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

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost—July 1, 2012

Lamentations 3:22-33

“The Lord is good to those who wait for him…” vs. 25

     We often hear and declare that “the Lord is slow to anger…” (Ex. 34:6 & others), but, to people caught up in lament, it seems that the Lord is just plain slow.  Do you find yourself waiting for the Lord… waiting for the Lord to answer prayer… waiting for the Lord to provide strength and hope… waiting for the Lord to fulfill long-standing promises?  If so, you have a predecessor in the book of Lamentations.

     The author of Lamentations is under siege.   Jerusalem is surrounded by the Babylonian army.  The lack of food and water has driven the population to desperate means to avoid starvation.  Death stalks the streets… death from without as the enemy’s arrows and missiles fly through the city… death from within as starvation and violence march through the city.  The Lord withholds deliverance.  To the eyes of reason, there is no hope, only a bitter end.  Yet the prophet does have hope, hope that does not come from reason but from the promises of God.  “The Lord is my portion… therefore I will hope in him” (vs. 24).  This besieged prophet holds a hope not from his senses or his reason but a hope delivered by the Word of the Lord… a Lord of great faithfulness.  Waiting… hoping in such faithfulness is not waiting at all.

     This Lord is the same one who claimed you at your baptism… the Lord who said, “I am the Lord your God!”  No waiting required!  Your Lord, the who came to you in baptism, does not make you wait.  Instead, your Lord comes quickly… quickly, in a Word which forgives your sins… quickly, in a meal that delivers Jesus Christ to you…  Your Lord is always coming to you, no waiting required… coming to you in the font, from the pulpit, and at the altar.


Table Talk

Timothy J. Swenson

The Institute of Lutheran Theology

www.ilt.org

The Nativity of St. John the Baptist—June 24, 2012

Isaiah 40:1-5

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
     for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Vs. 5

     Today’s readings are a break in the “Sundays after Pentecost”--an opportunity to turn our attention to John the Baptist.  These verses delivered by the prophet Isaiah in announcing the end of Israel’s exile are used as well by the gospel authors to introduce John the Baptist.  Evidently these authors saw and delivered a connection between the release of Israel from her Babylonian captivity and the release of the world from its captivity to sin.

     The Baptist says of Jesus:  “He must increase but I must decrease”  (John 3:30).  In Jesus the “glory of the Lord shall be revealed…”  While in the flesh, Jesus’ glory was to be lifted up on the cross—not exactly an attractive sort of glory.  There in that humiliation and death, God hides his glory, forgives sins, and releases the world from its captivity.  There lifted up on the cross, Jesus drew all people—all flesh—to himself (Jn. 12:32) so that they could “see it together.” 

     You, accustomed to the glory of the world, can never “reason” your way to the cross where glory hides beneath its opposite.  You can’t “reason” your way to faith.  But the Holy Spirit does call you through the gospel and establish you in faith.  Your own understanding or effort cannot accomplish this.  It is the work of God.  Your work is nothing; Christ’s work is everything.  The mouth of the Lord has spoken, and spoken well through his prophet John.

Timothy J. Swenson

The Institute of Lutheran Theology

www.ilt.org

The Third Sunday after Pentecost—June 17, 2012

Ezekiel 17:22-24

“I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

This chapter of Ezekiel is like an extended parable.  The first and middle parts of the chapter concern the “eagle”—a parabolic reference to Nebuchadnezzar—who broke off the “top of the cedar”—a reference to his deposing the rightful king of Judah in Jerusalem.  Jehoiachin, the Davidic king, was exiled in Babylon while a puppet king Zedekiah was set on the throne.

     The verses of our reading today concern the Lord God’s establishing superiority over that “eagle.”  Not merely content with “breaking off,” the Lord God will “plant” it on the heights.  It will be fruitful and noble, a welcome rest for “birds of all sorts.”  Then with language that anticipates Philippians 2—“every knee shall bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…,” the Lord says, “All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord…”  How?  How will this knowledge of the Lord be manifested?  By these reversals:  high to low and low to high, green to dry and dry to flourishing, the authority of God’s Word is established.  The Lord speaks and it comes to be.

     The Lord has spoken regarding you.  Through the lips of your preacher, Christ says:  “I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  Christ never lies but is THE truth itself.  Therefore, being baptized into his death and resurrection (Romans 6), you have new life in Christ.  Jesus Christ—the Word of God Incarnate—establishes you in the mighty reversal of death to life.

Table Talk

From the Institute of Lutheran Theology

www.ilt.org

written by:

The Reverend Timothy J. Swenson
Dean of Chapel and Student Life
Institute of Lutheran Theology
910 4th St.
Brookings, SD 57006
701-421-1108 cell

tswenson@ilt.org

Table Talk—June 10, 2012

The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Genesis 3:8-15

“Where are you?”  vs. 9b

     The Lord God sounds ever so much like a divine parent, a father whose children have raided the cookie jar, realized their error, and have hidden themselves in guilt, fear, and shame.  “Where are you?”  the Lord God calls out in invitation.  Right away the children respond as the man makes excuses:  “I heard; I feared; I was shamed; I hid.”  The Lord God inquires like a concerned parent so as to discover the cause of such fear and shame.  From the man, the Lord God receives blame because the Lord provided the woman to be with the man.  From the woman, the Lord God receives blame because the serpent (who was a creature of the Lord God) deceived her.  Both man and woman are full of blame.

     Adam and Eve's pointing fingers of blame are inclusive: neighbor (Eve), creation (serpent), and Creator (God) are all responsible for the condition the fallen couple now suffer. The man and the woman are no longer “blameless” beings; their very character is changed.  Their relationships with Creator, creature, & neighbor once marked by trust were now marked by blame as they are held in suspicion and fear.

     Jesus Christ has borne the sin of the world; he has taken the blame.  Now you, whose relationship with the Lord God, your Father, was once marked by blame, can—as Luther writes in the Small Catechism—“believe that He is our real Father and we are His real children… [and] pray with trust and complete confidence.”   “In Jesus” is the answer to the question: “Where are you?”  The Father and the wayward children of fallen humanity are united “in Jesus.” 

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