OUR MORAL CRISIS

                After a busy Christmas season, I am settling back into a more normal routine. I have been reading a book by Philip Yancey, titled Vanishing Grace. It has been very challenging. The overall premise of the book is that we Christians have lost our grip on the reality of God’s grace. Rather than being advocates for God’s grace, we have become antagonists to our world. We are viewed as negative, obstructive and out of touch with reality. In a general sense, we have lost our place at the table; we are only a faint voice in the public forum.

                After painting a rather bleak picture, Yancey goes on to show some powerful examples of grace-filled Christians, making a significant difference in our world. Yancey’s book is both a wake-up call and a note of hope. I have been challenged to re-examine my own understanding and application of God’s grace.

                Near the end of the book, Yancey tackles the question of morals and values. I have found this section most disturbing and challenging. He introduces something called evolutionary psychology, which claims that we are all controlled by a selfish gene. This selfish gene promotes the preservation of the gene pool, independent of any higher moral values. Moral values are seen in pragmatic, individual terms. I cannot go into all of the detail that Yancey does, but it is a chilling and sobering idea.

                We are living in a world that is rapidly moving toward a moralless, valueless society. The idea of right and wrong is constantly being assailed and challenged. The most common argument is, What right do you have to impose your values on me?

                The Apostle Paul warned us that this was the direction our world was headed. We should not be surprised. Look at Paul’s summary in Romans 1 and see if it does not mirror the world in which we live.

                The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

                For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

                Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.

                Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

                Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:18-32

                Paul’s words mirror the nightly news. My first response to the situation is indignation. This is closely followed by condemnation and a desire to mount a crusade for a return to traditional moral values. At this point, Yancey puts up a huge STOP sign, and rightly so. He convincingly makes the point that Paul’s world was not changed by a moral crusade, but by a Church that lived out of the grace of God, in the face of an immoral world. He calls us to do the same.

                I am humbled by my own failure to be an agent of God’s grace. In the face of the moral darkness that is all around me and the crumbling foundations of our society, I have to ask myself, how can I be light in this darkness? The only way we are going to change our world is by being the Church in all its fullness and glory. That means loving one another, caring, in practical ways, for the needs of one another, and extending the grace of God “to the least of these’ outside of the Church.

                We will never change our world through politics or social action. We can only change our world by fully living out the love and grace of God in our everyday lives.

                Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:26-31