Sanctity of Life, Really?

Each year many Christians around the world celebrate the third Sunday of January as the Sanctity of Life Sunday. During this month there is often a flurry of debate, dialogue, and writing around the subject. What eludes me is the why we Christians tend to back ourselves into a defensive position, dumbing down “sanctity of life” to the singular question of “When does life begin?”

          The below link leads to a fantastic article by RC Sproul, Jr. I only wish he'd expanded upon his statement, "Proclaim not the sanctity of life, but the holiness of God, whose image the least of these bear." Since he did not, I will, and I ask you to respond on facebook, twitter, and blogs so that together we might pose important questions to stir the hearts, minds, and actions of many. http://www.ligonier.org/blog/should-churches-observe-sanctity-life-sunday/

          While I completely agree with his lament over the holocaust upon voiceless babies, I also think the glorious image of God as revealed in humanity demands so much more engagement from us than the singular discussion around abortion.

          What are we fearing when we refuse to allow God to expand our hearts beyond our secure borders of hearth, home, country, and church to include children who have indeed been granted temporal life, but little else? Millions who were not killed in the womb are still just as defenseless, and cry out from among us. The only breath they draw is from the foul stench of extreme poverty, rape, war, slavery, and oppression—largely abandoned by the Church who fought for their “right” to be born.

          These helpless children know not for what they long, for they have never known anything but the Great Emptiness. They simply wait. For most of them, the pregnant days of waiting births only a slow and agonizing death because there is no food, shelter, or even parent to care for them.

          If we are to speak authoritatively of the sanctity of life, we must also remember the elderly grandmothers who cry over the graves of their children while not knowing what to do for the infant grandchild war, famine, and disease have left in their hands.

          If we Christians want to be taken seriously in the discussion of glorious matters such as Life and Death, proclaiming God’s glory manifest in all who enter it, then we must be willing to make room at our table for all who enter this world.

          There is no more room for us to decide who we will care for and who is too far away, too expensive to reach, in too dangerous a location, the wrong color of skin, from an unsavory lot, or ungodly religion. The sanctity of life boils down to the weight of God’s glory falling down upon us all in every state and station of life...all the way down to the manger.

          I can only imagine that our turning our backs upon those who find themselves on the “outside” of our circle must cause Christ's agonizing words to echo hauntingly through the centuries of fallen mankind, His image-bearers, "My God. My God. Why have You forsaken me?"

          Let’s use this month to engage in the full discussion of sanctity of life, all life as precious in the site of our Father. Join me next Monday and Tuesday (January 16th and 17th) on your local radio station as Focus on the Family’s President Jim Daily and I share in a two-part interview on Passport through Darkness, and God’s heart for each of us to be fully alive, knowing and sharing the truly abundant life!

          To find a local channel and airtimes click here: http://www.focusonthefamily.com/broadcast/find-a-station.aspx or after Monday you will be able to download a podcast from my website: www.kimberlyLsmith.com

Love, your sister on the journey,
‎k