From Age to Age the Same

Isaiah 46:3-4 On January 22, 1973, in a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled that a woman’s decision to terminate her pregnancy was a constitutionally protected right under the due process clause of the 14^th amendment. 

Justice harry Blackmun wrote the opinion.  Since that decision was rendered, there have been countless voices heard on the issue. 

Every politician has a position.  Our two main political parties have a platform statement on it.  There are nationwide marches and movements on each side.  Every church has to take a stand, one way or the other.  And our fellow citizens make their voices heard in letters to the editor and on social media and among their family and friends. 

Millions upon millions of voices—all of them clamoring for our attention—all of them contending for our allegiance. 

But we should be very, very clear in our own mind as to the voice that actually matters in this issue; the voice that is to hold sway in our hearts and minds; the voice that is the first and last word when it comes to this issue-- and that is the voice of God.  The Bible says:  “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel…Listen to me!

When it comes to faith and morals—when it comes to what we are to believe and how we are to live—it is the voice of the LORD that has the final word. 

The Bible says that, “The Word of the Lord endures forever”.  Jesus says that, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.”  And our own church says that, "The Word of God is and should remain the sole rule and norm of all doctrine".

God spoke to the prophets and apostles and they recorded his words in the Holy Scriptures so that when we open our Bibles we can know just exactly what God as to say about our faith and life.  

God says:  Listen to me! And he is talking to each and every one of us.

Listen to me!  All around us there are passionate pleas from women in very difficult circumstances who truly feel they have nowhere else to turn and their stories are heartbreaking.  All around us are pundits and politicians and philosophers who try to move us from one side of the issue to another and their arguments are compelling.  All around us are our friends and family members and fellow citizens who are certain that they are right and attempt to convince of their position.

But God speaks into the midst of that Babel clamor and cacophony and says:  Listen to me!  I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and I will save. 

If you have any concerns or questions as to why it is God who gets to have the final say on questions of faith and morals, here is your answer:  God is God and you are not!  He is the creator and you are his creature.  He is your father and you are his child.  He is the savior and you are the saved.

God is the one who made you.  He is the one who gave you life.  You are his creation.  God is the one who cares for you every moment of life.  And God is the one who chose you from eternity, sent his Son to die for you, and has called you to faith.

Your entire existence, physical and spiritual, earthly and eternal rests in God and he has a perfect right- and legitimate expectation- that we will allow ourselves to be instructed by him, to let our thinking be informed by him, and acknowledge the authority of his Word over every part of our lives.  To those who reject this authority, he says:

You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!  Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”?  Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?

            And to those who are confused about his claim upon every aspect of their lives, he says:  You are not your own.  You were bought with a price.  Honor God with your body. 

The voice of God is absolutely authoritative over every part of our life (including our thinking on this issue of the sanctity of life) because he is the one who made us and he is the one who sustains us and he is the one who saved us.

This is who God is—not just one voice among many—not just another authority with a truth claim he wants to convince us of, but our Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier.  And so what does he have to say about us?  God says:

You have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. 

            We know who God is:  he is the one who made us; he is the one who sustains us; he is the one who saves us.  He is the one who speaks with authority into every part of our life.  And so then, who are we and where do we discover our identity?  God says:

We are the ones that he has known before our birth.  We are the ones who have been carried by him throughout our lives.  We are the ones who listen to him while he speaks.  We are the ones who will be cared for him even to old age and gray hair. 

That’s who we are:  an individual persons whom he has known and loved and cared for and saved, every moment of our life from the womb to the tomb.

And- so –is- every –other- person- in –the- world! 

The issue that lies at the very heart of this world-wide debate about the sanctity of life is the identity of the human person-- and so let’s clear that up once and for all.

Look around the sanctuary at your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Would you pierce the back of their skull with sharp scissors and remove their brain because they are younger than you?  Would you poison them because they are weaker than you?  Would you deprive them of food and water because they are older than you?  Would you cause their death because they enjoy less earthly and material blessings than you?

Of course the answer is “no!” to all those questions!  It is a hateful, horrible thing to even consider.  These people and their lives are precious and valuable and we would never do such terrible things that would destroy their lives.

And yet, these things are being done to people throughout the world and to people in our own country.  And these acts of violence are allowed—and even approved of and admired-- because the full personhood and humanity of the unborn and the ill and the disabled- and the elderly is denied-- in a war that is being waged against the weak by the strong. 

God speaks in the midst of this bloodlust and lays claim to EVERY human person and says that:  you were you in your mother’s womb; and you were you when you needed my help; and you were you when you are old. 

God is very clear about who he is:  our Maker and Redeemer and Sanctifier- and he is very clear about the identity of the human person:  that each of us, at every stage of life are fully human and belong to him. 

And so then, the dignity and value and worth of the human person is not found in their utility or ability; it is not found in their independence and autonomy; it is not found in their age or gender or race or socio-economic place in society. 

It is found in God:  the God who made us, whose Son died for us, and the Spirit who is earnestly calling us to believe what he says about life. 

God is also very, very clear that each one of us—at every stage of life—not only belong to him, but depend on him.  The Bible says:

You have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. 

            I mentioned earlier that what we are seeing in this whole issue of the sanctity of life is a war of the strong against weak.  I can assure you that if you wanted to stick a needle in the back of my skull or make me eat poison and deprive me of food and water, I would fight back and so would you.

Of course the unborn and the disabled and the ill and the elderly whose lives are being destroyed cannot defend themselves.  Maybe we are tempted to think to ourselves, “Well, too bad for them.”  What God wants us to understand is that any notions we might have of our own authority or autonomy or ability or agency is simply an illusion. 

God is the one who watched over us in our mother’s womb.  God is the one who carries us along in life.  God is the one who daily preserves our life.  And God is the one who will say when our life is over. 

And so it is—and must be—for every other person in the world.  Our life and every other life belongs to God.  This is what he says:

Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.             

            These are the words that God speaks to us today through the prophet Isaiah and these are the words that he would have us speak to the world around us so that his voice is heard in the midst of Babel’s clamor and cacophony on the sanctity of life.

            We are to bear witness to the world around us that there is one true and living God who is not silent, but who speaks to the world so that they may know him as their creator and trust in him as their Savior and live with him forever.

            We are to speak forth the Good News that every person is loved by God and every life is precious in his sight and we must stand up for the sanctity of life at every stage from the womb to the tomb.     

            That is why we support the Pregnancy Help Center and Embrace Grace and Lutherans for Life—so that all people would preserve and protect God’s good gift of life.  Amen.