rich’s blog

An Introduction:

Well.  I feel nervous this morning; a little anxious.

 

We’re continuing on in our “Wider Embrace,” series, which is asking us to take a second look at big things, big problems, and engage with them more fully than we Christians often do.  Next week, we’ll have a special ordination service for Brenda and me.  Should be rad.

 

And today we were going to talk about a few different things that are in orbit around the common theme of death.  We were going to talk about war, the death penalty, and abortion, and glance at some others, just quickly.

 

As I prepared for today, man: too much.

 

So the bulk of this morning we’re going to talk about death: about how we’re too often agents of death in the world, rather than agents of life. We’re going to talk about what it means for us to become like Jesus as it relates to death.

 

These are introductory things that we’ll return to in a few weeks.  And when we return to them, we’ll talk about the death penalty, we’ll talk about war, other things. But today, after we cover these introductory things, we’ll spend some time specifically talking about abortion.

 

But even that one topic is a lot, you know?

 

And I’m not anxious because this is a polarizing issue that we’re only supposed to talk about in whispers with people we know won’t run away from us if we’re honest.

 

I’m hesitant to bring these things up because of something Tolstoy said.  You remember Tolstoy?  Wrote a big book, “War and Peace,” foot-stool sized. He eventually started following the Lord, and died as a Christian.

 

A Quote:

Another novel Tolstoy wrote, Anna Karenina, opens with the line “All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

 

Depending on your point of view he was either a real downer or a realist; but his point is that unhappiness is unique, sadness is unique; each of us knows sadness uniquely.  The bible says that “every heart knows its own bitterness,” or sorrow, “and no stranger can teach it joy.”

 

Today the topic we discuss might likely trigger sorrows and sadnesses in our hearts.  Some of us are already preparing our defenses, not because we’re defensive people, but because we are people, we have whole life stories that stand behind this moment in these chairs, things I know nothing about, things that in some cases unfortunately almost no one knows anything about.

 

An Agreement:

So let me ask this: can we in this room, this morning, decide not to be like Satan.  Satan means “Accuser,” the one who accuses us of our sins, points out all the things we should feel shame and guilt over.

 

The devil likes to get in the middle of topics like today because they are so personal, they are so powerful, and the devil can cripple us through guilt, through fear, through blame and pride.

 

And if we in our hearts can decide we are not going to be little devils to one another, maybe we can also in our hearts resolve to receive anything I might say this morning without fear, knowing there’s nothing that condemn us because we are covered in the power and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and walk in the freedom of our salvation & the power of the Holy Spirit.  If you’re sitting there thinking I’m not going mimic the devil, let’s try and trust that the rest of us in this room aren’t either.

 

Pray with me, please.

 

Prayer:

Jesus.  We renounce this morning your enemy, our accuser, and all his works.  We return ourselves to your mercy seat, and welcome your love for us into the house of our souls.  Sit down; stay awhile with us.  Especially keep us from condemning ourselves.  Help me to speak only words that position us to act as more complete agents of your mercy.

 

Concerning Death:

So.

 

Let’s take a some time and talk about some basic Christian perspectives on death.  First of all, it wasn’t a part of the original plan.  Death was not supposed to happen; you can read all about that in the first thousand words in the Bible.  Death has entered and is active in the world through the initial and ongoing sin of humanity.

 

In fact, in some ways the BIble is the story of death’s interruption into life, and all the steps God takes to deal with the problem of death, with sin that introduced & promotes it.  Sin is loose in the world, and wherever it goes it prepares whatever it touches for death, and it’s gone everywhere.  Stained everything.

 

I lived in a dorm, for many years, and there was a poster in the laundry room about how to deal with stains.  And by bleach, it simply said “Insoluble; burn down house.”  Meaning, look: you’re stuck with a bleach stain.  Give up.  And we seemed stuck with death, we people, but God never did give up on getting rid of it.

 

And Jesus comes along, after years of trying to deal with sin & the sting of death, and acts as death’s vaccine; his particular death, as the only human to not need to die as a result of having caught sin–because remember, where sin & death are a couple, they travel together–his particular death became a vaccine, by which any who receive him, take him in, allow themselves to be taken in by him, they’re vaccinated against death.

 

Jesus died & rose again, and insofar as we are in Jesus, in Christ, we ourselves can expect to rise again after we “die,” too.  Until that day, of course, we rest in the hand of God, until God remakes this earth into something better than every daydream we have of what heaven will look like.

 

So Jesus vaccinated us all against the evil couple, sin and death.  Pretty amazing; one aspect of “to save” in greek is “to be healed,” and the BIble says that Jesus is the one who provides healing from not a terminal illness, but the terminal itself, death.

 

And although we’ve grown used to death, although we generally expect it, and if we’re confident in what Jesus has done for us, don’t fear it anymore and sometimes even receive it as a blessing because of terrible pain or infirmity or the like, death is still and always an interruption, because it reminds us that we were meant not to die, meant not to have relationships physically break, meant for Life, capital L & saturated in good expectation.

 

Some Christians will say that their favorite verse in the Bible is “Jesus Wept,” because it’s so tiny, two words, easy to memorize, right?  But it’s wide open to this truth of death’s painfulness.  He’s weeping, of course, at the death of a friend, Lazarus–even though he’s about ready to bring him back to life.

 

Jesus wept over death, and still does, I think.

 

Is this sounding like a eulogy to anyone else?  But “eulogy” means “good words,” words of good about the person who has died, and words of good about the fact that because of Jesus the sorrows of death don’t need to be the end of the line.

 

Death is an interruption; we were not made to die. And every death is a reminder to us to embrace life, and for Christians, to embrace the life of Christ, as fully as we’re able.

 

Agents of Death:

But there are times when we humans, even we Christians, are agents of death.

 

You know what I mean by agents, right?  Individuals who are vested with the authority of someone or something, who act on behalf of that authority, promote the concerns of that authority, do it’s stuff.  We can sometimes be agents of death, who promote death’s interests.

 

I mean, humans generally act as agents of death, right?  We sin; and sin is tied so tightly to death, if in no other way, each time sin breaks out, it’s a small reminder of how far away we are from the original hope of a death-free world.

 

But even particular behaviors or attitudes lead to death.  Jealousy leads to murder in the world, doesn’t it?  And fits of rage lead to murder in the world, and selfish ambitions, and factions, and envy and drunkenness–these all lead to murder, don’t they?

 

Paul calls these things “works of the flesh,” natural things that come out of people when we’re just living our lives with one another.   And these “works,” are contrasted with the virtues that come to fruition in our lives as we stay close, nearby Jesus and the Holy Spirit God’s sent us.

 

People act in all sorts of ways in the world, and a good many of them result in death; whether that’s in the immediacy of murder, or by degrees: six degrees of death instead of kevin bacon.

 

((You know: no matter where you land on “Footloose,” it’s better than death.))

 

Agents of Christ:

And most of us would say, about those few “works of the flesh,” that I just mentioned, that, look, there is a qualitative difference between a “fit of rage,” and killing someone.  Which is fine, and reasonable, except for good old unreasonable Jesus, right, and what we heard him say in today’s passage:

 

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago [he’s talking about the ten commandments here], ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, “Raca,” [which was a major Aramaic diss, right?] is answerable to the Sanhedrin [the religious trial court]. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

 

Oh. Well.

 

Jesus is equalizing sins, here, right? And he’s not saying “Murder isn’t so bad,” he’s saying that acting out of anger to another person is as bad as murder.  Which makes playing around with some of those “works of the flesh” a pretty high stakes game.

 

Being angry, calling someone a fool or slandering them; it’s like a baby step on the path that leads to murder, and Jesus says the whole pathway is off-limits, is dangerous and we face judgment for even getting on it.

 

We’re as guilty of being murderers, agents of death for playing around on the first steps of death’s pathway as we would be if we actually went and killed a person. This is intense.

 

And Jesus goes on in this section of Matthew; we call it the Sermon on the Mount, because he was on a mount, a pony, I think, or a donkey.  Actually, he was on a Mountain, but you know, some traditions will not die.  So he takes his mount and rides off into the sunset, but before he goes, he turns.  A tumbleweed rolls by, and the sky is purples & blues.  Cowboy Jesus speaks:

 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

 

And we’ll talk about the first part of this passage in a couple of weeks, but what can we take from this second part? I think it’s safe to say that we are supposed to radically, uncomfortably–for us and others–love people, “love our enemies,” “pray for those who persecute us,” because when we do this stuff we act like who we really are, children of God, a caring God who gives to everyone, good or bad, common shared graces.  We’re to be perfect like our father, and our perfection, without getting as technical as we could, is measured in the love we offer those who do not deserve it.

 

And this sounds a lot like Jesus, doesn’t it? Loving those who are your enemies, caring for those who don’t deserve it? Being perfectly giving in love and all the things love implies.  Jesus models the life he’s calling us to hear, right?  It’s really his own life.  And remember what he did? He died for us so that we might be vaccinated against sin and death both? We all remember that.

 

We all also probably remember the ethical life Christians are supposed to have–we talked about this a couple of weeks ago–we’re to become like Jesus, live with the same character and attitude he had, make the same choices he makes.

 

And those choices are life giving choices.

 

This may be obvious, but we are not supposed to be agents of death, working on behalf of death, promoting it in anyway, whether we’re playing at the start of death’s path or killing someone.

 

We’re supposed to work on behalf of Jesus, promote the concerns of Jesus; and this makes us agents of capital-L “Life!”  The source of Life literally?Paul says through him all things were created, and in him they all still hold together?and on top of this, Jesus is the one who has inoculated us against death.

 

And so we Christians should go out into the world with the same goal of promoting life, healing, the way Jesus has done these things in our lives.  We’re agents of life-saving Jesus.

 

So what do you think?

So what do you think?  Is this true?

 

And things might begin to get a little hard, now, this morning.  But is this true?

 

Are Christians, who are supposed to so deeply identify with Jesus that they can say with Paul “I no longer live but Christ lives in me,” are we supposed to be agents of Life, of life that Jesus holds together and died to save?  Are we supposed to work against death, like Jesus worked against death?

 

Because if this is true, then Christians really shouldn’t kill, and probably shouldn’t support or empower others to kill on their behalf.  We really shouldn’t kill, and shouldn’t support or empower others to kill on our behalf.

 

But that’s a hard thing to say out loud, to admit.  We know that we follow Jesus, about whom Isaiah said “A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not blow out,” we call him the Prince of Peace, we say we want to be like him, we hear him say the things that were read to us this morning, but it is just really hard to say that we shouldn’t kill, and shouldn’t support or empower others to kill on our behalf.

 

Why so hard:

And I’m not sure why: sometimes I wonder if we just think that we’re too good.  Who among us hasn’t at the least, least, played around at the entrance to death’s pathway, acted out of anger toward another person.  Really?

 

Maybe it’s because none of us want to be agents of death; and if we have been in any way, it’s not like we wanted it; we just live, you know, and end up in all sorts of situations and places that we never meant to end up in. Don’t we?

 

But part of the goal of this morning is to position us away from that, and to help us own the fact that from here on out, we need to consider deeply if it is ever appropriate for a Christian to kill, or more subtly, to empower and support someone else to kill.  That’s like being like Pilate, who washed his hands, said it wasn’t his fault Jesus was being killed, even though he could have stopped it at any time.

 

Paul, the author of half the New Testament books, in a very different context says he puts his past behind him–he’s talking about trying to live a perfect life so God can put a little “righteous” sticker in his chart. But he puts his past behind him so he can press on to the goal for which Christ is calling him heavenward.

 

Of course, he had in his past pulled a Pilate, right?  In Acts 7? he made sure that no one’s coat was getting stolen while they ran off to stone Stephen to death; it’s hard to toss boulders in a jacket, I guess.

 

Turning away from the Past:

At some point we need to turn away from our past, whatever is going on there, and claim the redemption that of the Lord, who makes all things new.  Jesus makes all things new, and so we can live in that newness, and that Spirit-filled power, as agents of Life in the world. Life freely.

 

In order for us to stand against any accusations the devil might make against us, we need to stand with truth buckled around us, holding up our pants, protecting our gut, and part of that truth is that we should not kill, and part of that truth is that God is always asking us to turn to the future in his power, not brood over our weak pasts.

 

This said, we need to talk.

 

We need to talk about Abortion, because even if we don’t, someone is going to put words in our mouth.

 

Abortion:

I don’t want to talk about this.  It just feels to heavy.

 

What do we know? We know that we shouldn’t kill or empower others to kill on our behalf, right?

 

Clear Lines: Life

But the abortion topic carries with it so many assumptions.  We generally assume that life begins at conception, don’t we?  But humans haven’t always assumed this; often in history it was the assumption that life begins at the quickening, when a mother can feel her child move in her.  Of course, I was able to watch my little newt swimming around in Carolyn when it was the size of an olive; this affects our perceptions, right?

 

We would all here probably, and should, agree that life does happen in a mother’s womb. We’ve been formed by Scripture, we’ve read David, as he declares in his psalm of praise to God:

  “…you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

       I praise you because I am fearfully and

    wonderfully made…”

 

But when in that womb does that little sprout start “being alive,” right? Christians?people who love the Lord?disagree about this, today.  But this is a key issue; knowing this matters.

 

And it matters because we are people who want black and white.  We want to know when the actions we’ll take will be “counted” as death.  We long for clear lines like this, for all sorts of reasons: some of them selfish, some of them altruistic.

 

Clear Lines: Hypotheticals

Sometimes we bring out the hypothetical situations, ones that pose difficult choices: “If you or your wife had 75% chance of dying if she carried your child to full term, would you abort the child?”  Then we’ll go, “Okay, what if it’s 95%?” We ask other, darker questions, too: “If this or that happened, what would you do?”

 

And in posing these unusual hypothetical situations, we are really saying “Man, abortion is a terrible thing to have to think about, to have to consider.  And it gives most of us a chance to shake our heads and say “I hope I don’t have to make these decisions because I don’t know what I’d do.”

 

And for some of us people, those might be real situations we’ll face.  But for most of us, they won’t.  We’ve grown up in financially stable homes, with supportive families & strong communities, religious sensibilities that have guided our decisions.  Most people, if abortion becomes something they consider, it’s because they really feel like they have no other option, they are unsupported, and the caring, loving support they receive guides them toward abortion, not away from it.

 

Clear Lines: Camps & Labels

And this desire for black & white is especially hard for some Christians when it comes to certain labels that are used when people talk about abortion.

 

I have friends, they are married.  They both believe more or less the same things when it comes to abortion.  They are strong Christians, and love the Lord. They would agree that in some of these rare, hypothetical situations I mentioned earlier, they would choose an abortion.  I think they know this brings consequences, that it would be a terrible choice; and yet they would make it.

 

And yet one of them identifies as pro-life; because this person is for life, regrets that life does occasionally present times where we choose between lame, bad options, but is for life, whenever it’s possible.  And this person’s spouse,  for the same reasons, would identify as pro-choice, because life does occasionally present times where we need to be able to choose between lame, bad options, but this person is also for Life.

 

And these people, my friends: the one pro-life, the other pro-choice, believe essentially the same thing, and especially believe in Jesus, and the salvation he’s given them.

 

A Way of Happening:

This is what I want us to take away at least from this part of our discussion: Life has a way of happening.  Hard things occur.  People find themselves in places they never expected to find themselves, contemplating decisions they never thought they’d make.  What I want us to do is not operate with the assumption that most abortions in America happen because people just don’t want to be hassled with a baby.  I want us to see those who struggle with these decisions as people worthy of our caring attention, and  any spirit-led guidance we can give them.

 

A Secret:

Someone fairly close to me once kept secret an abortion he and his wife had; I don’t think that even now they know that I know.  Another person told me. There was a strong likelihood his wife would have died, if she had gone on to carry the child full term.

 

What would you do?

 

They didn’t want me to know because I was a Christian, which meant of course that I was against them, would condemn them.

 

What they didn’t know is that I am an agent of life. I am pro-life, completely, right: but not just for the unborn, for them, too. Someday, if the timing is right, I might let this person know I know, and let them know that all I want to do is be for them, to love them.  If I get the chance I’ll talk to them about how God makes all things new, can redeem our every choice, if we entrust them into his hands.

 

We might talk about other things; the hope that God has in his hands right now the soul of their child, and if they could trust in the loving forgiveness of God, they’ll be able to say, securely, with David, that they’ll see their child again.  Maybe we’ll talk frankly about how difficult a decision it was, and how much I prayed for them when I heard.

 

And maybe in the future I won’t be on the outside of these decisions, because they’ll have learned to trust me, know that I am for them, and want my honest perspective and guidance.

 

Practical Things:

So let’s talk about some practical things we could do if we wanted to act locally and constructively with regard to abortion.  Some things that are better, maybe, than shocking and scaring.

 

One thing we can do is be honest about our own experiences with abortion, and allow them to be avenues of mercy and help to others. This would be great, so good. This is something we can take away this morning.

 

Proving Ourselves:

We can act in ways, right now, that really prove to everyone around us that we are trustworthy, kind people.  You can’t force this, right?  But being caring helps, acting kind as much as you’re able.  Waiting for an opportunity to be honest about what we believe about death, why we believe, and in whose name we act. This is something we can take away this morning.

 

Preparing Ourselves:

And if they should come to us, we need to prepare ourselves to guide people well, right? We need to think about what we’ll say, what we can do to be agents of life in those difficult, uncommon, hypothetical situations.

 

And we also need to learn how to be agents of life,  when people are simply considering abortion because they have no other idea what to do.  We need to guide them toward life-bringing options.  We could be preparing ourselves so that when we’re given the chance to speak into people’s lives about this stuff, we know what we’d like to say.

 

Partnering Well:

And sometimes we won’t know what to say.

 

This is the referral step, right? Knowing how to refer someone we want to help, but don’t have the tools to help, to another place where they can get the guidance they need.

 

We can partner with organizations who have spent years dedicated to exactly this ministry; to come alongside those who are considering abortion, and who walk with them kindly through that decision, yet work to lead them away from it.

 

I am thinking explicitly of an organization in Columbus called Pregnancy Decision Health Centers.  They are a group that understands the complexity involved in some of these decisions, yet is unapologetically for carrying an unborn child to term, if it is at all possible.

 

We can support domestic adoption agencies, and foster care programs that will be homes for many of the children that are born to mothers who would otherwise have aborted them.  We can learn about programs that provide counseling and care-giving to those who have gone through abortions.  Any of these would be good, easy things that we could do.

 

And our support can take the form of cash or time, prayer: whatever we can give.

 

Just to help us, a little, I’ve put some information from Pregnancy Decision Health Centers, PDHC, in each of our mailboxes; you can do what you’d like with it.

 

Conclusion:

But one thing we really must do is live such condemnation-free lives, as caring & loving as we’re able–so that we don’t have to learn second-hand about the difficult decisions people have already made.

 

Instead, we’ll be invited into the decisions those around us make, because even while they know we are for Life, all the time, they’ll know also that we love everyone, even our enemies, and they can trust that we’ll act loving toward them.

 

In a few weeks we’ll talk about other difficult things; until then let’s remember that we’re supposed to be agents of life, acting on behalf of Christ’s love in the world.  We cannot act on behalf of death.

 

 

Go in the Lord’s Power, as agents of life, deputized and empowered by the Holy Spirit.  Let’s prove ourselves to others by reflecting Christ’s love to them?  ??  prepare ourselves, partner well with those who can guide people to Life-filled places we can’t guide them to.

 

Prayer: