Not Letdown Sunday
Galatians 4.4-7 (Second Sunday of Christmas B)
Is it lurking there at the back of the bottom of the fridge? Those last bits of dried up turkey? You’ve had it cold with pickles – you’ve fricasseed it, curried it, put it into a pie, risotto-ed it, turned it into meatballs, and hidden it in sandwiches. But now it’s defeated you. “No more cold turkey.” No matter what Heston, Jamie or Delia may suggest, we’ve had enough. “No more cold turkey, we’ve had enough.”
It’s ‘Letdown Sunday,’ we’ve had enough of Christmas. Oversweetened, overindulged, overindebted, overtelevisualised, oversold, overcarolled, overcooked, overchristmas-specialed. Well, just ‘over’ everything, really. The euphoria has faded into tiredness. Christmas, so long anticipated,
turns into a marathon, and like any such gruelling race, it’s exhausting.
‘Won’t be there on Sunday, Vicar. Taking a day off after all those carols.” Letdown Sunday – no matter the church calendar says we’ve almost another week of Christmas celebrations to go, every greeting is ‘Have you had a good Christmas?” It’s done with; if you’ve energy and cash for the sales – good luck to you – if not, then it’s the hard slog of dreary days until a warmer, sunnier holiday.
Letdown Sunday. Oh, no it isn’t cries Saint Paul, in words more rousing that any pantomime shout. Not ‘Letdown Sunday,’ but ‘Godsend Sunday:’ “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman.” (Gal 4.4) That’s about as much of a nativity story as Paul ever tells. He wrote his letter before the Gospels were written, and we really have no idea about whether he knew anything of those accounts or not. Perhaps this bald statement is all he had or, indeed, all he needed, since it is such a powerful testimony to the incarnation. Yes, this Jesus is fully human, and yes, this Jesus is God’s Son. Through the body of a young Jewish woman God’s Son enters human history, human circumstance, that from within such ordinariness he may live and proclaim the love of God.
This happens in ‘the fullness of time,’ in other words a new age has dawned in this. This is a godsend – quite literally. There can’t be any letdown after this amazing event. After witnessing this, the shepherds glorify and praise God (Luke 2.20), and their joy is our joy. The first sign of recognizing this baby for who he is is joy –a joy from which there is no
letdown. A joy which lasts.
Not ‘Letdown Sunday’ but‘Godsend Sunday’ because of the consequences of God’s actions in this amazing happening. Think about inheritance in families, says Paul. You know that until a person comes of age the inheritance isn’t properly theirs. Indeed they can hardly imagine what the effects of actually inheriting will be – it’s like they’re in slavery to it,
unable to make their own decisions, unable to be their true selves, unable enjoy the benefits. That’s what it was like before God’s gift of Jesus – the Jews were slaves to the observance of the Jewish law, and the Gentiles were slaves to the
worship of pagan gods. But now we celebrate a godsend that frees us all. God has chosen a time for all his people to come into their inheritance. This is the day of our inheritance, says Paul.
God redeems those previously enslaved – Jew and Gentile – and adopts them/us as his legitimate heirs –children by adoption. Only Jesus is by nature the Son of God, as Paul makes plain; all of the rest of us come into the relationship through the grace of adoption. This is a godsend – something to be recalled at our worst moments as much as our best, it can never be a letdown – God makes us his heirs: receive the joy of your inheritance because nothing can take it away. It’s yours, forever.
So on this Sunday that we think of so easily as something of a letdown, Saint Paul’s words requires us to lift our sights, to lift our spirits, to that the full impact of Christmas may take hold of us. The babe in a manger is God’s firstborn, and by his birth we are made his brothers and sisters. And how do we know this? Because God has sent the Spirit of his Son
into our hearts (verse 6), so that our natural cry is just the same as Jesus’ – “Abba! Father!”
Pastor James McTyre makes the point that a child doesn’t know s/he’s being born, anymore than a baby being adopted. There is, perhaps, some vague awareness of a change of environment, but that’s all. The immediate consequences of a new baby all rest on the parents. And McTyre wonders whether this doesn’t say something about God. In the days after Christmas does God listen with the parent’s anxious anticipation for our first, babbling attempts to say, “Abba?” McTyre continues:
“Over time a newborn will learn to recognize and respond to a parent’s voice. Over time, a person emerging on
the other side of Christmas may awaken to the change of spiritual environment both inside and out. This awakening to the voice of the Spirit takes time. God’s love overflows, but we must learn to navigate its waters.”[i]
We may letdown God by failing to make that responding cry, but the promise made real in the in the baby Jesus is that God never stops listening for our answering call – whether a cooing burble or a shrieking yell. This is a godsend – God waits on you, listening for your call. There’s something worth a resolution.
No more cold turkey – either faded tinsel or the after-effects of a New Year party! Not ‘letdown’ but‘Godsend’ – the lasting joy of a beginning forever new; adoption as God’s own; and your every cry touching the heart of a gracious God.
[i] James W. McTyre in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 1 (page 160) eds David L Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor. Westminster John Knox Press.
It’s ‘Letdown Sunday,’ we’ve had enough of Christmas. Oversweetened, overindulged, overindebted, overtelevisualised, oversold, overcarolled, overcooked, overchristmas-specialed. Well, just ‘over’ everything, really. The euphoria has faded into tiredness. Christmas, so long anticipated,
turns into a marathon, and like any such gruelling race, it’s exhausting.
‘Won’t be there on Sunday, Vicar. Taking a day off after all those carols.” Letdown Sunday – no matter the church calendar says we’ve almost another week of Christmas celebrations to go, every greeting is ‘Have you had a good Christmas?” It’s done with; if you’ve energy and cash for the sales – good luck to you – if not, then it’s the hard slog of dreary days until a warmer, sunnier holiday.
Letdown Sunday. Oh, no it isn’t cries Saint Paul, in words more rousing that any pantomime shout. Not ‘Letdown Sunday,’ but ‘Godsend Sunday:’ “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman.” (Gal 4.4) That’s about as much of a nativity story as Paul ever tells. He wrote his letter before the Gospels were written, and we really have no idea about whether he knew anything of those accounts or not. Perhaps this bald statement is all he had or, indeed, all he needed, since it is such a powerful testimony to the incarnation. Yes, this Jesus is fully human, and yes, this Jesus is God’s Son. Through the body of a young Jewish woman God’s Son enters human history, human circumstance, that from within such ordinariness he may live and proclaim the love of God.
This happens in ‘the fullness of time,’ in other words a new age has dawned in this. This is a godsend – quite literally. There can’t be any letdown after this amazing event. After witnessing this, the shepherds glorify and praise God (Luke 2.20), and their joy is our joy. The first sign of recognizing this baby for who he is is joy –a joy from which there is no
letdown. A joy which lasts.
Not ‘Letdown Sunday’ but‘Godsend Sunday’ because of the consequences of God’s actions in this amazing happening. Think about inheritance in families, says Paul. You know that until a person comes of age the inheritance isn’t properly theirs. Indeed they can hardly imagine what the effects of actually inheriting will be – it’s like they’re in slavery to it,
unable to make their own decisions, unable to be their true selves, unable enjoy the benefits. That’s what it was like before God’s gift of Jesus – the Jews were slaves to the observance of the Jewish law, and the Gentiles were slaves to the
worship of pagan gods. But now we celebrate a godsend that frees us all. God has chosen a time for all his people to come into their inheritance. This is the day of our inheritance, says Paul.
God redeems those previously enslaved – Jew and Gentile – and adopts them/us as his legitimate heirs –children by adoption. Only Jesus is by nature the Son of God, as Paul makes plain; all of the rest of us come into the relationship through the grace of adoption. This is a godsend – something to be recalled at our worst moments as much as our best, it can never be a letdown – God makes us his heirs: receive the joy of your inheritance because nothing can take it away. It’s yours, forever.
So on this Sunday that we think of so easily as something of a letdown, Saint Paul’s words requires us to lift our sights, to lift our spirits, to that the full impact of Christmas may take hold of us. The babe in a manger is God’s firstborn, and by his birth we are made his brothers and sisters. And how do we know this? Because God has sent the Spirit of his Son
into our hearts (verse 6), so that our natural cry is just the same as Jesus’ – “Abba! Father!”
Pastor James McTyre makes the point that a child doesn’t know s/he’s being born, anymore than a baby being adopted. There is, perhaps, some vague awareness of a change of environment, but that’s all. The immediate consequences of a new baby all rest on the parents. And McTyre wonders whether this doesn’t say something about God. In the days after Christmas does God listen with the parent’s anxious anticipation for our first, babbling attempts to say, “Abba?” McTyre continues:
“Over time a newborn will learn to recognize and respond to a parent’s voice. Over time, a person emerging on
the other side of Christmas may awaken to the change of spiritual environment both inside and out. This awakening to the voice of the Spirit takes time. God’s love overflows, but we must learn to navigate its waters.”[i]
We may letdown God by failing to make that responding cry, but the promise made real in the in the baby Jesus is that God never stops listening for our answering call – whether a cooing burble or a shrieking yell. This is a godsend – God waits on you, listening for your call. There’s something worth a resolution.
No more cold turkey – either faded tinsel or the after-effects of a New Year party! Not ‘letdown’ but‘Godsend’ – the lasting joy of a beginning forever new; adoption as God’s own; and your every cry touching the heart of a gracious God.
[i] James W. McTyre in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 1 (page 160) eds David L Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor. Westminster John Knox Press.