Grace in Action

Titus 3:1–15 NIV

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned. As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need. Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives. Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.

My kids still bring up the summer of zucchini-pocalypse. It was the year that our one zucchini plant in the garden went gangbusters and we had more zucchinis than we knew what to do with. I had all the reliable standbys. There was zucchini bread and muffins. We could even make extra and freeze some. A sliced zucchini could be easily battered and fried or grill it with some olive oil and a little salt and pepper. But I have to admit, this started getting old because it seemed like I could have made this meal after meal and we still had more zucchinis.

This is where it starts to get interesting because I began asking myself where I could substitute zucchini into other recipes. The zucchini tacos were not a hit. Zucchini on a pizza was okay I guess. The meal that threw it over the edge was the night I made a lasagna, but instead of pasta noodles I used long slices of zucchini as my noodles. This is where I had a choice to make. Because from the outside it looked and smelled just like a lasagna. So, do I tell my kids about it or just hope they eat it and don’t notice? I don’t know what made me think I could sneak this one past, but that was my course of action. It only took about two bites in for one of my children to simply stand up without a word and walk away from the table.

To this day, I still face an inquisition with any new recipes or meals requiring me to declare upon family oath that the meal does not contain any hidden or undisclosed zucchinis. That summer of the zucchinis was pronounced enough that now they almost always seem to be fearful of another such culinary apocalypse. My kids remind me; enough of the zucchinis, we’ve had enough, you don’t ever need to bring that one back.

reminder of grace...

Maybe this is how it goes with the apostle Paul and his continual writing about grace. It seems like every letter he writes brings it up and says it over and over again. The words he uses here in this letter to Titus are the same words he uses in his letters writing to Timothy, and the same words he uses in Ephesians 2. I wonder if those who heard Paul speak or received his letters ever reached a point of reacting in an oversaturated way. There goes Paul off on one of those grace rants again. I get it already. I’ve already heard this one a billion times. You don’t need to keep bringing up this grace thing again and again.

But Paul just cannot seem to stop himself. The whole idea of a gospel message rooted in the gift of God’s grace is foundational and central to everything Paul has to say. He works the grace of God into every recipe and every meal. Every letter and every speech include this one main ingredient of grace.

And so I wonder, have we had so much of it that we start to tune out? I mean, we sing songs about grace pretty much every week. We read Bible passages about grace every week. We have liturgy pieces in worship referencing grace pretty regularly. Is there a point where we just stand up and leave the table because we’ve had enough? Oh, maybe we don’t physically stand up and walk out of the room. But is there a point at which we mentally check out whenever the subject of grace comes up—not because it is boring or irrelevant—but because we’ve heard it all before? We get it already.

But do we? Maybe we like to think we have convinced ourselves that we have heard all we need to know and that we live in a faith that is fully saturated in the grace of God. But do we? Paul doesn’t seem to think so. Apparently he thought Titus could use another reminder of grace; the church of believers on the island of Crete could use another reminder of grace; all of us in the church today could use another reminder of grace.

Verses 4-7 in Titus 3 lay out that clear gospel message of God’s grace again for us to hear and receive. Whenever we turn our attention towards the kind of life we ought to live and the kind of people we should be and the kind of actions we should perform, whenever we turn our attention towards the kind of faith we should hold, we should always make sure those recipes include the main ingredient of grace. The truth is that we do need to be reminded again and again of how prominent and powerful the grace of God is in our faith.

Paul says it. We are saved by the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. These things are poured out upon us by Jesus. We are reminded that these things do not ever happen because of anything righteous that we do, but only because of God’s mercy.

…from God...

Back up now for a moment and remind ourselves of the bigger picture in this letter to Titus. The main point of the letter is to remind Titus and the Christian community on Crete how they can embrace a life of faith that makes a difference in the world right now. It is about godly living in the present age. And so we have seen example after example in the first two chapters of rules and virtues that are the mark for godly living. And today’s passage in chapter three is no different.

Against the backdrop of all this pile of rules and virtues and behaviors, Paul throws in the reminder of grace so that we all take a moment to remember our whole life of faith is something that comes from God in the first place. Since grace begins with God, the seed of our faith begins with God as well. Before Paul closes the book and ends the letter to Titus, he is compelled to remind us that our entire foundation of everything that we know it means to be a Christian—to be a follower of Jesus—comes to us from God.

It is a good reminder. Often we fall into thinking about faith as something we own, instead of something we have been given. In moments of crisis, we sometimes slip into thinking that it is a challenge in which we just need to have more faith, have stronger faith. As if faith was something that I can manufacture and create on my own. Good reminder. Grace begins with God. Grace comes from God alone. My life of faith begins with God. I am a Christian only by receiving the righteousness of Jesus given to me through the sacrifice of the cross of Jesus.

…in us...

This ought to reframe the life of faith for us. The new life we all have in Jesus is a new life that is only possible by grace. Since salvation is something that is from God which I receive by faith through the cross of Jesus, this is a new life of faith which is more than cosmetic makeover. This is more than a surface level spiritual facelift. This is a new life of faith that is planted within me by God and takes hold in a way which ought to redirect and refocus my entire being.

You see, then; a life of faith is not just something which I believe in my head. It is more than just knowledge I hold. A life of faith is even more than just something I embrace in my heart. It is more than feeling or conviction or passion. A life of faith is something which takes hold inside of us in a way that impacts every part of who I am right here and right now in this world in which we live.

This is exactly the point Paul has been after with Titus and with us through this entire letter. Faith makes me a different person; a person of faith who has a very real and significant impact upon my world around me. Faith is not just something about the Christian life. Faith is something within the Christian life. Which means that faith is so much more than something which secures an eternal life with Jesus in paradise. Faith also secures my life right now and right here in this community in which I live on this world.

…to the world

How does that show up in your life? How does a life of faith that matters and makes a difference show itself in your day-to-day living? We have been approaching this question in a few different ways over the past three weeks as we have been looking at the letter of Titus. Last week we noted that faith shows up in a community of believers—that we all share a responsibility together for mentoring and supporting and encouraging one another.

Today we see that Paul closes the letter by reminding Titus just how far this life of faith stretches the boundaries of our community. There are examples of community all over the place in our world. Being a community together as a church is not anything new or special or unique. The special uniqueness of the church comes in how the boundaries of our community expand like no other community.

The apostle Paul in particular took on the special mission given to him by Jesus to bring the gospel message to the non-Jewish gentile world. This was a new a crazy development in the minds of every single Jewish person at the time. The last thing anyone in Israel would ever accept would have been an open invitation to stretch the boundaries of God’s chosen people outside of the culture and customs and ethnicity of the descendants of Abraham. And the writings of Paul make it clear that the stretching of this community boundary was filled with pushback and tension coming from those who were already on the inside. But this is also what makes acceptance of grace for all people such a prominent feature of Paul’s description of faith lived in this world.

Look at the instructions given to Titus in chapter three. Live at peace with everyone. Slander no one. Warn those who are divisive. These instructions are all about living a faith that has room to stretch and embrace a diverse community. Travel back with me in the Old Testament all the way to Genesis 11. It is a story in Genesis known as the tower of Babel. It is here for the first time in scripture that we see the way in which the sinful nature of broken humankind leads to an outcome of tribalism; a separation of people from one another, divided by language and culture; communities kept apart and at odds with others.

Fast forward to the New Testament in Acts 2. This is the story of Pentecost where the Holy Spirit comes upon the first disciples. Luke tells us in Acts that the apostles went into Jerusalem and began declaring the gospel message of Jesus in every language. All the foreigners who were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost each heard the message of Jesus in their own language. The tribal division which occurred all the way back in Genesis 11 at the tower of Babel is now reversed and being undone by the event of the Holy Spirit poured into the church at Pentecost. The church was launched forth on the first Pentecost day with a kind of faith community that had not existed since before the time of Babel. Paul is declaring for Titus and for us that the time has come to live a faith which embraces the full community of God’s grace in a way that rejects the tribal divisions of all other communities.

Can we admit today that we need to hear these words too? Our world is one which is still so tremendously torn apart by tribal divisions. Paul is right. We all at one time lived in ways in which we hated others, and others hated us. And Paul is right that the life of faith has no room for divided communities like that.

Now then, it is one thing to embrace those words here in this place. Perhaps it is easier to look around this room here in this church and affirm the message of Titus that we unite in a community of grace and peace with one another here. But you know where I am going with this. The whole message of Titus is an instruction for how we live a faith which makes a difference in the world out there. Can I stretch the boundaries of my community out there? Let’s be honest, our words of unity and grace and peace are shallow and empty and meaningless if they do not show up in the way we live that out with others in the world around us right here in our own neighborhoods.

Everything in our American culture right now seems to be pressing us to huddle inside of echo chambers in which we only ever hear what we want to hear. More and more we find ourselves divided against people who mean us no harm, but simply hold opinions that are different than our own. More and more we find ourselves isolating and cutting off interaction with people who are different from us. More and more we use social media as a place to shout down people with whom we disagree instead of inviting honest discussion.

Titus, along with his church, and us, are invited to go out from this place and live an expression of faith which knocks the socks off of everyone else out there in our world because the way we approach community with others looks so very different than any other expression of community they have ever seen anywhere else. Maybe it feels like an impossible task. But the grace we are called to express into our world around us is not a grace that begins with us or comes from us. It is a grace that begins with Jesus; and it comes from Jesus. And when we live a faith like that, it is an expression of grace that always points others to Jesus.