So I made the mistake the other day of watching some of the
news coverage of the upcoming presidential election. And I was, and I remain, astonished at the
way that the campaigns have become so full of divisive rhetoric. I mean if it isn’t about Christians versus
Muslims, it’s citizens versus immigrants, or it’s about some other false
division that the candidates have created to try and scare people into voting
for them and not the other person.
And it’s into just such a divisive scene that we find Paul
writing to Titus, who Paul left in his stead on Crete. The division facing Titus is one of Jewish
followers of Christ versus non-Jewish followers of Christ and the way that many
of the Jewish followers are trying to impose restrictions and requirements on
the gentile converts so that they can be ‘real’ followers of Christ. It’s a sense that one group is superior to
the rest of the people and that as a result of that superiority they can impose
certain things on the others. So these
divisions that we see being created today are nothing new, but have, in fact,
been with us for a very long time.
And it’s in the midst of a world dividing itself up that Paul
reminds us that the birth of Christ, that our celebration this Christmas, is a
celebration of the appearance of God bringing grace and salvation to all
people. No if’s, no but’s, no hierarchy,
no division, Christ brings salvation to all people.
It’s in the birth of Christ that we find this unifying event
that is for all creation. We are
reminded that we are all children of God, that the divisions that we have
created, be they based on race, gender, country of origin, sexuality,
occupation of socio-economic status are all false and that the birth of Christ
was a moment of hope and love for all people.
Paul also reminds us that this event has real implications for each of
us. This is not just a theoretical
conversation about God’s love, but it is a recognition of how God’s grace
changes us and reorients us to be part of that work of love that was revealed
through the birth of Christ. The former
Pope, Pope Benedict reminds us that, ‘Salvation, then, like everything Christ
does, is not a finish-line, but a new beginning, the ordination of a particular
man into a being-for-others, the breaking-open and turning-out of the soul to the
world.’
Paul talks about ‘good deeds’ to Titus, but I think that in
the context of this reading, what Paul is talking about is a call to show love
to all people; to care for those in need, to welcome those who are seeking
refuge and a better life; to speak a word of peace to those feel rejected and
broken.
God made no distinction with the saving actions of Christ and
likewise as we go out into the world, we are called to remember how big God’s
table is. And this is something I keep
coming back to because it’s something that is both humbling to me because God’s
grace is so abundant and it’s what gives me hope.
If we were to be given a test to be able to sit at God’s
table, we would all fail because of our sinful nature. But because God’s grace and love defeat that
sin, because through Christ we have had a place set for us at God’s table so
that we might eat and drink with other as brothers and sisters, with our
differences cast aside. At God’s table
we are reminded of our unity through Christ, whose birth we remember tonight,
and who brought hope and love to all creation.
And it’s because of that persistent hope and love that speaks into all
of our lives that we can truly say, thanks be to God. Amen.
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