Life is Sacred

Sanctity of Life Sunday

Sermon for Sunday, January 20, 2008

 

1.  Good Morning.  Let’s pray.  O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

 

2.  Opening Comments:  Well it’s Sanctity of Life Sunday so today we’re going to think together about life and its sanctity.

 

We can range far and wide on this massive and thorny subject.  I was privileged to read our son Lucas’ homily which he is giving right now in Rochester Hills Michigan.  I have copies of it available in the Narthex – it’s very very good.  He approaches it from a logical and very rational approach.  For the philosophers and scientists in our midst this is for you.

 

But today I’d like to lead us in exploring why love and life is at the center of the heart of God and what that means for us.

 

God in His infinite love created life – We read in the first verse of the first Book on the Bible:

 

Gen. 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

 

And these verses go on to chronicle God’s creation of all creation!

 

God in His infinite love created Creation – the things and beings of this life in which we live!  God Created life – God is LIFE!  When God speaks life comes into being!  God loves all of His creation into life! 

 

And we, you and I, are made in the image of God –

 

Gen. 1:27

     So God created man in his own image,

              in the image of God he created him;

 

As God is about life and love so too are you and I when we are most truly ourselves!

 

In His infinite love God gave us the Sacraments as means to fill our lives with His love and His life:

 

 

God breathes life into us through His Sacraments!

 

God is life! 

 

Gen. 2:7

the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

 

Gen. 2:9

And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

 

God is verdant – lush with life – the very fountainhead of all life!

 

John 3:16

     “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

God loves and gives us life – eternal life comes in the very train of His love!

 

Love and life – intimate and inseparable realities of all creation – the very antitheses of which are hate and death!

 

As God is about life and love so too are you and I when we are most truly ourselves!

 

God . . . love . . . life!  Ha!  These are the primordial elements of our reflection this morning!  And I’m going to try to show us that life and love are what God and we are ultimately all about.  They are the very goal of our being!  To love and to live our lives abundantly is where were heading! 

 

And to say this is to infer that we’re heading away from hate and death!

 

Where God is there is life!

 

God in His infinite love chooses life!  Life abundant!  Life everlasting!  Life with no end!

 

Imagine what heaven on earth will look like . . . can you?

 

Imagine life uncorrupted, unending, unleashed from death, free, unbounded in its capacity to love and be loved – vital, vibrant – endless, joy-filled!  Life-unleashed! Life unlimited, life eternal!

 

Imagine living a life no longer subject to death or disappointment.  A life filled to overflowing with love!

 

This is God’s dream for us!  God even dreams about life – abundant, unlimited, eternal!

 

God is about life.  Travel to the center of God’s Being and there you will find infinite love and eternal life!

 

Let me say it again – God is about life and since we, you and, are made in His image we too are about life!

 

3.  Focus on our Scripture:  Let’s turn for a brief moment to our Scripture readings to hear what particular aspects of love and life God wants to draw our thinking to this morning shall we?

 

In our Old Testament reading in the Book of Isaiah we hear the Suffering Servant recognize that he’s not an accident but was in the heart and mind of God from the beginning and as we read this we are being reminded that we too are not “inconvenient” accidents but were and are in the loving life giving heart and mind of God!

 

Listen once again: Is. 49:1

         

Listen to me, you islands;

                   hear this, you distant nations:

          Before I was born the LORD called me;

from my birth he has made mention of my name.

 

And in our New Testament reading we’re reminded that God has defeated death – the very antithesis of life, through Jesus Christ:

 

1Cor. 15:20

     But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.  21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

1Cor. 15:54

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

1Cor. 15:55

     “Where, O death, is your victory?

              Where, O death, is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Death has been swallowed up in victory – life trumps!  We get to live!  That’s God’s choice for us!

 

And in our Gospel reading from Luke we’re see John the Baptist leap in his mother’s womb when he comes close to the very One he is coming into the world to tell of!

 

Luke 1:39

     At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea,  40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.  41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

John leapt in his mother Elizabeth’s womb – don’t tell me that life begins at birth!  John has not even been born yet here he was fulfilling his call to proclaim His Savior’s Presence – Ha!  Talk about an irresistible personality – John was a zealot even “in utero!”

 

4.                 Psalm 139: And finally please turn with me to Psalm 139.  I want to linger on this great great Psalm for just a few moments for it’s in this Psalm that we’re going to find the heart of our reflections this morning. 

 

As I read this Psalm, listen to David talk with God - Allow yourself to be drawn into wonder at the God who knows and love us!  Don’t fight it – just be drawn into wonder!

 

Psa. 139:1        O LORD, you have searched and probed me and you know me as no one else does.  To be known like this . . . by You, my beloved Lord, is breathtaking!

2   I’m an open book to you;

even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.

3   You know when I leave and when I get back;

I’m never out of your sight.  Like a mother lion your watch over me!

4   You know everything I’m going to say

              before I start the first sentence. How Present you are in my life – in my very thoughts!

5   I look behind me and you’re there,

              then up ahead and you’re there, too—

your reassuring presence, coming and going is everywhere to the eyes of loving faith!

6   This is too much, too wonderful—

              I can’t take it all in!  Oh, most of us can hear all of this but few of us can grasp how infinitely majestic You actually are!  It takes one’s breath away!

7   Is there anyplace any place at all - where I can go to avoid your Spirit?

              to be out of your sight?

8  Oh, my Lord, If I climb to the sky, you’re there!

              If I go underground, you’re there!

9   If I flew on morning’s wings

               to the far western horizon,

10           You’d find me in a minute—

              you’re already there waiting for me!

11                    Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!

              At night I’m immersed in the light!”

12           It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;

night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you aren’t they?

13.       For you created my inmost being – I am made in Your image – I am like you!  Life and love are an integral part of my make up – just as they are at the center of You!

You knit me  - you wove me together in my mother’s womb.  You wove all of the little ones who will be aborted tomorrow in their mothers wombs!  In Your infinite love you gave them a chance at life and their mothers and fathers chose to take it from them!

14    I praise you because I and these little ones are fearfully and wonderfully made;

              your works are wonderful,

              I know that full well.

14        (the Message)   I thank you God—you’re breathtaking!

Body and soul, I and these little ones are marvelously made!

I worship in adoration—what a creation!

15           You know me – You know them - inside and out,

you know every bone in my body  – and every bone in their little bodies!

You know exactly how I – they - were made, bit by bit,

how we were sculpted from nothing into something.

16           Like open books, you watched us grow from conception to birth;

all the stages of our lives are spread out before you,

          The days of our life all prepared

          before we had even lived one day.  So, Oh Lord, we not even allowed to live one day!

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

              How vast is the sum of them!  You are mindful of me and every one of us!  None of us are unnoticed by You!  Even those of us who were not allowed to live!

18           Were I to count Your thoughts,

they would outnumber the grains of sand.  Were I to hear them they would break my heart with the intensity of their love!

     Oh Lord, When I awake,

              I am still with you.  You never leave my side – not even those whom we have deserted!  You are with us all!

23  Search us, O God, and know us hearts;

              test us and know our anxious thoughts.

24   See for yourself whether we’ve done anything wrong—then guide me on the road to eternal life.

 

Amen! And Amen!

 

Knowing all of this we can join with David in the final prayer – “See for Yourself God whether we have done anything wrong – and then guide us on the road to eternal life!

 

God is life – God is love!  We are all made in His image – we are made for life and love.

 

At the moment of his or her creation, each new being proclaims to the whole universe and throughout all eternity:

 

I AM!

 

In the image and likeness and power of God, I -AM-.

 

The world calls me a clump of cells

a "potential life"

while wordlessly I say

and I say

and I say

I -AM-!

 

Amen and Amen!

 

Let’s pray . . .