January 22, 2025 

Today’s Reading: Joel 2:1-17

Daily Lectionary: Joel 2:1-17; Romans 11:1-24

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”  Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. (Joel 2:12-13)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

Joel is a tough book to read and perhaps even a tougher book to understand. Not much is known about this prophet, which is why many scholars have differing opinions on when he actually wrote his book. Whatever the case, the point that we should grasp thousands of years removed from this prophet of God is the same as the day he wrote it.

Joel’s is a call to repentance, and that is a call that should be heard by every generation. Our text for today talks about the Day of the Lord. This is a day which is quickly approaching; how quickly we do not know, but that shouldn’t matter. It could be tomorrow for a thousand years in the making, but the call for repentance is just as valid.

We deserve nothing but temporal and eternal punishment because of our sin. We are worthy of nothing except God’s wrath and are unworthy of even receiving this call to repentance. But our God does not delight in the death of the sinner. His desire is for all to hear the truth of their sin and believe in His promised salvation.

You may hear your pastor read this text on Ash Wednesday. In the season of Lent, the Church is called again to view herself in the light of her sin, but more so, she is called to see herself by faith in the light of Christ.

Thanks be to God that He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. This we see in full on the cross of Calvary. This we receive by faith in Absolution within the confines of the Church each and every Sunday, firmly believing that our sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ. It is God who repents us, turning us from our evil ways and granting us the Gifts of the cross: the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Thy love and grace alone avail to blot out my transgression; The best and holiest deeds must fail to break sin’s dread oppression. Before Thee none can boasting stand, But all must fear Thy strict demand And live alone by mercy. Therefore my hope is in the Lord And not in mine own merit; It rests upon His faithful Word To them of contrite spirit That He is merciful and just; This is my comfort and my trust. His help I with with maintenance. (LSB 607:2,3)

-Rev. Eli Lietzau, pastor of Wheat Ridge Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wheat Ridge, CO.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

What makes a church “good?” Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.