Friday, September 6, 2013

Hearing Is Doing

The 16th Sunday after Pentecost–September 8, 2013
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
“if your heart turns away, and you will not hear…” Vs. 17
     Moses’ time is drawing to a close.  In just a little while he will ascend the mountain for a glimpse of the Promised Land.  His successor Joshua will lead the people into it.  Moses will die upon the mountain, the last of the generation of people who failed to listen to the promises of their God when He said that He’d deliver the Promised Land to them.  Because they didn’t hear their good God’s good Word, they wandered in the wilderness until that unhearing and unheeding generation died.
     Moses was the last and he wouldn’t set foot in the Promised Land either.  But he preached to the people gathered before him awaiting their entry into it.  He preached the importance of their listening to… of their hearing… of their heeding the Word of the Lord.  All they would receive would come from that Word.  Heeding it surely meant life and goodness.  Not hearing it surely meant death and evil.  God’s Word was their life.  Outside of that Word there was nothing but death.
     Moses seems fond of the word “obey” or at least his translators are.  While the origins of our English word obey rest in the combination of two Latin words for “direction” and “hear,” its ancient sense is obscured today.  In those bygone times, those who heard, did.  They could do no other.  In the modern religious situation, the use of the words obey and obedience cannot be separated from an act of the human will—a choice.  The human act of “willing” is inserted between hearing and doing. 
     Moses was well aware that the people before him still carried the idols their parents brought with them out of Egypt (cf. Jos. 24:23; 1 Sa. 7:3).  He knew their hearts were already turned away so he tells them “choose…” “choose life…” choose to have the Word of your Lord in your ears.  It is your repentance and it will repent you.
     So, too, you who wander  among the idols of your own making:  Choose to hear the Word of the Lord.  It will repent you of your old self and its “willing” and make you the new person whom God wills. 

Table Talk:  Discuss how choosing to hear the Word takes away choice
Pray:  Heavenly Father, give us the Word of life, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Table Talk is provided by
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and authored by Timothy J. Sweson

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Visible Righteous Is Civil Righteousness

The 15th Sunday after Pentecost–September 1, 2013
Proverbs 25:2-10
“It is the glory of God to conceal things…” Vs. 2
     Solomon has provided you with an important teaching in these verses.  The teaching is begun by the first verse and its contrasting statements:  “the glory of God…” vs. “the glory of kings…”  It declares a vital distinction between the glory of God in which he conceals things and the glory of kings which is to search things out.  Kings display their glory in majesty and might.  God conceals his glory in the weak and foolish. (1 Cor. 1:28)
      You also receive this teaching through other words from God such as “Truly, you are a God who hides himself…” (Is. 45:15) and “The secret things belong to the Lord…the things that are revealed belong to us.” (Dt. 29:29) and “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Ro. 11:33)… as you hear these and similar passages, you find that Scripture teaches a distinction between God hidden in his majesty and God revealed in his Word.  It also teaches the distinction between your receiving the divine righteousness of eternal life and your achieving the civil righteousness of mortal life.
     Luther taught this distinction and maintained that kings and secular authorities had the duty to coerce those unwilling to be good so they’d behave well enough to benefit the neighbor and civil society.  This is called civil righteousness.  Secular (civil) authorities rule, then, as given by God for the maintenance of civil order.  God works good even as it is concealed within the ambiguous work of human agents:  “…the heart of kings is unsearchable.” (vs. 3)  Their true intentions are hidden from you even as they coerce and cajole some good from you by their promises and threats. 
     What joy, then, for you to receive the revelation of your Father in heaven’s heart through Jesus Christ your Lord!  “No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (Jn. 1:18)  Jesus, the Word of God, comes straight from the heart of God so that you would know God’s true intention for you.  The glory of God’s salvation is concealed beneath Jesus’ death on the cross “for you.”

Table Talk:  Why must a civil/divine righteousness distinction be taught?
Pray:  Heavenly Father, show me your heart through your Word.  Amen

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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Discernment

Greetings to you on this day that the Lord has made; it is a day for us to rejoice and be glad!  Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and from his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

One of the several responsibilities within the Student Services Division is to work with inquiring and curious people who wonder whether they should take classes from us, enter one of our programs, or even whether they are being called by the Holy Spirit for a more involved and a more public ministry within their local church or their church body.  This “wondering” is often referred to as the process of discernment.  Those inquiring and wondering people are in the process of discerning whether or not they are being called by the Holy Spirit.  In other words, would their enrollment be of God, or not?

When I was in the parish, I often encountered sincere people who expressed their greatest desire saying, “I just want to know God’s will for my life so I can do it.”  They, too, were engaged in the practice of discernment.  Sometimes… most of the time… it overwhelmed them.  Putting every decision, every action, up to such scrutiny as to whether or not it is the will of God for your life soon proves exhausting.  Those sincere people from the parish and the inquiring and curious ones deciding to take classes share a similar weariness.  The practice of discernment is wearying.  Deciding whether or not the call is of the Holy Spirit can be exhausting as the “wondering” drags on.

Popular culture generally confuses the process of discernment with something often described as “listening to your heart” or “discovering your authentic self.”  These practices turn your attention inward so that you can hear your inner voice—the authentic voice of your true self.  Such listening, though, is not the process of discernment.  It fails two tests.  First, we are not trust our own heart.  Jesus has a pretty low opinion of the human heart and its capacities.  The human heart is the source of all that defiles a person—all evil ideas and inclinations (Mt. 7:21).  Heartfelt sincerity is not trustworthy.  Second, the Holy Spirit does not work with an inner voice but with an external word, the Word of God.  The fifth article of the Augsburg Confession testifies to this when it calls the preached word and the delivered sacraments “instruments” through which the Holy Spirit works. 

Our tradition certainly holds that there is an “inner” call as well as an “outer” call.  The inner call of our tradition is not the same as the one understood by culture.  Popular culture prioritizes the inner call, making the desires of the person’s heart or authentic self sacrosanct, unable to be thwarted.  It is the person’s “right” to follow the desires of their heart or their authentic self.  In our tradition, however, the inner call is always subject to ratification by an outer call, an external call.  Because the internal call cannot be easily separated from the ambition of a sinful heart, our tradition ratifies the inner call with the voice of a neighbor:  brothers and sisters in Christ speaking singly or corporately, personally or institutionally. 

When I work with inquiring and curious people who wonder whether they should take classes from us, they mostly wonder about their inner call.  I work with them in beginning the process of discernment.  Most of that discernment is teaching them to hear the outer call.  Certainly, we tend to the inner call but we start to look for all the ways that inner call is being ratified by the outer call. 

Often, the first sign of an outer call is the encouragement of their pastor to become more deeply involved in the life of their congregation or church body.  Sometimes, this outer call precedes the actual awareness of the person’s inner call.  As our inquiring and curious prospective student becomes more deeply involved in their congregation, other members more give them encouragement to take up formal study.  This was certainly true in my journey to seminary.  My neighbors… my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ become so insistently encouraging that I often joked, “I wasn’t called to seminary; I was pushed.”

Once the prospect student applies, another instance of the outer call occurs.  The application requires letters of reference.  In those letters, the references speak singly and personally in ratifying the inner call of the prospective student.  As the application process continues, there are assessments of skills and education by our registrar.  The assessment process culminates in an admission interview during which several of us converse with the prospective student in what could well be called a “testing or discerning” of the prospective student’s inner call.   A successful admissions interview results in a further ratification of the person’s inner call.

The now-admitted-student’s church body has its own discernment process for ratifying the student’s inner call.  This discernment is accomplished by the various church bodies’ ministry committees.  They meet with and work with our students as they take classes and undergo pastoral formation.  Eventually, there will be an expression of an outer call when the ministry committee endorses the student for parish ministry.

At that point their names go before congregations.  The Holy Spirit working through the call of a congregation delivers the authoritative voice of the external or outer call.  It is the final ratification of the person’s inner call that may have been experienced years before.  This call of the Holy Spirit is the voice of God setting the newly-called into their particular office.


Discernment is simple, yet difficult—ambiguous, yet certain.  Left to ourselves and turned inward upon ourselves we have only that difficult task of listening to the ambiguous voice of our human heart.  Yet, when the call of the Holy Spirit finally comes through the congregation, the difficulty and ambiguity fall away for we receive the simple certainty that God has spoken.  Between those two events we wait and learn to listen to the voice of our neighbors as they ratify, or not, that inner call.

Courtesy of "Word ad Work"--the magazine of the Institute of Lutheran Theology

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The Curse is Rolled Back


The Resurrection of our Lord – March 31, 2013
Isaiah 65:17-25
“Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth…” Vs. 17
     The Lord will not let Isaiah stay silent when it comes to the ultimate future he has in store for his people:  plans to give them a future and a hope (cf. Jer. 29:11).  Isaiah breaks forth with the Lord’s promise of creating a new heavens and a new earth:  (Isa. 42:9) and (Isa. 48:6).  Such is the future Isaiah promises… such is the future of which Peter speaks (2 Peter 3:13)… and such is the future which John sees in his apocalyptic vision. (Rev. 21:1)
     The new heavens and the new earth are promised by Isaiah, testified to throughout Scripture, and delivered in Jesus Christ.  He is the Messiah, first promised by God when he declared to the serpent in the Garden:  “…her [Eve’s] offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Ge. 3:15)  From the very moment in which the curse was imposed upon Adam and Eve, they, and all subsequent generations, have lived—not only under the curse—but under this promise as well:  One born of woman will come and bear the curse, bring the curse to an end, and reign eternally in a new heaven and a new earth.  “The former things shall not be remembered or come into mind…” (Isa. 65:17)  In that new creation which is yours now in Christ Jesus, all that the curse imposed is rolled back.  Your tears and suffering come to an end.   The curse on man’s labor is lifted.  The enemies—sin and death—conquered in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, finally come to their end.
     All these things are yours already though you do not see them.  Luther calls your attention to 1 Peter 1: 6-12 where Peter not only declares these things immediately certain but also that they await their revelation.  Luther counseled:  “Therefore whoever is tormented in his feeling by sin and death, let him rise again in the Word and kingdom of Christ and say, ‘My Christ lives’ ” (AE 17:388)
Table Talk:  Discuss your living Lord’s victory over sin and death
Pray:  Father, give me certainty of baptism’s promise: death to the old & new life in Jesus Christ, even though I’m still a sinner; amen.

Timothy J. Swenson
Institute of Lutheran Theology
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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Moses' Second Song


Table Talk for Palm/Passion Sunday – March 31, 2013 
Deuteronomy 32:36-39 
“There is none that can deliver out of my hand” Vs. 39

Moses sings a second song. The first song of Moses was inspired by the Lord delivering Israel from the hand of the Pharaoh by the people’s safe passage through the Red Sea and the subsequent destruction of the Egyptian army. Moses sang: “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously…” (Ex. 15:1-3) Moses’ second song (Ex. 32:1-43) came as the people were about to enter the Promised Land. Moses sang and on the same day received word from the Lord about how he was to die. In his second song Moses anticipates the peoples’ further unfaithfulness to their Lord: “His people have been unfaithful to him; they have not acted like his children – this is their sin. They are a perverse and deceitful generation.” (Dt. 32:5)

Such is the context of our text today: Moses prophesies the peoples’ future unfaithfulness and the Lord’s response to it. This anticipates the end of Joshua’s life when he, too, stood before the people remembering and anticipating their unfaithfulness (Josh. 24:14-23) and demanded: “Choose this day whom you will worship!” When your ears are tuned to hear it, there is repetition throughout the history of the people: 1) unfaithful rebellion by the people; 2) chastisement by the wrath of God; 3) lament and repentance by the people; 4) deliverance by the hand of their Lord.


Our text today connects with two great promises delivered to you through the history of God’s people. One comes in verse 36:“when he sees that their power is gone…” These words anticipate the Lord’s answer to the Apostle Paul when he prayed for the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9) The second promise comes from our Lord Jesus himself: “My Father, who has given [the sheep] to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.” (Jn. 10:29) You, the sheep, hear his voice and rest on your Lord’s faithfulness, not your own.


Table Talk: Discuss faithfulness and hearing the word in obedience
Pray: Father, by your word, deliver to me a new and clean heart; amen


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Wednesday, July 11, 2012


Seventh Sunday after Pentecost—July 15, 2012
Amos 7:7-15
“Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel...” vs. 8
     Amos is receiving another authorization for the office prophet into which the Lord has placed him.  Like you read in Ezekiel last week, here in Amos you read of another image of justification.  Last week it was the image of standing upright before the Lord.  This week it is the image of a plumb line—a string with a weight at the end.  When the weight hangs on the end of the string, the string marks a straight up-and-down vertical line—an excellent way to measure the “uprightness” of a wall or of a people.   By implication, God’s people Israel would fail to measure up—they would not be “upright” and, like a tilted wall, must be torn down and rebuilt. 
     God’s justification of his people is dramatic and terrifying.  Listen to its description:  “Made desolate…”  “Laid waste…”  “With the sword…”  “Die by the sword…” “Go into exile…”  God justifies by reducing them to nothing and then—from that nothing—raising up a new people… a new person… and a new creation (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17)
     When God first justified you, he did so in the water and word of Holy Baptism.  By being baptized into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, your old sinful self was drowned and you were raised up a new creation.  While you are still “in the flesh,” your baptism is to be used every day through confession and absolution.  These two will repent you and forgive you your sins.  In this forgiveness of sins you will know that you have been set free from that triumvirate of powers—the devil, the world, and your sinful self.  When you are no longer bent over in their bondage, you are stood up straight; you’ve been “plumbed” and found upright—justified.  This is the daily dying to sin and being raised up to walk in newness of life.  It is the Christian life: baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection.


Table Talk
Timothy J. Swenson
The Institute of Lutheran Theology

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost—July 8, 2012
Ezekiel 2:1-5
“He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet...” vs. 1
     Ezekiel is being placed in the prophetic office.  He has just beheld a mysterious and incomprehensible vision and been so dazzled by the glory of the Lord that he fell to the ground, face in the dirt.  While he is in that position—one that recalls Genesis 3:19 “you are dust and to dust you shall return”—the humbled Ezekiel receives a personal address.  The mysterious vision and dazzling glory had produced a mighty and chaotic sound but now, in a word from his Lord, Ezekiel is given a new standing.  Just like he had no time to consider whether or not to fall on his face, Ezekiel has no time to consider whether or not he will stand because the Spirit entered him and stood him up… up on his feet and upright before the Lord. 
     The movement Ezekiel underwent here in these first two verses is the movement of confession and absolution.  Ezekiel, confronted by the glory of the Lord, is struck down to the dust, humbled and repented.  So, too, are you when you are confronted by the glory of the Lord delivered in the Word (“God who is faithful and just” even in the face of his people’s sinful rebellion).  Ezekiel, from that position of humility and reminded of his mortality, hears the Lord speaking, has the Holy Spirit enter him, and is set on his feet by it.  So, too, are you when you’ve been repented and driven to a confession (an agreement with God) of your sinfulness; God’s word of forgiveness delivers the Holy Spirit and you are righteous, upright, and justified—blameless (cf. Ge. 3:12)—before your Lord.


Table Talk
Timothy J. Swenson
The Institute of Lutheran Theology
www.ilt.org