“Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses”, wrote Solomon in Ecclesiastes. “He sets the time for birth and the time for death, the time for planting and the time for pulling up… the time for saving and the time for throwing away, the time for tearing and the time for mending, the time for silence and the time for talk… the time for war and the time for peace” (Eccles. 3.1-2, 6b-7, 8b).
We recognise the truth of that statement and not many years ago a modern song-writer took it up. But is that how we relate to life? We sometimes talk about an idea “whose time hasn’t come”. And we assume – almost fatalistically – that we will die “when our time is up”. But Solomon wasn’t being negative or fatalistic. He was expressing a strong and positive conviction – “everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses.”
Of course, our choices aren’t like that. For much of our life we “don’t have time to do things” – or at least “not enough time”. “Que sera sera. Whatever will be will be”, we console ourselves – a fatalistic rather than a Christian view of history.
In the early 19th century, a war-weary world was anxiously
watching the march of Napoleon. All the while babies were being born. In 1809, midway between the battles of
Trafalgar and
And in the
“At that time…” Yes, it was a particular historical period –
the political makers and shakers of history were there. Their presence anchors
the events of
In v. 6 we read that “the time came for [Mary] to have her baby”. Literally, the Greek says that “the days were completed for her to give birth”. For nine months that tiny embryo, smaller than a pinhead at first, had been hidden, growing and developing into a baby ready for birth, ready to start the journey into the life of this world.
There are mothers – and fathers – here this morning who have their own particular associations with that phrase, “the time came…” With our first – Ruth, who married a fortnight ago – I recall Alison becoming restless. At one o’clock in the morning she was vacuuming and doing meal-preparation. I didn’t understand it then, but by three she was asking to be taken to the hospital. The time came… For the later children I felt I had a few more clues as to when the time was coming. I can ask the fathers, what were the signs that told you that your wife’s time had come? And mothers, did you know?
We try to imagine what that journey from
Yet we can imagine the conversation as, again and again,
Mary says, “Joseph, stop! I can’t go on! How much further to
She made it. But by now all the best places had been taken. The time came for her to have her baby, and there was no better place to lay him than in a cattle feeding-trough – a manger.
Yet this was not just Mary’s time. It was God’s time. Listen
again to God’s promise through Gabriel nine months before – “Don’t be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to
you. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him
Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The
Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, and he will be the
king of the descendants of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end!” (Luke
1.30-33).
But I’m not married yet. How can this happen?
“The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest
upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God” (vv.
34-35).
And now it is God’s time – not just Mary’s time to give
birth, but God’s time to begin his mighty work of salvation. As
the angel announced to the shepherds that night, “Don’t be afraid! I am here with good news for you, which will
bring great joy to all the people. This very day in David’s town your Saviour
was born—Christ the Lord! And this is what will prove it to you: you will find
a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger” (vv. 10-12).
Every child
is special, but this child is unique – only one of a kind – the Son of God.
Each of us is here on earth for some purpose, but Jesus came to be and to do
what no other person could ever do – to be the Saviour of the world.
Paul reminded the Corinthians that God had promised his
people in Isaiah 49.8: “When the time came for me to show you favour I heard
you; when the day arrived for me to save you, I helped you.” But we live in the
time when God has fulfilled his promises, and Paul is saying – “Listen! This is
the hour to receive God’s favour; today is the day to be saved!” (2 Cor. 6.2).
A few years
ago there was a political slogan, “It’s time!” A couple of elections later the
losing party had reshaped it as “Time’s up!”
But this is
not essentially the politician’s time. It is even more than a mother’s time.
Christmas is about God’s time and your time – God’s time to set in motion his plan for salvation and forgiveness,
your time to respond to God, to
receive his forgiveness, to be saved.
“Everything
that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses”, wrote Solomon.
Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians that “when the
right time… came, God sent his own Son” (4.4). God has done his part, now it is
the right time for us to respond to him – with faith and love and obedience and
worship, with unselfish care and sensitivity and generosity…
That has all the makings of a Very Happy Christmas and the Newest and Best New Year yet!
© Peter J. Blackburn,
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture
quotations are from the Good News Bible, © American Bible Society, 1984.
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