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Sunday sermon - The problem is not abortion.
[The Federalist] The following is a sermon given before Divine Service ‐ the service of the Word and Sacrament ‐ before the listeners participated in today’s March for Life in Washington, DC."This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live" (Acts 7:19). "So that they might not live." That’s the first martyr, Stephen. Recounting the slaughter of Hebrew babies, Stephen uses an interesting expression. "So that they might not live." It’s the same expression used in today’s epistle: "I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things." "Who gives life." It’s all built on the word Zoē‐like the girl’s name Zoe, or zoology. You go to a zoo to see living things. When that word is used about humans, it means a decision about leaving someone alive. Pharaoh exposed the Hebrew babies, "So that they might not live." He didn’t leave them alive. But whenever it means to give life, God is the subject, the doer. "I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life." Man cannot give life, we can only let live‐or not let live, a.k.a. murder. Only God can give life. Only God has the power of life in himself. St. Irenaeus said, "God makes, man is made." Deus facit, homo fit. That’s the problem, that we have forgotten we are made. Made by God. Yes, yes, you believe in creation. But don’t run so quickly past it. Psalm 100 hints at the implications: "Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves." The godless philosophy of our age has cast aside God for the myth of mutation. And make no mistake, that’s not science, that’s philosophy masquerading as science. "It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves"‐but we ourselves cast aside God with every act of covetousness. We rebel against our Father when we calculate how much money a child will cost, as though He who gives life will not give us our daily bread. We rebel against our Father when we look at evil images, as though a human body is an object to be used and discarded. We rebel against our Father when we worry about tomorrow, as though He does not order our days. When we put off praying, we confess, "He has not made me, but I make myself." With every thoughtless bite of food; with every evening that ends without confession and thanksgiving; with each consent to greed, gossip, revenge, lust; with every lie we believe the lie, that we can be as God. In a thousand small, insidious ways, our lives say, "It is not He who has made us, but we ourselves." Posted by: Besoeker 2020-01-26 |
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