Christmas, 2001
Galations 4:4 / John 1:14
Did you notice the time when we got started this morning?
Like many Sundays, we began at about 5 after 10. For some of us, those who are always punctual, and who keep to a tight schedule, that just drives us nuts. For others, it is simply in keeping with the friendly, comfortable, unstructured atmosphere. I go to some churches where the service starts like a military operation, 0900, and dismisses exactly 59 minutes later, and people streak to the doors, anxious to get on with their lives. If that’s what you prefer in a church, I’m sorry, but it’s probably not going to happen here. In fact, our timeliness (or lack thereof) has come to be known as “Gateway Standard Time.” It’s not that we don’t value you or your time, or that we dismiss your priorities, rather, it is because we are here to do much more than “church.” We are here to experience the presence of God and the rich warmth of genuine fellowship. We don’t want our experience here to be a required religious duty that we complete and then get on with our lives, we want our experience here to define our lives – to impact all the rest of what we do and are. That being said, I am aware that we need to be a little more sensitive to you and your family and we will be addressing the issue.
But timeliness is something that we are all aware of to some degree. Obviously, if we started 45 minutes late and the services went for 3 and 3/4 hours, most of us would find another place, including the pastor. We all know people who are habitually late – late to class, late to the meeting, late to the dinner, late to work. It inconveniences and shows disrespect for others, and it costs business millions of dollars each year in lost productivity.
Timeliness is most often perceived as an inconvenience – a small matter that results in a detention, or a slap on the wrist. But every now and then someone makes an accusation of tardiness on a cosmic level – that God was somehow late or absent. We heard such talk after the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. “Where was God?” people asked.
And then last week something occurred that raised the question of God’s timeliness again. Two people who escaped the World Trade Center on September 11 bought tickets to go to their native land of the Dominican Republic on November 12. Their plane crashed just a minute and a half into the flight. “Where is God in this?” Talk show hosts asked. “How do you explain that two people would be spared death on September 11, and then tragically die 61 days later in a plane crash?”
My response to that question was, “I have no doubt that any one of the people who died on September 11 would have gladly accepted a gift of 61 more days with their families and friends. David tells us that, “all the days appointed for me were written in [God’s] book before I lived the first one.” The fact is, God is never late, He is never absent, His appearance and His intervention in our lives is always exactly according to His divine plan.
But we do not see God’s plan as He does. We do not have the benefit of eternal perspective as He has. And because of this, the question of God’s timing has been asked for virtually all of time. If you take a look at the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, the problem of God’s eternal knowledge and timing and our temporal knowledge and timing is evident. If God knew Adam and Eve were going to sin, why give them the opportunity? Abraham was told he would have a child and be the father of a great nation, but it didn’t happen, and it didn’t happen, so Abraham took matters in his own hands, and had a child by his wife’s handmaid, and the entire Arab, Israeli mess got it’s start. Joseph had no idea why his brothers would hate him, and stage his death, selling him into slavery in Egypt, then he ends up in prison under false charges. Thirteen years in jail for a crime he did not comit – all so that he would one day be in a place of leadership and save his brothers, father and his entire nation.
Many of David’s psalms express our perception. For example:
Psalm 13:1-2 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
[2] How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Psalm 74:9-10 We are given no miraculous signs;
no prophets are left,
and none of us knows how long this will be.
[10] How long will the enemy mock you, O God?
Will the foe revile your name forever?
Psalm 80:4 O LORD God Almighty,
how long will your anger smolder
against the prayers of your people?
Psalm 119:84 How long must your servant wait?
When will you punish my persecutors?
There are a total of 18 occurrences where David cries out “How long?!”
The prophets of the Old Testament did the same. They waited for the deliverence of Israel – the Messiah. The One who would come and restore sinful man to the Holy Lord. It seemed like He would never come! The people sinned, were punished, returned, sinned again – when would the cycle be broken? When would there be true freedom from the bondage of sin and death? “How long, O Lord? How long?”
It is perfectly natural for us to ask – and God does not condemn those in Scripture who do. But we can have the assurance that in each of those situations, God showed up, just in time. The plan was all being done on His schedule, even when it seemed out of control. All through the Scriptures we see God at work, doing His work in His way, on His schedule, and in every case, He got it right. When it seems our world is spinning without direction, out of control – remember: God is orchestrating – He is in charge. He’s already waiting for you at tomorrow.
Our text for today tells us that the same was true at the first Christmas. In the book of Galatians we read these words, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Galatians 4:4&5 [pg 785]
“But when the fullness of time had come…”
The New Living Translation says it this way, “When the right time came…” It was the perfect time, the time that was appointed by God Himself for Christ to come into the world on that first Christmas.
Sure, there were people who were waiting. In the gospel of Luke, we read of “a man named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So he came by the Spirit in to the temple, and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the laws, he took Him up in His arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation…’”
Did you hear how he was described? He was “waiting.” You get a sense that he was old. He was sure God had promised him that he would see the Messiah before he died, but He was wondering how long it was going to take. But then it happened. “Lord, now you can take me home without worry, you have kept your word, I have seen your salvation.”
For most of us the Christmas season comes too soon. It seems we’ve just finished getting the pine needles out of the carpet from last year’s tree, and it’s time to bring in another. We’ve just gotten he kids toys to a place where they can be properly stored in the closet, and now it’s time to buy more. We snickered when someone said there were “just 100 days ‘til Christmas!” back in September, but now we are shocked to see there are only 30! Some have found that the season comes around so quickly that they’ve just given up on the taking down of the lights – they just leave them up year ‘round!
But while the Christmas season can come around all to quickly, we can be in real danger of going through it without seeing God’s salvation. Simeon said, “Now I can go in peace, because I have seen Your salvation.” What most of us need in our holiday season is a little peace, but we never get it because we don’t see Jesus. My prayer is that this year, for the next five weeks, we can have an extraordinary Christmas Season because we experience the Christmas Touch. That we will touch, and be touched by, the Christ of Christmas. Let’s determine to not let this joyous time of the year slip away into the landfill of Christmas past without a unique encounter with Jesus.
Sound good? So how do we do it? Here’s three things that I think will help:
The Son of God was born 2000 years ago, at just the right time, so that you can be born today, not a moment too soon, not a day late, as a Son of God. Don’t let this opportunity slip away – experience the Christmas Touch today.