Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 23rd,
Year of Our + Lord 2022
Our Redeemer and Our Savior Lutheran Churches
Custer
and Hill City, South Dakota
Why do we fight for life?
2nd Kings 5:1-19a, Romans 1:8-17, Matthew 8:1-13
Fight the good fight, with all your might. So goes the hymn. And for the last five decades, fighting the fight for life has animated American Christian Churches like perhaps no other concern. And for good reason. Millions of lives created by God have been destroyed by abortion, and millions of other souls have been burdened with guilt and sadness. And the assault on the sanctity, the inherent value and holiness of human life, has not remained just an attack on the unborn. Disabled people, old people, suffering people, and the family created by God to care for them, these all have suffered serious injury from the culture of death in which we live.
But perhaps there is hope on the
horizon? Is the fight over abortion, at
least, maybe drawing to a close? Could
we be so blessed? Through the bizarre
and twisted path of American politics, seasoned observers are saying that there
is a real chance that the Supreme Court of the United States could this year overturn
the prior rulings handed down in Roe vs. Wade and Casey vs. Planned
Parenthood. Could it be that the
unrestricted “right” to terminate a pregnancy at any point will no longer be
the law of the land? Wouldn’t that be a
wonderful day? Could that be the
beginning of the end of the silent self-inflicted, slow-motion genocide that we
Americans have been perpetrating on ourselves for the last five decades?
I don’t know how likely such a ruling
is. I’ll be glad if the Supreme Court
overturns Roe and Casey. In addition to
our Christian concerns, protecting innocent life is simply a basic
responsibility of good government. And
the legal foundation of the “right” to kill an unborn child has always been
perverse and illogical. But we need to
be very clear that overturning Roe v. Wade will not end the fight. Indeed, in many ways the work of pro-life
Americans will become more urgent, perhaps even harder. Overturning Roe and Casey would only return
the authority to make law concerning abortion to the states. Should these evil precedents fall, there will
be a fierce reaction from those who, however misguidedly, honestly believe that
a woman’s right to abort her pregnancy is sacrosanct.
We should welcome this fight, and
recognize that with it would come a heightened need to care for many more souls
caught in the crossfire. Our “Speaking
the Truth in Love” muscles will get a real workout. But whether or not Roe and Casey are
overturned, abortion will continue to be a problem, a plague, not because of
bad laws, but because too many of our neighbors will want it. And as I said before, the unborn are not our
only neighbors who are threatened by the culture of death.
Once humanity takes upon itself the
authority to determine which lives are worthy of protection and which are
expendable, then any of us could become subject to rejection. That is, to being declared undesirable, and
then killed. It could happen for being
old, or the wrong race, or for having the wrong set of challenges, or the wrong
politics.
It is fine and good to fight in the courts
for the right to life. But as the
Church, as Christians, we need to remember that the real fight is in the hearts
of mankind. It is much better to help
our pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia neighbors see the folly of their ideas and
their ways than to simply defeat them before a judge or at the ballot box. Because until Christ returns there will always
another judge or another election, where progress for life can be
reversed. But if through the Gospel a
new, for-life heart begins beating in someone formerly fooled by the lies of
satan, well that is a wonderful thing. But how do
we do that? How might we convert hearts
from death to life?
We might start with Jesus. And with our own hearts. We might take a long look at exactly what our
Lord, God’s Son, teaches and shows us about the value of human life. For while we say we are for-life, are we
really, biblically speaking, as much for-life as God is, and calls us to be?
For example, are we as for-life as the
nameless Israelite girl enslaved in the household of Naaman, the Syrian
general? This little pro-life warrior
sets quite the example. How would you
react, how would you behave, if at a tender age, maybe 8 or 9 years old, you were
snatched from your family and home, carried off by soldiers, and then were put
to work in the household of the commander of the army who had enslaved
you?
Well, of course you would be filled with concern
for that general, Naaman, because despite his greatness, he was plagued by
leprosy, his skin disfigured and gross, a painful disease that caused men of
less importance to be shunned and separated from society. Surely we, like this little Israelite girl,
would have compassion for Naaman’s suffering, and we would even suggest a
solution to our mistress, Naaman’s wife, the woman who day to day enforced our
slavery. Would we? If we knew of a sure cure to a disease that
plagued the man who enslaved us, would we share this good news with him?
The little girl did. Where did this act of compassion, some might
say foolishness, but I will say compassion, where did this selfless,
‘love-your-enemy’ action come from?
Well, it has to be that this girl believed what she had been taught from
Moses: You are to love the LORD your God
with all your heart, soul and strength, and you are to love your neighbor as
yourself. This young Israelite was a
believer, who knew how the LORD loved her.
She lived in that love, confident of God’s care, regardless of her
circumstances, a beautiful example of childlike faith. And in her new circumstances, Naaman was her
neighbor, so she quite naturally loved Naaman and sought his good.
Naturally, that is according to faith in the
LORD. And through her good news
proclamation, through her act of love toward a man who was objectively her
enemy, the LORD worked. Through His
faithful child, the LORD drew another dying sinner to the cleansing waters of
His saving love.
By word and deed, Jesus made multiple
references and allusions to Naaman during His earthly ministry. Sometimes our Lord was explicit, throwing in
the faces of His Jewish interlocutors the inconvenient fact that the LORD chose
to heal the leprosy of a Syrian, a gentile sinner and notorious enemy of the
Jews. At other times the Lord’s reference
is more subtle, like in our Gospel reading today. Jesus cleanses an unidentified leper, even
willing to touch this unclean man as He cleansed him from his disease, breaking the rules
and taboo handed down by Moses.
According to the Law, Jesus, by touching the leper, was taking this
man’s disease upon Himself. Which is
precisely what Jesus came to do. By
this, our Lord set a suffering soul free, while at the same time showing that
someone greater than Moses had arrived upon the scene.
Next, Jesus receives the plea of a
Centurion, a Roman military commander, an oppressor of Israel, who wasn’t
asking for a miracle for himself, but rather for his servant. This military occupier saw a neighbor in his
servant, his bond slave. The centurion
loved this servant, who very well may have been a Jew, we don’t know. Perhaps the Centurion heard of Jesus through
the servant. Regardless, after healing a
leper, Jesus responds to the faithful plea of this enemy, this military
oppressor of God’s people, and heals his servant with a word, from a distance,
without ever visiting him.
You and I need to have the connection to
Naaman pointed out to us, but faithful Jews of Jesus’ day would likely have
understood it without a problem. But
just in case anyone missed his point, Jesus, after extolling the faith of this
Roman commander, declares how many non-Israelites, how many gentiles from east
and from west will sit at table and feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom
of heaven, while sons of the kingdom are cast out. And Jesus made it clear that in Himself, the
LORD was now present in Israel as never before, present in the Man Jesus, Son
of Mary, and Son of God.
And so we are reminded that we are for-life
first, last and always, because of the Gospel.
By God’s grace and working, we are not ashamed of the gospel, for it
is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the
Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For
in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for
faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Our life in Christ, our new life, both
spiritual and physical, the promise of victory over death, by the forgiveness
of our sins earned by Jesus on the Cross, this is what makes us pro-life, “for life,” and also lovers of our neighbors, including our enemies.
Why?
Because, while we were still His enemies, rebellious sinners destined
for hell, Jesus loved us. And He loved
us perfectly, laying down His sinless, holy life, to save ours, washing away
our death and making us alive, together with Him.
Living out the truth that Christ and His
Church are naturally for life will get us in trouble. Jesus’ love for human life is what led to His
death. In His resurrection victory we
find our joy and our courage to love all life.
Paradoxically, speaking out for life requires us to speak against people
when their actions seek and glorify death.
But we do so for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of being able to
arrive at the position of that little Israelite girl who loved her enemy
Naaman, and was God’s instrument in changing his heart, cleansing his body and
saving his eternal soul.
Let’s switch gears, go conversational, and
talk about this crucial topic just a bit.
Distribute
and teach the insert.
I want to finish with a strong Gospel
declaration. Talking about being for-life
is hard, because it makes us also consider death. So we need to finish on Good News.
But I must first give a warning: Not every faithful Israelite who sought the
good of her neighbor was gladly heard like Naaman’s little slave preacher. Speaking the truth of the Gospel to
unbelievers will often, maybe usually, attract rejection, not acceptance. We do it because we have been loved and know
that there is enough love of Christ for all people. But until the Holy Spirit creates true faith
in the heart, the Gospel is offensive.
It would be ministerial malpractice for me not to clearly explain this
truth to you.
Still, all the joy is found in the Gospel
and the “for life” calling it brings.
So, despite the difficulties that can come, I pray the Holy Spirit will
give opportunity and courage to each of us to be and act “For Life”, again and again,
even when we have been rejected.
Because this who we are, baptized
believers, the truly alive, members of Christ’s Body, the Church, lambs under
His eternal care. We are for life
because God has made us alive in Christ Jesus.
Nothing can separate you from Him, nothing can defeat the victory He has
won for you, nothing can destroy the eternal life into which He has baptized
you and taught you and fed you.
Jesus has chosen you, for life. To Him be the glory, for this precious Gospel
and this wonderful, undeserved life we have received,
In the Name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever,
Amen.
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