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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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The Grace of God Hath Appeared |
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Titus 2:11 First Sunday after Christmas December 30, 2007 Christmas is a favorite time of year for millions of people around the world. A time of family, decorations, giving and receiving gifts, of traditional Christmas feasts, and sharing with the less fortunate. But, the great central meaning of Christmas is stated well for us in St. Paul’s letter to Titus, read earlier this morning; “The grace of God … hath appeared.” Grace is one of those words we often say and seldom define, so let’s talk about grace for a moment. Grace encompasses three parts. First, grace is God’s attitude of acceptance of us. People often have difficulty accepting others who aren’t like them. They form exclusive clubs, live in exclusive neighborhoods, and go to exclusive schools, all so they can associate with their own kind. But God accepts us even though we are not His kind. He is great and powerful. We are small and weak. He is independent. We are completely dependent. He is righteous. We are sinners. Yet God loves us, and has an attitude of acceptance for us. That is grace. Second, grace is God’s loving activity towards us. He does not sit around in Heaven “feeling” love for us. He does something about it. He provides for us. He forgives our sins. He teaches us the ways of truth and peace and hope. He teaches us His ways. Third, grace is God’s empowerment of us. Empowerment is a popular word today. It seems almost everyone is talking about empowering someone else. But God really does it. In grace He empowers us to live above the world. In grace He empowers us to do right. The amazing thing is that when God wanted to fully reveal His grace to us, He didn’t write a theological treatise, or go on the talk show circuit. He sent His son. He sent a person, and that person is the personification of the grace of God. A child was born in an animal shed and laid in a feed trough. That child grew to be a man, a poor man with no special privileges. He was not a pampered rich kid. He was poor and despised, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He died on a cross, true God of true God, crucified by uncomprehending people as a heretic and a traitor. And in that man, that life, that death “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” Jesus Christ is the grace of God. St. Paul tells us in our Epistle Lesson, that the result of God’s grace is the creation of a “peculiar people.” Many scholars don’t like the word, “peculiar” in the KJV. They say it ought to be “special,” or “unique,” but I like “peculiar.” That’s what we are in the world’s eyes. When God called you out of your sin and darkness into His righteousness and light, He began a work of restoration in you. He began to restore you to something like what He meant all of mankind to be, and all mankind was before we fell into sin and darkness. He began rebuilding the parts of your soul that had forgotten how to really love as God loves, and think as God thinks, and do as God does. And He made you a part of a new people that He calls His body, His Kingdom, His family. In this new life and new people we are not like others in the world. We no longer share their values, their morals, their goals. They live for their own pleasure and the fulfillment of their fleshly desires and lusts. They think that in so doing they find happiness and peace. We live for God, in self control. We deny our lust and desires. They live and die for them. So they consider us peculiar. We are odd, different, even strange. But we are the true “alternative lifestyle.” We are the true counter-cultural culture because we are beginning to live as God intended, in peace, happiness, joy, and community. This is the grace of God. This grace of God appeared to us in Christ.. The grace of God came down to earth, born of a virgin and laid in a manger. In Him we find God. Let us pray. O God who revealed Your grace by becoming a child in the manger, mercifully grant that we may receive Your grace in child-like faith through the merits of Christ our Lord. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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