Thomas VanderPloeg

As Job finds a path through his moment of struggle, we see his awakening recognition of exactly what he needs: a mediator to step in and advocate on his behalf.

The story of Job forces us to confront a God we cannot always understand; like Job, we search for ways to relate to God in moments when we do not understand.

Job’s friends think they have an explanation for Job’s suffering, but they are wrong about who God is.

Sabbath is a day set aside as holy to the Lord; that makes sabbath a time to reorient ourselves and our lives towards God. In other words, sabbath is a day for worship.

When Jesus prays for his disciples, he prays that “they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” The Sabbath is designed by God as a day to give yourself fully to delight in God’s world, in your life in it, and ultimately in God himself.

Jesus frames the sabbath as a time in which our God-centered focus brings renewal and restoration. Sabbath rest is part of what forms us to be more complete disciples of Jesus.

To follow after Jesus is to adopt his overall lifestyle as our own and arrange our daily life around his presence and peace. This does not begin with doing, it begins with stopping.

The gift of Jesus at Christmas is more than a gift of forgiveness and salvation; the gift we receive through Christ is the gift of an eternal covenant family to which we belong.