The Park Forum

Links for today’s readings:

Sep 24  Read: Jeremiah 51 Listen: (10:15) Read: 2 Corinthians 10 Listen: (2:45)

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 51.15-19

Reflection: Are These Your Gods?

By John Tillman

Jeremiah’s poem comparing God creating the world by his wisdom to idol makers creating objects of mockery by their foolishness appears in chapter 10 and here in chapter 51. Maybe Jeremiah knew we needed to hear it twice…

In chapter 10, this poem is directed at God’s people, who are adopting the practices of the nations around them. In chapter 51, the poem is directed specifically at Babylon, forecasting their downfall and the shame that their idols would bring to them.

Idolaters reject the truth of God for a lie. God’s wisdom created the world. Idolaters’ foolishness creates false gods. Instead of worshiping a glorious creator, they take created things and make from them something they call a god.

Modern folks are quick to shake our heads at ancient peoples who carved idols out of stone or wood and bowed down to them as supreme, supernatural beings. However, how different is this than our treatment of artificial intelligence? Aren’t we making it from the resources God granted—both natural resources from the earth and the resources of human intelligence? Aren’t we proclaiming it as our savior who will go before us? (Ex 32.1-4)

The tech billionaires behind Ai certainly are treating and speaking of it in salvific terms. The investors in the technology certainly expect miracles. The politicians enamored with its power certainly desire it. One prominent politician (that no one can critique without being called “deranged”) announced to the United Nations that his government would officially start calling artificial intelligence “Superior Intelligence.” This was after running a social media poll with two other names that he suggested, “Extreme Intelligence” and “Supreme Intelligence.”

No matter how amazing (or terrifying) the capabilities of artificial intelligence become in a year, a few years, or decades from now, it will never be “superior” or “supreme.” And even if some whistleblowers are correct and Ai (either independently or guided by malicious humans) destroys life as we know it, it will not be unique. We’ve created such tools before.

Even if we don’t call something “god” or bow down to it, it can still be an idol. When we rely on it, praise it, sacrifice for it, and defend it, what else could it be but an idol?

Be careful how much loyalty, praise, and resources you give to things or people, especially if those people or things are making god-like promises.

Resources: “AI, Surrender All”, The Russell Moore Show. Podcast, YouTube

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Know this: The Lord himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. — Psalm 100.2

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

Readers’ Choice is Coming!

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What posts helped you pray?

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Read more: Idolatry as Parody

We become like our idols…Our hearts harden and our ears tune out and our eyes glaze over.

Idolatry as Parody — Readers’ Choice

Links for today’s readings:

Sep 23  Read: Jeremiah 50 Listen: (8:42) Read: 2 Corinthians 9 Listen: (2:26)

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 50:6

My people have been lost sheep;
    their shepherds have led them astray
    and caused them to roam on the mountains.
They wandered over mountain and hill
    and forgot their own resting place.

Reflection: Stray Shepherding

By Erin Newton

In my first year of Hebrew classes, my professor explained verb tenses and used Psalm 23 as an example. He stressed, “The Lord is shepherding me”—not simply, “is my shepherd.” His point was that the guidance of our God is continual and ongoing, not just a point-in-time fact or a past action. I have taken more classes since that day two decades ago, but this statement comes to mind often.

A note here: We must remind people that the old theory that shepherds needed to be harsh and even “break the legs of a sheep when it was unruly” is false and debunked. That’s a terrible shepherding method and a horrendous advocation for abuse. (The Park Forum has written specifically on this point in Urban Legends and Good Shepherds.)

Over the last year, I’ve experienced the “sheep without a shepherd” situation. Matthew 9:26 speaks of this: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Oddly, I was a member of a functioning church. It was a church in transition and, despite reaching out to the pastors, my concerns fell through cracks. And then again two months later. And then again two months after that.

I follow an account where a photographer’s husband is a shepherd in Switzerland. It has been fascinating to see a modern-day shepherd’s life and then reflect on modern pastoral care for the church. This Swiss shepherd spends half of the year with his flocks in the mountains. He is separated from his human community for months, being integrated and connected to his sheep and goats. He knows their personalities, their struggles, their life cycles. They move up and down the mountain depending on the season.

Change is inevitable and not necessarily bad. Jeremiah’s shepherd is moving the congregation over the hills and mountains. But it’s astray. These shepherds, who were revered among their community and blindly followed by the flock, are not as wise as they proclaim to be.

The result is a lack of rest. No peace in the community. No peace with God. No peace internally.

With all the verses about human shepherding, I’m so thankful for Psalm 23. The Lord is shepherding me. I’ve moved into a new flock with a new set of shepherds who dwell among us, knowing our lives and our hurts. But it’s still the Lord who ultimately shepherds. And he does not lead astray. He guards me; I don’t have to be his defense.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Show us the light of your countenance, O God, and come to us. — Psalm 67.1

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

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Read more: Urban Legends and Good Shepherds

Abusive leaders have used this metaphor to justify “wounding” parishioners with “tough love” because they are “good shepherds.”

Urban Legends and Good Shepherds — Readers’ Choice

Links for today’s readings:

Sep 22  Read: Jeremiah 49 Listen: (7:15) Read: 2 Corinthians 8 Listen: (3:25)

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 49.4-6

4 Why do you boast of your valleys, 
boast of your valleys so fruitful? 
Unfaithful Daughter Ammon, 
you trust in your riches and say, 
‘Who will attack me?’ 
5 I will bring terror on you 
from all those around you,” 
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty. 
“Every one of you will be driven away, 
and no one will gather the fugitives. 
6 “Yet afterward, I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites,” 
declares the Lord.

Reflection: Don’t Become an Ammonite

By John Tillman

Ammonites were enemies of Israel, but also family.

Ammon was a grandson of Lot—a complex man of contradictions. Israel’s relationship with Ammon was also complex and, at times, contradictory.

Lot gradually compromised, moving farther from Abraham and Yahweh and deeper into the culture of the Canaanites. Yet, despite his obvious flaws and mistakes, Peter called Lot “righteous” and described him as “distressed” and “tormented” by Sodom’s lawlessness (2 Pet 2.7-8).

God cared for the Ammonites, too. He gave them land and drove out giants before them just as he did for Israel (Deut 2.20-21). The Ammonites had friendly relations with Israel during David’s rule but were mostly political enemies and often joined other enemies to attack Israel or Judah.

Ammon had proximity to God’s family and knew his commands and ways. Yet they chose assimilation into the surrounding culture instead of faithfulness to God’s family.

Just as Lot chose to move close to, and trust in the wealth and prosperity of, Sodom, Ammon chose to trust and boast of their wealth. Ammon chose to trust in a false god, Molek, who often demanded child sacrifice and promised destruction of enemies.

God condemned Ammon for thinking that great wealth and prosperity could protect them and for how they abused and harmed their cousin nations, Israel and Judah.

Ammon boasted of strength and would be made weak. They boasted of wealth and would be made destitute. They boasted of terrorizing their enemies and would become terrorized by everyone around them. They boasted of (and profited from) sending their relatives, Israel and Judah, into captivity and exile and would be made desperate fugitives, driven away from all that they loved.

Both individually and collectively, we must be careful about the culture we live in. Our culture boasts in strength and wealth. It boasts in terrorizing enemies and scattering fugitives and foreigners. That’s “Ammonite” culture. Are you assimilated to it? Or is it “tormenting” you as it did Lot?

Thank God that there is hope for Ammonites and those, like us, who have grown like them. Even after all the Ammonites did, God promised to restore them. Even after all we have done, God is willing to restore us.

There is room in the family of God for us, even if we’ve become a little like the Ammonites. Repent of boasting and settle among the many nations in the family of God.

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

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

Readers’ Choice is Coming!

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Read more: How to Know When to Give

As the Corinthians’ generosity caused Paul to celebrate, may our generosity bring joy and refreshment to those doing good in the world.

How to Know When to Give

Links for today’s readings:

Sep 18  Read: Jeremiah 44 Listen: (6:10) Read: 2 Corinthians 4 Listen: (3:02)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Sep 19  Read: Jeremiah 45-46 Listen: (5:51) Read: 2 Corinthians 5 Listen: (3:14)
Sep 20  Read: Jeremiah 47 Listen: (1:21) Read: 2 Corinthians 6 Listen: (2:31)

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 44.15-18

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, 16 “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord! 17 We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. 18 But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

Reflection: Same Data, Wrong Conclusions

By John Tillman

From our perspective, Israel’s Old Testament idolatry seems inexplicable. How could they make a golden calf when the fire cloud was still on the mountain? (Ex 32.1) How could they resume worshiping Baal after the Mount Carmel showdown? (1 Ki 18.38-40) How could they continue ignoring prophets’ warnings after watching their previous warnings come true? How could they exchange the truth of God for a lie? (Rom 1.20-25) How could they be so foolish?

In today’s passage, Jeremiah confronts families engaged in idol worship while living in Egypt following Jerusalem’s collapse. Think about what these men and women had lived through.

They saw (or heard about) God’s blessings and favor on the nation during Josiah’s revival and elimination of idolatry. They saw the kings following Josiah return to idols and foreign gods. They heard the warnings of defeat and exile from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets. They heard the promises of prophets like Hananiah (Jer 28.1-11), who predicted quick and easy victory over Babylon. They watched the false prophets’ promises fail and many of them, including Hananiah, be killed. They heard Jeremiah’s promises about restoration and peace if they stayed faithful to God.

With all this data, we conclude that Jeremiah had been telling the truth and the best course of action would be to follow the commands of God he related. However, these men and women observed the exact same data and came to the shocking (to us) conclusion that they should ignore Jeremiah and resume idol worship.

The people interpreted the data differently and wrongly. They defended idolatry as a reasonable solution to their problems. They concluded that idolatry had worked and faithfulness to God had failed them. Just like Eve and Adam, they saw something pleasing, desirable, and practical to improve their situation, and they took it.

When people in scripture make foolish decisions, instead of shaking our heads in judgment, we should examine our hearts in humility. Put yourself in their place and wonder what might entice you to make similar errors. We aren’t pressured to worship “the queen of Heaven,” but we are pressured to do “whatever works” for us regardless of what God’s word says.

Have the humility to admit that we have the same tendencies as ancient idolaters. When we think something will work for us, or is good for us, we find ways to justify it.

Remember that what “works” for you is not always what is good for you.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

O God, you know my foolishness, and my faults are not hidden from you. — Psalm 69.6

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

Readers’ Choice is Coming!

Readers’ Choice is when we ask you to share your favorite Park Forum posts from this year. 
What posts helped you pray?

https://forms.gle/Kj12Ziy4C9gQg8Xm7

Read more: Godly Silence

The Bible urges us to experience silence as a spiritual discipline. Don’t wait for a power outage in order to spend time in silence.

Godly Silence