Home

Contact Us

Life?                        Romans 8: 12-17                   June 7, 2009

Last Sunday, moments after services had begun at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, Dr. George Tiller, an usher at the church, was shot and killed with a handgun as he was handing out bulletins in the back of the sanctuary. His wife was sitting in the choir loft. An anti-abortion activist named Scott Roeder was arrested and later charged with the first-degree murder in connection with the shooting.

Known as "Tiller the Killer" by vocal members of the anti-abortion movement around the country, Dr. Tiller was one of the few physicians in the nation who would perform late-term abortions. There is little doubt that this is why he was murdered.

Not surprisingly, there has been an outcry, following Tiller's death, from both sides of this complex, volatile issue.

Randall Terry, one of the most militant and oft-quoted proponents of the movement dedicated to making all abortion illegal, and a founder and former leader of the anti-abortion group "Operation Rescue," immediately issued a statement. "George Tiller was a mass-murderer," he wrote. "We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God."

"Those men and women who slaughter the unborn are murderers according to the Law of God," Terry went on to say. "We must continue to expose them in our communities and peacefully protest them at their offices and homes, and yes, even their churches."

Supporters of legal abortion, on the other hand, have denounced the tactics of groups like Operation Rescue and the rhetoric of those in the media who demonized this doctor, suggesting that they incite the kind of violence that resulted in Tiller's death. "Tone it down," urged Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, an organization dedicated to keeping abortion legal.

Please understand, I know that the topic of abortion is a hot-button topic in the United States. Probably the hottest of all. As I have already noted, people -including many of us - have passionate views on this subject. It has been, and in all likelihood will continue to be, a focal point for the volatile mixture of religion and politics, sometimes to the point where explosions occur. And at the same time, it is a highly personal subject, touching people's lives in very sensitive ways.

I also know that it's a perilous topic for preachers, for all of these reasons. But avoiding it won't change the realities of our world. And I am always drawn toward the question of how our Christian faith helps to illuminate the most challenging real-life issues that we face.

So when the news arose about this man who walked into a church, of all places, and blew out the brains of a doctor whose crime was providing abortions that were legal under the laws of his state, I simply couldn't find a way to ignore the topic.

First, let's be clear. While there is plenty of Scriptural evidence to support the sanctity of life, the Bible is silent on the subject of abortion. Interestingly, this is true despite the fact that abortion was relatively common during Biblical times.

As is often the case, however, you can find scripture that supports whatever position you otherwise hold.

The author of Jeremiah, for example, quotes God, saying "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you." This verse, and others like it, are often used to support the position that God causes all conception to happen; to support the notion that every human life is somehow willed into existence by God.

The author of Exodus, on the other hand, writes, "When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman's husband demands. . .." This text can be, and sometimes is, used to "prove" that an unborn child is somehow deemed by God to be less than a person.

Both of these so-called "proof texts" point out the danger of taking a verse or two of Scripture - particularly an Old Testament text, but really any text - and using it, out of context, to try to prove a point that the author never intended to prove. We could spend hours talking about the harm that's been done, over the years, by well-meaning - and sometimes not so well-meaning - people with this narrow approach to Biblical study.

The authors of Scripture clearly had no idea how the biology of reproduction works. They didn't know a zygote from a nanny goat, and had no way to conceptualize what we now know is the natural process of cell division that results in the transformation of a fertilized egg in to a human being.

So point number one is this: We simply can't resolve this debate by quoting Scripture. Waving the Bible in support of our position does nothing to change the minds of those with whom we disagree and only serves to widen the gulf between us.

The second point is much like the first: The debate over when human life begins, while at the heart of the matter, is not likely to be resolved anytime soon - and just engaging in such a debate almost always stokes the fires of disagreement rather than putting out the flame.

There is simply no consensus on the precise timing of the beginning of human personhood. No agreement on when, during pregnancy, a new human being exists, with full civil rights, including the most important right of all: the right to live. People of faith disagree on this issue.

Some say that it begins at conception. A few say it only begins when the newborn is separate from her/his mother and breathing on its own.

And many others point to different times - after conception but before birth - when blood begins to flow, for example.

We certainly can't resolve that debate here either. Perhaps it will never be resolved.

It is wrong, however, to just throw up our hands and say that there are two kinds of people - pro choice and pro life - and that the two sides will never come together.

It's far better, I think, to focus our attention on the areas where the two sides can agree. Where people who are passionate about the preservation of unborn life and the people who are equally passionate about a woman's right to decide if she will give birth can come together and find ways to work together.

And despite the impression we might get from the media, there are areas of agreement. Areas where common ground can be found.

Talking about and finding the agreements may not improve talk-show ratings or "energize the base" as so many politicians - left and right - are inclined to do, but it is none the less the right thing to do.

First, everyone can agree, I believe, that abortion is never a good thing. Rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding, I've never met anyone who is actually "pro" abortion.

The stories told by women who have had an abortion are full of real-life struggles: they are told by women living in poverty who can barely care for the children they have and by women who have been abandoned by the men who got them pregnant.

These stories of women include examples of sexual assault, medically risky pregnancies, incest and the agony of deciding what to do about serious genetic defects that make it impossible for a baby to be viable outside the womb. I heard one heart-wrenching story, this week, about a ten-year-old who reached puberty early and was impregnated by her father.

No one decides to get pregnant and have an abortion just for the experience. No one.

That is because there is a near consensus - on both sides of the debate - that a zygote - a fertilized egg - is a form of human life. A consensus that a zygote is biologically alive. And no one would disagree that terminating that life can never be called good. At best, it may be the lesser of two evils. On that, everyone can agree.

Second, everyone can agree that doing everything possible to reduce the need for abortion is a good thing.

In the most recent issue of Sojourners magazine, Julie Polter writes that most Americans agree with and support such things as preventing unwanted pregnancies, expanding adoption and providing increased support for women who choose to carry their babies to term.

She quotes Rachel Laser, a member of a policy think tank called "Third Way," who suggests that when an alternative to the two camps - pro life and pro choice - is offered, one that focuses on reducing abortion by addressing its root causes, people from both sides will flock to that place. "The fact is," she points out, "the country is tired of the fighting and the polarization - tired of the stalemate."

I suspect that after the events of last weekend in Wichita, the impetus for finding a middle ground in this horribly divisive debate, a middle ground, which, as Polter describes it, "leaves the bumper-sticker platitudes behind and offers the potential to actually reduce abortion," will be greater than ever. I pray that it is so.

Trinity Sunday, which we celebrate today, is the last Sunday in the Easter-Pentecost season. It is the day we remember one of the great mysteries of our faith: God, as one, yet three.

The importance of the Trinity, which we often affirm in our liturgy, song and prayer - as we did this morning - yet still do not fully understand; the importance of the Trinity is this: In God's quest to know and love us, God chose not one but three persons.

The Hebrew Bible - the book we Christians call the Old Testament - reveals the Creator God. The God who calmed the chaos and created life. The God whose power is greater than anything we can fathom.

The Gospels reveal another person of God - the one who is incarnate, who walked among us in human form, experiencing life as we do.

And Paul, in our Epistle Lesson for this morning, reveals God as Spirit who testifies that we are both children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ: "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God," he writes, "and if children, heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."

In God's infinite wisdom, God revealed God's self to us in multiple ways. Creator, Brother and Spirit. Different, yet one.

Even when we are at odds with one another, we are still sisters and brothers. May we never forget that we are called to see the face of God in every one of our brothers and sisters - even those whose actions enrage us. Even those who espouse views that make our blood boil.

May all of us be pro-life. And may that pro-life stance extend to all of God's children - the ones that are easiest to love and the ones most difficult to love. Truly, the God who called us children would have it no other way.

                                                                             AMEN

Go Back To Sermons