More Important Matters

Scripture Focus: Matthew 23.23
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Reflection: More Important Matters
By John Tillman

It has almost become too trendy to post about one’s struggles with “popular” mental health symptoms or diagnoses.

Culturally, we have always colloquialized medical language. When we are startled, we say, “You gave me a heart attack!” When someone loses their temper, we say, “They are having a stroke!” No one calls the ambulance. These uses are a normal part of our language. We also colloquialize medical language around mental health. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD was a controversial and misunderstood diagnosis at one time. Today, it is still not well-understood but it is one of the most common colloquially used mental health terms. We all face distractions and many publicly joke about our “ADHD brains,” whether or not we are actually medically diagnosed.

Distractions often come in the form of pursuing some activity that is less important to the neglect of something more important. Instead of doing schoolwork that’s due today, we fold laundry that could be done tomorrow. Instead of repairing the item we entered the workshop to repair, we fixate on rearranging the toolbench.

The Pharisees had a kind of orthopraxy ADHD. Orthodoxy is what we believe. Orthopraxy is how we live it out. The Pharisees had great theology. Jesus commended it. But in practice, they ignored the more important things by pursuing less important things with hyperfixation. They were washing the dishes while the house was burning down.

It’s not just religious people who hyperfixate on secondary things. Many skeptics want answers about political or moral issues— what God allows or what God condemns— before considering God. They are distracting themselves from the most important issues with less important ones.

But less important doesn’t mean unimportant. Both are important. The Pharisees’ problem was that they should have done both the greater things and the lesser things. The problem is the same with us. We can’t get distracted. 

Jesus identifies the most important matters of the law as “justice, mercy, and faithfulness.” These come from loving God and loving people. We can’t ignore them, hyperfixating on performative righteous rule-following. We also cannot practice a lazy, “Just love people” vibe, while neglecting the practical realities of living out our faith in holiness. Living faith produces good works. Let’s show our faith by what we do.

When distraction calls, refocus on Jesus. He embodies what matters most.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Our sins are stronger than we are, but you will blot them out. — Psalm 65.3

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


​Today’s Readings
Amos 3 (Listen 2:11)
Matthew 23 (Listen 4:53)

​Today’s Readings
Amos 4 (Listen 2:21), Matthew 24 (Listen 5:59)
Amos 5 (Listen 3:44), Matthew 25 (Listen 6:04)

Read more about Heavy Loads Lifted
He critiqued the Pharisees for tying up “heavy loads” of moral requirements but not lifting them themselves or helping people live them out.

Read more about Hot-Button Conundrums
To the best of our ability, let us resist entrapment. Hold both truth and compassion; refuse to compromise either.

Call on the Son of David

Scripture Focus: Matthew 22.41-45
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” 
“The son of David,” they replied. 
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, 
44 “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: 
“Sit at my right hand 
until I put your enemies 
under your feet.” ’ 
45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Reflection: Call on the Son of David
By John Tillman

“Son of David” occurs ten times in Matthew’s gospel. 

Once, it is directed at Joseph, instructing him to take Mary as his wife and Jesus as his son. Jesus, like his earthly father, Joseph, was a literal, physical son of David. So were hundreds of thousands. At the Nativity, Bethlehem was flooded with sons of David who came there to be counted, but only one was also the Son of David.

Eight times, “Son of David” is directed at Jesus. 

Two blind men followed Jesus, saying, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (Matthew 9.27-31)
After seeing Jesus heal a demon-possessed, blind, and mute man, the crowd asked, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matthew 12.22-24)
A foreigner begged on behalf of her daughter, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Matthew 15.21-28)
Two blind men cried from the side of the road, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matthew 20.29-31)
The crowds welcomed him to Jerusalem, crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Matthew 21.8-9)Its last mention is when Jesus confronted the Pharisees about the Messiah’s origin and identity. Jesus claimed the Messiah had to be more than a natural child of David. Calling himself the Son of David and accepting the title from others is one of Jesus’ most direct claims of deity. “Son of David” is a cry appealing to Jesus’ messianic identity which includes healing. But why is that?

David was many positive things—poet, musician, fighter, leader. But he was never a healer. He was a man of blood, not bandages. Are we calling out for the wrong kind of “son of David?”

The true Son of David proves himself not in battle against flesh and blood but against sin on the cross. The true Son of David spills his blood instead of his enemies’ blood. He heals rather than harms. He saves rather than condemns. He includes rather than excludes. He rescues rather than takes revenge.

It is because of his identity as the Son of David that we can cry out to Jesus for healing, for help, and to enter his kingdom. His kingdom is from another place. We are already there, yet on our way. It is present among us, yet coming in the distance.

Call on the true Son of David! Hosanna to the Son of David! Have mercy on us!


Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; we bless you from the house of the Lord. — Psalm 118.26

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


​Today’s Readings

Amos 2 (Listen 2:12)
Matthew 22 (Listen 4:56)

Read more about An Accepting Father
The “son of David,” Joseph, accepted The Son of David, Jesus, as his son.

Read The Bible With Us
It’s never too late to join our Bible reading plan. Immerse in the Bible with us at a sustainable, two-year pace.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional

The Undeserved Banquet of the Gospel

From John: Headed into this weekend, we look back at this post from 2019. Christ’s banquet and his forgiveness will include those whom none of us would expect. Therefore, we cannot fail to invite any and all to come to drink and eat freely.

Scripture Focus: Matthew 22.8
Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.

Reflection: The Undeserved Banquet of the Gospel
By John Tillman

Meals during Christ’s earthly life were an important cultural ritual. They were more than just fraternity, but pedagogy.

When God wished the Israelites to remember forever what he did for them in the Exodus from Israel, he didn’t have them sit for an exam, but for a meal—the first taste of the first covenant. The Passover Meal is the source of the second covenant as well, for Christ’s last meal before the crucifixion was this same instructive dinner.

Today’s parable also provides a unique picture of the gospel. In Matthew and Luke, the king angrily describes his initial guest-list of no-shows as being undeserving of attending the wedding. These unworthies are described as being more concerned about their businesses and fields. Profit takes precedence over a relationship that should be a priority—a royal relationship.

It is hard to imagine turning down an invitation to an earthly royal wedding. It is not so long ago that most of the world stopped to view one. But we do turn down our King. We turn him down. For work. For divertments. For pleasures. For money. For lusts.

But our great king still calls for his banquet hall to be full. He sends out his servants to the far places, the poor places, the places where the sick gather waiting to die. He takes all comers. He takes us all.

God sets his table for scoundrels, shaking hands with undeserved trust. He polishes the silverware for the impoverished, sending spoons and dishes home with the leftovers. He welcomes the wanderers, washing their feet as they enter. He dresses the wounds of the oppressed and broken, staunching their bleeding and soothing their pains.

This is how we, the undeserving, motley, scandalous louts that we are, find ourselves with our feet under Christ’s table. Christ invites all to the banquet. We will surprise someone by being there, and be surprised in return.

None of us deserve to come. Not those first invited, and not those brought in from the highways and hedges. We do not choose who dines at Christ’s banquet. For if we were honest about our own sinful hearts, we would not choose to allow ourselves there.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Righteousness shall go before him, and peace shall be a pathway for his feet. — Psalm 85.13

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Genesis 23 (Listen – 2:34) 
Matthew 22 (Listen – 4:56)

This Weekend’s Readings
Genesis 24 (Listen – 9:42) Matthew 23 (Listen – 4:53)
Genesis 25 (Listen – 4:18) Matthew 24 (Listen – 5:59)

Read more about Unity and Diversity :: Worldwide Prayer
Unity cannot be achieved by defeating others but by embracing them.

Read more about The Beautiful Feet of Lepers
This is the gospel—that terrorists can be healed and saved and the rejects of society can bring the news of salvation and the testimony of victory unimaginable to their city.

The Undeserved Banquet of the Gospel

Matthew 22.8
Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.

Reflection: The Undeserved Banquet of the Gospel
By John Tillman

Meals during Christ’s earthly life were an important cultural ritual. They were more than just fraternity, but pedagogy.

When God wished the Israelites to remember forever what he did for them in the Exodus from Israel, he didn’t have them sit for an exam, but for a meal—the first taste of the first covenant. The Passover Meal is the source of the second covenant as well, for Christ’s last meal before the crucifixion was this same instructive dinner.

Today’s parable also provides a unique picture of the gospel. In Matthew and Luke the king angrily describes his initial guest-list of no-shows as being undeserving of attending the wedding. These unworthies are described as being more concerned about their businesses and fields. Profit takes precedence over a relationship that should be a priority—a royal relationship.

It is hard to imagine turning down an invitation to an earthly royal wedding. It is not so long ago that most of the world stopped to view one. But we do turn down our King. We turn him down. For work. For divertments. For pleasures. For money. For lusts.

But our great king, still calls for his banquet hall to be full. He sends out his servants to the far places, the poor places, the places where the sick gather waiting to die. He takes all comers. He takes us all.

God sets his table for scoundrels, shaking hands with undeserved trust. He polishes the silverware for the impoverished, sending spoons and dishes home with the leftovers. He welcomes the wanderers, washing their feet as they enter. He dresses the wounds of the oppressed and broken, staunching their bleeding and soothing their pains.

This is how we, the undeserving, motley, scandalous louts that we are, find ourselves with our feet under Christ’s table. Christ invites all to the banquet. We will surprise someone by being there, and be surprised in return.

None of us deserve to come. Not those first invited, and not those brought in from the highways and hedges. We do not choose who dines at Christ’s banquet. For if we were honest about our own sinful hearts, we would not choose to allow ourselves there.

Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.  — Psalm 51.16

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

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Genesis 23 (Listen – 2:34) 
Matthew 22 (Listen – 4:56)

Join Us this Weekend
This weekend, in our new Facebook group for email subscribers, we will begin with the first of a series of short live videos discussing some simple, practical tools of spiritual practice using modern technology. Join the group to discuss them with us.

Follow this link to find the group. You must be an email subscriber to join. When you request to join, you will be prompted to answer questions about the email that you have used to subscribe to The Park Forum. Once we check that you are a subscriber, we will approve you to join the group.

Read more about Better Things to Do
The uncaring attitude that the wealthy market owner has starts with a greedy lie that he has better things to do than worship God—namely, to wring out profit from every minute, every worker, and every square foot of land.

Read more about Recalling the Failures
The world wants to put us back in our place after failure. Jesus comes to us with a second (third, fourth, fifth…) calling.