Our Christmas Eve reading takes a different turn this year, as we read from the letter to Titus. This is one of the shortest books in the Bible, and is almost never read in worship. But the writer has an unusual take on the gifts of Christmas.
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. (Titus 2:11-14)
You might be wondering why in the world someone would choose to read a scripture from Titus on Christmas Eve. You might even be feeling a little — or a lot — cheated — right now. You came to church on this special night expecting the familiar story of a baby in a manger, angels announcing good news into the night sky and stunned but willing shepherds going to take a look. That’s the Christmas story, right? Not this puzzling text from Titus. This is a really unexpected reading for Christmas Eve.
But Titus tells a different version of the Christmas story. He tells about what happened after Jesus was born, and lives and dies.
We don’t know much about Titus. In a way, he’s a stand-in for you, or for me. He is a kind of blank slate. His faith is a stand-in for ours, too. Titus probably came to faith through Paul’s teaching, or through someone like Paul. The writer called Titus “my true child in a common faith” (1:4). Another scripture tells us that Titus accompanied Paul on his third missionary journey, and visited the churches in Corinth at least once. Paul had a lot of affection for Titus, but we don’t know much more about him. The letter lives on not because of Titus himself, but because the author has a sense of an unexpected gift — something startling that has come into the world.
The author is full of awe at how the world has changed because of the life of Jesus Christ. God has changed the world, and so people are called to live in a different kind of way. When our lives change, the gift of Jesus lives on. It gets passed on from person to person, through the years.
In this amazing gift of Jesus, the lost are redeemed. The hopeless have hope. The struggling find a way to live in God’s light. These are the gifts of Christmas.
The story is told (by author Brian Joseph) about a five-year-old boy who unwrapped his gifts of Christmas morning. His mother let him play with them for a while, and then asked which one he would like to give away to a poorer child who needed a gift.
“None of them,” the boy told her.
The mother sat down with him and explained that the power of a gift was in its sharing. Helping other people was an important part of the holiday spirit. This was a hard sell, but the boy agreed to share one of his gifts. His mother let him think about it until the next day.
This was a hard choice. There was a book, a toy flute, a Popeye book bag, and a toy dump truck with doors that opened. Finally, he chose the flute, and he and his mother took it to the Salvation Army, where they would make sure it got to a child who could use it. “How will they know it is for a child?” the boy asked his mother. She told him he would write a note and tape it to the gift. His note said: “Please be sure to give this to a kid who doesn’t have a lot of toys.”
The next year they did the same thing, and then the next. It became a familiar part of their Christmas tradition. Some years, the decision was really hard. The year that he anguished over the gifts, and finally decided to give up a game of checkers, his mother came in later with a piece of cardboard and some bottle caps. They made a new checkers game out of those, and played on that all year.
One year, his mother was out of work for part of the year, and there wasn’t much money for gifts. His mother told him that he didn’t have to give a gift away that year. He was excited at first, and then he told his mother that he wanted to give a gift away. He put his new football in the Salvation Army box.
When he grew up, he talked to his mother about this tradition, and how it seemed strange that he had to give a gift away, since they were so poor themselves. His mother just looked at him as if he hadn’t learned much over the years.
After some years passed, he became a dad himself, and his own son was now five. His son asked him what had been his favorite gift when he was a child. By now, he had learned a few things, but he still struggled to explain to his young son that his best gifts never came in a box. He told his son about the childhood tradition, and his son asked if he still did that. Yes, he said, he had done it every Christmas for over thirty years. The next day, the dad chose a new sweater, wrote a note on the box, and got ready to deliver it. As he was heading out the door, his young son asked if he could come, too. The father waited in the car for his son to get ready, wondering what in the world was taking so long. Finally the little boy came out the door, holding his new playdough set.
“Dad,” he asked, “can you help me write a note?” (Found on www.katinkahesselink.net.)
Is there a gift you can use this Christmas? Not a coffeemaker, a sweater, or a game, but a deeper gift? Has this past year held some sorrows for you? Are you looking for a gift of peace? Understanding?
Some of you lost loved ones this year, and you’re wondering how you’re going to make it through Christmas. Some of you separated from a partner, and are feeling the loss keenly. Some of you faced serious illness. Some of you have health concerns, and are praying for your health to be restored. Some of you have loved ones who won’t be here next Christmas, and you’re savoring their presence this Christmas, in all its bittersweet-ness.
For all of those things, God offers us the gift of hope, through the life-changing, world-transforming, soul-lifting gift of Jesus. This is the season of gifts, but our biggest and brightest and best gift is found in a manger, not under a tree or at a store. That is our gift in the birth of Jesus.
For that stunning gift, ready to be opened, ready to be given away, thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer: Generous God, may each gift we give or receive this season point us toward you, and toward the gift that that transcends all the others. In your transforming gift of hope, we know the purpose of Christmas, and for our lives. In every place of hurt, sorrow or despair, may we be open to the deep gift you give us, the promise of hope that turns everything else inside out. In Jesus’ name, Amen.