“But Nothing”

I’m sure you’ve heard the buts. It’s inevitable. It’s not that hard to prove that Abortion is a moral evil. So what follows is the buts. “But what about cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger.” There are a large number of people who claim to be Pro-Life still say it’s ok to have an abortion in such cases. And of course the hardcore abortion activists paint anyone who opposes abortion in such cases as “dangerous extremists.” But consider:

Let’s take cases of rape and incest first. I suppose that there are a few reasons someone would bring these up. The first is that people often suppose the reason why someone shouldn’t have an abortion is because it was their own fault that they got pregnant to begin with. While this is a factor, it is not the reason. The reason people shouldn’t have abortion is because a child is a child. Life is precious. Obviously when someone has been raped, it’s not as if they are at fault for anything. They have been the victim of a terrible crime and they need love and compassion. But anyone who would therefore argue that it should be ok for them to have an abortion is clearly insane. Did the child rape someone? Liberals are often opposed to the death penalty because they think killing is wrong even when the person deserves it. But they’re ok with killing a baby because of something it’s father did? This makes no sense. Further, it’s not helpful to the mother. Violence isn’t going to help cure the scars of violence. That’s like saying “Oh hey, someone punched you in the gut? Here I’ll make that better by punching you again and harder.”

As a society we should have options, resources, and all the help there is to have available for those who find themselves in such a terrible position. But Abortion is not help. It’s murder.

The idea that abortion is ok in cases of incest is an even more untenable position. There was actually consent there! The only reason for this argument is something very akin to Hitler’s ideas about eugenics. Sadly that kind of logic is all too often acceptable in the abortion crowd. It is not uncommon for abortions to be sought for children who aren’t what their parents or society wants them to be – wrong gender, wrong genes, wrong disability. How very noble. How very helpful. Your baby has down syndrome? Abort it right? Your baby isn’t the gender you want? Why not abort it? Why don’t you just paste on a Hitler moustache while you’re at it.

Finally, when there are cases where it truly is a matter of life and death, it should be left to the couple and doctor. Those cases are few and rare. And I don’t mean where the mother might die. I mean where if the baby is not aborted the mother will die. Or if the mother might die and the baby certainly will. I can’t say what I would choose in that situation and it would be terribly difficult but in that situation and in that situation alone should abortion be allowed. Only because there you are left with the choice of one life or another.

In summary, let there be no buts, no rationalizations, no excuses, after all Christ made none when He obeyed His Father’s will even unto death.

“My body, my choice.” It’s what a group of radical pro-abortion activists shouted at a group of pro-life women the other day. It’s a phrase you’ve undoubtedly heard because it’s kind of the bread and butter/meat and potatoes/be-all-end-all of pro-abortion arguments. For a lot of people it seems to settle the question. They think, “hey I don’t want anyone to think that I’m so mean as to tell other people what to do with their own body, so I guess they’re right.” See, this phrase speaks into the American cultural catch-basin of “freedom.”

But there are two big problems with this argument. The first is scriptural and the second both scriptural and scientific.

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to a group of Christians who were saying basically the exact same thing in regard to sexual sins. They were bragging about their “Christian liberty” and how it meant they were free to do whatever they want including using their bodies for sexual immorality. Paul writes “You are not your own,  for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor. 6:18).

I wouldn’t expect an unbeliever to understand or accept this because unbelief is by nature completely self-centered. But a Christian should know better. Even though the Christian still has a sinful nature which is totally bent in on itself, the Christian who does not know that nothing they have really belongs to them has not understood any part of Christian doctrine. The ten commandments teach us how we should use all we are for God and for our neighbor. The creed teaches us how the Father created us, how the Son bought us with His blood, how the Spirit sanctifies us. The whole catechism parades before us this constant theme “You are not your own. You were bought at a price.” For the Christian therefore, the argument “my body, my choice” is illegitimate from the get-go. It’s not your body. It’s not up to you to decide what is best. It’s up to God. Because only He knows. And only He can be trusted to care for you and love you. Only He died to redeem you, body and soul, from sin death and hell. Why would you listen to the lies of men and women who do not know what is best for you, who could not, just because they have a catchy phrase that you feel, somewhere deep down in your freedomy place, is good?

The second reason is both scriptural and scientific, and also…just a duh. That baby is not your body. It is, to be sure, in your body. But that is not the same thing. Luke Skywalker once slept inside the guts of some weird alien creature, but he was not the weird alien creature. Duh. That baby has different genes than you do. A different brain. Different dreams. Different fingerprints. A different soul. Different everything. Every time that someone screams “my body, my choice” they are adamantly denying that exact right to the child inside them.

That’s science. That’s common sense. It’s also scriptural because Scripture clearly teaches (Psalm 139:13) that the child in the womb is a person. It clearly teaches in the second table of the law that our lives, our bodies, our energy, our voices should be given to the service of our neighbor. “And who is my neighbor?” Anyone who is near to you. Anyone who needs your help. Is there anyone who needs your help more than the baby in the womb? Is there anyone nearer to you? That’s not your body in there. It’s your baby’s body. It’s your neighbor’s body. And that body, like your own, was bought with the inestimable cost of the holy precious blood of Christ. Do you really think it’s ok to kill it?

Since Roe V. Wade 58 million babies have been aborted. That’s more than double the population of Texas. 58 million people whose birth cry was never heard. 58 million little hands which would never grab a finger.

Isaiah 41:15-16, ” Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff; 16 you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the LORD; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.”

Everyone loves it when the little guy wins right? Everyone loves an underdog story. The greatest one ever is the story of the Church.

Isaiah 40:10-11, “Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”

These verses are rather jarring placed right next to each other. Kind of like if you wear a striped shirt and a striped tie! It just doesn’t jive! Verse 10 speaks of Christ as  the Lord of might coming to bring judgment, verse 11 speaks of a shepherd who gently tends his flock. But the two are one. After all, a Shepherd who tends his flock and turns toward them a face of gentle love, must also of necessity turn a face of anger and vengeance on any that would harm them. They say don’t get between a mama bear and her cubs. She’ll tear you apart! So also Christ who comes to gently care for his sheep will tear to pieces any that seek their harm. He has come to do battle with your enemies. Be careful therefore not to make yourself the enemy of Christ’s sheep – not by wanton living, not by preaching false doctrine, repent then and find comfort in the sheepfold. Look on the face of your Shepherd, the face of a child, the face scarred and covered with blood, the face shining in resurrected glory. The face of a savior, the face of a judge.

In Christ

Isaiah 40:7-8, “The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
Here Isaiah speaks not only of the Word of God in the abstract that is of the Words of God but also in the personal that is – Jesus Christ who is the Word of God (John 1:1-3). He is the immortality injected into our mortal world. He is the eternal breaking apart this momentary. He is the life which enters into and outlasts death. On the cross, suffering for the sins of the world, Jesus may have seemed to be merely a flower of the field. Cut down. Dead too young – only about 30 years old. But “The Word of our God stands forever.” The shoot that sprung from Jesse’s cut off stump would also spring from death’s cold clutches. Death never had a chance. This was foreshadowed even from his birth, indeed from long before it. For the Word has always been and will always be!
In Christ
Pastor Ude

The second thing I think the real St. Nick would say to his fat fib Santa is this: “Stop lying to children!”

I mean this in two ways. I have often heard people talking as if it’s so important to tell children Santa Claus is real so that they can “experience Christmas” or so their “innocence” isn’t “spoiled.” While I have nothing wrong with reading kids fairy tales or watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer or getting their picture taken with Santa at the mall, let’s be clear about one thing: If you tell your kids that Santa Claus is real you are lying. You know he isn’t real. One day they will know he isn’t real. And that raises the possibility that they will begin to question whether other things you told them when they were children were lies too. If you plant Jesus and Santa Claus side by side in your child’s heart and mind, you may not be able to predict what will happen when you uproot Santa. The weed might take the flower along with it.

And there’s a bigger lie. The basic premise of Santa Claus is really a religious one, and it’s not the good kind. In the popular song “Santa Claus is coming to town” children are being taught to view Santa as a god who knows all (he knows when you are sleeping etc), is capable of omnipresent-esque activity and has all kinds of supernatural powers. They are taught to write him letters asking for things (that’s call prayer, folks) and that if they want to receive good presents from him, they better not be naughty…that is work righteousness.

The writer to the Hebrews said, “It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace.” We humans, children included, have a major tendency to live our lives on a work righteous basis. This is an incipient and deadly condition of our sinful nature. It needs to be rooted out. Santa encourages it. Christian children should be taught only one motivation for doing what is good: to give thanks to Jesus who freely took away their sins! Children need to be fed, to be brought up, to be strengthened by the grace of Jesus Christ who became a child for them, not by work righteousness.

If you explain to your children that Santa is a made up story, just for fun that’s fine. But watch out if you present it as fact! You might not realize it but you are lying to them, you may even be teaching them to worship a false god something the real St. Nick heartily opposed. According to tradition, he tore down idol shrines (pictured on the right) and even the beautiful temple of the false god artemis. Listen to the real St. Nick. Let the only God your children worship be Jesus. Let His grace be the only motivation you give them for doing good. Let him be the one they “write” to.

In Christ
Pastor Ude

Today, December 6th, is the day when the Church has historically remembered St. Nick. That’s right, the man behind the legend known as Santa Claus. Yes he was real. No he’s not from the North Pole. He lived in a much warmer realm. The city of Myra in the Roman province of Lycia on the Mediterranean sea (modern day Turkey). He was a bishop (a Pastor). This real man was vastly, wildly different from the “Santa Claus” which he has been morphed into in popular culture. What do you suppose the real St. Nick would say to today’s imaginary Santa? (Other than, The Mediterranean is way better than the North Pole!) Over the next couple days we’ll look at a couple.