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Christmas Eve
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Edward V. S. Moore, December 24, 2018


The Grace of God Has Appeared


Text: Titus 2:11

We are here today to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. With psalms and with hymns and with spiritual songs we joyfully receive him once again for our Redeemer: the tiny babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. We also look forward in this great Eucharistic celebration to the time when he will come again in glory to judge the world. At that time, we hope and pray that we will be able to stand before him in confidence and receive the reward for which we have striven during this our earthly pilgrimage.

How has it come about that we believe these things? In the first place it is because someone in our lives, usually our parents, with the assistance of our Godparents, our Sunday School teachers, and our priest, loved us enough to teach us the truth about God’s plan of salvation for the world. This is what St. Paul means by “sound doctrine” in his letter to Titus (2:1).

The essence of sound teaching proceeds from the grace of God: in the first place, that grace appeared to all mankind. Second, God’s grace teaches that true happiness and fulfillment are to be found in living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Next, God’s grace teaches us that the focus of our lives should be on the blessed hope of salvation which will be fulfilled when our Savior appears in glory. Finally, God’s grace teaches us that we have this hope because Christ gave himself for us, to redeem us from our iniquity so that we might be reconciled to God and our fellow man. All of this so that we might be re-born as the people he originally intended us to be. In that way we might have unity with God, with ourselves, and with our fellow men.

How may we learn, by God’s grace, of the manner in which he appeared to men as a human being. It is by reading the Holy Scriptures which have been written specifically at God’s direction for our learning. We prayed in the Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent that we might hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them. That in so doing patiently, being strengthened by God’s Holy Word, that is Christ in us, we might embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life.

Point 1

The Gospel according to St. Luke is a prime example of these Scriptures. The author acknowledges that his is not the first attempt to tell the story, but he intends to tell it in an orderly manner, and he addresses it to a specific person, one whose name is Theophilus, a Greek name meaning “lover of God”. Luke’s narrative is based on the experiences of the apostles and others who were eye witnesses and ministers of the word of God. In his travels with Blessed Paul the Apostle, Luke would have had ample opportunity to interview others of the apostles, and various disciples of Christ, as well as his mother, relatives, and friends. As a result, he includes much detail which they would have known firsthand. One example is the incident of Jesus remaining in Jerusalem after the Feast of the Passover to discuss theology with the doctors in the Temple.

Luke begins by situating his narrative historically. It was during the reign of Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor. It was at a very specific time in his reign, when he issued a decree that everyone in the empire would be registered. Luke also situates his story in time with respect to the term of service of the governor of Syria, Cyrenius (Quirinius). Further, that each man, woman, and child would have to go to the city, town, or village of his birth in order to be taxed. Joseph and Mary had been residing in Nazareth in Galilee, part of the former northern kingdom of Israel. Since Joseph was a descendent of the great King David, he was obliged to travel south to Bethlehem, in Judea, the former southern kingdom. This was because Bethlehem was David’s city. With Joseph was his espoused wife Mary who was also of the house of David. Thus, the baby she was carrying would be born legally of the house of David, since his legal father was Joseph. Likewise, he would be biologically of the house of David, due to Mary’s Davidic line.

Next Luke tells us that while the holy family was in Bethlehem, Mary was delivered of a son; that she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. So Luke makes sure that we know that the circumstances of Jesus’ birth were as humble as could be: his place of birth was a stable. His cradle was a crude piece of farm equipment design to hold fodder for the animals to eat. There were no attendants to assist with the birth. Luke tells us simply that the birth occurred. So far we find nothing very much out of the ordinary here, except for the extreme humility of the circumstances.

Luke then shifts the scene to the countryside outside the city. Here he presents another homely vista: shepherds, the simplest of rustic folk, spending the night in the open, tending their flock of sheep. Then something extraordinary occurs: a messenger from God, an angel of the Lord, appears to them in a blaze of shining glory, turning the night into day around them. They were understandably terrified. They knew this sort of thing had happened in the past to great men like Moses and Abraham, but not to ordinary folk like shepherds. What could this mean? Then the angel spoke and relieved their fears, telling them that he bore a message of joy and hope. And that message was: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 1:10,11)

The good tidings were that the long-awaited Messiah had been born nearby. The expectation is implicit in the angel’s message that the shepherds will at once go to see and worship the babe. And so, the angel gives specific information as to how the shepherds may find and recognize him. They will find him wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Then the first angel was joined by an army of heavenly beings praising God and declaring peace to men of good will, that is those with whom God is well pleased.

The shepherds’ reaction was indeed to go immediately to Bethlehem, to seek and find Mary, Joseph, and the baby. Having confirmed by their own senses what the angel had announced, they were compelled to go forth and share the good news with all they should all that they had seen and heard.

Point 2

I would like to offer a few thoughts on the nativity drawn from the Church Fathers:

The nativity was the beginning of a life that would culminate in the passion, death, and resurrection of a human being who was also The Eternal Word. Without this humble beginning there would have been no victory over sin and death, and no Pentecost Day birth of the Church of which Jesus Christ is our head. (Chrysostom, ACCS, NT Vol III, p. 36)

God chose a time of great peace for Jesus’ birth. Rome was master of the world. The Pax Romana was universal. This earthly peace descended that God might lead the world to the heavenly peace which can only exist when man is reconciled to God the Father. (Bede, ibid., p. 37) This si the fulfillment of the angels’ message.

Two natures were combined in this holy nativity, this real union of the divine and human. They were combined without confusion, that is neither was destroyed or absorbed by the other. The union was present in the person whom we know as one Christ, one Son, one Lord. This is why we can “proclaim the Virgin the Mother of God, because God the Word was made flesh and became man, and by the act of conception united to himself the temple, that is his human body, that he received from her. For we perceive that two natures, by an inseparable union, met together in him without confusion, and indivisibly. For the flesh is flesh and not deity, even though it became the flesh of God. In like manner also, the Word is God and not flesh. Though for the dispensation’s sake he made the flesh his own.

Although the natures which came together to form the union are both different and unequal to one another, yet he who is formed from them both is only one. We may not separate the one Lord Jesus Christ into man and God, but we affirm that Jesus Christ is one and the same, acknowledging the distinction of the natures, and preserving them free from confusion with one another.” (Cyril of Alexandria, ibid., p. 38)

And finally, from Jerome, “in heaven, where there is no discord, glory rules. On earth, where every day is warfare, peace prevails. Peace among whom? (Among men. Why are the Gentiles without peace? Why too the Jews? That is exactly the reason for the qualification.) Peace among men of good will. Among those who acknowledge the birth of Christ.” (ibid., p. 5) To paraphrase a popular bumper sticker slogan: Those who know Christ, know peace.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. (Titus 2:11), KJV)

My brothers and sisters, may God continue to give us grace to know him, to love him, and joylessly to do his will, by the example of his Son Jesus Christ, born a babe in Bethlehem this night, that he might be our Lord and Savior. May we, by the power of his in-dwelling Holy Spirit, continue to say yes to him of whom the angels sing: Glory to God in the highest, peace to men of good will.

Let us pray.

©2018 Rev. Edward V. S. Moore

Notes

Epistle Titus 2:11–15

(Tit 2:11)  For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

(Tit 2:12)  training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

(Tit 2:13)  waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

(Tit 2:14)  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.

(Tit 2:15)  Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

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