While we hear the familiar
Christmas story in Luke and Matthew’s gospels, and watch it play out in
pageants, movies and television specials, Linus never takes the stage to say the
verses from our first reading – the only time we hear these
verses is on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
They’re from the book of Titus, one of the pastoral epistles, or letters, in Scripture. And while some of the letters we have are attributed to Paul, it’s believed that this letter to Titus and the two letters to Timothy – all of which we think were written toward the end of the first century CE, or possibly even in the second century - were written by an anonymous author who credited Paul in order to honor him. Using Paul’s name on a letter that was written after his death is like producing a new Walt Disney movie; Mr. Disney died in 1966 but dozens of movies produced since then bear his name because the legacy he built endures.[i]
Whenever we listen to one of these letters, it’s helpful to remember that it’s as if we are looking over the author’s shoulder as the words are being recorded or perhaps like we found a stack of letters tied up with twine in a box in the attic. We aren’t the original recipients, and we don’t know a lot about who that was, or even about the author. The letter, then, invites our curiosity.
In this letter, the author
is writing to Titus – a Gentile leader - on the island of Crete about the
Christian community there,
and at the center of his
letter,
he writes about the
manifestation of God’s love in the world –
the very incarnation of God that we celebrate in the nativity, or birth, of Jesus at Christmas.
In Jesus, God defies the
people’s expectations of a Messiah or Savior sent from heaven
as a triumphant warrior
king,
and instead,
God breaks into the
lives of ordinary women and men
and delivers our Savior,
who arrives as a vulnerable newborn
held in the tender embrace of his mother.
Jesus our Savior brings
salvation for all, manifesting the goodness and loving kindness of God, in the
flesh. Salvation is ours, not because of anything we have done,
but because God so
richly loves every one of us.
And so, it’s not only Jesus’ birth that we celebrate at Christmas; as the author reminds us, in the waters of baptism we too are born again and renewed by the Holy Spirit. So, as we remember the Son of God arriving in the world as an infant, we also remember our own baptism when we were named + child of God.
In Jesus, God’s grace is born in the world for all to see and know.
So on this Christmas
morning,
I wonder how and where we see grace appear in our lives today?
Is it
In
the person next to us reaching out their hand to hold ours?
In
someone’s praying for us when we need it?
In
the quilts sewn and delivered to neighbors who are trying to stay warm against
the winter cold?
In
the knitted prayer shawl wrapped around the shoulders of someone who is
grieving?
In
the laughter around an abundant table?
In the stillness of the night sky or the quiet of the early morning?
Wherever it is that you notice God’s grace, know that it is God’s gift to you, given without conditions or requirements.
In a cynical world that measures achievements and rewards status, that seems - like a newborn Savior - an impossibility. Surely, there’s a catch!
But there isn’t.
God simply pours out
love and grace and mercy through Jesus
and invites us to respond to this goodness in our lives by drawing near to God and sharing Jesus with the world.
Let us pray…
Holy God,
Thank you for sending
your Son Jesus to us,
and showing us how much
you love us.
Thank you for the gift
of baptism, that you call us your children;
And thank you for your
unfailing grace.
By your Holy Spirit,
renew us and lead us
to share Jesus with the world.
We pray in the name of
our Savior, Jesus.
Amen.
[i] Lutheran
Study Bible. 1952.
