Has it got anything to do with the grace of God that others fall when I do not? Has it got anything to do with the grace of God when others find themselves caught up in messes when I do not? Has it got anything to do with the grace of God when others suffer misfortune and I do not? And equally vice versa, has it got anything to do with the grace of God if others do not fall while I do; if others do not get caught up in messes while I do; if others do not suffer misfortune, while I do?
No, the grace of God has never been about being richer or healthier or more fortunate than someone else. That’s just not what grace is all about. And if it were, we’d know that we’d been graced by God if we were millionaires and lived exceedingly long and pain-free lives, and never, ever discovered that life had dealt us anything but the soft and comfortable options. But that is not what grace is all about. And we know it, or at least sometimes we do. A lot of the time we can get things quite mixed up.
And, you know, I’m not sure that Paul helps us out too much in chapter 15 of first Corinthians. Because it sounds pretty much like he’s saying that being able to work hard is what grace is all about (at least that’s what verse 10 sounds like); but if that were true, you and I wouldn’t be slowing down as we age, or feeling the creaks in our bones and aches in our muscles, if we were graced by God. Indeed, if that was what grace was all about, we’d be wondering why the life we have is the life we have, and not some life of privilege and success, if we really believed that we were the recipients of God’s grace. But the grace of God is not about being able to work hard, just as it is not about being rich and healthy and fortunate.
No, if we really want to focus in on what grace is all about, we have to look to the first part of the passage we’ve read from Corinthians today. We need to put aside our fascination with Paul’s apologetic for himself and his work as the “least of the apostles”; and look at his account of the apostolic message—the message which he received and is passing on.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (verses 3-9).“
…For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle…” God’s grace to Paul is not that he has been able to work hard, not what he has been able to do, but that he has been included in what God has done in Christ. And this is surely God’s grace to us also.
It is not being successful at fishing that witnesses to the grace of God in the lives of the fisherman on Lake Gennesaret, but being caught up into the mission of God and the ministry of Christ, the power of the Spirit—God’s activity, God’s accomplishment, God’s doing. And it is not that Isaiah is a great speaker or will be an important prophet, but that he too is caught up into God’s work for God’s people—caught up into the praise and worship of God in his vision of God’s temple.
It’s a fine line; and we cross it so easily. We say so often, “Because of this or that, God must be with us”; but the truth is that this or that will never assure us of God’s grace. Fortune and health and wealth and the fruit of hard work are too easily lost in the vagaries of the world in which we live. We will never discover God’s grace or even its assurance in any of these fleeting things.
God’s grace is only fully discovered, it is only fully made known, only truly revealed, only completely recognised, in the coming of Jesus Christ into our world—in the gift of God entering God’s creation—in the demonstration of God’s utter love for that creation, by being willing to give up everything for its sake, for our sake and for the sake of the world in which we live.
And God’s grace does not come to us as the most important, the most significant, the most powerful, the richest, the most hard-working, the healthiest people to be called to follow. It comes to us as the least of God’s creation, the least of God’s creatures, the least of Jesus’ disciples, the least of Christ’s apostles, those who need it most and neglect it best.
It is not when we can say, “We can do it!”, but when we know that we can’t do it, and could never do it in a million years or a thousand worlds, that God says, “I am with you!” And even better, “You are with me!” and I will use you as my witness, my prophet, my apostle.” And I have some hard work for you to do.
Not “There but for the grace of God go I”, but “Here in the grace of God, we find ourselves together”; and if it is God’s grace, that we have recognised, that we have discovered, that has been revealed to us, our only response will be: “Here we are God, send us!”
“Here we are God, send us, even though we are weak, even though we will get it wrong, even though when we try our best, we’ll mess things up, even though we will never, ever be able to do enough. Because we have caught just a glimpse of what it is that you have done for us, and how much it is that you care for us, and just what you are prepared to do to get your message across. And, in the face of this glimpse of your unfathomable grace, we can do nothing else, but respond, but leave our nets, and follow.”
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