Theme of the Day: The Christian Waits: Hopeful For The Coming Judgment
Consider the Christian man whose body aches from both the cancer and the chemo. Look at that faithful old woman, back arched by time, fingers twisted by arthritis, eyes close to blindness. These believers may pray for death, precisely because they know that for the children of God, death is not the end of life. Death is the end of sorrow and pain. They yearn for the end of those things, and the beginning of their perfect eternity with Jesus.
We have come to the end of the Church Year. It is time to talk about the end of this world on Judgment Day. That day does not scare the believer. The first time Christ came he saved us from our sin and the accusations for the devil. The second time Christ comes, he will save us from everything else. On that day, disease, gone. Abuse, gone. Heartache, gone. Even death is ended. None of those things will exist ever again. But we will exist forever with our Lord Jesus. Until then we live in the time in between. As we look at all Christ did at his first coming, we yearn for him to come again to end this broken world and to usher all the saints into everlasting glory.
Matthew 25:31-46
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Psalm 95
488 – The Day Is Surely Drawing Near
487 – Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending
613 – The God of Abraham Praise
528 – Christ, the Word of God Incarnate
489 – The King Will Come at Age’s End
Prayer of the Day: Eternal God, merciful Father, you have appointed your Son as judge of the living and the dead. Enable us to wait for the day of his return with our eyes fixed on the kingdom prepared for your own from the foundation of the world; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Alleluia.