Musings: November 15, 2025

Luke 21:5-19

As I read the texts for this penultimate Sunday in the Church Year, I find myself asking, “How long, O Lord?” To the question, “Teacher, when will this be?” Jesus responds with a litany of signs and predictions of persecution upon believers: wars and rumors of war, insurrections, natural disasters, famines, plagues, and “signs from heaven.” All these were happening before Jesus was born and have continued until today; and still we wait.

Malachi, who has said, “Behold, I am sending my messenger,” speaks of the coming of a day on which the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble, burned up so that the righteous can flourish. And who are the righteous? those who revere the name of God. These are the ones on whom the Sun of Righteousness will arise “with healing in its wings.” As one who struggles to keep God’s name holy, I read Malachi with trepidation.

Perhaps we should see both Malachi and Jesus pointing not to some far-off day but to the culmination of Jesus’s life, the crucifixion. It is this event on which we will focus on the following Sunday when we celebrate Christ the King (or Reign of Christ Sunday). In his cross, Jesus gathers all the world’s suffering to himself. His execution is the ultimate sign of God’s righteousness, because we see God’s love for the world manifest in the death of the one who is the embodiment of love. The crown of thorns, the lashes, and the nails are the price of love that seeks to save not the righteous but those who cannot become righteous.

At this time of year, I recall the words of one of my favorite hymns by Charles Wesley, Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending (ELW 435; LBW 27). This hymn, points to the coming of Christ using images from Revelation, the letters of Saint Paul, and elsewhere in Scripture. While it directs our attention to the future coming, I think the third verse speaks just as well to the Church of today: “The dear tokens of his passion still his dazzling body bears.”

We bear the scars of Jesus’s passion when we, like Jesus, join ourselves to the suffering in this world rather than the powerful. Our worship of the crucified Messiah is not an escape from wickedness but leads us into the midst of sin and evil where we may become the focus of hatred, reviling, and persecution. When we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done” we ask to have a share of God’s righteous Spirit that drives us into the wilderness of temptation (from which we consequently pray for protection).

So, to my question: “How long?” I wonder if that question ought to be turned back on me. Could God be asking, “How long must I wait for you to act?” Perhaps we should listen to God’s question and consider our reticence to attend to the needs of our neighbors. There are many around us who are hungry and thirsty, who work for little or no pay, who are fearful for themselves and their families. They cry out to us; God hears and asks us “how long will you turn a deaf ear?” We who look with hope to the coming of Christ in glory, let us first look to our neighbor in whom Christ comes in suffering need; for before he comes in the clouds we will find him there.