Pastor’s Corner “Sanctity of Life”

On January 22^nd, 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated the third Sunday of the month as a day calling our nation to “prayer and action…to uphold the sanctity of human life.” Along with our Diocese, we use this weekend as a time of remembering, praying, teaching, lamenting, and reawakening to the value of each individual person, a value that begins within the womb and continues until the final breath…and beyond, since our life with God continues into eternity!

Our Bishop, the Right Rev. Chris Warner, writes:

In what is surely a profound and glorious mystery, Scripture…reveals that we were chosen by God even before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) - long before our conception. Think about that - you and I have been known by God and chosen in Christ from eternity. As Article 17 of the 39 Articles indicates, to contemplate this “is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons.” Each one of us is the focus of God’s powerful grace and love.

“Each one of us….” That includes every person you see, from the person in the mirror to the person on the news; from the person sitting across from you at breakfast to the person sitting across the political divide; from the person serving you in the restaurant to the person cutting in front of you on the highway.

“Each one of us….” That also includes every person you don’t see, from the person in the homeless shelter to the person in prison; from the child in foster care to the adult in the psychiatric ward; from the elderly person in the last days of life to the newly conceived person whose life has just begun.

Each one of us is the focus of God’s powerful grace and love.

This Sunday we will give particular attention to God’s powerful grace and love focused on each unborn child, and that child’s parents, remembering as well that God’s grace and love extend to those struggling with difficult decisions, and even those who make decisions that end life.

Kirk Gillespie from Life First will be with us to share firsthand her experience of seeing God’s grace and love in action in their ministry to ensure “that every woman and man struggling with an unplanned pregnancy would come through our doors and be transformed in Christ.”

I end this Pastor’s Corner on the Sanctity of Life in perhaps an unexpected way. I received an early morning text from an Iranian neighbor of mine that reads, “I would like to ask you to ask your congregation to pray for my people. As you probably know all communications have been cut off and people are shot at and killed by the thousands. If that was not bad enough, 100s of protesters who were arrested just a few days ago have been sentenced to death by a kangaroo court and are set for execution early Wednesday morning. Please pray for those who have perished and everyone else who is about to.”

This neighbor is not a follower of Jesus, but he knows that we pray, and that we value all lives. Would you please join me in praying that God’s powerful grace and love would intervene in the life of each person in Iran?

Your Pastor in Christ,