Titus 2:11-14
“Ready for Hope”
December 24, 2011 - Christmas Eve

         I glanced up. The sky was growing bright. I watched as clouds thinned and the glowing disk of the sun appeared. It was Thursday morning as I worked on this message. That clear sky continued Friday and today, a welcome break from the gloom that characterizes our Oregon weather this time of year.

         Paul used exactly the same sort of expression for what we are celebrating tonight. The coming of grace of God, the coming of Jesus Christ, was like the sun suddenly appearing in cloudy Oregon skies. That’s one of the reasons Christmas celebration includes so much light: shiny ornaments, electric lights, candles. It’s all part of remembering how Jesus appeared like a sudden light in the darkness.

         Even our text suddenly appears in what up until then has been a pretty gloomy letter. Paul was writing Titus about all the sinners there in Crete, noting in chapter 1 verse 12 that it was a Cretan himself who said, “Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.” But suddenly in the midst of all that moral correction, the grace of God in Jesus Christ appears. It’s like the light went on in Paul’s own heart and mind.

         Paul was probably thinking about Jesus’ whole life on earth when he wrote verse 11, but it resonates so well with the birth of Jesus. Sometime in the earliest centuries of Christianity this became the epistle reading for Christmas Day. In Christmas we celebrate the sudden and wonderful appearance of God’s grace in the world. That grace offers “salvation to all people.” The angel brought the same message to the shepherds, “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people… a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

         It’s easy to be as cynical about our own place and time as that ancient Cretan was about the inhabitants of his island. We look around and it seems like almost everybody is dishonest, mean and selfish. There was an article in today’s paper saying 1 out of 11 Americans is a shoplifter. If we’re just a bit honest, like the Cretan, we’ll own up to our own part in it all. Trying to do good seems hopeless, so we’ll just focus on our own pleasure like everyone else.

         Verse 12 sounds like Paul went back to his moral instruction after a brief respite as he says, “It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives.” Like we said, that all just seems hopeless. But coming after verse 11, the morality shines with new hope. The grace of God in Jesus has come to make it possible.

         The grace of Jesus breaks through like the sun on Thursday morning, like a candle in the dark to remind us that God has not given up on us. There is hope, hope that our world and we ourselves can become something different, something better. That hope suddenly appeared in cattle stall in Bethlehem and that hope is still shining.

         Jesus born in Bethlehem is a gift from God which calls us to throw away what that gift replaces. Growing up, every Christmas I expected to find a new toothbrush in my stocking and new underwear beneath the tree. You can be sure these were not the gifts for which I most hoped. I took them for granted. Yet now that I have to buy my own toothbrushes and underwear, I realize what good gifts those were. I got to throw away the old brush, with worn, flattened bristles, before I went to bed on Christmas and put the fresh new toothbrush which made my teeth feel so much cleaner in its place. I got to take the old underwear, which I won’t describe, out of the drawer and put nice bright white stuff where it had been.

         That’s just what Jesus came to do with our lives. That precious child grew up to become the best Man this world has ever seen and to create a life, a human life, which He will give to anyone who wants to replace the old worn out, dirty, broken stuff we usually carry around. By giving us the life of Jesus, God makes it possible for us to say “No” to all that is old and awful, and to turn to­ward His fresh way of living. As the carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” sings, Jesus was born to “cast out our sin and enter in.” He came to be born in us so that we may be born into new life.

         So there’s hope, hope for those wretched Cretans, hope even for us. Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and He will teach you, He will transform you into something new. Give Him your life and He will give you a new life. The grace of God in Jesus will save you, save you from your sins and save you for a life of godliness and goodness.

         In the end, though, is that kind of hope enough? If all Jesus does is make us better people, is it worth it? You could ask that about toothbrushes and new underwear. I faithfully used those new brushes every year. I floss my teeth. I’ve had good dental care. But just two months ago, for the first time in my life, I had to have a tooth crowned. It just fell apart, no matter how much I brushed or flossed it. Was all that trouble worth it?

         And clean underwear? In the end will it matter, as you lay there in a coffin someday? Who’s going to care at that point if your underwear has holes in it, or if you’re even wearing any? And what will it matter in the end when you’re gone, and who will care if you’ve lived a clean and good life or been a lying selfish brute like a Cretan?

         Questions like that about the end of life are why Paul added verse 13 to our text. There is something more to our hope. We have more than just the present as a reason to say “No” to sin and “Yes” to the life Jesus wants to give us. Why say “No” to some of the pleasures, conveniences and sins of your old life? Why give up the satisfaction of revenge, the sweetness of illicit love, the pleasure of getting ahead at someone else’s expense? Because there is life and hope beyond this life.

         As we accept the grace of God in Jesus and learn to give up the old life and live in the new one He gives us, we do so, “while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

         There’s that word again. First it was a verb, now it’s a noun. The grace of God appeared in Jesus. But we are still waiting for the appearing of Jesus. In Advent, the church season that leads up to Christmas, we remember that there are two appearances of Jesus, two bright days of sun breaking through the clouds. Christmas is just one of a pair of holy bookends which hold shelf of God’s story. It’s just the front cover of the Book which God is writing about this world, about us. Grace and hope appeared in the world when the baby Jesus was born. Grace and hope will be fulfilled when He comes back to our world.

         Hay Aitken called the first and second appearances of Jesus “win­dows in the school of grace.”[1] Jesus came at Christmas. He grew up to live that perfect life and to give it up for us on the Cross for us and to be raised again. That first appearance is a warm red glow through a western window, reminding us of the light which has come into our lives. Yet His return will be like the sun appearing through an eastern window, glorious and bright with the promise of a new and better day.

         Our hope is both changed lives right now and eternal life when Jesus comes again. That’s why we can throw out the old toothbrushes and underwear, give up the temporary satisfaction we might get by living selfishly. “We wait for the blessed hope.” We hope for something better and longer lasting which Jesus Christ will bring us when He appears again.

         Verse 14 completes the Christmas text by reminding us just how great is the gift which God offers us. The baby who was born to us is the Man Jesus Christ, “who gave himself for us.” Forget toothbrushes and undershorts. When Jesus was born, God gave us Himself. There is no better, no greater gift.

         But Paul says that Jesus “gave himself for us.” Don’t forget that there is a trade going on here. I talked about throwing away old stuff in order to receive the new gift. God’s giving is a gift exchange. Exchange is part of modern Christmas giving. Give a gift and expect the recipient to exchange it for the right size, or a better color, or for something altogether different that he really wants.

         In Bethlehem, at Christmas, lies the gift we all really need, all really want, just waiting for us to exchange the junk we thought we wanted for Him. That’s the grace of Jesus who gave Himself for us. He will let us give him all our pain, all our failures, all our junky attempts at being good people, and He will give us His own life.

         Christmas offers everyone—because God’s grace has appeared to everyone—the opportunity for a priceless exchange. Give Him your life and He will give you His. Carry in all that broken, defective, cheap, gaudy, plastic merchandise you thought was real living and place it on the counter before Him. Ask Him for something better. He will give it to you. He already has. It is the perfect life of His own Son, begun at Christmas.

         It’s like those white elephant gift exchanges where each person opens a gift one at a time. Then each person has the choice of keeping the gift she got or exchanging it for one somebody else has. God’s gift of new life in Jesus Christ is always on offer. He’s gave up His life so that from then on, anyone who wants to give up the white elephant life they’ve unwrapped can always choose His perfect new life.

         The wood which framed the manger gave way to the wood which framed the Cross. Jesus gave up His life in order to redeem yours. By becoming human, God ex­changed His own eternal, perfect and joyful life for the short, sinful and suffering life we experience, all so that He could offer us the opportunity to exchange our troubled lives for His blessed and holy one.

         That is our hope. God’s whole purpose in Christmas was to begin His gift to us of a new life, to allow us to accept His life in place of what we live now. As Paul said, He wants “to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

         It’s often said that Christmas brings out the best in people. That’s exactly what God meant it to do. But the coming of Jesus into our world is not meant to make us just a little nicer once a year. God’s gift of Jesus is to be a lasting exchange of life which raises us into something much better than the life we had before. He wants us to be people who are always “eager to do what is good.” That means we become people who care about each other all the time, who serve the poor year round, who are always finding ways to bring hope into a dark world.

         My prayer tonight is that you will be ready for hope, for the “blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” He has appeared and given Himself for you. His gift, His life for you is waiting for you to take. If you never have before, if you’ve never believed in Jesus, do it now, tonight, and begin that new life. The blessed hope is hope for you.

         If you’ve already accepted that gift of grace in Jesus, whether long ago or more recently, then tonight let your heart and mind be renewed in blessed hope. Let the new life of Jesus live fresh again in you.

         However He comes to you tonight, may Jesus Christ our Savior appear brightly in your life as He appeared long ago in Bethlehem. And may His appearing, both then and yet to come, be your perfect and lasting hope.

         Amen.

Valley Covenant Church
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Copyright © 2011 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj