Wednesday, October 23, 2024
“But when the right
time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.” (Galatians 4:4, New Living Translation)
What’s that you say? Too early? Too soon? We haven’t even had Halloween
yet? But I have already seen Christmas
commercials on TV. (All praise to Walmart) I haven’t been in lately but I
wouldn’t be surprised that Canadian Tire is already stocking their Christmas
shelves. Christmas, commercially speaking, seems to come earlier and earlier
every year.
Now I know that some will say, during
Advent and Christmas, that it would be wonderful if the Christmas Spirit lasted
all year long with its emphasis on hope, peace, joy and love. Or perhaps, our
Christmas wish would be that the generosity of the Christmas Spirit would
extend into the months ahead for the poor and the homeless. Or, if only peace
and good will toward all humankind would reach into the war-torn parts of the
world, what a wonderful world it would be. I’d be far empathetic if that were
the case, rather that ‘buy this’ or ‘buy that’ and beat the Christmas rush.
But, of course, December 25th
was a very arbitrary choice to
celebrate Christmas Day, to begin with. We are given no actual date for Jesus’
birth. This date was chosen in 336 A.D., as much associated with the winter
solstice and the rebirth of the sun and light and the beginning of the end of
long darkness. Early Christians often appropriated pagan concepts and Christianised
them. So, December 25th it is.
Not in October!
But wait just a minute.
Our text tells us that “when
the right time came, God sent his Son.” Although Paul is writing about an historical
fact, it gives us the opportunity to not limit Jesus’ arrival into our lives
only to December 25th.
The right time may be right here
and now for many of us. We may be at a point in our lives when we really need
the Love of God through Jesus Christ to interrupt and intervene. We may so be
overwhelmed by the demands, pressures and stresses of time management run amok,
that there is no time like the present to experience hope, peace, joy and love.
We may be mired in our past’s sins and failures and need forgiveness, mercy, grace
right now. We may be afraid for the future and feel uncertain, unprepared and
unsure, and need the assurances of the rest of the paragraph from Galatians,
“God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he
could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God
has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba,
Father.’ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are
his child, God has made you, his heir.” (Galatians 4: 5 -7)
That’s right – Christmas is
indeed for children. We are God’s children. We do not have to wait to December
25th to discover the gift of God’s Love. It is always right there
before us, ready to unpack and enjoy.
“This is how much God loved
the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no
one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting
life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an
accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the
world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted…” (John 3: 16 -17,
The Message Bible)
It is all about the right
time - that perfect time when our lives are intercepted by the love of
Jesus Christ and we are gathered into the joy i.e. the Christmas party, that
breaks out in heaven when one lost soul is saved. (Luke 15:10)
If that isn’t Christmas, I don’t
know what is.
Dale
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