IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME
(Advent – First Sunday)
by Jonathan Salgado

TEXT: "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son" (Gal. 4:4, KJV).

Throughout the Bible, God is understood as a Being who works out His purpose steadily across the years. "When the fullness of the time was come," a new prophet would appear with a new affirmation of God's truth; a new leader would arrive to set His people free. "When the fullness of time was come," His purpose would be accomplished.

This thought, which is everywhere in the Bible, Paul expressed when he referred to the coming of Christ in to the world: "When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son." The Jewish religion had prepared the way. The time had been prepared also by a universal culture and language, which was Greek, and by the far-flung empire of Rome.

Moreover, the way had been prepared by failures of the human spirit. Athens with all its former glory was no longer famous for its wisdom. Rome with all its concentrated wealth and power was not famous for its virtue.

I. The World Found Itself In A Desperate State Of Moral and Spiritual Need When Jesus Came

T.R. Glover, describing the ancient world, says: "Life grew more and more of a riddle, and solitary hearts lost faith and lost nerve, and begot no songs and few children--weary of old books and old culture, afraid of new gods, of Chance and Fate, of the stars above and the world beyond. A new impulse was needed--a new liberty in the universe--a Liberator."

The person of Jesus Christ answered the world's need. Remember how very wide and deep was the need of man and how full and satisfying was the answer to that need in Jesus Christ.

II. The Meaning of These Days Underscores the Truth That the Living Christ Returns to Us Again and Again, When in the Providence Of God the Fullness of Time Has Come.

The vitality of our faith stands, not by what has been, but by what is yet to be.

When one looks broadly and reflectively on the life of people and nations in our day, striking indications suggest we have been brought both by our achievements and our failures to the fullness of the times. Progress in science and technology has produced an interdependent world for the first time since history began. Nothing is entirely remote. Nothing is purely local in the sense in which these words were used in former times. A whisper can circle the globe in the twinkling of an eye. No field or forest or desert is too distant to supply industrial centers with raw materials. No market lies beyond the range of shipment of the finished product. Lines of communication, travel, and commerce have gathered the world together as though the hands of Providence were drawing together the ends of an all-compassing net. It is one world in the sense that it is technically and economically interdependent. This has been a marvelous achievement of the last two centuries, reaching its fulfillment in our generation.

In the midst of this fulfillment lies the obvious need of our world, which after two world conflicts is quite desperate. Interdependence of people, with the instruments and powers at present in human hands, means that the nations of the world may be involved in tragedy and ruin unless a spirit can be found to insure the foundation of worldwide security and peace.

I do not ask you if this civilization will be saved; I ask whether or not it needs to be saved by a new spirit. If so, where will you find that spirit? Where will you find a faith that has already commended its truth to people of every race and nation and already has faithful disciples in every land? Where will you find a faith that believes in the dignity of every human soul, that is an advocate of the rights of every person, and a tireless messenger of mercy to the needs of the lost and the least, the forlorn and the forgotten, as well as the wise and the mighty? Where will you find a faith that offers forgiveness and restoration to the penitent and offers power to the fainting heart, hope to the weary, and comfort to the sorrowful and distressed? Where will you find a faith that lifts up the poor man and crowns him with dignity and brings down the vain and the lofty to the simple wisdom of a humble mind? Where will you find a faith to declare that God wills for all people to be brothers and sisters and to dwell in peace and security throughout the land, where none shall make them afraid? You will find that in the Child of Bethlehem, in the angels singing in the heavens while shepherds watched their flocks by night, in the bells of Christmas that ring out their tidings of joy.

III. The Meaning of These Days Urges Us to Give Some New, Serious Thought to This Coming Christ So That His Spirit May Come Into Our Hearts

The words that follow our text brim with inspiration and meaning: "God sent forth his Son . . . that we might receive the adoption of sons. . . .God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts" (Gal. 4:4-6, KJV).

Perhaps the times are full for us even today. Perhaps the human wisdom in which we once trusted points to a start that brings wise men even now to the manger Child. The progress that we once believed is no longer certain. The science in which we once had confidence has brought us to our knees. The easy indulgence which we misnamed "freedom" has brought us near the end of our tether.

Once in the fullness of time God sent forth his Son. If for you the times are full, lift up your eyes, look and listen. You may hear on the starlit night the angel's Song.

THE WISE MEN BELIEVED IN A BABY
Advent – Second Sunday
by Jonathan Salgado
Matt. 2:1-12

Did you ever see a camel caravan crossing the desert, silhouetted against the western sky? Three camels, the first with tinkling bell, the others head to tail, three camels seem to extend a quarter mile; six camels, a mile; more than six suggest infinity. There is something very deceiving about the length of a camel caravan.

There is mystery and fascination about such a caravan. Where does it come from? Where is it going? Who are these men on a journey? Why are they traveling? What is in the camel bags? Gold? Frankincense? Myrrh? What gifts does the East bring to the West?

Such a camel caravan resembles a line of poetry. This caravan of magi provokes poetry--wisdom poetry. Let us seek the wisdom of the traditional wise men following the star--the seven steps of wisdom.

I. The First Step of Wisdom is Expectancy

Expectancy? "Except ye . . . become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3, KJV). What did the Babe of Bethlehem, grown to manhood, mean when he said that? I used to think it meant humility. But I now believe I was mistaken in part at least; humility is not the word. "Except ye . . . become as little children"--teachable as a child? No, teachable is not the precise word. "Except ye . . . become [trustful] as little children"? No, trustful is not the right word.

What is the word? It is expectancy. You must have expectancy as a child anticipates. The child lives on the tiptoe of expectancy. Christmas is coming! My birthday is coming! I'm growing up to be a big boy! A man!

Expectancy brings one into the Kingdom, for the Kingdom is like a field; the attitude of expectancy plants the seed.

The Kingdom is like the bread dough; expectancy puts in the leaven.

These wise men of old were full of expectancy. Back in the dreamy east, they never rested in their dreams; for them dreams inspired expectancy.

How did they know in their Eastern desert homes that a child destined to become King of the Jews was about to be born? They followed the star. But stars have been rising in the east and setting in the west for myriads of time. No one ever before followed a star to the birthplace of a king.

Expectancy discovers significance. The senses are tuned up. The mind is sharpened. The heart is responsive. Eyes dull to wonder never catch the difference which is the discovery of the new.

Learn from these wise men the wisdom of expectancy. It keeps the aged young. It lifts the middle-aged out of the dull mechanical grind. Life on tiptoe waits with wonder for something new to sound, a new song in the forest, a fresh bugle-call in the hills.

Wake up! All you who are asleep, satisfied, looking backward, defeated, dead! Without expectancy you groan in bondage. Accept the wisdom of the magi--expect great things. Expectancy gives you freedom to venture.

II. The Second Step of Wisdom is Venture

It's put into a proverb: "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." In the word of our Master, "Seek!" Venture is faith in action. Venture is expectancy hitching up the camels, fastening the camel bags, starting on a long journey, following a star. To sit back expecting something to happen is a caricature of expectancy; it is expectancy at its worst. The wise men embodied expectancy at its best.

They ventured. They caught a vision of a king, the King, the Baby. When you catch that vision, you become what Frank W. Goreham called a "stupendous principle": "The vision of the King stands related to the vision continental. The revelation of the Lord leads to the revelation of the limitless landscape."

What kind of horizon do we see? Narrow as the shell of our own ego? Wide only as the walls of our own house? Circumscribed by a color line or a nationality line? That is not wisdom. There is no venture in that. Catch even a faraway vision of the Baby, the King, and out you will go across the horizons of your own circumscribed self--even across deserts and rivers you will go.

III. The Third Step of Wisdom is Discovery

It is written, "On coming to the house, they saw the child" (Matt. 2:11). They had ventured. Now they had arrived. They had pushed beyond their horizons and come to witness to the birth of our Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

These wise men were men of science and astronomy. These three steps of wisdom are scientific steps: expectancy, venture, discovery. Nature does not reveal her secrets except to people who wonder and dare. Scientists must trek across deserts before they can stand before new facts.

These men discovered a Baby in a stable. These Wise Men believed in a Baby. Harry Emerson Fosdick says, "That is one of the most significant insights in the Christian record."

To discover that Baby, they passed up the Roman Empire. They might have discovered the bigness, the vastness, the magnificence, the power of the Roman rule. They entered into the palace of Herod, but they did not say, "We have arrived." They said, "Where is the Baby?" It takes wisdom to do that. This kind of wisdom our modern world does not have. Its opposite surrounds us in nations seeking to rule the world, in business obsessed with size, in the popular attractiveness of the colossal.

These wise men of old passed up the empire for a Baby; they passed up bigness for vitality. As Fosdick puts it, "Vitality is mightier than size." Every Christmas we celebrate this truth. The Roman Empire fell, the Caesars are dust, the spectacular affairs which then had bulk and magnitude in the world's opinion have proved transient. However, that diminutive bit of vitality has proved more enduring than them all. It is wise to believe in that which is newborn and vital. So in our acceptance of Christ, not faith alone, certainly not credulity, but perceptive insight is called for.

IV. The Fourth Step of Wisdom is Worship

These wise men bowed down and worshiped.

No one should worship aught but the highest. No one should worship less than God, lest he or she be an idolater.

Worship is the climax of wisdom. What is the ultimate expectancy that courses in a person's bloodstream, that rules one's nature, that is the divine urge in his soul, if it is not the worship of God?

These men found in the Christ child a revelation of God. They worshiped Deity in Him.

I plead for us to worship the Christ. The whole story of that Baby Jesus calls for our utmost devotion.

We have followed the wise men in taking three steps of wisdom and the climactic step: Expectancy, Venture, Discovery, Worship.

The three steps which follow are not anticlimax. When a person reaches the summit of a mountain, that one does not jump over the precipice to return to the level of his or her daily walk. That would be an anticlimax. He returns by some path down the mountainside. The following three steps return us in wisdom from a mountain peak.

V. The Fifth Step of Wisdom is Sacrifice

Each man gave his best gift to the Christ child--his utmost to the Highest.

Why don't we see the wisdom of giving? Look about you. Apply the test of happiness. Who are the happy people? Not those who are smug, or those who are self-satisfied, but those who overflow with true joy. Happy are those who give sacrificially to Jesus Christ.

VI. The Sixth Step of Wisdom is Obedience

The magi were warned not to go back home by the way which they had come, by the way of Herod's palace. They received divine guidance. They obeyed.

After you make discovery of the Baby, after you worship Him, then your life in wisdom becomes a walk of loving obedience. In obedience, life becomes full and rich and purposeful. Life becomes significant and useful.

VII. The Seventh Step of Wisdom is Faithfulness

Each magus returned to his own country. Go back home! What is he to do back home?

After you have the Bethlehem experience, you must live it out in your own life. You must somehow prove faithful. You must keep faith with the Baby in your area of living. You must prove faithful in your own vocation, your own home, your own country. By faithfulness, you shall know that your discovery of the Christ child is the greatest event of your life.

AND NOW THE NEWS!
Christmas

Advent 3^rd Sunday

By Jonathan Salgado
Luke 2:10

TEXT: "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" (Luke 2:10, KJV).

"And now the news!" In one sense this expresses the hope we hold for this Christmas Sunday. There is news, and it is a wondrous word for all of us to hear! Unless we hear it, we resemble the commentator who never gets to the point, who never says, "And now the news!"

One interesting aspect of any news is that each of us hears it according to his own experience. So it is with the greatest news of all. Christmas means different things to different people.

We see this reflected in the story of the birth of our Lord. On that night at the manger, the shepherds came and told all that had been announced unto them. The Bible says, "All who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them" (Luke 2:20, RSV). But one person perceived it at a deeper meaning: Mary. She "kept all these things, pondering them in her heart" (v. 19, RSV). So, this Christmas season many people will have a few days or a few moments of passing wonder, and it will be over for them. Some, like Mary, hearing these things, will ponder them, keeping them in their hearts. Life for them will be different because of it. Can it be so for all of us? What is there in the news of Christmas to be heard here today?

I. The Disheartened Will Find Hope

At the outset some of us disheartened ones will hear at Christmas the news of a new hope. It is God's greatness to us in Jesus Christ. As long as He walked upon the earth, moving everywhere among people, Christ gave hope to those in despair. And it is still true! In this Christmas faith of ours hope remains a central part of the good news.

What news it will be to some people! Without hope, life soon comes to a standstill. Hope is to the soul what oxygen is to a body. We must not be deprived of hope lest we come to death. Some people come to Christmas disheartened beyond words. They can be reminded that God has spoken in Christ and tells us never to yield to despair.

Hope that has come to us in Jesus Christ brings a word that God has not forgotten, that even in the darkest night some place there is a manger where God has done His work. Somewhere we have cause for hope. Hope reminds us that our Father has not forgotten.

Do you doubt that we have news of great joy? What a great Christmas this can be for some who have waited for that word of hope and despaired about its coming. "And now the news!" Christmas always comes at night and hope is restored.

II. The Heedless Will Find Reminder

Some of us who have grown heedless will hear in this Christmas a word of reminder. One of the clearest of words about the Christmas story is its simplicity. In a world where we become so involved in more and more things, where men and women are so easily led into foolish belief that mere accumulation is the sign of success, the Christmas story comes with its word of reminder: don't forget the great simplicities. Into this scrambling, competitive, and often harried world in which we live, the scene of a manger and a Child reminds us that God's greatest gifts are often the simplicities.

This word of Christmas needs to be spoken particularly to families seeking to become established--as we put it, "to get ahead." That may be a part of life. Yet somewhere in it all a word of reminder needs to be spoken often. The great underlying simplicities that make life most real can be lost by neglect in the course of gaining other things.

Beyond dispute, when a family has faith, hope, and love, it already has everything. The rest is surplus. Unless you have these underlying gifts, nothing else can make up for them. When you need an ounce of love, two tons of things will not substitute. There's a difference of quality that no quantity will overcome. May this Christmas bring that news to some who need to be reminded. It isn't enough to look at Christmas and wonder. It is important, like Mary, to take time to ponder.

"And now the news!" It is a reminder at the Christmas season that life is most real in its great simplicities. To a generation caught in the scrambling for success, this word of reminder needs to be shared.

III. The Weary Will Discover Renewal

Some whose faith has grown weary will hear in Christmas the words of renewal. This may seem to some a strange note to sound at Christmas time. Yet this is one of our most urgent needs. It is possible to have faith that you have inherited but never really possessed. Someone said of a great religious teacher that he did not give a new Bible, but he made the Bible new. That is a need that many of us have in the matter of our religious faith.

How common is the scene of Christmas! A manger, a barn, a few cattle, shepherds, a man named Joseph, and his wife, Mary. Common folk in a common setting--and suddenly there was with them the glory of God himself!

That can happen over and over. How long has it been since you really prayed? Wouldn't it be something of wonder if at this Christmas time, your prayer could be made real, touched by the glory of God, and made something resplendent?

What does it mean to you to find a place of worship like this on Sunday morning? Is it a habit that you follow almost blindly now? For years it has been so. Wouldn't it be a matter of wonder if on this Christmas Sunday you were endowed with a sense of the glory of God? Worship that is heedless and habitual can suddenly take on new life as the common manger scene becomes the symbol of the presence of God.

Or there is the service that we have rendered. Even the highest can seem to become routine. But suppose at this Christmas time God touched that service we are rendering with a new freshness and meaning! Just as suddenly as the angels came to the shepherds going about their accustomed tasks, so the grace of God can help us see the service we have been rendering, not in terms of a chore or a duty, but of a divine enterprise helping to minister to God's children. What a wondrous thing this would be if every service grown so commonplace could be seen with freshness of vision! "And now the news!" A renewal of faith comes as the gift of God.

ACROSS THE DATE LINE
The Courier
by Jonathan Salgado
Exod. 1:5

Advent 4th Sunday

TEXT: "Joseph was already in Egypt" (Exod. 1:5).

The last 26 chapters of Genesis would surely be a bestseller if they were published for the first time as a modern novel.

We can give the story only it its barest outline.

Jacob, an oriental patriarch, had 12 sons by two wives and two concubines. He loved Rachel most dearly and; by her, two sons were born, Joseph and Benjamin. Jacob was unwise to show preference for any of his children, but the story reads, "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children . . . and he made him a coat of many colors" (Gen. 37:3, KJV).

One day his brothers found opportunity to vent their hatred of Joseph. They camped at some distance from the tents of Jacob, grazing his sheep. They decided to get rid of the lad; just then a band of Ishmaelites passed on their way to Egypt. The brothers sold him into slavery instead. The caravaners carried Joseph away. The coat of many colors dipped in the blood of a kid convinced the heartbroken father that his son was killed by a wild beast.

The story develops. Joseph became the prime minister of Egypt. In a period of famine, Jacob was forced to send his sons to buy grain in the land of Egypt. They bought from the prime minister but did not recognize him. On another occasion Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. He sent for his father and the family to come down into Egypt. The story ends with the children of Jacob living in that land.

A second story begins with Exodus 1. The writer refers back to the Genesis story in five words: "Joseph was already in Egypt" (v. 5).

The old man Jacob had anguish of heart in Canaan, but Joseph was in Egypt. The aged man with much experience had arrived at a strong faith in God. Joseph in Egypt vindicated his faith. "Joseph was already in Egypt."

We view this story as an allegory for the last Sunday of the old year. Let this year of 1997 be our Canaan; let next year, 1998, all unknown, become our Egypt. Like Jacob, we must journey from Canaan to Egypt. The story moves on. Life unfolds. Life must be lived. A destiny belongs to each of us. But here is the denouement of the story--Joseph is already in Egypt.

I. At The End of the Year We May Have Some Sorrows

What did Jacob take with him into the land of Egypt? He carried sorrow of heart-- sorrow for Rachel, his beloved and sorrow for a lost child. What did he find in Egypt? Comfort for his sorrow. He found this comfort because Joseph was already in Egypt.

At the dividing line between 1997 and 1998 there is no magic by which anyone's sorrow will disappear. At midnight, no wand will wave above you, restless in your sleep, lifting unhappy memories from your mind and sorrow from your heart. Life is not like that. But Jesus is on the other side of the date line. The Christ who is "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8, TLB) walks in the year 1998. The eternal Christ knows no limitations or boundaries of time.

So at the portal of the year let me urge all sorrowing folk, and they are many, to cross the line with no hesitation. Cross over with expectation that the compassionate and comforting Christ is in the unknown land of Egypt already.

II. At The End Of The Year We May Have Some Uncertainties

Surely Jacob did not leave the borders of Canaan without interrogations, misgivings, fears, and doubts.

Life is always a venture. To live is venturesome. The call to move along comes, and it must be obeyed. A light directs, but beyond its feeble flickering all seems dark. A star shines in the sky, but the clouds drift over it.

This familiar place must be abandoned. I expected that this and this would happen, but it didn't. I had planned my security, but a seven-year famine came upon the land; I had not counted on that.

When Jacob's sons came and told him that Joseph was in Egypt, the story says that "Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not." Finally he said, "It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him" (Gen. 45:26, 28, KJV).

These are not easy days. Across the boundary of 1998 not one of us can promise either weal or woe; only this, that Joseph will be there; the Christ will be there. A person can say, "I will go and see him."

III. At The End Of The Year We Can Carry Across Our Certainties

A person carries his certainties, as well as his sorrows and interrogations, across the date line.

This fellow Jacob carried his certainties down to Egypt. He was not a very exemplary character in some respects. In his past he had been crooked. You had to watch him, or he would put one over on you. He was shrewd at striking a bargain. But he fought through his inner battles.

Jacob believed in God. After arriving in Egypt, he said, "God Almighty appeared to me . . . in the land of Canaan, and there He blessed me" (Gen. 48:3). He carried his faith in God from Canaan into Egypt.

The multitude of years had brought him wisdom; that wisdom he carried across the border. He did not discount experience. Experience of God was not to Jacob the stern light of a ship illuminating only the track it has passed; experience of God was making clear the horizon ahead.

His certainty of God was vindicated. When he met Joseph in the land of Egypt, he knew that God was watching over all, making it the occasion to bring about His good.