Preparing for Worship - November 23, 2025

On this Last Sunday of the Church Year, we are reminded again of the Victory that is ours in Christ, even in what looks like His Defeat, in His suffering and death for us. The psalm is a familiar one for us, Psalm 46, Luther’s Reformation psalm. Even in the midst of great trouble, God is our Refuge and Strength, and is a very present Help for us, even when chaos and disturbance surround us. The psalmist refers to the River in verse 4, which is associated with the Garden of Eden in its perfect beginning, as described in Genesis 2:10. The fall into sin destroyed that perfection and created numerous problems for God’s people, as described in Jeremiah 2:11-13. Yet God still cared for His people and called them back to faithfulness, seeking to restore them in His love with His river of delights and His Fountain of Life and Light. See Psalm 36:7-9 and Isaiah 41:17-18, as well as later prophecies like Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Zechariah 14:5-9, which point to Jesus and His saving work, as well as eternal life with Christ in heaven. See how these prophecies tie in with the vision John sees in Revelation 22:1-5ff. The psalmist is willing, then, to “be still,” and trust in the Lord and His exalted ways, however He chooses to work them out in a troubled world, by His mercy and love in the Savior to come.

The Old Testament lesson is from Malachi 3:13-18. People in Malachi’s day were saying that it was vain, worthless, to try to serve God, because the arrogant and evildoers prosper and escape God’s judgment and seem to be better off. Then we hear that faithful believers gathered and spoke with one another and encouraged one another. The Lord heard them and renewed His promises to them. He knows those who are truly His by faith, and they are His treasured possession, and one day the distinction between the righteous by faith and the wicked will be clear, in everlasting life, for those saved by His grace. (We need to remember to get together and talk with one another in faith, too, as much as we can.)

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 23:27-43, Jesus and two criminals have been condemned to die by crucifixion. Some were lamenting the death of Jesus as unjust, but Jesus tells them to weep not for Him, but for the many who will suffer judgment in days to come for rejecting Him, their Savior. Jesus is taken to Golgotha, the place of the Skull, to be crucified with the two others. Many make fun of him and ridicule Him. If He really were the Chosen One of God, the Christ, the King, then He could and should save Himself. But Jesus prays that the Father would forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing, and that at least some would eventually be brought to faith and be forgiven. One of the criminals knows and confesses his sins and asks Jesus to remember him when He comes into His Kingdom. Both died that day, but Jesus promised the forgiven sinner that “Today you will be with Me in paradise. “ It looked to so many that Jesus had lost, but He was the actual Victor, earning eternal life for all who trusted in Him by faith, and showing that in His mighty resurrection. At our death, too, Jesus says, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”

The Epistle lesson is Colossians 1:13-20. It is a beautiful description of just what Christ has done for us, too, through His suffering and death and bringing us to faith in Him. God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God… and in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell… and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, making peace by the blood of the cross. In Him all things hold together, and He is the head of the church and Preeminent.” Our confidence is in Him always, as our Lord and Savior, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.