St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday Sermon – First Sunday After Christmas – January 1, 2012 (New
Year’s Day)
“Good the Timing of God”
Text: Galatians 4:4-7

When it comes to time, what a good time it is on the first day of
a New Year to proclaim the good timing of God.
A good overall theme for these Sundays in January 2012 comes from
Romans 8:28. “We know that for those who love God ALL THINGS WORK TO-
GETHER FOR GOOD, for those who are called according to His purpose.”
What about the passing of time? What about the present time? What
about a whole new year of time? What about not having enough time?
How meaningful or meaningless is it to talk about time as a precious
gift? How meaningful or meaningless is it to celebrate a “new year”
if a new year is going to be more of the same old thing?
Believe it or not, apart from all the New Year’s Eve parties and
January 2nd parades and football games; apart from all the New Year’s
resolutions that last for a week or maybe a month, some people regard
New Year’s Day as one of the more meaningless & depressing holidays
of the year. An old year passes and a new year arrives; big deal!
All that means is that you are one year older, the earth is one year
older, the school year is half over; and since we’re having such good
weather we just know that we’re going to have some bad weather in
this new year before it’s time to get into the fields again. So life
goes on.
Despite all the political posturing & all the promises that
incumbents & contenders make an election year; the politicians who wind

up in Washington still can’t seem to get their act together.

In this “new year”, school systems all across our state still have
serious budget issues to face.
Morality in the world of sports & entertainment seems to be at a
new all-time low. When the “restructured” NBA season began in Dallas
last Sunday, there was a report of booing from fans in the stands.
And to top it off, in this New Year people who work harder may end
up having less to show for it. So what’s the big deal with a new year?
None of this comes as a surprise and none of it is that much
different from what the writer of Ecclesiastes points out in the 12
chapters of his book where he takes a realistic look at life & time
& work and has a pretty depressing assessment of the way life goes
round & round without amounting to much.
There is some beautiful poetry in the Book Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes is also called one of the 5 books of “wisdom literature”
in the Old Testament probably because Ecclesiastes offers down-to-
earth, true-to-life, note-worthy advice. But most of the 12 chapters
of Ecclesiastes, do not make for up-beat, things-are-going-to-get

better reading.
Ecclesiastes 3 (which many Christians are familiar with) is where
the author says “For everything there is a season, and a time for
every matter under heaven.”
Working people get up in the morning and go to work. They come
home at the end of the day tired. They may spend a few hours catching
up on the news or watching TV, then go to bed. So what’s new?
Some couples build up their savings, a little “nest egg” for the
future, then the economy turns sour and that’s the end of that.
A student works hard to get out of the 7th grade and all that
means is that he/she has to work hard to get out of the 8th grade.
Again and again Ecclesiastes asks the question, “What gain have
workers from their toil?” What about retirement? What about job
security? What about company loyalty? What about the unpredictable,
unsustainable highs & lows of grain futures, commodities, land values,
real estate taxes? In other words, what does it all amount too?
One commentary on Ecclesiastes says, “God is mentioned as the one
who gives us our days and that God has been busy from the beginning
of time. But who among us, poor, sinful, self-directed, not-easily
satisfied individuals, can figure out, who can know just what God is
up to or what another New Year will bring?”
God is the one who has “put past and future” into our minds, says
the author of Ecclesiastes. God has created us as people who can read
clocks, set schedules, make appointments, fill in day-planners, check
off days on a calendar, but we also procrastinate, waste time and get
anxious about not having enough time. Some of us can identify with
the person who said, “The hurried-er I go, the behind-er I get.” Does a

New Year change that?

Not really? From Genesis to Revelation the Bible assures us “It
was never God’s intent that we should know all that God has done and
is doing from beginning to end.”
Nor was it ever God’s intent that
we be able to change things ourselves, to save ourselves or deliver
ourselves from the struggles we all have with managing our time.
That’s why it’s worth remembering that’s what’s so good about God’s
timing that the beginning of every New Year comes only a few days
after Christmas. It turns out that WHAT’S AT THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS
speaks to a lot of the problems & frustrations we have with time
vanishing, time running out on us, same old, same old, nothing new!
The great truth of Christmas is that God does not leave us to an
endless cycle of one fleeting, passing, problem-filled year after
another. The birth of Jesus as true God, begotten of the Father from
eternity and also true man born of the virgin Mary is a virgin birth
that assures us God has entered our time and God stands with us no
matter how much or how little time we have.
While it’s true, “Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Soon bears

us all away,” it’s also true, “When the fullness of time had come,
God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem
those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as
sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son
into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father! So you are no longer a slave,
but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
We are not delivered from the constraints & constant rush of time,
but as Paul says here in Galatians, God Himself has moved into time.
In God’s free and undeserved grace toward us He has moved to redeem
us from the ravages of sin & the inevitability of death and lead us
into ‘an ever-new fullness of time’ which Jesus Christ our Lord makes
possible thru His own death & resurrection from the dead.
In other words, the incarnation, the intervention of God, the
in-the-flesh coming of Christ the crucified and risen again Savior
changes everything.
That’s what’s so good about God’s good timing, that no matter
now old or how routine or how hard things may get for us in the New
Year, the Good News from God this New Year’s Day is that God has come
down to us, is among us, and keeps on coming to us in His Word &
Sacrament.
While that does not change or slow down the passing of time, it
can change the way we see time. God with us in Christ, God in Christ
saving us, redeeming us from sin, death, and the power of the devil;
God in Christ is abiding with us, helps us appreciate the time we
have, give thanks for it, and use it for the glory of God and good of
others around us.
When is a good time to buy? When is a good time to sell? When
is it time to slow down; time to cut back; time to let go; time to
retire; time to cast away; time to keep silence; time to speak; time to
mourn; time to dance; time to move on; time to make some changes? Is
this New Year going to be a good new year?
Only God knows and this New Year is God’s good gift of time to
give us! As we enter this New Year, let this be our hope & salvation
and our reason for both joy & gladness: Our times are in God’s hands.
That’s a theological view of this New Year.
For some people, a New Year is nothing new. As Earl, in the
Pickles comic strip, said yesterday. “Same old, same old.” That’s
an existential view of a New Year.
For other people, the way they like to view a New Year is mostly
psychological. A New Year means making a fresh start, clean slate,
hoping against hope things will be better . . .which they probably
won’t.
But for Christian people, for God’s people, for people who
have faith in Jesus Christ, the best way to view a New Year is
theological. God is with us and God is for us. You can believe it,

and you can be sure of it.
God, Father, Son, and Spirit, hears!
To all our pleas He inclines His ears;
Upon our lives rich blessings He will trace.
We can trust God’s timing to be good - in this New Year of grace.
Amen and Amen!