Preparing for Worship - November 12, 2023

We are now in the last three weeks of the Church Year. There is a lot of focus on the “end times” and the return of Christ. We see that already in our readings for this Sunday.

The Old Testament lesson is from Amos 5:18-24. Amos warns the people of Israel that “the day of the Lord” could be a day of judgment and “darkness and gloom,” if they are just going through the motions of worship and offerings and actually are following false gods and false ways. Amos calls them back to God’s ways of “justice “ and the “righteousness” that comes only from Him and trusting His mercy and truth and forgiveness, ultimately in Christ Jesus.

The Psalm is Psalm 70. David’s life is in danger from his enemies. He prays that the Lord would “make haste” (hurry) to “deliver and help” him. He is confident that the One True God is “great,” and he “loves” and trusts His “salvation” through the Lord, even though he is “poor and needy” as he writes this psalm. All can “rejoice and be glad” in the Lord and His mercy for them.

The Gospel lesson is a parable of Jesus from Matthew 25:1-13. Ten virgins were assigned to wait for the coming of the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ, at an unknown time. Five were foolish and unprepared, without enough oil for their lamps. Five brought extra oil with them and were prepared and welcomed the Bridegroom. They went into the marriage feast, but the door was then shut, and it was too late for others to be allowed in. The fact that Jesus says to those left outside, “I do not know you,” indicates that they did not have the saving gift of faith in Jesus. Jesus calls His followers, then, to watch and wait for His return with confident faith and trust in Him and to keep listening to His voice, in His Word. (Jesus said, in John 10, “The sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name… The sheep follow Him, for they know His voice" (v.3-4)... "I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know Me" (v.14).

The Epistle lesson is from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Paul speaks about those who have already “fallen asleep” (died) in faith before Jesus returns on the last day. Do we still have hope for them and their eternal future, too? Absolutely, says Paul, “since we believe that Jesus died and rose again,” for the salvation of all believers. When believers die, their souls, their spirits, depart and are with Christ in heaven (Philippians 1:21,23). Their bodies return to the ground. When Jesus returns, “God will bring with Him the souls of those who have fallen asleep” (died) in faith. Their bodies will be raised first and changed and glorified and reunited with their souls. Then, the believers who are still alive on earth at that time will be “caught up together with them” and changed and glorified, and we will always be with the Lord in eternal life. This is a message of great encouragement and hope for and about all believers, past, present, and future.

Our future is secure in Christ. And until Jesus returns, on that last day of this existence, there is still time for more people to be brought to faith in Jesus. As Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”