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Daniel English
November 23, 2025 - Last Sunday of the Church Year
Sermon - Last Sunday of the Church Year C
Mal 3:13-18; Psalm 46; Col 1:13-20; Luke 23:27-43
How Long, O LORD?
Today is the Last Sunday of the Church Year. At the end of the church year, it is customary to think about the end. Whether our own death or Christ’s return to judgment, we set our minds on the coming last day that begins the rest of eternity. Just a few weeks ago on All Saint’s Day, we heard John’s vision of the heavenly throne room—the great multitude beyond numbering, robed in dazzling white, swinging palm branches of green, standing before the throne of God in everlasting day (Revelation 7:9). The week after we heard about the resurrection of the dead. We heard Christ’s clear teaching that the dead are indeed raised to life, for our God is not a God of the dead but of the living (Luke 20:38). And last week we heard about the coming of the Son of Man in a cloud with power and great glory (Luke 21:27). The end is coming. Our Creed confesses this faith: We believe that on “the third day [Jesus Christ] rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead” (Apostles’ Creed, The Second Article). God’s people wait for Him to act. And here you are… another Sunday at Immanuel Lutheran Church… at the end of another church year, looking forward to another Advent… and another Christmas… and another New Year… still waiting for our Lord Christ to return. How long, O LORD?
In this era of satellites and smart phones, door dash, tik tok, and 2-day shipping your attention span has shortened and your patience has worn thin. Can you make it through a meal with your family without diverting your attention to something else? What about when a hymn has a few too many verses or a worship service goes 10 minutes too long? Have you started to question if any of this is worth it? Are you tempted to say with those in our Old Testament reading, “It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:14)? The people of Judah grew tired of serving God, tired of following His commandments, and tired of repenting of their sins. The people of Judah had convinced themselves that the arrogant unbeliever is blessed. They saw evildoers breaking God’s commandments without fear and without consequence. Instead of receiving the punishment for their sin, these evildoers prospered and received what seemed to be success and blessing.
Is it any different today? According to the Guttmacher Institute an estimated 518,940 children were murdered in the womb in the first six months of 2025. Open Doors, an organization that publishes data about the prosecution of Christians around the world, reports that nearly 4,500 Christians were killed for their faith in Nigeria and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A study from Columbia University identified nearly 50,000 patients who underwent some sort of gender reassignment surgery between 2016 and 2020… over 3,600 aged 12 to 18 years old. In October of this year, Pew research published that over 1.8 million Americans divorced in 2023, while many forego marriage altogether. And this past July, the Heritage Foundation summarized findings in a General Social Survey from the National Opinion Research Center like this: “Attendance of religious services in the United States has declined over the past fifty years. Weekly attendance of religious services has significantly declined across most demographic groups [...]. Today, nearly half of American adults either rarely or never attend religious services” (The Great Falling Away, Abbamonte). In times of decreasing church attendance and increasing confusion and sin, does it seem that the arrogant are blessed? Does it seem that evildoers prosper? Those who fearlessly put God to the test escape! … How long, O LORD?
Have you put God to the test? Why is it that you are so tempted to wander from God, ignore His warnings, and reject His blessings? In 1941 C.S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Isn’t it true? Isn’t it difficult to wait on the Lord for the incomprehensible blessings that God has promised to us in Jesus? The trials are many, the distractions are countless, and it is difficult to walk in faith as we wait on the Lord. How long, O LORD?
I’m here to encourage you today. Repent! Keep the faith! The Lord does not delay. “The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). So repent and wait on the Lord!
Malachi goes on to say that “those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. ‘They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:16-17a). What a promise! In the midst of an unbelieving age, when the church seems small and the faithful seem few, the LORD of hosts promises to deliver us, His church, who fear the Lord and esteem His name. He has written our names in His book of life. When you are tempted to think that your God is far off and uncaring, you are corrected by His Word: “God is our refuge and strength” (Psalm 46:1a). He is not far off, He is “a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1b). God promises to make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves Him and the one who does not. How does God make a distinction between the righteous and unrighteous?
After the book of Malachi there isn’t a divinely inspired Word of Scripture for over 400 years. Some Christians have called this period of time “the 400 Silent Years.” A Jewish historian wrote that this time—the time when the prophets ceased to appear among the Jews—was a time of great distress (1 Macc 9:27; 14:41). During this time, God’s people waited for the fulfillment of the promise of salvation, and the faithless fell away. By the time Christ walked the earth, his own people were so confused about what their standing was before God and what was necessary for their salvation that most of them did not receive Him. His ministry attracted the anger of the Pharisees and scribes, accusations of blasphemy from the Sanhedrin, and a death sentence from Roman authorities. As we read in our Gospel text for today, He was hung up between two evildoers as a curse. Here on the cross is where God keeps the promise made through Malachi. Here on the cross is how God makes a distinction between the righteous and the unrighteous. None of you are righteous by yourself, but you are made righteous by faith. “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him” (Malachi 3:17). God spares us as a man spares his son who serves him by NOT sparing his own Son. He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all (Romans 8:32a). From the cross Jesus has won the victory, from the cross it is finished, from the cross the promises are kept, from the cross you are reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus. From the cross, the Holy Absolution is spoken, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
It has been nearly 2,000 years since the risen Christ ascended into heaven. It may not look like it, but “[God] has delivered [you] from the dominion of darkness and transferred [you] to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-20). It may not look like it, but who cares what it looks like… we live by faith, and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). And so we wait for the Lord Christ to return in glory to judge both the living and the dead. And in the judgement, be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10). Call upon Jesus in the day of trouble, and He will deliver you (Psalm 50:15). “This is how God wants to become known and worshipped, namely, that we receive blessings from him, and indeed, that we receive them on account of his mercy and not on account of our merits” (Ap 4.60). We have been reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus on the cross. Rest in that, in the name of Jesus. Amen.