As I stood in the Cenex garage waiting for my car to be repaired, I started thinking about faithfulness and whether or not my car could be deemed faithful.

It’s been through an accident or two and has had to have its tires changed more than it probably should have, but in general I have trusted it.  It has made several long trips through mountains and deserts.  It kept my wife and me safe during our short stint in Southern California.  And my son’s car seat fits safely and securely in the back seat.  So as I stood in the maintenance garage, I thought of these things and weighed it against its current condition and wondered if it was still that car.  Why did it leave me wondering in the snow about how to get to work?  Why didn’t it start when I needed it to?

The problem turned out to simply be a bad battery so I guess it could be argued that the car itself wasn’t unfaithful, just the battery.  But still… at a time of need, my 2002 Ford Taurus failed me and my assessment of it as a faithful vehicle faltered.  (It’s a good thing I had another 2002 Ford Taurus sitting in my driveway ready to pick up the slack.)

Faithful is the kind of word we use to describe something that will not leave us surprised and cold in the snow wondering how to get to work.  It’s also how we describe someone who will not leave us or do us wrong.  A wonderful song about faithfulness comes from the band Journey in the song “Faithfully”.  In it, a couple is struggling with the distance between them, but is determined to be faithful to each other.

The fact that a song like that has come to be at all betrays the reality of unfaithfulness in our lives.  Because we all know what unfaithfulness could feel like and how hurtful it can be, faithfulness is something we all carefully look for and desire.

Scripture describes God as faithful.  The pains and hurts of this world often make it seem like God is distant, like he doesn’t care, but the Scriptures remind us over and over again that God’s faithfulness is, well, faithful.  He is there for us.  Always.  God does not leave us waiting in the snow seeking another way.  Ever.  God doesn’t cheat on us, though we certainly cheat on him.  Thankfully.

“Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.  Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O LORD.  How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.  You feed them from the abundance of your own house, letting them drink from your river of delights.  For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see.  Pour out your unfailing love on those who love you; give justice to those with honest hearts.” – Psalm 36:5-10 NLT

The trip from Park River to Grand Forks is a pretty mundane trip. There are no mountains, big cities, significant landmarks, or even coffee shops on the way. The destination isn’t even that exciting (unless you are going to a Sioux hockey game). I guess when it comes to road trips, going to Grand Forks is like going to an ice cream store and ordering vanilla.

Even vanilla ice cream can be made exciting with the right combination of chocolate powder, chocolate candies and hot fudge sauce. In a similar matter all one has to do is add a group of junior high kids to the Grand Forks road trip and suddenly you have an adventure! Add in a flat tire, a gas station with a broken nozzle attached to its air compressor and an impromptu visit to a friend with an air compressor, and some very, happy-to-be-together and out-of-Park-River kids and the adventure gets even better.

Our destination was the climbing wall in the Grand Cities mall. The students had a great time and I learned a different way of facilitating than I was used to. McDonald’s was a hit after. What struck me more, however, were some of the conversations the kids had on the way there. Among the many conversations concerning various games, phone calls, and random goofiness were conversations recalling spiritual truths they had learned from Bible Camp, youth group and Sunday school. And it wasn’t just that they were discussing spiritual things, it was that they were boldly (and sometimes fiercely) proclaiming truths from God’s Word. While there was no opposition to them in the van, they were preparing themselves to defend the truth of God’s Word that they had learned in various public settings. It was fun to hear the content. It was fun to hear the passion. It was a joy to observe from the driver’s seat their unity of conviction.

I guess as I pulled out of Park River I was thinking that Grand Forks was my destination. The conversations in the back seat reminded me that our true destination is Heaven. It also reminded me of Psalm 145:4, “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” May we be faithful in sharing God’s Word with our youth in order that they may “commend your works” and “declare God’s mighty deeds.”

“I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my eyes.  I take back everything I said and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” Job 42:5, 6 NLT

I was struck recently by a sermon I read by James B. Torrance titled, “Why Does God Let Men Suffer: A Sermon on Job.”  In this sermon, Torrance states two propositions.  The first is that at times God sends suffering to God’s people as an act of punishment, but that it is done out of God’s love much like a father might discipline a child.  The second proposition is that Job shows us that suffering does not have to mean that we are being punished for our sins (at least not directly).

But that isn’t what really struck me.  Rather, it was Torrance’s answer to my question.  See, I’ve struggled for a long time now with the inequality of suffering and its potential effects.  When I worked as a chaplain intern at a hospital a few summers ago, I met many patients and their families who were struggling with their own very real and immediate sufferings and pains.  Because of their trials, many of them were brought to new levels of faith in their relationships with Christ.  They were given something through which to endure and so what happened is that I found myself lacking something that they had because I had not suffered as they did.  So I was left with the weird and nebulous position of wanting what they had in such a way that I was almost inviting suffering upon myself to achieve it.  Almost.

But then through the Holy Spirit, Torrance opened up the cross of Christ to me in a way I never before realized.  Christ suffered on my behalf.  Previously, I had only thought of that in the sense of Christ suffering for the forgiveness of specific sins.  But now I have been shown that when the curtain was torn it wasn’t only for that reason (though that is an extremely good and important reason), but rather that the Holy of Holies was made available to all who are in Christ because Christ suffered as Job suffered, but only greater.  Through Christ’s suffering, we have all now seen God with our eyes.

This isn’t to say that a person who undergoes suffering won’t receive a benefit that others are unable to understand.  They have paid a cost to do so.  But Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our High Priest who has in every respect been tested as we are, yet remained sinless and we are able through him to approach the throne of grace with confidence and boldness.  The curtain has been torn.  Christ’s suffering did for us what Job’s suffering did for him and we are able to say with him, “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my eyes.”

With great excitement the children gather around the young adult. They are ready to run around, play, laugh and have a great time. The game, “Smaug’s Treasure” is quite simple. One participant designated “Smaug” endeavors to guard some random object designated as the “treasure.” The other participants form an ever fluctuating (but ideally set and defined) “circle” with a radius of roughly 10 feet around “Smaug.” At Smaug’s invitation select participants  with “blue” on or “summer birthdays” etc. try to steal Smaug’s treasure. If they are tapped by Smaug they are “out.” If they succeed then they become the new “Smaug.” Smaug, by the way, is the name of the fire-breathing dragon from The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkien. It’s a fun, silly game. Usually no particular spiritual lesson is imparted. Usually.

On Saturday we welcomed nearly 30 1-3 graders. One of the two lessons for the day came from the book of Numbers chapter 22-24. It is the story commonly known as “Balaam’s Donkey. It is the only story in the Bible in which a donkey talks. It is also the only story in the Bible in which a king hires a sorcerer to put a curse on his enemies (who just happened to be the Hebrews). It is a pretty straight forward story. King Balak sees the Israelite people coming. He has heard what they have done to several other kings and naturally does not want them to conquer his land. Seeing that he does not have sufficient military strength to drive them away he decides to hire Balaam to put a curse on them. God, of course, is not about to let this happen. I invite you to read the story.

The thing about most Old Testament stories, is that you never really grasp the full meaning of them without understanding them in the larger context of what God is doing throughout scripture. Children often need help with this. In the 12th chapter of Genesis, God makes some marvelous promises to Abraham. Among them, are promises of land, many descendants and most significantly the promise that through Abraham, God would bless all the people’s of the world. God’s promise was to bless Abraham and to bless the world through Abraham. King Balak’s will was to curse the descendants of Abraham – the people whom God had promised to bless, and through whom God had promised to bless us.

Throughout the story, God intervenes again and again in order to protect His people. He is like “Smaug” guarding his treasure. God simply will not allow His people to be cursed by Balaam – they are too important to Him.  God works through a fascinating and surprising turn of events to protect His people and uphold His promises.

The stakes are higher than may appear. You see it is not just a matter of one people occupying a land or winning a battle. No, God’s promise to bless all the people’s of the world is a promise that finds fulfillment through a very special descendant of Abraham – namely Jesus. Through the skills of Balaam and the occult, King Balak’s actions threatened to destroy the very people through whom God would bring us the Messiah. In this way Balak’s actions represented a direct threat on our salvation. The Good News is that God loves us far too much to allow any king, sorcerer or power of evil to thwart His good and gracious plan to bless and save us through His Son Jesus Christ.

May you know, like many of the children who camp to this Saturday find yourself trusting in the promises and power of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Today is the 10^th Day of the Christmas season.  I mentioned this before, but it is worth saying again; Christmas begins on Christmas Day, not Black Friday.  The true Christmas season lasts for 12 days from December 25 to January 5.[1] This means on January 6 the Church will celebrate the start of a new liturgical season beginning with the Day of Epiphany.

Epiphany, as a word, has a few different meanings.  For the Day of Epiphany, it means “manifestation” or “appearance”.  On this day we celebrate the presence of God manifested in Christ to the gentiles through the visit of the magi or wise men.

The gifts of the magi lead us to the second meaning of the word epiphany.  Dictionary.com describes epiphany as an “insight into the reality or essential meaning of something.”  An epiphany is a moment of discovery and realization.  They are often “ah ha!” moments.  The gifts the magi gave in Matthew 2 give us insights into who the baby Jesus really is. Their kingly gift of gold, priestly gift of incense, and fragrant gift of myrrh (a balm used in preparing a body for burial) identify the babe in the manger for what he is; king, priest, and suffering servant.

We need their epiphany and we need this season to expound upon it, especially in the Western Church where the season of Christmas grows longer and longer holding onto Jesus the God/baby as though we were afraid to encounter Jesus the God/man.

Epiphany is the season during which we move from the imagery of the swaddled baby Jesus of Christmas, the imagery of the God-child vulnerably trapped in a moment of time, back to the confession of the Church which proclaims Christ crucified, risen, ascended, and returning.  Christmas does a great job at suspending our worries giving us reprieve and hope, Epiphany grounds us back into reality showing us both why we needed the reprieve to begin with and displaying the depth of the one who grants it.

May the Holy Spirit give you realizations and ah ha moments of insight into who Jesus is and what He has done for you and may you, in the coming season of discovery, be encountered by the presence of God as the Holy Spirit brings you to new and wonderful depths in your relationship with Christ.