Honoring The Value Of Life (Pt 2) Series

Honoring the Value of Life (Pt 2)

Series: Cracks – Navigating Our Divided Times?

Brad Bailey – March 27, 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 are concluding our series entitled Cracks...navigating our divided times.

I want to take a moment and express appreciation for those who have been a part of engaging these challenging issues over eight long weeks.

It can feel like you’ve been invited into a meeting to resolve conflict... which is a bit uncomfortable in itself....and hard if you don’t really feel you’re a part of the conflict.

What I hope you have found... is that this hasn’t been about bringing conflict... but rather to bring some clarity.

I believe that the work and words of Christ are true...and good. And when Christian culture begins to get infused with certain narratives... ways of reacting to cultural and political dynamics... and I don’t hear what is true or good... I believe it is vital to stop and assess some issues.

So the purpose of these weeks....was to clarify some commitments ...and these have included...

1. Our Commitment to Truth with Love

2. Our Commitment to Staying Centered in Christ

3. Our Commitment to Truth

4. Our Commitment to God’s Kingdom (as distinct from any nation.)

5. Our Commitment to Racial Justice

6. Our Commitment to the “Foreigner”

7. Our Commitment to Life

I don’t believe that what I have presented is by any means the whole word or last word... but I do believe that it has been faithful to some primary truths about God and what we are called to.

My desire has been to provide some guardrails for our minds...and our hearts... to serve us as we go forward.

What is fundamental in being faithful to God... to Christ.

I believe that there is a wide area that those following the way of Jesus can disagree and learn from each other... but there are boundaries.

And I want to also take a moment to recognize that there is a whole team of pastors and elders... that care about you...and that have supported this series. I don’t know how they all identify politically....but I do know that they all support guarding that which is true and good... understand that Jesus can’t be reduced to any political ideology.

Today I want to come back to the most sensitive topic of all...which is that of

Honoring the Value of Life

... the sanctity of life and it’s relationship to abortion.

I know that some of us here... and watching online...may identify as “Pro-Choice” and others as “Pro-Life”...and my hope is that both will feel welcomed....and challenged.

I believe that part of the challenge in engaging the “Pro-Choice” vs “Pro-Life” divide...is that there are aspects of the terms themselves that form a poor frame from which to reason well.

I trust those who identify as “Pro-Choice” are not simply anti-life.... and that those who identify as “Pro-Choice” are not simply anti-choice.

I think that the two banner terms tend to avoid as much as they affirm... because they tend to reduce the moral issue merely to a matter of rights...and can tend to avoid the responsibility that is inherent with those rights.

So last week... I shared how I believe that the Pro-Choice position ensues from a desire to protect women from injustice ...which is a desire that in itself...reflects the heart of God. The challenge is the need to recognize that such a choice is ultimately a responsibility... and without a serious consideration of the life at hand... we will neither honor the reality of life nor the true substance of choice.

I believe that we need to elevate our moral reasoning...and moral responsibility...above merely that of personal rights.

“In the current age in which individuality is deemed the highest virtue, there is often no higher guiding moral principle other than that of exercising “personal rights” and making “personal choices.” Jesus has come to reveal that there is no greater love than that which lays down one’s rights for the sake of others. Personal rights do not define moral responsibility.”

I believe that God calls us out to make choices in the light of responsibility ... the actual process of making an informed decision. And last week I shared reasons why I believe we should honor the unborn life.

One may come to a different moral decision...but I believe that a truly moral process will engage those points.

I believe that the Bible reveals that...

Life is a sacred gift.

Every life bears a sacred value.

No one has more or less of it than another human being—no matter whether we are male or female... no matter what our ethnicity is... no matter what level of virtue, intellect, skill, ability, power, or wealth. All share this quality equally.