Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost November 15-16, 2025
“The Day is Coming” Malachi 4:1-6
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Some 25 years ago I had been asked to speak on behalf of St. Malo Conference and Retreat Center, on Highway 7 just 20 miles away from Estes Park – the one with the beautiful chapel – the Chapel of the Rock- and I was to speak in front of the Boulder County Commissioners. I dreaded that day, I thought that going in front of the County Commissioners would be like going in front of a firing squad. The issue had been raised about St. Malo being required to pay the lodging tax just like any other retreat center or motel in that area. At that time they were tax-exempt because they were a religious organization. I was the treasurer of the Denver Area Pastors Conference, and they must have felt that a Lutheran group using a Catholic Retreat Center would be a way to expand the understanding of the retreat center’s use and would keep the Center from having to pay the lodging tax in Boulder County.
But I knew I was out of my league. I lost sleep as I worried what I would say to such powerful people. Why did I ever tell Blake, the director, who asked me to do this, that I would do it? I was not looking forward to that day.
You ever have a day like that? The day of a job interview. The day of your final exam, the bar exam, your CPA license exam? Going to the doctor. Going to the dentist? Having the colonoscopy? Meeting your future in-laws for the first-time inspection? I think I’ll call in sick – for all of them!!
But those days, as fearful as they are, are nothing in comparison to “Thee Day” that Malachi is talking about. “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire”, says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them.” (Malachi 4:1)
What is this day, this dreaded day that Malachi is speaking about? It is Thee Day, the final day, the day of judgment. It is the day when we will stand before God, who knows all our secrets, and He gives His judgment about our eternity.
A chapter before this, Malachi spoke this warning, “Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” (Malachi 3:2)
To wake up the indifferent soul Amos, the prophet from the Old Testament, says:
Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light – pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? (Amos 5:18-20)
Does God just overlook arrogance and pride and evil and unbelief? No. Malachi, speaking God’s final words in the Old Testament, wrote to folks who had been exiled, due to sin and unbelief, from Jerusalem to Babylon. Now after generations away from their city and God’s favor shown in the temple, they had come back. The exiles returned. And they brought their sins and unbelief with them. The same things they did before they did again. The priests were paid to speak words of religion. They didn’t believe them. They didn’t practice them. They just mouthed them. Jesus would say of such folks, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Matthew 15:8)
The clergy were far from God. And so was the congregation. Their offerings were simply the leftovers they didn’t want. They were unfaithful to their spouses and their family. They cheated others who worked for them.
And God was not pleased. When God announces, “The day is coming”, it would bring fear into the hearts of those who had no faith and did not follow the ways of God. Just a verse before that it was spoken, “And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” (Malachi 3:18)
God was not pleased then. And He is not pleased now. When you and I, and the rest of this world, live in ways that reject God and hurt other people, God tells us about a day that is coming. He intends to shake us up and bother our lives. He says, “Rend your heart and not your garments.” (Joel 2:13) Be real. Be repentant. Don’t go through the motions of religion. Turn to Me.
But that day of judgment is not the only day that is coming. In our Malachi reading it says – “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.” (Malachi 4:2) For all those of faith in God’s redeeming hand, that day when we will see God, our judge, will be the greatest and most wonderful day. We had the reading from Luke 21 today. This is how it ended, “At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:27-28)
“Stand up!” “Lift up your heads!” It doesn’t sound like someone ashamed of their life or scared for what is to come. What a contrast is made between the people of faith and the people of unbelief in these two verses from our text. What a difference between the arrogant and the evildoer and the one who reveres God’s name.
You are people of faith. You are people who trust in the full salvation and redemption that comes through Jesus Christ. What confidence is yours. What assurance is yours. In that verse from Joel that began, “Rend your heart and not your garments”, he continues, “Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” (Joel 2:13)
There are two messages here. In these two verses you will hear these two different words:
- There is a day coming that is a day of anguish and sorrow.
- There is a day coming that is a day of joy and happiness.
Which message is God speaking to you? Which one do you need to hear? “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire”, says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.”
I told you about the dread I experienced before going in front of the Boulder County Commissioners. I hate being unprepared and I felt unprepared heading toward that meeting. I didn’t want to look like a fool. But the best thing in the world happened to me during all this. Blake, the director of St. Malo, called me up a day prior to that meeting and told me that I didn’t need to come to that hearing. They had settled the matter. Oh, my. Relief. Peace. I didn’t need to be anxious.
God has settled this matter of the Day of Judgment. He settled it on Good Friday. Jesus shouted the word of completion of atonement when He said, “It is finished.” He settled it when He stepped on Satan’s head and came back to life. He won. We win. He rose. We live. Don’t be anxious. God has this. He has you. Live in God’s peace. Amen!!
