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Of nations and peoples, life and death, for the love of God

Jim Craft, 21 January 2007

Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday, a day we acknowledge and grieve a Supreme

Court decision that changed our world: Roe vs. Wade the decision that on January 22,

1973 struck down all Federal, State, and local laws that placed any restriction on abortion

in the United States and its territories and has prevented dozens of democratically elected

States legislatures from enacting new laws to slow down the tide of abortions. With Roe

vs. Wade the number of abortions in the United States rose eight-fold from approximately

200,000 a year to a million and a half.

I'd like to begin my talk on this painful subject with two stories about people who

had to face this difficult decision in their own lives.

My first story is about a young woman from the rural South in the mid-1950's

who found herself in California, pregnant, unmarried and alone. She had fled across the

country from Washington DC after discovering that the man she had fallen in love with

was already married and had a family. When she discovered his secret, it was too late.

In her shame, she fled as far from him as possible then discovered to her horror that she

was with child. Newfound friends in California urged her to go to Mexico for a legal

abortion, which they promised would be quick, cheap, and safe.

Wise in the world, these well meaning friends told her that having a child out of

wedlock would ruin her life. She had to think of herself despite what society said. They

told her that abortion was the only choice that made sense for her, financially and

personally. The pressure was on her to "be smart" and abort the child but she knew in

her heart that abortion was wrong. Laws and society were clear that an unborn baby was

a precious treasure to be protected. The young woman wrestled with the decision, trying

to come to peace about aborting the baby, but there was no peace for her in that choice.

Instead, she chose to have the child, husband or no husband.

She chose to bear the consequences for her own actions. While working as a

waitress, she met a young man who asked her out. They began to see each other steadily

and they eventually fell in love. As things grew more serious, she knew that she would

have to tell him her guilty secret. Fearfully and tearfully, she told him about the baby,

steeling herself against the possibility that he would walk away from her and never look

back. She feared that once again she would be alone. She told him and waited for him to

leave. He didn't leave. Instead, this young man took on a responsibility that was not his

to bear for the sake of love: love for this young woman and this unborn life. He married

her, took the child for his own, and gave the boy his name. Love transformed this

tragedy into a family in keeping with the expectations of society.

My next story is about a young couple 25 years later faced with a similar difficult

decision. Their first child had been a stillbirth. The doctors informed them that their son

had birth defects so severe that he would not have lived long, even if he had survived

delivery. The doctors recommended that the couple go for genetic testing to determine if

they could ever have a normal child. The couple, grieving and afraid, agreed to go for the

testing. However, before the testing could be completed, the woman discovered that she

was pregnant again. The couple was overjoyed the doctors were not. They

recommended that the pregnancy be immediately terminated in case the child had the

same defects that had killed the previous child. The doctors told the couple that abortion

was the loving and responsible thing to do. Fortunately the couple were believers and

trusted that God would be with them, and would never want them to kill their child.

They had a beautiful healthy girl born here in Northern Virginia despite the expectations

of society.

You may have guessed, some of you know, that that young woman who was

pregnant out of wedlock is my own mother; I am her baby that my dad adopted; and

Jennifer is our baby that the doctors said we should abort.

How did we get here? How have we come from the point where a society that was

on the side of life to the place a quarter of a century later where doctors would urge

killing an unborn child as the loving thing and responsible thing to do?

We now hear that abortion is good for our society. Why have we believed the lie?

Why can't we see that this personal decision impacts our society?

We have accepted a lie as a nation, and blindly as a nation we are suffering for it.

To deal with this crisis, we must have knowledge and love.

Our Epistle reading in first Corinthians thirteen opened with the well known words:

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become

sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and

know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove

mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

For many the tragic cost of abortion, to unborn children and the families that lose

them spark hot anger, and that anger sometimes becomes hate even in the Christian

Church. That hate however is also part of the tragedy of abortion.

As followers of the Lord of Life, Jesus Christ, it is not enough to be right, we

must speak in love. It could be argued that Jesus cares more about our heart, about our

being loving more than winning arguments. Knowledge and reason are important but, as

Christians, they are secondary to love.

Please remember that our Lord is the God of mercy, love, and forgiveness. He is

a God of second and even third chances. Our Lord is a God who came into a mother's

womb and suffered death on the cross that we could move from a place of sin and guilt to

life and joy. If you have been touched by abortion in any way and want someone to

listen to you without judgment and help you find the love, healing and forgiveness of

God, there is help for you this morning, and there is help for you after that. This

morning, there are prayer ministers available on the aisle to your left to pray for you after

my message while we sing, and during communion. I also encourage you to seek out and

speak to our own Marilyn Heigl, who works for the local Life Line crisis pregnancy

center, or to Elise Pino, who works for CareNet, to Nannette, or to Clancy or Ginger for

more healing.

Abortion is a devastating experience for the individuals involved. It is a medical

procedure where at least 50% of the patients die, often a painful death. The emotional

and physical effects of abortion on the mother and family can continue for a lifetime after

the abortion itself, often only manifesting itself years after the abortion.

The many physical dangers of abortion have been known for some time. For

example, the August, 1976, the British Journal of obstetrics and gynecology reported that

the risk of secondary infertility among women with at least one induced abortion is three

to four times greater than that among non-aborted women. Over the years here at Church

of the Holy Spirit, we have heard testimonies of women who have suffered the after-

effects of abortion.

As Christians, who believe in the authority of scripture, we know that God

considers the unborn as people, as shown in many passages such as Jeremiah 1:5, "Before

I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I

consecrated you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations."

We know from scripture that children are a gift from God, that a fertile womb is a

blessing of God.

We also know that God's fierce anger is kindled by those who kill the innocent,

especially for financial gain. In Deuteronomy 27:25, God even instructed the collected

people of Israel to recite, "Cursed is he who takes reward to kill an innocent person."

While we are all tainted with original sin, we could likely agree that the most

innocent person in the world is the unborn child.

On many other moral issues of our day, opponents of the orthodox Christian

worldview seek to twist scripture to justify sinful behavior but there is no biblical

argument, however convoluted or twisted that I have found justifying the killing of an

unborn child. People have argued for abortion on the basis of economics, personal

convenience, preference for a child of one gender or another, medical necessity, or even

racial cleansing, but there is no Christian argument for abortion from scripture.

One reason that abortion has taken such a stranglehold on our country is that we

as a country have moved away from Christianity as the moral basis of our laws. While

we can understand that non-Christians will not accept Authority of Scripture as an

argument against abortion, it is amazing that our country is blinded to the damage that

abortion is causing America.

We know that people are hurt by abortion and that abortion is against God's will

but abortion is also bringing a profound crisis to the United States and the world. Over

forty-seven million Americans have been killed in abortions since the Roe vs. Wade

decision. This is equal to the total populations of California, Virginia, and Kansas put

together.

Childless couples desiring a family are faced with a much smaller number of

adoptive children. Often, they must pay large sums of money and wrestle with legal

challenges to adopt from abroad.

Social programs such as Social Security are now facing collapse because of the

lack of younger workers. The average age of government workers is now over 45.

There is a silent moan from the missing millions of children we have

extinguished. What are we to do in the face of a society so enamored with self that the

death of a child or millions of children seems a responsible and loving thing to do?

We must reach out with the love of Christ. We must see clearly and not flinch.

We must not give up, or tire, or compromise with that which we know is against the will

of God.

We must look at and understand the facts of the millions and we must love and

understand the individuals ensnared by abortion and rejoice when the Lord turns hearts

and lives away from it. We must be good citizens, speaking and voting for truth. We

must pray for revival in our community, county, commonwealth, nation, and the world.

If the United States was 60 percent committed, informed Christians, I doubt that Roe vs.

Wade would stand.

God loves us as individuals and forgives us as individuals but God also loves

nations and peoples, and judges us as nations. If our nation does not repent, it will suffer

more and more and we and our children will suffer with it. However God will, if we

repent as a nation, forgive us as a nation. An often quoted verse, 2 Chronicles 7:14 says,

If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, and

seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and

will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

We are witnesses to our community, nation, and the world.