Being Faithful
When we think about being faithful to someone, we imagine loyalty and sacrifice. If we are faithful to our friends, we fight for them. So long as our friends do not abandon us and our priorities continue to be aligned with their priorities, we remain faithful and willing to fight. If just one thing changes, and all bets are off, and we each go our own ways.
Brethren, Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ was faithful over his house as a son. And we are his house if we hold fast our confidence and pride in our hope firm to the end. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'” And with whom was he provoked forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they should never enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Hebrews 3:5-11,17-19
Being faithful to God is different. God does not abandon us. He does not walk away from us. He is faithful ‘as a son’ with us and for us, and His priorities never change. We are the ones who change priorities. We are the ones who walk away. We are the ones who stopping fighting, not God.
We have seen it in our friends and members of our family. There are those who used to be loyal to Christ and His Church, but something changed. In fact, we may the ones that have walked away from being active members of the Church.
You may be reading this blog for the first time today, wondering if you should ‘give it another try’ this year for Christmas. You might be wondering if things will be different this time. You might even be thinking of walking away because of something that happened recently. I have one request. Please don’t give up.
The difference Saint Paul is teaching in today’s lesson is the difference between being a servant and being a son. Like Moses, we are servants. Moses was faithful, but weak and disobedient. He was not blessed to see the Promised Land because of his lack of faith. There is still a chance for us.
Christ is faithful as a son, without weakness and disobedience. He accomplishes everything we are unable to accomplish, and He is willing to take us with Him to heaven. That is the story of Christmas. He came to show us the way to heaven, the way of faithfulness and obedience.
Please give it another try. Give God another chance to show you He hasn’t abandoned you. You will have to ‘look past’ the mistakes and weaknesses of others sitting next to you in Church. You will have to ignore the hypocrisy of others, even leaders. The truth is, we are all weak servants who fall short in faith. If only we could look past the weakness and see God’s faithfulness, then Christmas would be different.
