The WHEN of Christmas
The WHEN of Christmas by Rev. L. John Gable
December 22, 2019
There is an old saying, “Timing is everything.” Now, you won’t find it in the Bible, but it is a Biblical truth that lies right at the heart of the Christmas story as it answers the “when” question.
“Timing is everything” means that everything is just as it ought to be for something special to happen. Change the time, chanAge the place, change the characters, change the response and the outcome is totally different. But put all those things together and it is exactly as it is supposed to be, because “timing is everything.”
I once read a story which brings this truth home. I don’t know who wrote it or even whether it actually took place, but I do believe it is true.
Reflecting on his own life story, he writes, “One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid in my class walking home from school. He looked like he was carrying all of his books, and I thought to myself, “Why would anyone bring all of their books home on a Friday night? He must be a real nerd.” As I walked on, I saw a bunch of kids run up behind him. They knocked him to the ground and his books and papers went flying. When he looked up I saw the terrible sadness in his eyes, and he started to cry. So I went over and helped him pick up his stuff, and said, “Those guys are such jerks. They really should get lives.”
He smiled, and said, “Yeah, thanks.” It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude, like he really meant it. I asked him his name and where he lived. He said his name was Kyle, and it turned out he lived close to me. I asked him why I had never seen him before and he said he had just transferred from a private school. I thought to myself, “I’ve never hung out with a private school kid before”, but I walked home with him and thought he was pretty cool. I asked him if he wanted to play football with me and my friends the next day, and he did, and we hung out together all that weekend. The more I got to know him the more I liked him, and my friends did, too. Monday morning came, and there was Kyle carrying all those books back to school, so I teased him about how big his muscles were going to be carrying all those books around every day. He just smiled and laughed.
Over the next four years Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors we started thinking about where we would go to college. Kyle decided he wanted to be a doctor so chose Georgetown, and I played football and was going into business so chose Duke, but I knew that no matter how many miles separated us, we would always be friends. It turned out Kyle became the valedictorian of our class, so I continued to tease him about being a nerd.
When graduation day came I saw him up there on the platform. He was one of those kids who really found themselves during high school. He wasn’t a nerd at all. He was well-liked and respected by everyone. As he started his speech I could tell he was nervous. He cleared his throat and began, “Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through the tough times: your parents, your teachers, maybe your brothers and sisters, or a coach, but mostly your friends. I am here to tell you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them and I want to tell you a story, my story.”
I stared in disbelief as Kyle told the story of the first day we met. He said, as he was walking home from school that day he was planning to kill himself that weekend. He talked about how he had cleaned out his locker and was carrying all of his stuff home because he didn’t want his mom to have to do it later. As he told his story, he looked hard at me and gave me that smile, and said, “But thankfully I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unthinkable that I had planned.”
There was not a sound in the auditorium as Kyle talked, and not until that moment did I realize what my stopping to help him pick up his books had really meant to him.”
There is a sense in which the teller of that story was Kyle’s “savior” because he was there at just the right time, in just the right place, and he did just the right thing. “Timing is everything.”
In Scripture there are two separate understandings of time, and different words used to describe it; one is used frequently and the other hardly at all. Perhaps the more familiar word for time is chronos and it means linear or measurable time. If I ask you, “What time is it?”, and you say, “It is 11:32”, we are both talking about chronos, and that is the word most commonly used in Scripture.
The other, less frequently used word is kairos and it means “right timing”. If chronos is a date, kairos is a season. If chronos is measured time, then kairos is what gives time its meaning. Chronos describes the time and day those two boys were walking home from school. Kairos speaks to the meaning of their meeting, for “timing is everything”.
Now, both understandings of time are important to the story of our faith, but Kairos, while less frequently used, always has the more dominant perspective. We can mark Jesus’ birth chronologically and Luke is very careful to do this in our Gospel lesson this morning. We read, “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.” That is chronos. Luke is placing this birth in its proper historical setting. This is the information needed to say that this story is not a myth, but is an historical fact; that at this time and in this place, a child named Jesus was born to a woman named Mary and her husband, Joseph, in a little town called Bethlehem, in the region of Judea. All of that is important to the telling of the Christmas story, but it is not the most important part of the story, is it? Of much more importance still is what the story means. Chronos tells us when and where Jesus was born, but kairos tells us why. On that day, God’s salvation history broke into human history in a dramatic way.
Keeping Luke’s story in mind, we turn our attention to our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Here we read, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” Paul is far more concerned about kairos than he is chronos. He seems to care nothing about the setting, and everything about the meaning of this birth. “In the fullness of time, God sent His Son in to the world.” At just the right time, in just the right place, God did just the right thing…Jesus was born.
Picture a bucket with water dripping in to it, drop after drop, until the bucket is filled and the water comes just to the brim. Just one more drop and it will begin to overflow. That is the image of the fullness of time! That is Kairos! After centuries of hoping and praying, waiting and watching and preparing, at just the right time, in just the right way, in the fullness of time…God sent His Son into the world. This is nothing over which we had any control; this is all God.
The Christmas story, and really all of the Biblical story, is a wonderful blend of chronos and kairos. We are reminded again and again that the story of human history is really His-story, God’s story. The Bible is the narrative of God’s interaction with His people. While the lower story line of Scripture tells of the human drama, the Upper story tells of the ways God engages with His people at particular times, in particular ways, for particular reasons. The Bible is the story of chronos broken through with kairos.
This is particularly true in the Christmas story as the human and divine
are intricately and inextricably woven together. In the fullness of time, at just the right time, God chose a young peasant girl named Mary from a little town called Nazareth in Galilee to be the mother of His Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. Do you hear the blending of the human story with the divine? Take this for example: the ancient prophecies foretold that the promised Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judea, not in Nazareth of Galilee. So, how was God going to get this young mother to where this promised child needed to be born? He used the all-too-worldly means of “census-taking” to get her there…the human in symphony with the divine. And Luke tells us, “While they were there the time came for her to deliver her child.” The time came. Amazing, isn’t it? At just the right time, in just the right place, God acted in just the right way. “Timing is everything”.
That is what happened, but what does it mean? Again, Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians. “In the fullness of time, God sent His Son…in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” Timothy tells us, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Every time we speak His name we tell again who He is and what He came to do. His name is Jesus, which means ‘God saves’, “for He came to save His people from their sin”, and He shall be called Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us.”
This is how God works, both then and now. He comes to us at just the right time, in just the right way, and does just the right thing. Through the ministry of His Holy Spirit, Christ continues to be present with us, even today, more than twenty centuries after His holy birth, and His purpose in coming is ever the same. He comes to save us; He comes to be with us and assure us of His love.
Friends, this birth did not just happen to happen by chance or by fate or by the right alignment of the stars. It was God designed and inspired. It was spoken of by the prophets of old and prayed for by faithful men and women in every time and place for centuries. The actions of people and the movement of nations all were divinely orchestrated for this one purpose: the birth of this child, born for us and for our salvation.
And the beauty and miracle of this birth is that it continues to happen still today. Ann Weems expresses this beautifully as she writes:
“Each year the child is born again.
Each year some new heart finally hears,
Finally sees, finally knows love.
And in heaven there is great rejoicing!
There is a festival of stars!
There is celebration among the angels!
For in the finding of one lost sheep,
The heart of the Shepherd is glad, and
Christmas has happened once more.
The child is born anew,
And one more knee is bowed.”
“Unto you is born this day a Savior”… for in the fullness of time, at just the right time, in just the right way, for just the right reason, God continues to send His Son, then and now, and with God, “timing is everything”.