Sermon for Christmas Eve - Tit 2:11-14

                                                                                                Christmas Eve

                                                                                                Tit 2:11-14

                                                                                                12/24/18

            In order to help us think about history, we divide it up into eras or periods of time.  These are usually demarcated by significant events.  So when we talk about world history, World War II is a dramatic event that marks a significant change in the world and the start of a new era.

            If you had been living in December 1918, you would have thought that the Great War that had just ended the previous month was the “war to end all wars” and the beginning of a new era.  But a war concluded before one side had achieved clear victory on the battlefield simply delayed the need for final resolution of the issues that caused the war in the first place. 

            On Sept. 1, 1939 the Germans invaded Poland and before it was all done, the entire world was plunged into a war.  World War II led to the deaths of somewhere between seventy and eighty five million people.  War was waged on a scale and in a scope that had never been seen before.  And of course, its final conclusion was brought about in part by the invention of a completely new weapon – the atom bomb.

            World War II was a great event and it clearly marked the start of a new era.  It marked the decline of the colonial powers as their colonies became independent countries and Great Britain and France became second rate powers.  It marked the emergence of the United States as the super power it has continued to be to this day.  It marked the beginning of the Cold War which consumed great effort and resources until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.  And it marked the beginning of the nuclear age which has threatened destruction on an unimaginable scale, and at the same time has prevented a World War III.

            In the epistle lesson for Christmas Eve, the apostle Paul describes the appearance of Jesus Christ as an event that has begun a new era.  He clearly says that this impacts the way we now live, and that it points forward to a dramatic event that will begin another era.  And at the same time the manner in which the appearance of Jesus Christ took place leads us to consider more deeply how God works now in our midst.

            Paul begins by saying, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”  The phrase “the grace of God has appeared” is what we are celebrating tonight. God’s grace – his unmerited favor and love – appeared when the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was born in Bethlehem.

            The apostle told the Galatians that this appearance took place according to God’s plan and timing.  He wrote, “But 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.”  Paul sees this appearance as the beginning of a new era.  It is as he says literally in our text, “the now age.”

            Paul states clearly why this is so at the end of our text when he writes that Jesus who was born is “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”  Jesus is the Savior because he gave himself on our behalf.  He died on the cross to redeem us from all lawlessness.  He has freed us from slavery to sin.

            And Paul adds that this redeeming work has purified for himself a people for his own possession.  Biblical thought deals with the individual, but it can never lose sight of the group.  Jesus Christ has not given forgiveness only to you or to me.  He has done this for all who through baptism and faith are in Christ.

            And when Paul refers to a “a people for his own possession” he is talking about the new era that has begun.  Paul wrote this letter to Titus who was on the island of Crete.  Paul and Titus had begun the proclamation of the Gospel on the island.  Now, Paul had left Titus there on Crete to be in charge of organizing the new congregations.

            While surely there were some Jews present, these congregations were overwhelmingly Gentile.   Paul speaks about Gentiles, and yet he refers to them as “a people of his own possession.”  This is the very language that Yahweh had used to describe Israel when he brought them out of Egypt in the exodus and took them to be his covenant people.  As Paul says in our text, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.” The remarkable thing about this new era is that now Jews and Gentiles are together the people of God’s own possession.  The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has begun the era of the new covenant.  This means that although most of you are not descended from Abraham, you belong.  You are part of God’s people who have been purified of all your sins.

            Tonight we gather to celebrate how God’s grace was revealed as Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem.  When we think about this event, we certainly remember that Jesus was born in order to die on the cross as our Savior.  We are comforted by the knowledge that the Son of God entered into the world in the incarnation in order to save us. And that is usually where we stop. Jesus is our Savior who has given us forgiveness. That’s what he means for us.

            But if our thoughts on Christmas Eve stop there, then we have not really understood Paul’s point.  Paul begins our text with the word “for.”  This relates our text to what Paul has just been saying. In fact it tells us that our text provides the grounds – the reason and justification for what Paul has just said.

            In the previous ten verses, Paul has been telling Titus what he is to teach the Christians on Crete about how they are to live.  He has described how men and woman are to live in their vocations in ways that are reverent, loving, kind, self-controlled, and steadfast.  Indeed, Paul says in our text that the grace of God has appeared “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”

            Our text provides the reason that Christians are to do these things.  It provides the reason that we are to live in ways that are true to God’s will as we live in our vocations.  Paul leaves no doubt about this when he ends our text by saying that Christ has purified for himself “a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

            The birth of Jesus Christ was the grace of God appearing to bring salvation for you.  It was the beginning of a new era in which we live.  It has led to your forgiveness and salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  But its meaning does not stop there.  Instead through the work of the Spirit this same saving grace now leads and enables you to live in ways that are true to Christ; that reflect Christ.  Jesus is the reason for the season.  He is also the reason that we live as “little Christs” in every season.  He is the reason that we live in the ways God’s word teaches.

            Paul says in our text, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.”  These are grand words for what we celebrate tonight.  God’s grace was a baby lying in a manger, visited by shepherds.  It hardly looked like the beginning of a new era.  And if that was true of his birth, then it was even more true of the goal towards which his life moved.  The great action by which Jesus Christ won forgiveness was his death on the cross.  It did not look like an impressive victory.  Paul granted that this idea seemed like foolishness to the world. But as he told the Corinthians, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

            Paul could say that because of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.  Tonight reminds us that the ways the risen Lord works in the present continue to look like that baby in a manger.  They are not impressive to the world.  It is the Word preached.  It is the water of Holy Baptism.  It is the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar.

            But because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ we know that the Word is the inspired revelation of God through which the Spirit continues to work. The water of baptism is the means by which we have shared in the saving death of Jesus Christ. The bread and wine of the Sacrament is the true body and blood of Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

            On this night we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  Born of a virgin, he was placed in the manger of a stable.  The only people who visited him were shepherds.  But because of the resurrection we know that when the world sees Jesus Christ again there will be nothing humble about him.  Instead, Paul tells us in our text that we are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”