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