Chancel of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Collinsville, IL
I was honored to preach for the LCMS Southern Illinois District’s service for Life Sunday, held on January 21 at Good Shepherd, Collinsville, IL. Thanks to Rev. Scott Adle and his charming family for hosting me, and Rev. Mark Surburg, District Life Coordinator, for inviting me. The audio of the sermon can be found here.
Text: St. John 7:37-39
“God makes, man is made.” This statement seems so basic as to be absurd. “God makes, man is made.” Yet this statement overthrows all our pride, all our desires for authority and dominance.
Confess it: you want others to obey you. You want others to submit. You should be the star, you should be praised, you should control your own destiny.
But God makes, man is made. Which means He has firmly established who and what we are. He has declared what is right and wrong. He has declared what is the beginning and the ending. He has declared what is male and female.
God makes, man is made. Put more directly, God has made you, you are made. My body, my choice? Hardly. That pro-abortion slogan is not just wrong about the murder of children, it is wrong in every respect. My body is not my own. I am made by Another. Which means I am God’s choice. You are God’s choice.
He created the world from nothing. The world is His choice. Yet, though this delves perhaps too deeply into the heart of God, there seems an overwhelming desire in God to make, to create, which is to say, to love.
He who is living, He who is self-existent, calls Life into being by His Word. And as the crown of His creation, He fashions the man from the earth.
But it was not good for that man to be alone. Just as God creates life from Himself yet outside Himself, so our first father’s side is opened. The woman is made from the man but comes into being outside the man.
These two He made for each other. She is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Together they become one flesh. “Be fruitful and multiply” is the blessing God gives them. They are made not only for each other but for the ongoing creation of life. God makes, they are made, and they are made for making, created for procreation.
The curse came upon them and up— us and the world—through the desire to overthrow the Maker, to become as gods apart from God.
The earth produced thorns, and pain entered conception and childbearing. Many wombs became barren.
Yet still God heard the anguished cries of our lost and fallen race. He opened the barren wombs of Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah, and Elizabeth. Some of you know what this is. The struggle to conceive, the hidden sorrow of miscarriage, the horror of losing a child. God knows. He sees. He remembers. When you hurt, He hurts – for this is still the same God who once made the world from nothing.
Does it seem like He does not hear your cries? Does He seem detached and capricious, uninvolved in your anguish?
Behold, here is His answer to all your cries:
In the fullness of time He sent His own Son into the womb of the blessed virgin Mary. In Him He has honored our race beyond all measure. He who is of one substance with the Father assumed into His person our human nature. He who had no body is made man, becoming bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh.
The earth brought forth thorns, and we crowned His head with them. He becomes the Cursed King, or King of the Curse.
Then, behold a mystery! Like the first Adam, this new Adam has His side opened. From His heart, from His belly flows living waters. That crucifixion event is what Jesus is inviting us to when He says today, “Everyone who thirsts, come to Me and drink, you who believe in Me.” For the Scriptures declared that out of His heart, that is, out of Christ’s heart will flow rivers of living water.
Isaiah foresaw this, and he still speaks to us when he says, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. Come, buy without money and without price. Why do you waste your money on what is not bread, and your wages on what does not satisfy?”
That question is put to us today. What are you involved in that is foolish and fake? What do you need to give up, because it is destroying you? Is it your lust for porn – or your lust for power? Is your heart overcome by the desires of the world, the desires of the world, or the pride of life? Are you wasting your life as a slave to social media, staring into the abyss of a rectangular black mirror?
You will not find life there. That is a life that leads to death. Paradoxically, it is in death that you will find life – the death of Jesus from Whom flow the living waters.
St Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is a living man.” What does that mean? God glories in self-giving. He does not glory in His own existence, but glories in giving existence to us, giving life to the world. Seeing a world of death, He again said, “It is not good. It is not good for man to be alone, so I will join them. It is not good for man to die, so I will renew life among them.”
The side of the first Adam was opened to give life to his wife. The side of the second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, was opened to give life to the Church. The glory of God was in this dying man – dying to restore life to the world.
Life Sunday is timed to commemorate with sadness the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. We are now one of the only countries in the world—joined by North Korea and China—in allowing unrestricted abortion up to the time of birth; and we know that some abortionists bring the baby partially out of the womb before the murder to make the killing easier or to illegally preserve intact organs to harvest and sell.
But Life Sunday must never for us be simply about the evils of abortion, as though stopping abortion would resolve our problems. Life Sunday is for us to hear again that God gives life, and he forgives all the things we do that are part of our warped culture of death. He forgives our misuse of marriage; He forgives our seeing children or the aged as burdens; He forgives Moses the murderer, David the adulterer, Peter the denier. He invites you too, no matter what you have done, to come and receive freely the living waters that flow from His side.
Life Sunday reminds us too that forgiveness is the beginning and life is the ending, the ending without an end; for where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. We have a God who has overcome death by resurrection. We have a God who became a living man, who revealed HIs glory in a living man whom death cannot hold.
So what should we do? First of all, pray. Pray by name for our president, Donald, and for Paul, the speaker of the House, and for John, the Chief Justice. Pray for those who profit from abortion, and pray for those who are suffering in silence. Pray fervently that hearts would be transformed, beginning with our own.
But then, give thanks. Give thanks for the gift of life in Jesus, and all the tremendous blessings of daily bread, of the gift of good schools and good government, good neighbors and faithful friends.
And then finally, and this is most important: Go home. On Friday I took part in the March for Life in Washington, D.C. It’s an important event, where hundreds of thousands gather to celebrate God’s gift of life. I encourage you all to come and join us. It’s a sea of Roman Catholics out there, and my dream is for a Lutheran church to rise up and join them in celebrating life.
But as important as these kinds of events are, the place where the culture of life is built is in your home and your neighbors’ homes. God doesn’t need your good works, your neighbor does. So build a culture of life in your homes. To change a diaper might be the highest good work you could do before God. And if there are no diapers in your home to change, there are moms all around you who could use your help. If a child is crying in church, smile at the mother and when you can, tell her you’re glad she’s here.
The world says we only care about children before they’re born. Prove them wrong. Support your local pregnancy center. Become a foster parent. Adopt a child. And if you are not at the stage of life where you can do that, help others.
My wife and I adopted our little boy, James, and the opportunity came suddenly and unexpectedly. What overwhelmed me was how quickly the people of my congregation reacted; almost immediately people were showing up with everything we would need to care for our son. That was pro-life action. And then just this last Friday night, one of our parochial school teachers gave up her Friday night so my wife and I could go out together. And then she refused to take any money. That is pro-life action.
Changing a Supreme Court decision seems like such a big job; what could any one of us do? But you engage in pro-life action when you rejoice in and celebrate the life that is around you.
Never despair. Never give up. The world’s desires are passing away. What we sing at Easter is true all year long: The strife is o’er, the battle won.
The glory of God is a living man. Jesus is living and cannot die. In Him, the pro-life cause is already won. In Him will you live, in Him will you die, and His shall you be forever. +INJ+