24 December 2013

“Celebrate the Child!”
Christmas Eve
Titus 2:11-14
24 December 2013


In the midst of every Christmas Eve worship service, there’s a brief Word, a little gem, tucked away, that we read and hear each year, but it probably breezes right past us, as we’re singing and listening to the oh-so-familiar words of the Christmas story from Luke’s gospel.
This little gem is the three verse New Testament reading from Paul’s letter to Titus.
Now – granted – reading from the Letters on Christmas Eve – even one from Paul – doesn’t have the appeal of telling a story, especially such a well known and beloved story as the one we hear about the angels and the shepherds, the young mother and the baby wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.
Paul’s letter to Titus comes from a time many years after Jesus’ birth.
The Apostle has left his associate Titus behind on the island of Crete, to continue to build the church of Jesus Christ there. In this letter, Paul is doing what he does in virtually every letter he writes … encouraging the church-builders to continue to be faithful in teaching, preaching and practicing the Word of Jesus Christ.
It’s a great, solid, profound word for us.
Which usually goes thud or gets lost, for us, every year.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

SNORE.
Honestly, who can get excited about a Word that sounds like it belongs in a college textbook?
But the problem isn’t with the Word, it’s with our translation of it.
So let’s take the advice I give, whenever people come to me, usually around this time of the year, asking about “which Bible translation should I get, or give, to someone?”
The translation we use in worship, is the one appointed by our denomination, the ELCA, for reading in public worship. It’s called the New Revised Standard Version, and most of the time, it’s very good for public – aloud – reading of the texts.
It’s admittedly at a 10th grade reading level, though. And sometimes it uses words and sentence structures which are difficult to read, and hear, and inwardly digest and understand.
So let’s try hearing Paul’s words to Titus, again, using a more modern, simple, straightforward translation … this one’s called The Voice:

We have cause to celebrate because the grace of God has appeared, offering the gift of salvation to all people. Grace arrives with its own instruction: run away from anything that leads us away from God; abandon the lusts and passions of this world; live life now in this age with awareness and self-control, doing the right thing and keeping yourselves holy. Watch for his return; expect the blessed hope we all will share when our great God and Savior, Jesus the Anointed, appears again. He gave his body for our sakes and will not only break us free from the chains of wickedness, but he will also prepare a community uncorrupted by the world that he would call his own—people who are passionate about doing the right thing.

Now that’s easier to hear, and take in, isn’t it?

We have cause to celebrate because the grace of God has appeared, offering the gift of salvation to all people …

Absolutely we do have cause to celebrate. The grace of God has appeared … is appearing … and will continue to appear … in the Word and Way of Jesus. It is a full, rich and complete story which begins well before the Word from Luke’s Gospel which highlights our reason for gathering here tonight.
It comes even before the Word from the prophet Isaiah which was our Hebrew Scripture reading.
It comes through God’s age-old story for us.
It comes through Jesus’ life of service, suffering, and death on the cross.
It comes through the Easter story of life everlasting.
And it comes through Paul’s instructions here … grace’s instructions … the way God calls us to live in this way of God’s gift of love for us in Jesus.
These are community instruction … the way of Jesus to be lived out, in and with others in the body of Christ together … the body of Christ where there can be, where there are … faith guides, mentors, brothers and sisters who lead and love in the way of Jesus, which means repentance and forgiveness when we don’t follow the instructions … which is the way it is for all of us …
… and who also provide encouragement and hope along the way.
And so we can hear and risk in love to live the Way of Jesus …

…running away from anything that leads from God …
…abandoning the passions of this world (the stuff and situations that lead us from God) to have passion for the Kingdom way of Jesus … giving, serving, living for those who Jesus especially loves … the poor, the powerless, the downtrodden, the sick and suffering and dying, those on the margins of our world …
… and being people who are passionate about doing the right thing.

These are community instructions … for how will we ever know what “the right thing” is apart from the community which enfleshes it for us …
… who eat at Jesus’ table …
… who study and hear and meditate and pray on Jesus’ word …
… who bear his forgiving and freeing Word into the world …
This isn’t just what Christmas is all about, Nativity … it is what this faith, this life is all about. What is real, and true, and for us, for this life, and for the life to come.
It’s a Word especially for you, Nativity, to carry you through in these days and weeks and months ahead … KEEP ON KEEPING ON … keep doing, keep being, the people who Jesus calls, leads, forgives and frees you to be …

… people who are passionate about doing the right thing …

For indeed, we have cause to celebrate tonight … to CELEBRATE THE CHILD … the child Jesus, the one who grows to be the Christ of the Cross and empty tomb, the One who is the Light, and Life, of All.
Amen.