Preparing for Worship - November 20, 2022

This is the Last Sunday of the Church Year. It is sometimes also called Christ the King Sunday, as we think of the victory of Christ our Lord and the eternal promises we have in our Triune God.

The Psalm is Psalm 46. We looked at this psalm a few weeks ago, at Reformation, with the focus on God as our Refuge and Strength and our Fortress in every time of need. Today we hear that while earthly “nations rage” and “kingdoms totter” and “earth”and “seas” and “mountains tremble” and “give way,” the Lord God “will be exalted” and “make wars to cease” and finally bring perfect, eternal peace to us in heaven, "the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.”

The Old Testament lesson is from Malachi 3:13-18. God says that many of His own people had been saying “hard words against Him.” They were claiming that there was no “profit” in following Him and His will. The evil and arrogant were “prospering,” and the Lord was allowing the evil to escape with no consequences, they thought. Some still feared the Lord, though, and talked with with one another and encouraged each other, most likely in worship and prayer and use of the Word of God. The Lord heard them, and they were written in a “book of remembrance” as His “treasured
possession,” and they would clearly be identified as His children, who served Him, on the day of judgment. (See also Malachi 4:1-3.)

The Epistle lesson is Colossians 1:13-20, a beautiful description of God the Son - who He is and what He has done. “All the fullness of God dwelt in Him.” He existed “before all things” and was involved in the creation of ”all things,” and “in Him all things hold together.” For our sake, though, He came into this world to bring us redemption and the forgiveness of our sins. Through Him we are reconciled to God and have peace with God “by the blood of the cross.”

Our Gospel lesson, Luke 23:27-43, speaks of that great work of Jesus, as he went to the cross for us. He was “Christ the King, the Chosen One of God,” and yet willingly suffered  in our place to forgive our sins and give us the promise of “Paradise” - eternal life with Him in heaven, through faith in Him. He will remember us, too, and our names are written in His “book of remembrance” and life eternal, as we have been brought to know and trust in Him as our Lord and Savior, just like the criminal described in this passage.