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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Can we already be six days into December? Is this really the first Midweek Service in a shorter‑than‑usual Advent? Are we really that close to Christmas? Many of us probably would like more time for our regular daily responsibilities, not to mention Christmas shopping, holiday baking and cooking, and otherwise preparing to receive visitors or to be visitors ourselves. Inadequate time can contribute to our feelings of in-completion and emptiness. In sharp contrast is God, Who deals in completeness and fullness, such as God’s sending His Son when the fullness of time had come and the fullness of God’s dwelling in Christ and God’s fullness’s filling us. As we with repentance and faith prepare to celebrate Jesus’s having come in His birth at Bethlehem, His coming now in Word and Sacrament, and His coming a final time with glory to judge the living and the dead, our Midweek Advent Evening Prayer special sermon series considers “Advent Fullness”, tonight with a focus on the “Fullness of Time”.
Tonight’s Reading from St. Paul’s Divinely‑inspired letter to the churches of Galatia (and to us) is just one of the places where the New Testament refers to the Son of God’s coming when the fullness of time had come. In Galatians, St. Paul had been discussing God’s having given promises to Abraham before God gave the law to Moses, and he was using human examples to illustrate his point (Galatians 3:15-27). So, in tonight’s Reading, St. Paul describes how a little child who already has inherited everything is no different from a slave, remaining under guardians and managers—guardians and managers appointed by the little-child’s father to look after the little‑child’s welfare, support, and household affairs—until the date set by the little‑child’s father. In the same way, St. Paul says, we also were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But, St. Paul says, 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, freeing them from their slavery, at the date set by the Father, as it were. God’s timing was not based on the Jews in particular or humankind in general’s having reached a certain condition or readiness, though certainly God had providentially provided peace in the Roman Empire, widespread use of the Greek language, an ability to travel freely, the dispersion of the Jews, and Gentile converts to Judaism—all of which from our perspective might make God’s timing for Christ’s coming seem quite right.
There are other times, of course, when, from our perspective, God’s timing for something might seem quite wrong. A layoff from a job. An illness. A death of a loved one. Is there ever a “right” time for such things? Some times may be better than others, humanly speaking, but, no matter the timing, God can and does work all things together for the good of conforming to the image of His Son those who are called according to His purpose and who love Him (Romans 8:28). The problem is that we do not trust God as we should to work all things together for our good, and, by nature, we do not want to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. In tonight’s Reading, St. Paul describes us as enslaved to the elementary principles of the world, and in the verses before and after tonight’s Reading he describes us both as held captive under the law in sin (Galatians 3:23‑24) and as enslaved to those that by nature are not gods but in fact are weak and worthless (Galatians 4:8-9). As St. Paul later wrote to the Romans, the law stops every mouth and holds accountable to God the whole world (Romans 3:19). On account of our sinful nature and all of our actual sin, we deserve nothing but death here and now and torment in hell for eternity.
But, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, and that Son Himself preached that the time was fulfilled and the Kingdom of God was at hand, and so He called for all people to repent and believe the Gospel (Mark 1:15). Tonight, in the antiphon to the Additional Psalm (Psalm 80:1-7; antiphon: v.7), we called on God to restore us, to let His face shine, that we may be saved. When, enabled by God, we both are sorry for our sinful nature and for all of our actual sin and trust God to forgive us, then God does forgive us, God forgives us for Jesus’s sake. While God Himself is outside of time, He entered into time for us and for our salvation, out of His great love for us and for all people. With the coming of the fullness of time, arguably not only had a Divinely-determined span of time run its course and a Divinely‑ordained point been reached, but, with God’s sending forth His Son, time is fulfilled absolutely (Delling, TDNT 6:305; confer 9:592). As St. Paul later wrote to the Ephesians, God set forth His purpose in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians 1:9-10). As Jesus Himself said, God authoritatively sent His Son into the world in order that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17).
The Son of God existed from eternity but in time was born (or, perhaps better, “became”) of a woman. No human father is mentioned or was involved. From our fallen human perspective, such a becoming is absolutely incomprehensible, a miracle in the highest degree. The Holy spirit came upon the Virgin Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, so the Child born of her is the Son of God (Luke 1:35). So, we believe, teach, and confess that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is our Lord, having redeemed us lost and condemned people, purchased and won us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death (Small Catechism II:4). The Author of the Law submitted to the law for our sake: actively obeying the law and passively suffering and dying on the cross for our failure to obey the law. As St. Paul wrote earlier in Galatians, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, hanging on the tree of the cross (Galatians 3:13, with reference to Deuteronomy 21:23). Then, He rose from the dead. Now, by God’s grace for Jesus’s sake, we receive His active and passive righteousness, through faith in Him, as we receive His Means of Grace.
In the verses just before tonight’s Reading, St. Paul was discussing our being made righteous by faith, our putting on Christ as we are baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:22-29). At the Font, we receive adoption as children who inherit the inheritance of the one Who died. And, as such heirs, at this Altar Rail we eat of His Body and drink of the cup of the new testament in His Blood, once and for all given and poured out as a sacrifice on the cross (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25). By His ministers that He authoritatively sends, through His Word in all of its forms—also including its reading and preaching and Absolution—He repeatedly enters into time and comes to save us, forgiving our sins and so also giving us life and salvation. And so, we receive Him whenever we are able.
Through the ministry of His Word and Sacraments, God the Father authoritatively sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, leading us to cry out to God as Father (Romans 5:5; 8:1-17). Like the Lord Jesus, in our native languages (confer Mark 14:36), and with perfect freedom, we dear children ask our dear Father with all boldness and confidence (Small Catechism III:2), including petitions that His Kingdom come to us now on earth and that He take us to Himself for eternity in heaven. We want His will to be done among us, even if His will means our suffering now on our way to future glory. There is a time for every matter under heaven, the Divinely‑inspired author of Ecclesiastes wrote (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8), and the Rev. Stephen Starke paraphrased in tonight’s Office Hymn, “There Is a Time for Everything” (Lutheran Service Book 762); there is even a time for remembering the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, of which the hymn was written in remembrance (see LSB:CttH, 1111‑1113). And, in the fullness of time, as it were, in God’s perfect timing, at just the right time, either He will deliver us from this life, or the Lord Jesus will come with glory to judge the living and the dead, entering into time one final time. Then, time as we experience it now arguably will come to an end, giving way to the eternal day of life in—if necessary, resurrected and—glorified bodies in God’s presence (for example, Revelation 21:25).
Despite our seeming shortness of time and the rush of the seasons, tonight we considered “Fullness of Time” as part of our “Advent Fullness”. In weeks to come are the fullness of God’s dwelling in Christ and God’s fullness’s filling us. May we live each day with sorrow over our sin and trust in God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, so that we are prepared for His comings this Advent and always.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +