A Note From Pastor (November 2025)

After the celebration of All Saints, the rest of November leads us into the last three Sundays of the church year. During this short season, the hymns and reading emphasize the Judgment Day and the return of Christ. In a sense this month is pre-Advent, even as the “Gesima” Sundays are pre-Lent. Therefore, we remember that time is short. As St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” The readings remind us that even though Christians have been waiting for our Lord’s return since He first ascended into heaven, we still eagerly pray and look forward to that day when He returns in glory and the dead are raised and all those who have been chosen to receive eternal life are finally revealed. Unfortunately, busy with all the activities, pleasures and concerns of this modern world, it is easy to forget the Lord has promised to return to judge both the living and the dead. This is why the Lord has us pray, “Thy kingdom come.” We learn from the Small Catechism that, “The kingdom of God certainly comes without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.” And we are blessed to believe, “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit so that by His grace we believe His Holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.”

So, rejoice in this time of the church year and its focus on the coming of the Lord, when all sin and death will be removed from us forever. On that day the promises of God will be fully realized as the dead in Christ are raised never to die again.