The Fullness of Time

Pastor Kyle Clark

Gospel Lesson: Galatians 4:4-7, Luke 2: 22-40

Sunday December 28, 2008

First Sunday of Christmas

Some would say that it’s a sign of aging. I choose to call it maturing. Regardless of what you call it Christmas is only four days old and already there are some things that happened that day that are blurring in my mind and after four more days I probably won’t remember at all. One thing, however that I won’t forget is Nathan’s joy. In those last few days leading up to Christmas the anticipation became almost unbearable. At 5:45 Christmas morning as he is tapping me on the shoulder to wake me up I knew that he knew the wait was over. The morning was barely three or four hours old when he pronounced with great excitement, “This is the best Christmas ever!” We had laughed and played and played and laughed. The culmination of events that morning had sufficiently impressed him that seven years of Christmas memories paled in comparison.

There are other memories that are etched in my mind that remain just as vivid now as when they happened, memories of times when the waiting was over. I remember the day Haley was born and being amazed at her hair. This was back when I had hair and she had more than I did when she was born. And I remember thinking that the wait was over. I remember the day six months after she was born, the judge was holding her as he might have held his own granddaughter, while he made our adoption of her final – the wait was over.  The day Nathan was born, I remember the delivery room seeming to be so hot I almost passed out and I remember feeling that now after many years of trying to conceive we had finally had and now with the birth of our son the wait was over. We all have those great memories in life, those special times we remember, those rare and few moments that mark some important time in our lives, times when the anticipation ends and the wait is over.

Our Gospel reading this morning recounts two such moments.

An old man, who had almost given up hope for his people, holds a baby in his arms and he sings with joy because in this child he has seen the salvation of his people and all people. He had prayed to God that he might behold the Savior and now his wait was over.

An old woman sings as well. She had spent her day fasting and praying, praying and fasting in the temple. Why? Because of her grief and pain for the plight of her people. But then she sees this child and at that moment begins to praise God. She knows that the child is the Messiah – the wait is over.  

For these two, this memory remains vividly etched in their minds for the rest of their days. The incarnation, God with us, at last. They had been waiting so long. The prophets of old had written of this. The people had prayed for this. God had promised. And now it had come to pass. In the middle of the night in a far away place in a far away time a baby cried for the first time and the heavens split open with songs of angles.

Years later a man named Saul met the resurrected man this child grew to become. So vivid was this memory, so life changing, Saul changed his name to Paul. Paul the apostle to the Gentiles writes to a people called Galatians, a people who like his own people were hurting, struggling, oppressed. Paul tells them that through God’s great activity and Jesus’ great love and sacrifice their waiting is over.

“In the fullness of time,” Paul writes, in the fullness of time, God acts to deliver his people. In the days of old God acted to release his people from slavery in Egypt. In days of old God acted to return his people from exile. These great acts of deliverance were completed in the fullness of time – God’s time. And the people remembered. Now God is at it again this time for all people.

The fullness of God’s time now is revealed in a baby, the incarnation of God Almighty.

Advent has been a time of waiting. But now, the waiting is over. Now the tired old eyes of Anna have seen and the arms of Simeon have held the Baby, the Joy, the Redeemer, the Savior of all the world. The prophecies are fulfilled. The prayers are answered. That day was for them the best day ever!

So today, four days after Christmas, I don’t have anything for you to do. I am not encouraging you to strive to do anything better or differently, I am not calling you to some act of service, I don’t even want you to go out and do something inspirational. There will be times for these messages to be sure. But for today, all I am inviting you to do is to remember, to rejoice. Remember the moment, the time, the day, the event by which God through Christ has acted in the fullness of time for you and if that hasn’t happened for you yet, Good News, Great news. Today the fullness of time has come – the  wait is over.

In the fullness of time God is born among us so that we may be with God. The day we understand this in heart of hearts is the best day ever!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.