  • August 23, 2018
  • /
  • John Tillman

Selected by reader, Brad Elledge
One of the things I love about Park Forum is the breadth and range of topics covered. And I especially love it when a historically significant Christians such as Charles Spurgeon or in this case, Soren Kierkegaard are featured. This particular selection convicted me for my addiction to the comfort and security that my oh-so middle class American life affords me. For my insensitivity to the Holy Spirit and my lack of courage to act on what promptings I have. May we all be quick to say “Yes Lord”, and not be cowards when decision is upon us.

Originally posted on June 16, 2017 with readings from Deuteronomy 21 and Psalm 108-109.

My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul. — Psalm 108.1

Reflection: Pride and Cowardice :: Readers’ Choice
By Søren Kierkegaard

The separation of cowardice and pride is a false one, for these two are really one and the same. The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting not with man but with God. He wants to have a great task set before himself and to carry it through on his own accord. And then he is very pleased with his place.

The proud person, ironically, begins looking around for people of like mind who want to be sufficient unto themselves in their pride. This is because anyone who stands alone for any length of time soon discovers that there is a God. Such a realization is something no one can endure. And so one becomes cowardly. Of course, cowardice never shows itself as such. It won’t make a great noise.

Cowardice settles deep in our souls like the idle mists on stagnant waters. From it arise unhealthy vapors and deceiving phantoms. The thing that cowardice fears most is decision; for decision always scatters the mists, at least for a moment. Cowardice thus hides behind the thought it likes best of all: the crutch of time.

Cowardice and time always find a reason for not hurrying, for saying, “Not today, but tomorrow”, whereas God in heaven and the eternal say: “Do it today. Now is the day of salvation.” The eternal refrain of decision is: “Today, today.” But cowardice holds back, holds us up. If only cowardice would appear in all its baseness, one could recognize it for what it is and fight it immediately.

Therefore, dare to renew your decision. It will lift you up again to have trust in God. For God is a spirit of power and love and self-control, and it is before God and for him that every decision is to be made. Dare to act on the good that lies buried within your heart. Confess your decision and do not go ashamed with downcast eyes as if you were treading on forbidden ground. If you are ashamed of your own imperfections, then cast your eyes down before God, not man.

Prayer: The Request for Presence
Hide not your face from your servant; be swift and answer me…Draw near to me and redeem me… — Psalm 69.19-20

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

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 52 (Listen – 5:49)
Psalm 31 (Listen – 3:31)

Additional Reading
Read More about Risks of Faith
He who risks nothing appears to gain by his prudence, but he is rejected by you.

Read More about Pride and Shortsightedness
The recent falls of many Christian leaders have been dominating news cycles. As Beth Moore said, “These things ought to scare us to death…Only a fool gloats when others fail.”

Readers’ Choice
We have a couple spots left for your favorite posts of the year. Submit a Readers Choice post. Tell us about a post and what it meant to you.

Support our Work
Over 4,000 people every week read an email devotional from The Park Forum. Support our work with a monthly or a one time donation.

Learning from Judas :: Readers’ Choice

  • August 22, 2018
  • /
  • John Tillman

Selected by reader, Bruce Edwards, from Louisiana
More and more I grow closer and closer to our Lord because of writings like this. This was beautiful. I love J.C. SUPERSTAR and this devotional was a blessing.

Originally posted on April 4, 2018.

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” — John 21.15

Also…

“Christ, you know I love you.” — The Crowd and Disciples, Tim Rice, Jesus Christ Superstar

Reflection: Learning from Judas :: Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

Jesus Christ Superstar, from creators Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, has always been controversial. However, if we stop trying to sync it up to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and instead make note of its contrasts, its factual and theological errors can be instructive.

The most important fact of the gospel—The Resurrection—gets left out of Jesus Christ Superstar. But the show gives a very revealing look at our culture’s ideas about Jesus because it is told from the perspective of the disciple of Jesus with whom our culture has the most in common—Judas.

The production shows Jesus’ last week of ministry as the looming failure that Judas must have perceived it to be. The show, of course, is fictional and expands the narrative beyond what the scriptures tell us of Judas. But many of the show’s implications about him can be defended scripturally.

As portrayed in the show, Judas is a disciple who has little use for religion without tangible effects and tangible rewards. Judas is focused on outward appearances, on being politically expedient, on social justice (from his perspective), and on public shows of religious charity.

Judas would be a great prosperity gospel theologian. Judas would be quick to endorse or stand behind a corrupt political candidate if promised concessions from the government. Judas would attack the character of those who disagreed with him.

The great value of viewing Jesus Christ Superstar as a Christian is not to condemn Judas, but to see how like him we are.

How we long for Jesus to only say and do the things we are comfortable with him saying and doing!
How we long for Jesus to take down our enemies and lift us up!
How we long for recognition for all the difficult work we do “in his name!”

His practicality, his self-righteousness, and his faith in political maneuvering make Judas a disciple as fit for our modern age as his ancient one.

What we are called to is so much greater than the political deals we are willing to make and the causes we want to campaign for.

The Judas of Jesus Christ Superstar gives us a chance to see, and perhaps repent of, whatever it is that we would be willing to trade Christ for.

Prayer: The Greeting
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. — Psalm 19.14

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

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 51 (Listen – 10:15)
Psalm 30 (Listen – 1:32)

Additional Reading
Read More about Dirty Feet
Shouldn’t the servants be washing their master’s feet? But, instead, Jesus washed each of the disciples’ feet, even Judas’.

Read More about Politically Ambiguous Religion
Constantine is known as a “Christian Emperor” but for most of his public life was a follower of Sol Invictus and seemed to be unable or unwilling to renounce publicly this politically advantageous faith, only being baptized in the last moments of his life.

Readers’ Choice
We have a couple spots left for your favorite posts of the year. Submit a Readers Choice post. Tell us about a post and what it meant to you.

Support our Work
Over 4,000 people every week read an email devotional from The Park Forum. Support our work with a monthly or a one time donation.