Honoring The Value Of Life (Pt 1) Series

Honoring the Value of Life (Pt 1)

Series: Cracks – Navigating Our Divided Times?

Brad Bailey – March 20, 2022

NOTE: The following notes are more extensive than what time would allow presenting, but provide both the main points and heart of the message. One will also find “further resources” with links and extensive footnotes that I hope can serve them.

Intro

Today we’re continuing in our series focused on navigating through our divided times.

Our goal is to identify some of the issues which have brought division within our culture at large...but also within the general Christian culture...to allow God to speak to us through the Scriptures. Our goal is not to settle every difference of perspective and policy... but to establish our common ground in the mind and heart of God.

Today I invite us to engage an issue that has been among the most politically polarized for decades...and that is the issue of the sanctity of life.

How does God call us to be...Honoring the Value of Life

... which includes the controversial and complex issue of abortion.

The debate over abortion has continued throughout most of our lifetimes.

Unlike other social issues....which tend to become less public after there has been some federal ruling ...the legality of abortion has never simply gone away.

When the Supreme Court made it’s ruling in the 1973 Federal Case of Roe vs. Wade ... the depth of concerns for both the rights of the unborn and the rights of woman have only grown.

For those who connect most deeply with the rights of the unborn... the nature of abortion cannot be accepted as merely reflecting one’s personal choice.... due to the belief that there is a second life which cannot speak for itself. And advances in medical science and technology have continued to reveal what many believe support a view that human life begins at conception. [1]

At the same time, the way in which women have been violated by men has finally begun to be heard throughout the cultural conscience... a reckoning captured by the #metoo movement and similar movements around the world. [2] Women have been subjugated to the wills and egos of men and are just finally finding enough voices joining together to stand up... to begin to have a voice that can stand up to power. And that a voice that needs to be heard. And that is a voice that is naturally going to want to defend the freedom related to their own bodies.

So it is not surprising that the issue has grown even more passionate and entrenched.

Some have passionate convictions to be a voice for unborn lives. Some have passionate convictions for protecting the rights of women.

Into those passions... let me express a couple vital points... before even engaging the issue.

I want to invite us out of the political pep rally... and into the presence of God.

My invitation is to shift positions... to shift from the political position...to the personal space...in which we come before the presence of God.

The problem with the mere political positions...is that they tend to focus on rights...rather than responsibility.

Whether you identify as “Pro-Choice” or “Pro-Life”... please know that you are welcome here. We’re not going to try to resolve the issue of rights.... but rather the responsibility that such rights lead to. And in this sense...I want those who may identify as Pro-Choice and Pro-Life... to be challenged...and hopefully to welcome the challenge.

Those who focus on the right to choose ...can tend to diminish the responsibility that such a choice involves.

Those who focus on removing the right to choose... can tend to consider their own personal responsibility to support and honor life... as a secondary matter.

So... engage the nature of honoring life... over two weeks... each week challenging one of those aspects.

And as we gather around Jesus... we gather in the presence of grace.

I know that some of us have participated in the decision to have an abortion... it may have been personal decision...or perhaps as a partner or parent alongside.

You know better than I, what that choice involved.

There may be choices you have never settled peacefully with God.

As we look to God’s Word for clarity of convictions, I pray I want you to know that in this place there is grace. Here is this house... we gather around the grace of God.

While our focus is more about helping to think through the common “positions.” my hope is that one may find value for the deeply personal process as well.

My hope is that we all come with a desire to become more deeply responsible persons.

PRAY

As I expressed before... I want to shift from the issue of rights.... to that of responsibility.