Christmas Sermon 2014

The reading

Titus 2:11-14

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

The message

The Grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. Originally, those 10 words were going to be all I said for tonight’s sermon.  I wanted to just stand up here for a few seconds and simply say “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all”, announce the next hymn and start to sing  one of my favorite songs “I wonder as I wander”.  The Grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, is the description of Christmas from Paul’s letter to Titus, his friend and fellow missionary in the area of Crete almost 2000 years ago.  This letter, the final communication between Paul and Titus was written to encourage Titus in his work, correct false teachings and remind him that he is part of the larger church.  Christmas is central to that work.

I went as far as walking up and down in the church aisle on Monday, practicing The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, saying those few words with different tones, speeds and volumes. After all, I figured if a pastor was going to only say just a few of someone else's words at one of the most crowded and beautiful church services of the year, he should, at least spend the time to make sure they are clear and easy to understand.  I expected that there would be reactions. It would be something remembered, something outside of everyone’s ordinary church experience, something people would go home, talk about and tell others.  After practicing for a bit, I imagined people being unsure of what happened, looking around at each other, going “that’s it?”, “is he finished?”, people sending text messages to loved ones at home saying: “get the ham in the oven, we’ll be back earlier than usual”, some people thinking “if church was like this every week, I’d come back” and others being disappointed, Wanting to hear more about the religious meaning of Christmas in a world  just plain overcome with secular, retail, and social meanings to this holy day.

I am still talking though, so I obviously decided that this would not be the shortest Christmas sermon ever. The reason is simple enough, It’s actually an illness, something called Sudden Rich Syndrome (which honestly sounds like a disease we want to have). It’s a way psychologists, social scientists and others try to understand and explain why so many people who earn large sports and music contracts or win the lottery for 5, 10, 50, 100 million dollars or more end up in debt or bankrupt within a couple of years.  Most of the time, this collapse is caused by waste, fraud, poor management, theft, stress, just not knowing what to do and not having any honest help to do it. It is not a personal failing, race or cultural thing, this happens to all different people around the world.  It all comes down to the fact that dumping a huge amount of money on someone and walking away from them is not really a formula for success.  People are not prepared to actually win and to actually receive what they have dreamed of. People are often just not ready or able to handle that much change. 

This is not the shortest  Christmas sermon ever because to just say "the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all" would make it seem like Christmas is about God dumping salvation on us and walking away, leaving us to figure out what to do with this grace jackpot.  Christmas is more then that. It is a time when God's Grace appears for our salvation and also when God stars to walk with us, a life and story that shows us what to do with the grace that appears on Christmas, .a journey where, in the words of the carol, “Jesus our savior was born to die for poor ordinary people like you and like I”, a life that shows us love, welcome, care and salvation for all people.  ,

This is not the shortest  Christmas sermon ever because Christmas is not about 20 or 30 second sound bites, out of context clips, twisting words, looking right, saying things just to annoy, anger, illicit a response, get viewers, sell books, sell advertisements or get some attention at any cost.  We have enough of that sickness infecting the world right now.  Christmas offers us a different vision, a world of complete relationships, where people with faith in God's care and trust in God's promises, love each other in the complexity, pain, struggle and confusion of the world. Seen this way the church, this community is a place of wondering and learning together about how to share this grace that appeared on Christmas.       

This is not the shortest  Christmas sermon ever because right before the verse, I keep saying “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, are other verses, including “slave obey your master” and “woman obey your husband”, some of the most difficult passages for us to reconcile with a faith that teaches welcome, love for all and inclusion.   I am still talking because I know if someone read just those verses a few sentences away from tonight’s word, and then threw the book of Titus away,  he or she would miss Christmas.  It is a very sad and dangerous thing to talk about just one piece of God’s story. 

This is not the shortest Christmas sermon ever because in the rest of our reading from Titus tonight, we hear that Christmas is an invitation to change, a call to celebrate by letting the grace of God that appeared, bringing salvation to all,  shape our lives, to live in the comfort and joy that comes from knowing our sins are forgiven and that our God loves and cares for us, to celebrate Christmas by being a people zealous for good deeds. Now is the time for me to stop talking and for us to start living the news of Christmas: The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.