December 27, 2020                                                                          Text:  Galatians 4:4-7

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Susan Ertz was a British fiction writer who died in 1985.  She once commented, “Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”  How do we use or misuse the time that is given us?

            A family moved to the country to escape the high-pressure run everywhere life they had been living in the city.  One day a neighbor stopped by and noticed something pinned to the family bulletin board and asked about it.  The mother said, “That is a poem that represents what our moving here was all about.  The poem starts, ‘Lord, slow me down…uh…well, I haven’t had time to read the rest.”

            I pray your Christmas season time wasn’t wasted.  Let’s grasp the importance of time and the time we just celebrated. 

“AFTER CHRISTMAS TIME”

Do you remember this 1980’s song by The Alan Parsons Project?  “Time, flowing like a river Time, beckoning me Who knows when we shall meet again If ever…”

Time.  Here and gone.  What happens when it ends?  “Who knows when we shall meet again?  If ever?”  But that is the world’s lot when Christ is removed from the life and death and what’s beyond question.

God steps into human history and changes the direction.  “When the fullness of time had come…”  God’s time.  God’s timing.  He is not subject to time, but gives it to us.  He owns it.

Every minute and movement since the fall of Adam and Eve into sin was being directed to Christ’s coming into this world.  The Savior entered in time.

The world has its time.  It is composed of hatred and violence and vulgarity and greed and lies.  We are no closer to solving man’s foibles than we were 50 years ago or 500 years ago or 5,000 years ago.  Time for man is lost water under a decaying bridge.

Look at time in relation to those who understand the significance of Christmas.  “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” 

Christ did everything necessary.  He kept the Commandments perfectly in thought, word, and deed.  He bought us back from sin, death, and hell.  Those who believe this “receive adoption as sons.”

Our time is now.  We still battle the awful sin in us.  As sons of God we are blameless through Christ.  Men, women, children – everyone trusting in Christ for forgiveness and eternal life.

We are members of God’s family.  Peter wrote, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession…” (1 Pet. 2:9a)  Isn’t it fascinating that everyone clamors to a part of something in this world?  And for us as a Christian is that our goal?  Isn’t the fact that we are “a people of his own possession” sufficient for each day?

The last verses of the text, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

God is our eternal parent.  The Holy Spirit works through the Word so that we can understand that God is our Father – in time and in eternity.

How about the “heir” part?  We’ve all seen a movie where the family gathers to hear the reading of the will.  They want to see if they are getting anything.  Maybe you have been in such a setting?  In Christ we are not waiting on the will to be read.  It has already been read:  “You are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”  What do we receive?  Heaven and eternal life and an unending Kingdom! 

Remember Moses?  He had the attention of the world and riches right in front of him.  What did the writer of Hebrews say about that?  “He considered the reproach of Christ’s greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” (Heb. 11:26)  His time here was insignificant compared to what was promised Him in Christ.  “Time, flowing like a river Time beckoning me Who knows when we shall meet again If ever…”  Such is the sadness of the world.  Such is the tragedy of this life’s brief, brief, moment.

For those of us in Christ?  Every moment is a time to be ready?  “…the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  The Christ of Christmas goes with us…with us…to the end of this world’s time – right into eternity.

                                                                                                            Amen. 

December 25, 2020 – Christmas                                                 Text:  Matthew 2:13-15

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Baby Jesus has been born – Hallelujah!  Now His life begins and we have got to get him home.  But it is not as easy as it sounds.  Come along then, but watch out behind you, there are those who want to kill Jesus from the beginning of his life.

“COMING HOME”

            What do you recall about taking your child home from the hospital?  Do you remember the weather?  Warm, cold, sunny, rainy?  Maybe you had a struggle getting them in their infant seat?  Was your child sleeping or fussy?  And at least one of you in the organ loft brought your child home by airplane.  We all have had different experiences.

            Toni and I discussed this the other night at dinner.  We believe, if our brains are still working that we only stayed overnight with each child.  Bringing Karson home in December brought sunshine but cold temperatures.  What we recall about bringing Holden home was of course a brother there to greet him in the hospital and at home.  Both trips were quick.  In Overland Park, Kansas we just lived 35 blocks from the hospital and here in BloNo we made coming home in 15 minutes.  Once we got them home, we didn’t hunker down.  We had them in church the next Sunday and they went where we went.  Yes, life changed, but nothing can compare to Joseph and Mary getting Jesus back to Nazareth.

            The wise men have made their visit and it is time to set up their new home but not so fast my friend.  Herod.  Oh no, Herod.  He doesn’t want to see Jesus live past the first few weeks of his life.  The only way to prevent this in his sick mind is to kill all the male babies in the region around Bethlehem who were two years and younger.  He didn’t know where Jesus was, so he planned this mass murder to eliminate him.  It was a hellish time.

            The Lord again uses a dream to communicate with Joseph.  “’Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’   And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt.”  Toni and I don’t remember the exact details of coming home and maybe you don’t either, but I bet Joseph never forgot.  He was asked to travel 175 miles southwest of where they were.  For us that would put us between St. Louis and Rolla Missouri.  How long would it take to walk that?   Joseph obediently followed the instructions and it saved his newborn baby.

            Do you see it?  Do you have a proper understanding of the life our Lord?  From the lowly manger to the tomb cut in the rock our Savior was the object of the bitter hatred of evil men.  The Savior comes to confront sin and death, this unbelieving world and the power of the devil.  He faces it all.

            We live in a time where it looks like the forces of evil are marching to victory.  We see religious freedoms being eroded.  People living for themselves instead of all mankind.  It looks like from our perspective that they are having their way.  Scripture warns that their power will only increase as we approach the second coming of our Lord. 

            God knows all this.  We call it foreknowledge.  He knew everything before creation.  There isn’t anything – not one thing of your life that God doesn’t know.  As it was with Joseph and Mary and Jesus in their escape so it is with your life and my life.  God provides all things in order to achieve His holy will and purpose in us.

            The holy family remained in Egypt until the death of Herod.  How long they were there is not known.  God knew all this – “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’”  The Lord had called Israel “my son” whom He had called out of Egypt at the time of the exodus.  Jesus is here named as God’s one and only Son, who was the representative and substitute for all Israel.  God would also call this Son out of Egypt to redeem his sinful people.

            The promises of God cannot be stopped.  They don’t stop when you struggle with pain and suffering.  They don’t stop when you participate in your own brand of evil.  They don’t stop even when you think God doesn’t care about your life or the life of the world.  Remember what he left with us, “I am with you always to the end of the age.”  His love for all mankind and us has no limits.  His mercy and grace overcome our shortcomings.  His foreknowledge trumps our worry.  He is in control and always has been.

            Are you coming home?  Are you on the path that leads to Him?  We are traveling a life route with many dangers and roadblocks but we don’t travel alone.  An angel helped a family way back when and they assist us today.  We don’t know how far we have to travel to our eternal home.  We know its there.  We know it will be our dwelling forever.  We know it will take us away from the killing of babies and the other evils that surround us. 

            Think of what Jesus has done for you.  Nothing can stop Him – coming home!

                                                                                                                        Amen.