In the Fullness of Time
- Reverend Dale Walker
- Dec 20, 2009
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Consider two ways of understanding time.
One is with the Greek work chronos--clock time--which can be measured and reported and relied upon to happen with regularity. Clock time is useful. Then there’s kairos--God’s time, when events come to pass in harmony with God’s plan—but seldom on our schedule.
On clock time, the date and hour and minute of our birth are written down so it will be known that the world has another person; on God’s time, our birth transforms the lives of our families and causes a ripple in the world itself. On clock time, we attend school, go to work, play and watch sports; on God’s time, we do these things, aware of God’s presence in all we do. On clock time, the moment that the heart stops to beat and the brain ceases to function is recorded as a death—one person less in the world; on God’s time, our death is a return to God. Praying and loving are on God’s time, when time seems to stop and we are caught up in joy and in goodness. God’s time is always the right time.
The story of Jesus’ birth is set in clock time, but it happens in God’s time, beginning centuries before his actual birth with a prophecy of his coming.
Isaiah 9:2-7
Luke 2:1-20 12-20-09
In the Fullness of Time
In the fullness of imperial time
Caesar Augustus ordered a census
and everyone in the whole
had to go home to their birthplace
to be counted
In the fullness of God’s time
what really counts
is God’s love for the world
love so great it overflows heaven
and falls like life-giving rain on parched earth
Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit
Her womb filled and swelled with life
the life that gives life to us
bursting with travelers coming to be counted
too many for the small inn to accommodate
“Full. We’re full up,” the innkeeper replied
to Joseph’s urgent request
for a place where
when her time came
Mary could give birth
In time she was delivered of the child
and humanity was delivered of its sin
of the threat of death
of the fear of oblivion
and separation from God
The heavens were filled with angels
praising God and singing
Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace
And on earth the shepherds who heard them
were filled with fear
with awe
with hope
and courage enough to go look for the Savior
They crowded into the stable
angels
and sheep and shepherds
and Mary and Joseph
and the child
who filled the stable
and the world
with God’s very self
When they were gone
the shepherds
and angels
and other visitors
the stable was full still
full of God’s presence
Mary’s heart was full
as she pondered what she had seen
what she had heard
what she felt
as she held the child
who holds the keys to heaven
And we in our time?
Can you see God’s love flowing throughout the earth?
Can you hear God’s praises echoing across the heavens?
Can you feel God’s presence
as near to your heart as an infant snuggled close?
Are you filled with hope enough
to venture to look for our Savior
now that the time has been fulfilled?
