Preparing for Worship - November 30, 2025

This marks the beginning of a new church year, with the Advent season, as we prepare for the prophecies of and then the coming and birth of Christ, our Savior. This year, we will use the One Year Historic Series of readings, with long-standing Epistle and Gospel readings, and Old Testament and Psalm readings added more recently.

The Psalm is Psalm 24, a psalm of David. David knows that the earth and everything in it are the Lord’s, and He founded and established it all. The Lord wishes David and us to seek to approach Him with pure hearts and not in false and deceitful ways. We cannot do this on our own, but we receive blessings from Him and His righteousness and His saving forgiveness and mercy. David ends the psalm with a song of praise to the Lord, the King of Glory, who comes to us with His glory and might and blessings, as we gather to worship Him.

The Old Testament lesson is from Jeremiah 23:5-8. The Lord has condemned false shepherds who have led God’s people astray and scattered them and left them in captivity to others (Jeremiah 23:1-2). The Lord now promises that He will gather the remnant of His flock and provide better shepherds for them (23:3,7-8), as they return to their homeland, after the Babylonian captivity. And the days are coming when God will provide “a righteous Branch” from the line of King David, who will be a just and righteous King. In fact, He will be the Lord Himself coming to be our righteousness and provide salvation and security for us always. See similar prophecies about this “Branch,” our Lord Jesus, in Isaiah 4:2 and 11:1-5,10 and Revelation 22:16-17.

The Gospel lesson is from Matthew 21:1-9. This is the familiar story of Palm Sunday and Jesus riding into Jerusalem. He comes as a King, in fulfillment of another direct prophecy from Zechariah 9:9ff, and yet in a humble way, riding on a donkey’s colt, and coming to suffer and die, in payment for the sins of the world, including our own. At this point, though, the people are making a carpet of cloaks and branches and honoring Jesus as the Son of David, coming in the name of the Lord. Some even call Jesus the prophet from Nazareth. This is also fulfillment of our Psalm, Psalm 24, as Jesus truly is “the King of glory.” See how Psalm 118:14-27 is fulfilled that day as well.

The Epistle lesson is from Romans 13: (8-10) 11-14. Paul reminds us to seek to love one another and how loving our neighbor fulfills many of the other commandments of God. We owe the greatest debt to Christ our Savior, though, and the salvation He has come and brought near to us, in His saving work for us. We are called to remain spiritually awake and to continue to trust in Christ, just as when we first believed and were baptized and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” and His robe of righteousness. See Galatians 3:27-29 and Isaiah 61:10-11 also.

The Advent/Christmas season brings all this and so much more to us, in Christ. Advent means “to come to.” Jesus came to and was born in Bethlehem to be our Savior. He continues to come to our hearts and strengthen us in faith, as we remember our own baptism and His promises to us. He comes to us through His Word and in the miracle of the Lord’s Supper. And as we heard last week, Jesus also promises to us at the moment of our death, “Today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). And he even promises our own resurrection of the body on the last day. How confident we can be as we begin another year of God’s grace for us, this Sunday, too!