We went to the zoo on bank holiday Monday. I was like a kid - excited at seeing all the differeent creatures. We saw kangaroos, girafes, leopards, lions and tigers, it was all very exciting. But one creature they had on display was easily missed, They had a little cage wiith the caption ’the most dangerous animal in the world’. There was no wild animal inside the cage. Instead the back of it was open and people could walk into it and have their photos taken behind bars and under the sign ’the most dangerous animal in the world’. It is true, isn’t it, that our own human race has caused mroe damage and destruction to the world than all the animals put together. Through the centuries human beings have been responsible for tremendous acts of cruelty, selfishness, hate and greed.
Whenever we read the newspapers or listen to the news we hear of wrong doing and evil. We see new ways of doing wrong, new depths to which humanity seems to be sinking. We see murders, crimes, wars, deceit. A common reaction is to despair about the state of the world and humanity, to give up on the world and to say "Stop the world, I want to get off!"
Despair might only get worse if we look at ourselves. We see in our own characters all sorts of things that are not right, that are wrong towards other people, the world and to God. Nowhere and nothing seems to be free from our destruction and evil. Just as the display in the zoo says, Human beings are the most dangerous animal in the world.
Everyone seems to have their own idea of what is right and what is wrong. We might think that things would somehow improve if God told us how to live. If God broke into the world with his law and told us authoritatively what was right and what was wrong surely we would get out of the mess that we are in. That would be the end of all the evil in the world, surely.
In the reading that we have just heard, Paul writes about a time when God did authoritately and powerfully reeveal his law to humans. He showed his power to the Israelites by rescueing them from oppression and slavery. Then he gave them his law, showed them what standards of behaviour were right and told them how to live their lives. They found out how to treat each other with love and respect, recognising each others rights. They saw how God’s code of ethics was superior to any of human devising or imagination. Here, then, were a people who should not have been in a mess, people who should have been free from the troubles of other nations. What’s more, other nations should have seen this and come to them tof find out the way to live themselves. But it didn’t work out this way. Instead they appeared no different to other people. Their evil wrongdoings increased. Often they were even worse than other nations.
.
Paul says something quite astonishing about this. He stated that much of the people’s sin was actually because of the law, not despite it. In fact he even suggests that one of the reasons the law was given was to increase sin!
It is human nature to want to do things that are forbidden. I once read a story about a hotel owner whose hotel was on a pier jutting into a lake. The hotel was brand new and ready for openning when he was struck with a fear that people would want to fish from their windows. So he put up signs in all the rooms ’Do not fish from your windows’. The hotel then openned and immediately he was faced with broken window after broken window caused by people in rooms above trying to fish. He put up more and more signs, but still it continued. Eventually he reached desperation and sought advice on how to stop people fishing from the windows. The advice he got might have been surprising - he was told to take all the signs down. He did this, and straight away the problem stopped.
God is wiser than the hotel owner - he gave the law knowing that people would want to break it as soon as they heard it. In fact one of the reasons that he gave it was to show that it did not work, to show us that we could not perfectly keep the law and grow and develop a perfect society on our own and through our own human goodness.
All through the centuries people have tried to make the world a better place through keeping sets of laws of one form or another.
So we are still evil, and the world continues descending into a worse and worse mess, despite God having given his law. Law, therefore, is not the answer.
What about grace?
The grace of God. We often sing about it several times this morning. One of the most famous songs in the Church is called ’Amazing Grace’. It is mentioned in many prayers. It is said to be the whole basis of the Christian faith. But what is it and where do we find it? Where does God most show his grace?
There are lots of places where we could look for the greatest display of God’s grace. We could try nice, decorated and well-designed churces and cathedrals. Bright cheerful happy homes full of love, where never a cross word is spoken. We could go and look at the lives of saints and all round wonderrful people, heroes who stand up for what is right, aid workers who selflessly toil for others. People we look up to and respect for their service to others, or their courage in standing up for what is right.
This hunt for the greatest example of God’s grace reminds me of a book I read once called ’Ple’ma Spot?’ - a Cornish language book about the search for a cat called Spot (there is also an English language version called ’where is Spot?’). A search took place through the house for Spot, in cupboards, trunks, clocks and similar places at each place the question would be asked ’Ysy-ef y’n...(insert name of place)’ and the answer would come back ’nag ysy’ - ’no he isn’t’
Where can God’s grace most clearly be seen? The bible passage that we have just heard tells us. Is it in a beautiful cathedral where the choir perfectly sings a wonderful anthem of praise? No it isn’t. Is it in the life of an aid worker selflessly giving him or herself for others without thought of return? No it isn’t. Is it in the life of a human rights advocate, fearlessly speaking out on behalf of the oppressed, the powerless, the voiceless? No it isn’t. Is it in the happiest most loving home and family in the world? No it isn’t. Is it in the midst of the ’make poverty history’ campaign? No it isn’t. Is it where people are standing up for morality in an increasingly immoral world? No it isn’t.
The Bible tells us that the greatest display and intensity of God’s grace and favour is in none of the places where we might most expect to find it. Let us remind ourselves of what we have just read:-
’Where sin did abound, grace did so much more abound’
The grace of God is at its most intense, not in the midst of righteousness and goodness, but in the midst of sin and evil. That is when his love is displayed the most.
It reminds me of stinging nettles and dockleaves. They grow together. Where stinging nettles grow, there grow dockleaves with them. When I was a child we were always falling into nettles and getting stung and hurt, but it was ok, because all we would have to do would be to rub ourselves with a dockleaf and all the pain and hurt would go, and our skin would no blister, like it would if we just left it, God had given us a natural cure. Nettles and dockleaves grow side by side, the more nettles grow in a spot, the more dockleaves grow with them. It is the same with sin and grace. Where there is sin and evil, there is also the grace of God, waiting to cure. Waiting to make us whole again, to forgive us and to restore us to how we should be. The more evil there is, the greater is God’s grace to deal with it. No matter how bad things get, God is better.
That applies to the world around us. But also, importantly, it applies to the world within us. We know that in our nature we are sinful, that we do not live in the relationship with God that we were created for because of our rebellion and sin. We know that naturally we are part of the problem with the world. Trying to keep to some law, morality or ethical standard does not alter that, we remain the same people with the same basic nature. But the message of Romans tells us that we have never gone to far for God’s grace to restore us, to change our nature. That is where we must start if we want to change and improve the world, by allowing God’s grace to heal us, to make us whole, to forgive us and to make us a new person. Without that our campaigns, our ethics, our activism, our New Year resolutions will achieve nothing.
The abundant and sufficient grace of God is the answer to the evil of the world and the sin of our own lives.
