Happy New Year! I hope each of you had a wonderful holiday season, and are enjoying the beginning of 2010. For me, the end of the holidays means saying goodbye to family, taking down the tree, putting away decorations, and finally taking the Christmas music off my MP3 player.

As I moved the songs off my player, I came across one collection ironically titled, “Thank God the Year is Finally Over.” There are days I can really sympathize with that sentiment. The last weeks of 2009 were crazy for me. Between the snow storm, pulling together a (wonderful!) brass ensemble for Christmas Eve, and juggling weekly Sunday services, it started to feel like everyday was some odd mix of Tuesday and Saturday. My sense of time and purpose was completely thrown off.

But now I also have the opportunity to stop and think about this experience. How do I react when my life feels up-ended? What do I do when God throws an unexpected curve-ball and I’m left unsure of what to do next? For that matter, what do you do in those times? Maybe you get angry: you power up and impose your own order on the situation according to what seems good to you. Maybe you react in fear and disengage: you pull back a little and wait for the time to pass and let everything settle again. Or maybe you find other ways to escape.

No more let sins and sorrows grow

Nor thorns infest the ground

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found (Joy to the World, verse 3)

This week we look again at the story of Mary and Joseph, and how their lives were up-ended by the intervention of God. By God’s grace, they respond in faith. They participate in a wonderful new work of God and His Kingdom. Their story remains for us as an encouragement and instruction. It reminds us of the faithful work of our God for the good of His people, even in the midst of our distress. We will sing together these promises of God from Isaiah. Let them encourage you today:

When you walk through the waters I will be with you

And the waves they will not overcome you

Do not fear for I will be with you

I have called you by name, you are mine (Isaiah 43)

As we prepare to take communion, we will sing together of the strong love of God, that holds fast to us in the midst of life’s storms. For those who are in Christ, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not hardship, not despair, not disbelief, nor sin (Romans 8:38-39). His hands hold us fast, and we can rest secure.

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be. (O Love That Will Not Let Me Go)

This being a communion Sunday, we have the joy of singing quite a few songs during our time together. I won’t take the time to spotlight them all, but one particularly stuck out to me as I thought about our desire to follow faithfully after God in the New Year. I love the second verse of “Narrow Little Road”, as it points to the grace of God – communicated particularly in the sacrament of communion – as our source of strength in our discipleship. We cannot depend on our own resolve and will. They will fail. The grace of God alone is sufficient for our every need (2 Cor 12:9).

It is portrayed in the bread and wine

Let it fortify my bones

It is more than just a sign

It is the fountain from that desert stone (Narrow Little Road)

Our service this week closes with the promise that, although we now walk through hardships in this life, a day is coming when we will see His Kingdom come in its fullness. I love the reminder that we are on the “stormy banks” – that this life is full of sorrows and suffering. Yet God has promised that these things are not the end. The resurrection of Christ has proven this. Death and pain do not have the final word for those that are in Christ. (1 Cor 15:20-28)

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand

And cast a wishful eye

To Canaan’s fair and happy land

Where my possessions lie

I am bound, I am bound

I am bound for the promised land

Longing for that distant shore,

Tim Sharpe

Worship Director

Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Lynchburg, VA