"Paul's Perspective on Christmas"

A sermon preached at Edgemont Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) on the Third Sunday of Advent, December 17, 2006 by the Rev. Christopher E. Yopp. Sermon based on Galatians 4:4-7.

Most of us are familiar with the traditional Christmas story - the one we have heard since we were children told from Matthew and Luke’s perspective. Perhaps, when you were a child you even participated in a Christmas play that portrayed that familiar scene of Mary and Joseph in a stable in Bethlehem, complete with farm animals, and shepherds and even an angel or two. To us, that’s the story of Christmas, the one we’ve heard over and over again and that’s the one we are all familiar with. In fact, throughout the season of Advent and Christmas our hearts and minds are focused and centered on that scene in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to go and watch The Nativity Story, which helped to bring the Christmas story to life. What a powerful movie!

I love the story that is told of a Sunday school class of first-graders who were asked by their teacher to write their own version of the Christmas story. They had the familiar cast: Joseph, the shepherds, the star and an angel propped up in the background. Everything else, though, was modernized. There were some bales of straw, behind which Mary was apparently in labor. Suddenly, the "doctor" emerged from the "delivery room" with a big smile on his face and exclaimed; "Congratulations, Joseph, it’s a God."

Virginia Giles told me of a unique interpretation of the Christmas story that she witnessed the week-before-last, of an African-American, Gospel Choral twist on the story. Now, I am one who always likes to see things from different perspectives and in different lights. I think it helps you grow as individual - not just intellectually, but also spiritually. And perhaps that’s why I love our Scripture Lesson this morning from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Here, the Apostle Paul offers his perspective on the Christmas story! Probably, most of us, when reading these words do not initially think of Christmas; in fact, Christmas is probably the last thing on our minds when hearing these words, but what we have here is Paul’s interpretation of the Christmas message.

The German bishop Rudolf Graber once said; "What took place in Bethlehem is infinitely more important than the creation of the world. For the fact that God’s only Son - the second person of the Trinity, was willing and ready to become man on this tiny little earth simply surpasses all else."

And certainly, I believe, this is the way the Apostle Paul felt, as well. He begins in verse 4 by saying; "In the fullness of time," which suggests that at the perfect time – at the opportune time - at the right moment in history! You know, this phrase expresses a whole philosophy of history. It expresses the supreme event in the divine plan toward which God had been moving since the beginning of time.

Things had been happening on earth. Prophecies had been fulfilled. The world had been prepared politically for the birth of Christ. The world conquest by Alexander the Great and the development of a common language - Greek - had helped to show the fullness of time. The world had been prepared morally. Heathenism, paganism, and false religions had buried God in the visible world; a literal God, an Almighty God, the God of love was unknown in the midst of superstitions and unbelief. All of the religious experience of the day had produced despair and hopelessness. Philosophy and moral values had produced widespread corruption, and a longing and yearning for better things. It was out of this despair - it was out of this longing and yearning that the people cried, as captured in that beautiful hymn;

"Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free;

From our fears and sins release; let us find our rest in thee.

Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art;

Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart."

"In the fullness of time," Paul writes, "God sent his Son," to be born and to later die for the sins of the world. God became incarnate - flesh, born of a woman, which speaks of Christ’s humanity, as well, as to his role as the ultimate "seed of the woman" as promised back in Genesis 3. God became one of us, in order that he might deliver us from sin and death! God heard and answered our prayer; "O come, O come, Emmanuel... O come thy people to deliver..."

The Apostle Paul also, in his interpretation of the Christmas story, points out that Christ was "born under the law," which means he was subject to the Jewish law, further establishing his identification with all people who are subject to the law. If God was going to save us, God had to become one of us - like us, and Paul stresses this through these words here. We do not have a God who cannot sympathize with us! No! God became one of us, like us, and he knows our struggles, difficulties and pains.

Paul is talking about God sending his Son from his pre-existent state in heaven. You see, there are three terms to refer to the stages of Christ’s existence. First, there is the pre-existent stage, Christ’s life with the Father - co-existing with God the Father, the second person of the Trinity, prior to his earthly existence as the Word made flesh. Then there is Christ’s existence, which refers to his existence as Jesus; and then finally is his post-existence, which speaks of his life following the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.

But Paul reminds us in verse 5 of the purpose of his coming to us – redemption. You know, the word "redeem," which Paul uses here literally means, "to buy from the slave market," and it is a term that only Paul uses in the New Testament to speak of our redemption. And certainly this gives us the idea of what God has done for us in and through Christ. Although there is only one natural Son in God’s family - Jesus Christ, yet God has graciously adopted all believers as his sons and daughters. We are no longer slaves to sin, nor children under the tutor or guardianship of the law - we now belong to God’s family.

And then Paul reminds us in verses 6 and 7; just as "God sent forth his Son" in "the fullness of time," so "God sent forth his Spirit" at just the right time for every person who believes in Christ. We can know intimacy with God the Father because of the indwelling of his Spirit to the point that you and I can call God – Abba, which can literally be translated "Daddy!" What intimacy! That’s the message of Christmas. God didn’t just come to visit our world and redeem us, but he also came to dwell with us as Emmanuel - God with us through the power and presence of his Holy Spirit. God has not abandoned us. God has not left us to fend for ourselves. No! God has come to dwell with us – Emmanuel!

One fundamental truth of God’s Word is that Christ is reborn in the regeneration of every child of God. The Apostle Paul wrote; "I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you." When we receive Christ, it becomes true what is said that there is another incarnation of Christ, because Christ lives and dwells in us. We, like Mary, in a sense, are called to allow Christ to be born in us. When Christ is born in us Christmas comes into our hearts and lives. And then we, in a sense, become the incarnation of Christ to the world! We become living testimonies and representatives of God’s love and grace, redemption and presence in and through Christ to the world.

What is Christmas? Dr. Robert G. Lee said; "Christmas is the joyous celebration of eternity’s intersection with time." The Apostle Paul said it like this, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman." Indeed, this is the greatest story ever told. Paul offers us the theology behind what occurred in Bethlehem, in that familiar scene. God, in the fullness of time, came to deliver, redeem and dwell in our hearts and lives forever. What a perfect perspective on the Christmas story!