SANCTITY OF LIFE SUNDAY
Deuteronomy 30: 11-20
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus!
“Choose life!” How could such a positive, straight from Scripture statement stir up such emotion and such controversy, even among Christians?? It’s because it’s associated with the topic of abortion. There may be people here today who would rather not focus on this. You might be thinking, “Abortion is a political issue or a social problem or we might offend someone.” Perhaps someone here has been involved in an abortion decision and it’s uncomfortable hearing it talked about, even if it’s once a year. Others might be glad we are talking about it.
Our text, however, is not about abortion. It is about what we as God’s people base our choices, and our LIVES upon. We don’t make choices in a vacuum or on the fly. We base our choices upon who has chosen us—Chosen People Choose Life. So let’s look first at the fact that we are chosen.
In this text God speaks to His chosen people that He rescued from the slavery of Egypt, people about to enter the Promised Land. Why did He choose these people He so often refers to as “stiff necked”? The answer is in Deuteronomy 7, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (7-8). The covenant God made with these Old Testament people was one sided. It was not, “You do this for Me and I’ll do for this you.” It was, “I’ve done this! I’ve chosen you and you had nothing to do with it.” They were not chosen because they were special. They were special because they were chosen.
So it is with God’s New Testament people. So it is with us. Peter writes, “You”—all of you, the Church—“are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
What Peter tells us is true: WE ARE God’s chosen people today. He has rescued from the slavery of sin and put us on the path to heaven. Each of us as an individual is special because we are chosen in Christ and BY Christ before the world even existed (Ephesians 1:4) and then called through baptism to be a child of God. Each of us has been chosen, rescued from the consequences of sin, and on our way to heaven. You are special because you were chosen.
So that’s who we have here this morning—we are chosen individuals united together as chosen people. We live our lives in the context of being chosen. We make our choices in the context of being chosen…..chosen by God.
Let’s go back to Deuteronomy, where Moses is giving his “farewell sermon” to the people God had chosen. Moses presents them with a choice that they will have to make after he is gone. You can choose good or evil; you can choose to be blessed or cursed. That’s it: blessing or curse. Good and blessing follow the choice of life, and evil and curses follow the choice of death. Fundamentally, the choice is to trust God or turn away to other gods, even the god of SELF. That was Israel’s constant problem….”who do we trust?” That’s why God’s warned, “But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, that’s when evil and the curses will come.
The sad fact is that death is the god of choice for many in our culture today. We choose death through abortion to rescue us from an unplanned pregnancy. We choose death through assisted suicide to rescue us from suffering. We chose death for unborn children to use their tissue for research. This god of death seems to offer a way out of trouble, but in reality, “evil and curses” follow in its wake. Choosing death does not relieve the burden, it only brings on more.
Allow me to pause just in case there is someone so burdened here today. A woman who had an abortion once asked, “How come abortion is the only sin that gets its own Sunday?” Although this is “Sanctity of Life Sunday” and not “The Sin of Abortion Sunday,” her point is well taken. It reminds us that it is not the sin of abortion that separates us from God. Every one of us in this room this morning is a sinner, and we’re equally guilty. But the sin of abortion, because of its nature, can be very difficult to deal with. There can be a lot of guilt. That’s why I want to make sure that if you carry that burden, Jesus welcomes you with open arms! You have been FORGIVEN. God’s grace has no boundaries! But you, more than anyone else here, knows the affects of choosing death to solve our problems are so prominent that we need to continue.
Since the legalization of abortion in 1973 our nation has undergone a huge change in the way we value life. We have redefined life in the womb from precious children created in God’s image to blobs of tissue that can be “fixed.” This devaluation of life has overflowed into higher suicide rates. It has overflowed into a drastic increase in child abuse. There has never been a choice of death that rescues us from our problems and leads to life and honors God.
Well . . . there was that one time! Jesus chose death “so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9b). Jesus chose suffering and death to pay the price we owed God because of our sin. Jesus chose death and then destroyed it through His resurrection. Jesus chose death, so that we won’t have to!
We can trust Him. We can choose life. It really is that simple. God says so Himself in Deuteronomy. “What I command you today is not too hard for you; it’s not too far away; it’s not beyond the sea . . it’s right there! It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it, and you’ll be blessed!” (30: 11-14).
That is why it is SO IMPORTANT that we as the Christian Church keep talking about abortion and all the other life issues. It’s more than just “speaking against” something going on “out there.” It is “speaking for” those “in here” who face these issues and are being tempted to choose death. It’s our job and our JOY to remind each other that no matter how difficult the circumstances, no matter what we’re afraid of, no matter what sufferings we may have to endure—we are chosen! We belong to God. We are His children. We can trust Him. We can choose life. We can choose to uphold life and to defend the life of the vulnerable. We can choose life and care for those among us who are weary and burdened. We can choose life and share the forgiveness of Christ with one another when mistakes are made.
Part of the “fruit we bear” and the “love we share” (Jesus’ words from John 15) is the influence we can have in our society. We CAN make a difference in those who would choose death to solve their problems. As citizens, we can advocate for candidates and laws that uphold the choice of life. We can share our views with our leaders and our friends in letters, emails, and public forums. We can share our choice of life in the way we vote.
We can and should do all of these things and more. But there’s more, on a personal level. We can be “For and With” those facing these difficult situations, walking beside them, loving them with the love of Jesus. We can share over and over God’s forgiveness with them. We can support pregnancy centers and hospice centers and those involved in them. And as we do, the Holy Spirit may give us the opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus, the source of our love and concern and the true rescuer from all of our struggles.
“Choose Life!” That phrase can stir things up. What I pray this very biblical, very positive phrase will stir up, however, is our faith and our trust in God. We can make good, God-pleasing choices because we are chosen by God in Christ. No matter what choices we face, we can trust that the God who chose us will never abandon us. We are a chosen people….and chosen people choose life!
