On Christmas Eve most people tend to focus on the birth narrative of Jesus from the gospel of Luke. Churches are filled with people who want to relive again and again the familiar story from Luke. In many ways it is as if the other readings assigned for that day are being put aside, and in some Christmas Eve worship they are not even read.
This Christmas holiday, take a moment and hear the rich text that comes in Titus’ declaration of the coming of Jesus the Christ. In the midst of all the celebration and the familiarity that we know so well from Luke, Titus takes another slant on the story by talking not about the Christ child, but what the Christ child brought to us. “For the grace of God has appeared!”
In living flesh we experience not just God, but the grace of God. The good that brings us hope and joy in life. The good that brings us hope and joy, and in the end, salvation to all. The joy of Christmas Eve goes beyond the familiar story to the end of time.
Lord God, thank you for allowing us to see the grace of God in Jesus Christ in a new way by looking at the not so familiar in this day. Amen. — JKU