Sermon Jan. 14-15, 2017 Life Sunday

Title: The Lamb of God given for you!
Text: John 1:29-42a

35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

A professor in a world-acclaimed medical school once posed this medical situation -- and ethical problem -- to his students: "Here's the family history: The father has syphilis. The mother has TB. They already have had four children. The first is blind. The second had died. The third is deaf. The fourth has TB. Now the mother is pregnant again, The parents come to you for advice. They are willing to have an abortion, if you decide they should. What do you say?"

The students gave various individual opinions, and then the professor asked them to break into small groups for "consultation." All of the groups came back to report that they would recommend abortion.

"Congratulations," the professor said, "You just took the life of Beethoven!"

We believe this was first reported in an Ann Landers column.

Today and this weekend we once again celebrate the sanctity of human life. It is hard to imagine that we continue to do this each and every January but with legalized abortion since 1973 the womb continues to be one of the most dangerous places for a child.

The reality of a pregnancy brings the reality of life. This isn’t a cancer or some fatal illness; this isn’t a tumor or disease … this is life in its beginning form as we understand from conception. Life is not ours to make or ours to take. Divisions continue within families, friends and political debates.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image,
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. Gen. 1:26a-27

The debate is certainly not with God.

As Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him:

9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” 10 And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.

Or, as the Law of God given through Moses in Deuteronomy 5 commandment 5 states:
17 “‘You shall not murder.

The taking of a life is against God’s commandment and desire.

Euthanasia is the other end of the spectrum of terminating life. But this death is for those outside the womb. 

Ill.

This downward slide was explained dramatically by Dr. Leo Alexander in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, written in 1949 - some 68 years ago.

 
Dr. Alexander was a consultant to the Secretary of War [during] the Nuremberg Trials. He had extraordinary access to accused Nazi war criminals in the medical community. Writing from that unique perspective, Dr. Alexander argued that so-called "compassionate killing" of the terminally ill inevitably set the stage for the Holocaust. 

He wrote:

Whatever proportions these crimes finally assumed, it became evident to all who investigated them that they had started from small beginnings. The beginnings at first were merely a subtle shift in emphasis in the basic attitude of the physicians. It started with the acceptance of the attitude ... that there is such a thing as life not worthy to be lived. This attitude in its early stages concerned itself merely with the severely and chronically sick. Gradually the sphere of those to be included in this category was enlarged to encompass the socially unproductive, the ideologically unwanted, the racially unwanted and finally all non-Germans.

Before his death, Dr. Alexander told a friend that trends in our country were "much like Germany in the '20s and '30s. The barriers against killing are coming down." 

J. Dobson and G. Bauer, Children at Risk, Word, 1990, p. 145.

As Dr. Alexander stated then and as has become evident now the barriers against killing the unborn and those deemed socially unproductive, the ideologically unwanted, the racially unwanted and so on … has come down. So much so as to deem those who oppose abortion and euthanasia as somehow opposed to women’s health … the so called “war on women.”

Can you see the brokenness, can you see the corruption? Can you see a dying world … lost and in need of a savior?

Ill. 

I shift now to a story of life … from my friend Paul Ruehl:

The other life changing encounter that built my faith regards my first two daughters, Diana and Michelle. Diana was born June 8, 1979, nearly 3 months premature. She was perfectly formed and the most beautiful baby I have yet to ever see. She was a fighter. She was a preemie but she had a lot of spunk. The doctors put gauze around her ankles and wrists and pinned them to the sheet so she wouldn't pull the various monitors off or the tube that breathed air into her lungs. I was told that the first 48 hours were the most critical. At almost exactly 48 hours of life on June 10, 1979, Diana had a brain aneurysm and, literally, died in my arms. I could sense the life leave her as she died. I was 24 years old and absolutely devastated.

We fast forward one year. On June 9, 1980, my second daughter, Michelle was born, also nearly 3 months premature, but appearing in much worse shape than Diana had been. Michelle had absolutely no response to external stimuli. She did not respond to needle pricks as nurses drew her blood every hour, her eyes did not dilate when light was shined in them, she had no suck reflex and she could not breathe. A ventilator pumped 100% pure oxygen into her lungs. Room air is about 21% oxygen. I was told on June 10, 1980, the doctors did not think Michelle would make it through the night; that she would die on the same day, one year after Diana had died. By this time I had been up nearly two days straight and went home to rest. The nice thing about Children's Hospital in Detroit is parents of the babies in the NICU can come and go at any time. I intended to sleep a few hours and come back and spend whatever time I could with Michelle. As I laid down to sleep, I cried out to God like I had never done before. I prayed a silly prayer asking God to allow her to live past midnight so she wouldn't die on June 10. Then at 10:13 PM, June 10, 1980, I had a vision. I had never had a vision before nor have I had one since. It was a vision and not a dream for I was clearly awake. In my vision, I saw Abraham laying Isaac on the altar, crying as he did so. I assumed God wanted Michelle's life so I cried out in a loud voice, "take her Lord, she's yours". I then fell into a deep sleep and slept at least 8 hours. When I awoke I was quite angry with myself for sleeping so long. I drove quickly to the hospital and ran up to the NICU. I scrubbed and put on a gown and literally ran to where I had last seen Michelle; her crib was gone. I was devastated and began to weep in sorrow. The nurse who had been taking care of Michelle the previous day asked me what was wrong. I said," where's my baby". The nurse said, "we moved her, one of the other children needed her life support". I asked, "why did you move her, did you give up on her?" The nurse spoke the sweetest words I have ever heard. She said, "give up on her? She doesn't need it anymore." She proceeded to explain what the night shift nurse had told her when she reported for duty. She showed me the medical chart for Michelle from the night before, These charts, literally, record anything the babies do in NICU. There was a brief notation at 10:13 PM the night before. It stated, "baby extubated self". This means Michelle reached up with her own hand and pulled the tube out of her nose that was breathing for her. When Michelle did this, it set off all sorts of alarms which brought the doctors and nurses to her bedside. As one of the nurses was about to put the tube back in her nose, the doctor said to wait and see how she does. They watched in awe when she seemed to come alive and squirm and respond to ALL stimuli. She was ravenously hungry. She was healed.

I was told that since Michelle had been on pure oxygen, she was likely brain damaged and blind. Michelle came home more than a month before she was due to be born. At about her original due date I took her to see a pediatric ophthalmologist to have her eyes checked. As the doctor evaluated her, he looked at the hospital report, he looked at Michelle then at me. He repeated this a couple times then asked me, "why is she here?" I explained her start to life and what the doctors at the hospital had been concerned about. He told me, "this child has the eye sight of a one year old, I don't need to see her until she's ready for school." So much for being blind. As for being brain damaged, Michelle graduated third in her high school class and graduated from the US Air Force Academy. [She is now a major and teaches at the Air Force Academy.] Our joke is, if she was brain damaged, the Air Force would have made her a general by now. The final chapter to this amazing story occurred a few months after Michelle was born, at home and doing very well. In prayer, asked God what the vision meant. I knew I had seen it and obviously missed the point; I thought Michelle would die. To this day, I would swear I heard the voice of God chuckle and say "read the story, did Isaac die?" God wanted me to yield her life to him, he didn't want her to die. God heals today like he did when Jesus was walking the earth, in his way and his timing. That truth, this experience, has sustained me as much as anything I have experienced in my walk of faith. God can raise the dead to life, spiritually and physically. Praise His name forever.

Story by Paul Ruehl

God, in giving the commandments to the children of Israel says:

6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Deut 6:6-8 NIV

The one who fulfilled the commandment for you John saw proclaiming:

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”

32 And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen