Titus

You could be forgiven for not knowing that Titus is even a book in the New Testament.

It isn't long, like the letter to the Hebrews or to the Romans.  It doesn't have a sequel, like the letters of Timothy or Corinthians.  It isn't divisive and exciting like the letter of James, and it doesn't have all the strangeness of Revelation.  It treads a lot of the same ground that the letters to Timothy do, so you may be forgiven for not knowing much about it, and for being overall not sure of its existence.

But Titus has an important part to play in the development of the Christian faith, that is, it is Titus who is used by St. Paul as a living example of what the church would eventually be.  The thing is, that we live in the world we occupy at the present moment, and we forget very quickly indeed that things were not always this way.  We forget that things used to be quite different indeed, and that for a long time, most of the time in fact, things were not the way they are now.  The Christian church has undergone a few changes since its inception, and one of the first had to do with who could possibly be a Christian in the first place.

This seems obvious now, because of the way we currently interpret the great commission that Jesus gave at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, that 'All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.'  I added the emphasis there, and I did so because of the nature of the great commission - that we are to go to all nations.  What does all nations mean?

Well, it means something different to us now than it did to the people hearing it from Jesus for the first time.  These people had never heard of places like Japan or Australia, had never conceived of places like Mexico or New Zealand, so were unlikely to make the connection between the great commission and their role to those places.  For them, "all nations" probably meant everything from Great Britain down to Pakistan inclusive.  And that's it.  The known world at the time wasn't that big.

But what did it mean for these nations to be fully, authentically Christian? Well, given the nature and character of the earliest church, and what you know about them, they were all Jews.  And they had grown up hearing and understanding that salvation is from the Jews.  No problem so far.  But in learning that, and in seeing that Christ himself was born a Jew, the disciples were all Jews, Paul was a Jew, you can understand why the thoughts in the earliest church were all about understanding the Christian church as a Jewish offshoot.  That is, the disciples for the most part believed that to be a Christian was to be a Jew first.  You had to keep the sabbaths, keep kosher, and be circumcised in order to become a Christian.  The early church split itself neatly into the party of the circumcision, and the party of the uncircumcision.  It seems strange to us now to hear about how the party of the circumcision was for sure the bigger and louder one.

Peter was drawn before the rest of the disciples, and had to defend his position as someone who was evangelizing Gentiles, because the disciples were living in a situation in which such activity would have been impossible.  They believed that a Christian life was an extension of a Jewish life, and to join the church would be to join the nation of Israel, physically and culturally.  And the big break to that was the person of Titus.

The feast day of Titus is borderline exciting because it is so dull.  If you remember the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where he said that he was a feminist, and would continue to say that much until it was met with a shrug.

Say what you will about Trudeau, but when he vocalizes this, he is making clear that his vision is not just to declare that he is a feminist, but rather to have feminism be so thoroughly normalized that it is met with a lack of surprise as a declaration, because in his future everyone will be a feminist.  So declaring that you are a feminist would be as obvious as being a biped, or whatever.  If Trudeau's vision for the future becomes reality, then the future as feminist would be eventually so normalized as to be met with borderline indifference.  Think about your position vis-à-vis the circumcision party from the first century.  Do you care? Or have you completely forgotten about this first great schism in the church, because the party of the uncircumcision was so victorious as to create not only indifference, shrugging, but a lack of knowledge even of the dispute!  The party of the uncircumcision argued their case so conclusively that you may very well shrug at hearing about it.

How did this party win so conclusively? Part of it, not all of it, but part of it falls to Titus, and how instrumental he was as a case study for the disciples to observe.  Something you will notice about the letter to Titus is that it is not vastly different in what it says to Timothy in Paul's letter to him.  But Timothy is a Jew, and Titus is a Greek.  It's the lack of difference between the two that actually makes this interesting - Titus doesn't have a separate set of instructions, a different approach, he isn't a second class pastor and confessor, he is functionally the same as Timothy.  This means, according to Paul, according to the way he treats these two men and the responsibilities he gives them, that there is no Jew nor Greek.  Titus was brought about with Paul, sent by him, displayed by him in the world, and Titus was able to live and teach in such a manner that nobody could possibly speak against him. 

Now, this wasn't a matter that was only settled by the presence of Titus, but it partially was.  And what Titus helped to do was to take the Christian faith from being something relegated to being for the children of Abraham, and made it known to everyone.  This was the means through which the great commission was lived out and realized, and the way that the church began to understand itself in the same way that Jesus Christ of Nazareth did, that it was for all people.  When Paul discusses Titus in Galatians 2:1-3, he says that Titus was not compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.  Titus was the great test case that Paul was able to bring to the party of the circumcision, and that made the instructions that Paul had for Titus so important:  "If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach.  He must not be arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined...Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say against us."

Famous First Words

If you go onto the Texas department of criminal justice website, you can find the repository of the last words of executed prisoners.  It used to record their last meals as well, but for now, you just have their last words recorded for public posterity.  I have discussed these words in the past, contrasting them with the last words of Jesus Christ from the cross, and I will be using them today, but just as a frame to talk about something else.  For someone may very well have their last words recorded, for good or ill.  Some of these last words are relatively famous last words, that you could possibly identify by looking at them for a moment.


“Kiss me, Hardy.” Was said by Horatio Nelson


“Honeybun, how do I look in the face?” Were the closing words of Jeb Stuart.


“Now, God be praised, I will die in peace.” Those were the last words of James Wolfe on the plains of Abraham.


Now, the final words of these men were recorded, but nobody recorded their first words.  Nobody recorded their first words because their first words would likely be something incredibly straightforward, and rather dull.  It’s always exciting when children speak their first words, but it’s rarely something overly meaningful.  In fact, it’s likely going to be something along the lines of babble, possibly ‘mama’ or ‘dada,’ but nothing too terribly important. 


Now, we don’t have the actual first words of Jesus Christ recorded, but what we do have are the first time he speaks in each of the Gospels.  Luke’s gospel, I suppose, carries the first words of Christ that would have occurred chronologically, that is words that he speaks as a boy in the temple, where he says “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?”  Each Gospel gives you a different facet of the same story, though, and the Gospel of John flat out tells you why it was written.  The famous last words of the Gospel of John says “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name…Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.  Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”  Not everything was recorded, but the things that were recorded are there to let you know who this Jesus is, and what he’s all about.  Not all of his words will be recorded, but the important ones, the ones that lead to faith and life in his name, certainly will be.


So the famous first words of Christ are a question.  In our Gospel reading, He is there, walking on the shores of the Jordan river, and John points him out, identifying him as the very lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And when Jesus is identified as such, two of the disciples of John begin to follow him.  Jesus turns and asks them an important question:  “What are you seeking?” 

It’s an open question, and a question that can be asked in a multitude of different ways.  For those who are boomer-tier, you have probably had multiple occasions in which you’ve walked into a room, or downstairs or whatever, and stood there, looking perplexed for a moment.  There’s a good chance that you have been rifling through a drawer, either drunk or clothes, and have had someone come up behind you and helpfully ask what you’re looking for.  But this question, just taken on its face value, is deeper and broader than just that particular moment.  It reminds me of this moment from Star Trek IV, the voyage home, where Spock is answering a number of questions correctly that all have to do with science, logic, history, all that sort of thing.  But then the computer asks him, at the end of the test ‘How do you feel?’  Spock doesn’t know how to answer the question.  The question is not a logic question, a science question, a question about sine waves, but a question about how Spock himself feels.  If you’re actively looking for an item, or a person, or whatever, then you will be able to answer the question of what you are seeking relatively easily.  But if the question is bigger and broader than that, if the question is about what you are seeking, big picture style, it’s much harder. 


When Jesus asks that question to his disciples, he is asking it to you as well.  What are you seeking? What are you looking for? What are you hoping to find?  You spend your days working, expending effort, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, all those things, and you must be doing them for a reason.  What is that? What are you looking for overall?  Honestly, we are usually too busy working, driving, drinking, smoking, watching Netflix or sleeping to consider the large metaphysical questions, so when Christ asks this question in the words of the Gospels directly to us, we stand there, like Spock, blinking and staring at the page.  We may as well repeat Spock’s answer “I do not understand the question.” 

It’s a rare occasion in which we deal with the question as printed.  It’s a rare occasion in which we deal with the implications of answering what it is that we are looking for.  What are we looking for, what is the pearl of great price that we seek? What is it that we desperately want to find, what is the focus of our lives and effort?  Well, most people would have hard time answering that question.  Even the disciples who find Jesus that day don’t have a clear answer – instead, they say “Rabbi, where are you staying?”  They follow him to where he is staying, and stayed with him that day.  Whatever he said to them was important enough for them to find others and to bring them to Jesus, with the promise “we have found the Christ.”


So, you who are reading this blog, the question comes to any of us who read the scriptures, where Jesus asks us “what are you looking for?”  What do you hope to find in the person of Jesus Christ? The world by and large is confused by this question, and will approach it the same way as Spock, not understanding it. But why the Christian faith at all?  Why do we go to church, venerate the Lord, listen to his word, any of it? What is the purpose?  For a great many people, their understanding not just of God, but of the concept of gods in general, comes down to hoping to find something that will operate as a justification for what they do . For what the human heart wants and craves is to be justified.  The human heart desires to hear the voice from heaven that says to us ‘you are already doing the right thing.  You have nothing to change.’  But we want to hear that when we do have things to change.  We want to hear that voice when we have a large number of things to change.  We want to hear that voice no matter what.  And when you want to hear that voice from God, even in the midst of your own imperfections, in the midst of your sins, then you aren’t looking for God at all.  You’re looking for an idol.


The big question any of us Christians have to ask ourselves is how we would handle it if Christ were to speak words against us directly.  What would you do if Jesus spoke directly against you, with some degree of anger or wrath that would humble you? What if the most important thing Jesus came to do was not to reinforce the view that you have that you are the best and have nothing to change?  Part of the revitalization of the faith is to realize that for too long the dialogue from the church was only to say to people that they were super, and had nothing to change.  Morally, says the church, you are an exemplar, and have nothing to alter.  Even Jesus of Nazareth, the lamb of God would agree.

But if he is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, then John the Baptist has in mind something different than what we normally think.  If you are seeking a god who will agree with you all the time in every way, then Jesus will have nothing for you.  But if you have in mind the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, then you have to deal with the fact that there are sins to be forgiven . That’s an incredibly hard question to deal with.  By and large, we want to have all of the benefits of justification without the mess of dealing with the sins that exist.  But all that does is to make us into what we tend to be – creatures that believe so powerfully that they are right that they will earnestly resist anyone who tells them otherwise.  There have been lots of people who have left their spouses, left their churches, left their families because they were confronted at a certain point and told that they weren’t 100% correct on everything.  But in the pages of the Bible, Jesus tells you where you have gone wrong frequently and consistently.  He calls the one who he named Peter, the rock on which the church would be built “Satan” just a few moments afterwards, so you know that he’s not all about ignoring problems.

He’s all about fixing them. 


Christ is all about making you perfect as God is perfect.  He’s about giving you abundant life, and full joy, that’s his role and his job.  But this only works if your sin and imperfection is encountered, dealt with, and removed by Christ at the cross.  This only works if what you are looking for is not an idol, not a cheerleader, but a savior.  And that’s Christ. The very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.


That question posed to the disciples, ‘what are you seeking?’ is asked to us as well.  What are you seeking?  I hope it is forgiveness.  I hope it is salvation.  For you will find that in Jesus Christ.

The new Herodians

In the Epiphany periscope, we hear about Herod's interaction with the Magi.  This interaction, from one king to the others, is very telling about Herod, and if we're being honest, about ourselves as well.  For Herod, when he hears of the birth of the King of the Jews, is troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.  On the surface, we can assume that Herod is a bad guy who doesn't want to give up his hold on power.  That is very likely true.  But it really isn't quite that simple.  I'll explain.

Herod doesn't want to give up power because Herod knows what's up as far as power goes.  It's easy to forget that the concept that we are all used to by now, that of a peaceful transfer of power, is relatively new.  Before that, and for most of human history, what would happen would be that you were in power, and on the throne, but your family would tend to go from the throne to the graveyard, or into exile.  You wouldn't do that thing where you retired from public life and retired to work on your chalk fossils.  The way it tended to go, was that your dynasty would take over violently from the one before it, and your dynasty would last until your family was murdered and another dynasty took over from you.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  If you want proof of that concept, think about the family who was in power before the Herodian dynasty, that of the Hasmoneans.  What happened to them?  A lot of executions..  And if Herod knows how his family came to power, he has every reason to be suspicious of an up and comer looking to take over from his dynasty.  Especially if this newfound king of the Jews is the real deal.

If this is the real deal, if this is the inheritor of the throne of David, if this is the real King of the Jews, then Herod is through, he and his whole family.  And if Herod is done being King, he's not going to go back to peanut farming.  If there were a Wikipedia at the time, probably carved into stone tablets or whatever, then almost every ruler's 'later life' section would just state that they were murdered, or died of a surfeit of lampreys, and then their heir or rival took their place. Herod had no intention of being added to that statistic, especially not to have a rival who had an actual claim to a throne that Herod himself had only through treachery and collusion.  So, Herod went out of his way to find out from the Magi, from the scribes, where this King of the Jews was.  And here comes the lie - "Go and search diligently for the child" said Herod, "and when you have found him, bring me word, so that I too may come and worship him."

That's a whopper.   It is absolutely, categorically untrue, and is violently so.  I don't use the word violently as a metaphor, either, for Herod seeks violence against the newborn king, to kill him and to bury his rivalry.  Herod is lying to the Magi, to try to get them to deliver the location of Christ, so that Herod can have him killed.  If Jesus is dead, then the threat to Herod's home, family, dynasty and life all go away.

But here's the thing.  This attitude has not changed at all.  Consider this: Christmas is the biggest racket of them all.  It's a glutton of a holiday that lasts from late October all the way to the end of December.  So, pretty much a quarter of the year, including boxing day, is devoted to the observance of this festive season.  Now, nobody I know loves and is attached to the Christmas shopping season, and the longer it goes, the less we all like it. I hope we can all agree on that.  There's a great essay from CS Lewis that talks about Christmas being separate from Xmas, which I've quoted before, and which still retains its poignancy.  And what we learn about the season is that everyone is dragged about, hither and yon, to try to make up the shortfall that retail outlets suffer through over the course of a year.  Profits start on Black Friday, if you will.  But the longer that goes on, the more we begin to understand that we are being played largely for suckers, but we don't seem to be able to stop.  And that's the key right there, that somehow, the celebration of Christmas became wholly co-opted by commercial interests.

Stop me if you've heard this one: "Go and worship this newborn king, and when you have done so, tell me when you are doing so, so that I may worship him too."  Oh, sure.  Different person, but same lie.  'Tis the same deception, the one that says that I too, would like to worship this king, when I have zero intention of doing so.  But I do want to co-opt his worship for the sake of power, wealth, and control.  And that's the punchline.  The punchline that says that the crowded marketplace, the modern Herod, ever had any interest in the worship of Christ.  They never did, and they never will.  It was all in aid of profit, and the increase of the same.  Many people have bemoaned the retreat of the words 'Merry Christmas' from stores and markets. Many people have been disappointed that the retail landscape is dominated by a profoundly secular ethic even and especially at Christmas, but the big question is to ask what you expected from the new Herod? What did you expect the new hegemon to do when his power is threatened?

For the only thing standing firmly against the weight of commerce is the one who flipped the tables and scattered the coins.  The system we have today views human beings as economic units, a resource to be used, and then discarded, while Christ focuses on the unique vitality and essential dignity of every individual human being.  But who else at this hour is intending to understand human beings as spiritual rather than economic units? That conversation is silent save for the voice of Christ who calls us by name, and tells us that our worth is not dependant on our output or on our utility.  He in fact warns us that we cannot serve two masters.

Herod knew that Christ's claim to the throne was more valid than his own, and were he able to take the throne, Herod would be deposed.  How right he was.  But the modern Herod knows the same - seeking to give the illusion that they wanted to worship Christ as well, they did so only to debauch and to destroy, to eliminate the presence of the one who transcends purchase at all.  Christ stands as the central figure of this debate, and stubbornly resists the reduction of humanity into a service to money, and reclaims the dignity of a creature born for eternity, and born for a world without the scarcity that drives the market.  He stands at the centre of it all, and makes you into more than a value on a balance sheet, more than a bottom line, and more than your economic utility.  And at Christmas, we ponder anew that what he gives isn't something that we, or the new Herod can buy, because we couldn't possibly afford the price that it cost.  The blood of Christ that purchased eternity for us.  It is worth more than the gold, the incense and the myrrh. The wise men acknowledged it, and wise men today still do.