The Fullness of Time...for Us

When things get difficult, sentiment alone leads us into fruitless arguments summarized as “my feelings are better or more important than your feelings.”

What we have tonight is not sentiment, but an objective claim about God:

In the fullness of time, at the right time, God acted, for us.

The Bible does not give a date for Christmas.

Through a complex set of circumstances, the church 17 centuries ago decided that late December was the most appropriate time to mark Jesus' nativity.

--Now, when the nights are the longest and we need light from another source.

--Now, when winter still is just beginning to stretch before us.

--Now, when irritation runs high and resources may be running low.

--Now, not only 2,000 years ago so decisively in Jesus born of Mary in Bethlehem...

--but now, here, this night, God acts for us again.

The promise is not in vague generalities.

It is a word and an object, a sacrament in your hand and heart:

The body of Christ, given for you.

That is the reality which binds us together this night.

--our annoyances with each other, as great as they may be, pale into insignificance in comparison with that truth.

At the right time, God acted, and continues to act for me.

A decade ago I was given a book of late Medieval illustrations of the Christmas story.

The originals were done painstakingly by hand in the mid 1400s, just around the time the printing press was starting to take over the printing business.

The patrons who commissioned these could have had ordinary pictures printed much more cheaply, but they commissioned the best artists to do their finest work on these miniature paintings in a precious book. Why?

No doubt there was a matter of some pride in having and affording such a fine thing,

but let's also see here genuine faith that the patrons and the artists felt that this story of Jesus' birth was worth the effort to tell.

--it was worthy of lavishing their best efforts.

--it was worth holding in their hands, contemplating, and treasuring.

--so they too can exclaim “God did all this for me!

And whenever we ponder that, what can we do but sing!

One of the most glorious moments in our liturgy is when we acknowledge God is come among us now and not only back there in Bethlehem:

...with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven, we praise your name, evermore singing:

Holy is the Lord God, who was, who is, who is to come, the Almighty.

Those are words that we need to sing in wonder and awe,

with zimbel and every instrument of heaven,

and never in an off-hand, half-hearted manner.

For me, Christ is come for me!

--with all of my sins and inadequacies...

Christ is come for me.

Yes, I can, I should, I must join in heaven's song.

Jaroslav Vajda wrote a Christmas hymn which expresses this feeling of wonder and amazement proper to this night:

Where shepherds lately knelt and kept the angel's word,

I come in half-belief, a pilgrim strangely stirred;

But there is room, and welcome there for me.

How should I not have known Isaiah would be there,

His prophecies fulfilled? With pounding heart I stare:

A child, a son, the Prince of Peace for me.

Can I, will I forget how love was born and burned

Its way into my heart – unasked, unforced, unearned,

To die, to live, and not alone for me?

[Hymnal Supplement #813]

The time comes.

In the fullness of time.

At just the right time.

When time is of full measure,

shaken down, running over.

God acts for me, for us,

for all who hear this news with joy.

A blessed Christmas to all! Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.