I failed to find an opportunity yesterday to ask our retired pastors if they remembered the years when the last Sunday of the Church Year was referred to as "Judgement Sunday." I listen to a podcast (Sermon Brainwave) each week, and one of the professors stated that until the 1960's most Lutheran congregations referred to the last Sunday of the Church Year as "Judgement Sunday."
We shy away from "judgement." We most often use the word with negative connotations. Seldom do we ask to "be judged." In our tame, mainline congregations, we avoid speaking of any time of judgement.
I wish there were someone who had lived long enough to be able to help me understand how this has changed, over time. I wonder if Christians feared judgement when they were the ones being persecuted? I wonder if judgement became something to worry about only after Christians became well represented among the wealthy and powerful?
Are we so concerned about judgement because our lifestyles have judged us already and we have been found wanting?
This coming Sunday we will begin the new Church Year. Once again, we will speak of the One who would come among us to reveal to us God's propose. The encouragement will be to look for and to look at the places in our lives where we need Messiah. For these brief days between Christ the King and Advent, let us consider what difference our previous year of readings and observances have made in our lives.
Can you judge, for yourself, whether any change has occurred.
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