The words will roll off our tongues with relative ease; they will resound throughout the world over the next 36- 72 hours...Happy New Year!   This is the time of year when we acknowledge the end of one calendar year and the beginning of another.  But if you think about it, endings and beginnings are a  regular part of our human experience and often times such transitions are accompanied by a season of uncertainty, even chaos.  Into this ever-changing world in which we live, God speaks to us through His Word, inviting us to find a measure of stability, hope and peace through our faith in Him.

The Psalmist reminds us that God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).  He invites us to cease from our strivings; to be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).

When the world becomes a scary place, when darkness overwhelms us and uncertainly causes us to lose faith, the Psalmist encourages us to turn to God, When I am afraid, I put my trust in you (Psalm 56:3).

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him (Psalm 34:8).

A 'New Year often brings a sense of letting go what has been and 'starting over', both of which are part of the on-going cycle of endings and beginnings we experience as human beings.  But at the same time we are encouraged  in God's word to remain steadfast; to hold on to, to abide with.  Jesus invites us to remain in, to abide in Him (John 15:4) and James encourages us, to draw near to God and He will draw near to you (James 4:8).  The Apostle Paul calls us to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58).  The writer of Hebrews reminds us that in the Lord we have hope; a hope that serves as an anchor for our souls (Hebrews 6:19).

For all the emphasis on starting over, a fresh beginning, a new perspective that the New Year brings, the Bible reminds us that our faith in Christ provides for us a firm foundation upon which to build our lives; it gives to us a measure of hope and joy and peace, in a world which is sometimes a dark and scary place.  And so I cycle back to the message you have heard over and over again at Valley and remind you as we come into another New Year, that living a life of faith in Jesus Christ really is the best possible way for us to journey through our days on earth.  And such a life of faith is what we are called to in 2016.

May the New Year bring you a sense of His abiding peace and joy as you walk by faith and hold to the One who has promised, I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

We have a tradition in our home; one started 34 years ago, the Christmas before Janice and I were married.
Each year I give Janice a tree ornament.  Through the years, these ornaments tell a bit of our story.  For example you could not look at our tree without coming to the conclusion at least one of us is a diehard Boston Bruins fan!

Such traditions become a rich part of our Christmas / our family celebrations.  But as we are learning this year, the seasonal nature of life sometimes brings those traditions to a collision point with change.  For the first time since 1988, the year Lisa was born, we will wake up on Christmas morning with no kids in the house; it's just part of the changing season we are in as a family.  Recently our dog Chara felt the need to attack the Christmas tree and destroy some of our ornaments, including the very first Christmas ball I gave to Janice back in 1981. 

There is a part of us that was saddened; that ball had hung on our tree for almost 35 years.  But such is nature of life here on earth and these kinds of losses and changes often force us back to the heart of Christmas.  The truth of the Christmas story stands unchanged by time and its message is just as powerful today as it was that first Christmas.  For those of us who walk by faith we need to come back to the wonder and beauty of the Story and remind ourselves again and again that God is still at work in human history; He is still at work in our stories.

Beyond the drama and intrigue and divine mystery of Joseph and Mary's story, the story of the angels and shepherds and magi, is the heart of the Father in sending His Son to redeem fallen man.  When we trace the heart of the Father back to the very beginning of human history, we discover again this God who created all that there is and invited man to partner with Him caring for this world.  We see our God  continually pursuing us, even in our disobedience.  He calls us back to Him and offers to us a better way of doing life -- life together with Him. 

So my friends at Valley as you move through the next few days and celebrate Christmas with family and friends, I invite your to pause and reflect on the wonder of the Incarnation; the love of the Father and the beauty of Christmas story.  Be encouraged; be blessed as you come back to the heart of Christmas and bask in the wonder and joy of the Christ Child.  Merry Christmas!

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? 
                                                                                               (Psalm 13:1)

It is the cry of David in Psalm 13; and that of Asaph in Psalm 73.  Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.  All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.  (Psalms 73:13-14).  It is experience of Jeremiah as he finds himself humiliated and ridiculed: O Lord, you deceived me (Jeremiah 2:7).  It is the pain of Jeremiah as he sits by the river and weeps:  I am in torment within and in my heart I am disturbed (Lamentations 1:20). 
 
It is the confusion of John the Baptist as he wonders, Are you the one who is to come? (Matthew 11:3)  It is the agony of the Lord Jesus is the Garden of Gethsemene:  My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death (Matthew 26:28).
 
It is the experience of grieving parents, of loved ones gathered at the bedside or graveside.  It is the late night tears of the lonely and weary; the silent cries for help when the darkness seems overwhelming.  It is the experience of anyone who has found themselves in the midst of the storm; who wonders if there is any light at the end of the this chaos.
 
It is what St. John of the cross called the dark night of the soul.  The dark night of the soul as he described it is not simply the experience of disappointment, loss or hardship, it is suffering in what feels like the silence of God.  Some of you know only too well the dark night of the soul.     
 
As I think on my own journey and the journey Janice and I have shared together, we have experienced such moments in our lives.  I remember like it happened just yesterday (it’s been almost 30 years), the night we stood by the hospital bed of Janice’s dad; the night-long vigil of hoping and praying for a miracle that didn’t come.  I remember hearing the deep sobs of her mother and pleading with God to reveal Himself in this darkness. I will never forget the morning wake-up call telling us that Janie’s sister had lost a two year battle with cancer; trying to make sense of it all.  For several days we felt like we  were in that dark night when our son Scott was rushed to Sick Kids hospital in Toronto -- the waiting and wondering and entering into his suffering.  And into a community of other parents who were also in the dark night.
 
In 30 plus years of pastoral ministry we have been invited into the dark night others were experiencing;
so many have allowed us to share in their pain and suffering.  I have sat with spouses and children in the final moments of life. I have stood in the hospital room of grieving parents and with a distraught mother whose son was found brutally murdered.
 
The common experience of all is one of deep disappointment and confusion and openly or quietly wondering, where is God in the midst of the chaos?  We wonder, what do I do in the dark night?
The answer is profoundly simple—nothing.  How do you respond to the darkness and disappointment and chaos?  You wait. You wait, trusting God to provide what is needed when He chooses to give it.  We wait, we hold on, we ask for help and let go of our need to hurry through it, because you can’t run in the darkness.  And waiting is the hardest part of hope.
 
Lewis Smedes puts it this way, Waiting is our destiny as creatures who cannot bring about by themselves what they hope for.  We wait in darkness for a flame we cannot light.  We wait in fear for a happy ending we cannot write.  We wait for a not yet that feels like a not ever.
 
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him.  (Psalm 37:7)
 
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.  (Psalm 27:14)
 
But, we don’t like to wait.  Frederick Faber, a 19th Century writer makes this observation, There is something greatly over-awing in the extreme slowness of God.  Let it overshadow our souls, but let in not disquiet them.  We must wait for God, long, meekly, in the wind and wet, in the thunder and the lightning, in the cold and the dark.  Wait and He will come.
 
He never comes to those who do not wait.  He does not go their road.  When he comes, go with Him, but go slowly, fall a little behind; when He quickens His pace, be sure of it, before you quicken yours.  But when he slackens, slacken at once; and do not be slow only, but silent, very silent, for He is God.
 
In our human-ness, in our fallen-ness we wrestle with this truth.  Our theology and even our hearts tell us that God is sovereign, but we struggle because our personal lives do not always unfold  the way we think they should if God is truly in control and kind and loving and compassionate.  It’s not that we don’t see evidence of His care but in the dark night, in moments suffering / pain / personal tragedy we are overwhelmed by the apparent silence and slowness of God.  To which God quietly whispers through our pain, trust me, I know what I’m doing; let me do it my way, trust me.
 
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. (Psalm 28:7)
 
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid.  (Psalm 56:3-4)

There is one phrase in the Christmas story that intrigues me; that captures my heart and imagination.  It's the words that being Luke's account of the birth of Jesus.  In those days...Caesar Augustus issued a degree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  (Luke 2:1)  The Roman Republic had become the Roman Empire, and Empire that stretched from England to India.  Caesar Augustus was the leader of this Empire, he was considered the most powerful man on earth at that time.  In those days, he was the supreme ruler of the Empire; an Empire in the words of one historian, that bludgeoned the world into submission.

In those days the doors of temple Janus were closed; they had been closed for more than a decade and would remain closed for another 20 years, for this was the time of the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace.  Whenever the Roman Republic was at war the doors of the temple were open; in times of peace they were closed.  History tells us that terror and intimidation were the means by which Augustus ruled the world.  He would kill and destroy if necessary to bring about his reign of peace.

In the land of Palestine, where Jesus was born, the land given to the Jewish people by God, you submitted to Caesar or you died.  The Roman army would march into your town or village, if you declared that Caesar is Lord, you lived and became subjects of the Empire.  If you refused to declare the lordship of Caesar you were killed or taken as slaves.  Once in submission both to Caesar and in Israel to Herod, Augustus’ appointed king of this territory, you paid a Tribute Tax to Caesar and a tax to Herod.  You paid transit and trade taxes and exchange fees.  You paid a temple tax and were required to give special offerings during the Jewish feasts.  In short, you paid and paid and paid, until as one historian put it…Herod had “reduced the people to helpless poverty”.  May lost their family land, their businesses, they hired themselves out as laborers to feed their families.  For the people of God it was a time of desperate poverty and oppression.

Into this setting at just the right time in human history (Galatians 4:4) God sent His Son!  His plan from eternity past was unfolding in a way no one would have imagined.  Caesar thought he had gained world power; he never had it.  Little did he know when he issued that decree that One being carried in the womb of a young Jewish girl would be the One who is the King of kings and Lord of lords!  It's beyond our ability to totally comprehend; the Son of God taking on the form of a man that the eternal purposes of God the Father might be accomplished.

As we enter into this Christmas season 2015, we reminded our God is the Supreme Ruler of this world, He is still on His throne, He is still in control, working out His purposes in the world today!