8^th January 2015

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Christmas Day 2014

Lessons - Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-15; Luke 2:7-14

'For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all and teaching us to ... live good, thoughtful and faithful lives in this world even as we look forward in hope to the (final) glorious appearance of Jesus Christ.'(Titus 2:11-13a).

The Letter to Titus does not have baby Jesus, Mary or Joseph. There are no angels, shepherds, mangers, wise men or stars. It does not seem 'Christmassy'. This may be disappointing but it is an advantage.
Over-familiarity with the birth story is a serious threat to faith. Perhaps it will rekindle our curiosity to think of the coming of Jesus as the 'appearance of grace'.

The 'language of grace' is not without difficulty! Despite our Reformed emphasis on God's costly, forgiving love in Christ for unworthy people we have become 'strangers to grace'. Today it is often thought that 'grace'
means simply 'accepting that you are accepted'. This helps us see we are not justified by our piety or good works. However, it blinds us to our calling to respond to God's grace with lives of costly discipleship. It encourages us to think that we do not have to change anything in our lives. When 'grace' is understood simply as a word of comfort that demands nothing of us, the 'costly grace' that has 'appeared' in the coming of Jesus to restore our broken humanity becomes inaccessible to us!

Therefore, it is good to set-aside familiar Christmas stories and wrestle with the strange language of grace.

The Letter to Titus encourages 1st Century Christians to hold to sound teaching and live justly in the midst of a vibrant pagan culture, not unlike ours, which offered a wide range of spiritual options and life-styles. They are reminded that, in 'Christ Jesus', God has acted to save them from self-indulgent life-styles and self-centred faith. What has appeared in him is 'the goodness and loving kindness of God' whose 'sheer mercy has transformed their entire lives' (3:4).

The appearance of Christ reveals the riches of God's grace towards all of us.
In him we see that God treats us as if we are 'righteous' when, compared to Christ, we are not. This is expressed in Charles Wesley's familiar carol 'Hark the herald angels sing' (Together in Song 303 / Australian Hymn Book
227) which washes over us at Christmas: 'Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity!' in whom 'God and sinners (are) reconciled'.

* That is the first and decisive word for our Christmas reflections. God is so rich in mercy toward us that he appears amongst us in the Christ. It is not beneath God's dignity to become entangled in the brokenness of the world
to show God's self-giving love for us all in our need.

To be claimed by God's grace is to be instructed in a new way of living in the world. In mid-nineteenth century Soren Kierkegaard wrote Training in Christianity in which he bemoaned the lack of curiosity amongst clergy and lay people about living out their faith. He urged them to pay heed to the One in whom grace has appeared. In the late 1930s Dietrich Bonhoeffer described a flippant approach to God's grace in his crucified Son as 'cheap grace' and urged his fellows to embrace 'costly discipleship'. He said:

'Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner.' (Cost of Discipleship, p37)

Grace does not always appear to be on our side. We are called to do certain things and reject others (v12). God's grace - not the 'cheap grace' that makes us easy with our flaws - exposes our self-righteousness and self-indulgence. But it also enables us to share in Christ's 'costly grace'
for our flawed and strife-torn world. To follow Christ's costly love for the world is a demanding privilege!

* This is the second word for our Christmas meditation. Grace - God's grace - summons us to live freely, joyfully and courageously in the world. Thus we are pointed to the primacy of God's grace in the 'appearance of Jesus Christ'
and called to be children of grace who continually learn what it means to be merciful and righteous in a world where so much brutality, bitterness, resentment, injustice and self-indulgence demean our humanity and scar the earth.

* There is also a third word, without which our Christmas celebrations are futile!

In pointing to the 'appearance of grace' in Christ and urging us to be responsible in the world, we are invited to look forward to the renewal of the Church, humanity and creation. Titus speaks of 'awaiting our blessed hope' when 'Almighty God and Jesus Christ our Saviour shall appear in glory'
(v13). Gratitude for what has 'appeared' in the coming of Jesus goes hand in
hand with hope for what is yet to 'appear' through him!

If we do not see that the 'appearance of grace' is yet to become the 'omnipotence of grace', the Christmas message is not only incomplete - it is
unreal and cruel!

Sorrow, loneliness, conflict, hatred and death are still part of our lives that cannot be ignored or hidden at Christmas. Personal sin, collective evil, tragedy, affliction and death still bedevil our life together. We suffer the deaths and illnesses of loved ones, atrocities in Pakistan, Cairns, Sydney and elsewhere, the plight of millions of refugees fleeing terror, destructive tsunamis, savage warfare in Syria, persecution in the Middle East and in Africa. This year, many folk have asked me how we can proclaim the message of 'peace on earth'. The nations still rage. Evil still causes untold misery.
All is not right!

To restate the point: if we do not see that the 'appearance of grace' is yet to become the 'omnipotence of grace', the Christmas message would be incomplete, unreal and cruel!

We may rejoice in the 'appearance of grace' in Jesus' birth only because God's 'costly grace' has already been embodied in his crucified-and-risen love for our strife-torn world. What has taken place in his life, death, resurrection and ascension is the sole basis for hope which looks confidently to the triumph of grace when he 'shall appear' in glory.

As we look to this promised future, we may also see signs of hope in the midst of much that causes us to despair. We may experience what F Buechner calls the 'occasional, obscure glimmering through of grace. The muffled presence of the holy. The images, always broken, partial, ambiguous, of Christ.' (The Alphabet of Grace, p8)

Therefore the 'appearance of grace' in the incarnation of Christ is a sign of hope for our strife-torn world. His coming in the flesh is a pledge that, despite the wrong-doing and tragedies that scar and demean our life together, things will be all right. We may have confidence for the future because the crucified Christ, who was born of Mary, has been raised from the dead! If it were not so, there would have been no interest in Jesus' birth and nobody could have imagined the appearance amongst us of such costly grace.

It still might not seem very 'Christmassy'! But at least the story will not wash over us, as it does with the incessant playing of carols in shopping centres and churches. Hopefully, our society's unfamiliarity with the language of grace might awaken people's curiosity and enthusiasm about the Gospel. For the 'appearance of grace' in Jesus is the sign of hope for flawed humans and our strife-torn world:

* It is the word of forgiveness that sets us free from self-righteousness and
self-indulgence.

* It is the word that sets us in the midst of the world to bear witness to
God's 'costly grace'.

* It is the word that sustains us in the knowledge that what has 'already
appeared' in Jesus Christ shall, at last, be known in all its splendour.

It is our joyful responsibility, for the sake of the world, to keep this vision alive and to open ourselves to what it means to live in the present by 'costly grace'. In this way, we may rejoice in the blessing with which the Letter to Titus begins and ends: the 'grace and peace (which is) from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour' (1:4) be 'with us all' (3:15).
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Rev Dr Max Champion is Minister in St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia.

Dr Champion is a member of the Council of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.