Speak the Truth of Life in Love

January 24 2010

(This message was based on materials provided by “Lutherans for Life”)

Years ago in a large city, there was an unexpected strike of the subway workers in the middle of the week. At 5:00 p.m., thousands of people left their offices and made their way down to the trains that they thought would take them home. But nothing was running. There were no trains. There was no explanation. Finally, people headed back up the stairs to the street. As they did, there were others walking down the steps, expecting to find the trains running. One reporter watched as a steady stream of smiling, homeward bound people went down the stairs while a second stream of discouraged and dejected people made their way back up. In his article the next day he noted that he did not see one person coming up the stairs say anything to the people going down the stairs. The people walking up knew the trains were not running, but not one of them offered a warning to the folks walking past them! 

In the days that followed, people wrote to the paper with excuses for not having said anything.

• It wasn’t my job. After all, nobody warned me!
• What good would it have done. No one would have listened!
• I was too busy thinking about how I was going to get home.

If you think about how sad that story is, you will understand why we as a congregation continue to put up our display of crosses year after year. Unlike those subway riders, we don’t have bad news. We have the Good News that we have been rescued by a Savior and He wants us to tell a defiant, disobedient world about the love He has that is big enough for everyone, even those the world labels as burdensome, frail, unproductive, inconvenient, unwanted. Those of us who know must say something to those who don’t!

 “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. ” (Ephesians 4:14–16, NIV)

It is important to speak the truth in love, the truth of Christ and His Word.  We need to speak it to one another so that we can grow in our knowledge of God’s truth and are not so easily influenced by the latest falsehood. We also need to speak it to those who do not know it. We need to speak the truth not in a way that condemns or condescends, but in love.

So often we only get that half right. We either forget the truth or we forget the love. Just speaking in love is not enough. Trying not to say anything that would offend or trying to be tolerant of false teaching so you won’t rock the boat doesn’t help.  Just speaking the truth is not enough. Yelling and screaming truth at someone sets up walls of defense, it creates barriers. But when we speak the truth in love we are doing what God desires. Ignoring falsehood and wrong does not make the Church “one big happy family.” Lovingly confronting falsehood and wrong with the truth unites us as the Body of Christ with Him as our head.

Of course, we stir things up a bit in the Church when we talk about the life issues, things like abortion and embryonic stem cell research and assisted suicide. These issues can be divisive.  Some think these are political issues that we should not be talking about in the church. Some think the opposite—that Christian participation and action is needed to influence society. Others think these are personal issues and decisions that the Church shouldn’t be judging. For some it may indeed be very personal because they have been involved in such decisions in the past and it hurts to hear it talked about. So talking about the life issues in church can stir things up, but our purpose is not to divide. It is just the opposite. We want to be united more and more into our head, Jesus Christ. So we speak the truth of life in love. 

Every Life is the Handiwork of God

One truth of life is that every life is the handiwork of God. The hands of God were involved in life from the beginning. He formed Adam from the dust of the ground. He made Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. In the first two human beings you see God intimately involved with His hands forming and building. That involvement continues in the biological process for procreation God set into motion. The Psalmist says that God “knitted” (Psalm 139:13) each of us together in our mother’s womb. Job and Isaiah talk about God shaping and forming us in the womb.  Every life is the handiwork of God.

Maybe some of you have one of great grandma’s old quilts displayed somehow in your house.  It may be too ragged and thin to be useful.  It may not even look all that good because of fading and tears and stains. Nevertheless, there it is proudly displayed for all to see. You know the quilt’s value does not come from its usefulness or its looks. It comes from the one who made it. So it is with every human life. Life is valuable because God is the maker of life.

Every Life is Bought with a Price    

A second truth of life is that every life is bought with a price. What if great grandma’s quilt, instead of being passed along, was put on the auction block when grandma died?  How much would you be willing to give for that quilt that always laid at the foot of the bed in that spare room, that kept you warm on winter nights when you visited, that, with a couple of chairs, made into a tent for you and your cousins? I’m guessing you would be willing to pay quite a price. When you did, that quilt would be doubly valuable. Valuable because it was great grandma’s and valuable because you had to pay dearly to get it back.

Even though we are the Handiwork of God, sin separated us from our Maker. He had every right to abandon us, but the truth of life is, God loved what He made with His hands so much that He was willing to pay dearly to buy us back. He paid the price by becoming one with us, conceived in a womb as we were. He paid the price by becoming our sin on the cross.  He paid the price by taking our punishment and suffering the forsakenness of Hell.  Jesus paid the price for every sin and for every sinner. Every life is a life for whom Jesus paid the price.

Let me interject something here. As noted earlier, talking about the life issues can stir things up. It can be particularly difficult for someone burdened with the guilt of a past abortion. There are over 3,000 abortions every day in our country and the majority of those having an abortion are Christians. That means there could very well be someone here today who has made that decision. If there is, I just want you to understand that your sin, like every other sin represented here today, was paid for by the blood of Christ. You, too, were bought with a price. Your life has value to God. 

Every Life God Desires to Call as His own

Another truth of life is that God desires a relationship, both now and forever, with those He created and redeemed. He wants every one to be saved and to come to the knowledge of His truth (1 Timothy 2:4). He wants to adopt every human being, through faith in Jesus, into His family, lead them, walk with them and accomplish His purpose for each human life.  It’s like when great grandma used to wrap you up in that quilt and hold you close. You felt loved and protected and safe.           

Every Life Has Value

These truths point us to a single truth—every human life has value. That value does not come from its usefulness or how it looks or how big or healthy or productive it is. The value of human life does not come from certain “qualities” we think it should have. The value of human life comes from the One who made it.  Every life is the handiwork of God. The value of human life comes from the One who bought it back.  The value of life comes from the One who desires to call us for His eternal purpose.  The embryo in the Petri dish, the baby in the womb, baby Katy in the neonatal intensive care unit, Uncle Ralph in the Alzheimer’s unit, grandma in the nursing home bed, you and me—we all have value because each of us is someone created by the hand of God, someone redeemed by the blood of Christ, and someone God desires to call according to His purpose.  Every life has value because of what God has done. It is a truth that raises the life issues way above being mere political issues and even above being just moral issues. When you destroy life at any stage of development, under any condition of health, you are destroying the blood-bought handiwork of God.  You are messing with “grandma’s quilt.” 

Growing In and Sharing the Truth of Life

We need to speak the truth of Life in love — to each other and to those who have not heard. We should not be the ones walking up the steps who say nothing to those who are walking down!  We have information the world needs to hear. By the things we say and the things we do, may we speak the truth of the value of each and every human life. By the things we say and the things we do, may we speak the truth about the source of that value. Like great grandma’s quilt, the value of life comes from the One who made it, the One who bought it back, and the One who gives it meaning and purpose.  Amen.