All Life is Sacred: Manifestation of God’s Heart

The Feast of the Lord and Giver of Life

3rd Sunday of Epiphany – January 24, 2010

Genesis 1:26 -2 8/ Psalm 10/Romans 8:35-39/Matthew 18:1-5

Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines, D. D.

In the Season of Epiphany, we declare, we proclaim, we celebrate the presence of Christ with us, in His Church.  The awareness of that presence is meant to bring into our lives the security, the stability that hope provides knowing that if God is with us, no one can be against us.  In the world we live in today, man has come to a point wherein he feels he has a right to choose his own direction. He has a right to do with his life, and now, in many cases, he feels he has the right to destroy life if he so chooses whether that destruction be a life of a child or in his own life – in euthanasia.  Man has come to a point where he feels he is in dominion.  There is a truth to that dominion because God gave that to us, but there is also recognition of a responsibility – recognizing that God has given to us all things. In such giving, responsibility was also given.  In the Parable of the Stewards, the master of the vineyard gave to his workers certain amounts; and when he came back, he expected to have a report on what he had given and to accept the profit for them.  Not only does he talk about the vineyard, but life.  Life is considered the vineyard for us.  From our lives, as God has given to us all that we need, He expects a return.

The life that God has given to us is sacred.  In Genesis, look at what God says when He created man.  Prior to the creation of man, He created all the animals, the vegetation, the sun, the moon, the stars, the water, and all the earth; but when it came to man, here was the only creature in creation, the only part in creation where God gave of Himself to create man.  He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”  Fulfilling this direction, when God created man out of the dust of the earth, He breathed the breath of life into that dust.  God gave us of His life.  That life that we have received is sacred and holy because it has come from God.  As it has done great things for God, its intention from the very beginning was that it would do the same likeness for us.  “Let Us make man in Our image and likeness.  Let him rule.” 

God, setting the course and the direction, has given to us that hope that would lift us above slavery and bondage, and put us in a position of ruling and reigning.  But if we lose the awareness, if we choose not to pay attention to what God has done, then our lives are struggling and battling because we have chosen to go a different direction.  Genesis 1:27 -28 says, “And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”   Look at what God said – giving life to man, breathing that life into that dust, and causing that dust to become a living being.  It is an awesome event of turning dust into a living being. Not just a simple being but a very complex, unique being.  Many different parts, many different functions in those parts, capabilities, wisdom, understanding, dominion – all of these which God Himself controlled or maintained He has shared with man. 

We must see the sacredness of life, the value that we are to place upon life, to see its high respect, and to give it that place that God gave it when He gave it to us – coming from the highest of all creation, even that which is above creation, that which is always been and always will be.  He shared of Himself with us, not just common ordinary.  We are not like the animals. We are not like the sun, the moon, the stars, the vegetation; but being created by Him is the only part of creation that received life from God.  It is life like His life.  He said to man, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”  I have seen this phrase many times but only recently did I see something that I didn’t understand before. God said to man as a command, as a blessing, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”  Who decides that the earth is full?  We hear many things being said about the earth today, and how that the earth is over populated, and how that the earth is not capable of handling the many people that are now in existence.  There are now those who are trying to say to man, “You can’t have many children.  You’ve got to control yourself.  We’ve got to control how many people that we bring into existence because we can’t take care of them.”  I don’t see any place in Scripture where that is man’s responsibility.  When the earth is full, is not God a God of responsibility?  Is not God a God of credibility?  Is not God One who cares and takes care of His own?  If the earth becomes full, will He not cause something great to take place because we have obeyed His command?  Are we to judge Him?  Is that our task?  Is that our responsibility?  Is that our privilege that we can tell Him that there are too many people that we come to a point where we can’t sustain them anymore?  This is where man has come today.  He thinks that he has all the wisdom and the ability to make a decision, to make a choice, and to say, “We’ve come too far; we can’t handle this.” 

I was given a recent report regarding mainland China where it says that today, there are twenty-four million men than there are women in the category of adults.  Twenty-four million men more than there are women because China in 1970, made a decision that they had too many in population so they passed a law that each family could only have one child.  Because of the inheritance laws and the regulation, families wanted to have only male children.  So in the process of conception, if a female child was conceived, she was aborted so that the family could have a chance of a male child.  According to the statistics, since 1970, China has aborted more than three hundred twenty million babies by abortion.  They do not have records of many more destroyed by other ways, outside of their regulations. The consequence of that today is that twenty-four million men will not be able to marry.

This is the wisdom of man. This is what happens when man thinks that he knows how to handle the problems.  Instead of creating solutions, they create more intense situations.  The report said that because of these figures, crime is on the increase because men are not marrying.  They are creating all kinds of difficulties within their country in just one area.  There are a number of situations in other countries where man has lost value of life and feels that he is the one who controls life and he is the one who has the right to make the decisions due to life.  Scriptures says, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” Obviously the earth is not full because if we have filled the earth, certainly, there is something that will be taking place that God will recognize that man has been obedient and has fulfilled his commissions, and God will then do His part.  It is amazing! 

In Matthew 18, we find that there were those who were asking Jesus some questions about who is going to be in control.  The disciples had been hearing about Christ soon passing on. They have seen Peter being used by Jesus, or it seemed like he was because he was the one who was walking on the water; he was the one who had his taxes paid by a miracle; and he is the one that Jesus seems to be talking about the future.  So the disciples come to Jesus and say to Him, “Who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  It is a question that indicates selfish interest in earthly power – people wanting, the hunger, the lust, the desire to be in control.   Who is going to be the greatest? It is amazing how that we become so judgmental or we become so controlled in life by how much power we have. What is our position?  What is our placement in life? And most of our responses to that question are contrary to Scriptures.  Scriptures tells us in the writing of Peter that God created and blessed all of us to be priests.  In the Old Testament, it was prophesized that there would be a kingdom of priests; and yet in the church world, we have set it in such a manner that we had that which we call laity – just common ordinary people who have no authority.  We have then the hierarchy of the Holy Orders – the priesthood, the bishops.  They are given more honor and more respect because they are higher in ranking, and yet we are told in Scriptures that God has made all of us a royal priesthood.  It says to us that there is no such difference in identity. There is a difference in function, yes, but yet as far as God is concerned, all are equal – a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people for God’s own possession, not ours.  Equal in order that we have the ability and the potential for every one rising up and being a priest. Maybe not as a priest as far as coming to the altar and consecrating the bread and the wine because that is function, but yet in all other aspects, equal.

Here are the disciples coming to Jesus saying to Him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of God? Who is going to be the one?”   Recall the mother of the two boys coming to Jesus saying, “I want you to sit on one side and one on the other.” The other disciples got quite angry because the mother had done this.  Jesus shows us the answer to this of what is to be.  Jesus doesn’t reply to the disciples directly.  He uses a child and He sits him before the disciples and says to them, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like a child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Christ sets in front of us a model of the Kingdom.  We don’t see among children normally the battle and the fight of one to be over the other.  We see in the child humility, dependence, lowliness which we call sometimes shyness; we see a child not wanting for himself, not pushing himself, but simplicity, obedience, willingness to love and be loved.  God, through Christ, is showing us the character of life that He has given to us.  Not intimidated, not threatened, not lustful, not insecure, but knowing that if I have the life of God within me, if that is my life, that life that has been given to me is more than able to take care of me and to supply to me and to give me the attention that I would like to have or that I would need. 

I would share a basic truth of the most basic reality that is common to God and mankind. What identifies us together?  That which is native to God, imparted by Him to His creatures; first, by creation; and then, by redemption.  Life is the one thing that identifies us together.  There is nothing that has this life.  We talk about trees being alive, and plants and animals being alive, but this is not the life that God has.  The life that God has was only given to man.  It is the one common thing that we have together.  Native to God, it came from Him; imparted by Him to His creative being.  First, by creation; and then, by redemption.  We owe our life to Him.  We must answer to Him. We must be cautious and careful that we handle this life with wisdom.  In the world we live in today, generations around us have lost value for life.  According to statistics, suicide is higher that it has ever been.  Lost of value for man’s life – self – has decreased tremendously to a point that man has no longer respect for what God has given to him.  It is not any longer restrained to use that life in any manner he wishes because he feels that he could do what he wants with it; when in reality, that life has come from God.  It is a planting that God has given to us. One day, He will ask us what we have done with the life He gave to us. 

Matthew 18:5 says, “Whoever receives one such child in My name, receives Me.”  When we receive a child, we receive Christ.  When we accept that child, we receive Christ.  Matthew 18:6 says something that should challenge us.   It says, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.”  As I was reading this, it came to me that we are responsible for making certain that the children know that their life came from God.  We are responsible for teaching them and preparing them with that life – to use that life for the glory of God.  It is not theirs to use for their own selfish reasons, but that it is to be used to build the kingdom of God and to bring honor and praise to the One from whom their life was given.  I think this challenges us to really evaluate how we train our children, and how we prepare them for life.  Do we put their faith in man and man’s systems?  Or do we build faith in them in God?  Do we bring them to a revelation of who God is, the power that God has given to them so that they are aware of the source of their life? That they realize that having been given this life, there is a certain responsibility that comes along with it?   And that if we guide them to other ways, they forget or are not aware of the fact where their life came from, we may be causing them to stumble?   If we cause them to stumble, it indicates that there is a consequence because these children are sacred. They have sacred life.  Receiving them is receiving Christ.

When man begins to think that he is like God, he begins to think that he then can do what he wants.  So we now have in our Congress the Reproduction Health Bill; but in this bill abortion is packaged.  Now, man thinks that he has a right that they can slaughter, that they can murder and it will be okay.  Very contrary to the instructions that God gives because in so slaughtering innocent life, we reject Christ.  We deny Christ and the consequence, as we plant, will come upon us.  We have not been taught; we have not been aware that life comes from God and that life is sacred because it is His life that is given to us.  He has multiplied His life to us and like Him, created in His image and likeness, we are to take that life and we are to multiply that life. This is our responsibility as the stewards of what God has given to us.  It is sacred.  I don’t advocate carelessness, lack of restraint but responsibility.  Life is godly; it is His; and we must give it the respect and the honor that comes from Him because it is His glory in us.

In the vigil last night, we were reading from St. Irenaeus of Lyons and he says that the life that is in man is the glory of God.  This is not just something that comes from St. Irenaeus, but this is something which comes from Scriptures.  In Colossians 3, it tells us that Christ is our life.  It tells us that this life that God has given to us is hidden with Christ in God – the very unity of that life; the oneness of that life; and the sacredness of that life because it is in God.  It is an awareness to give the respect to life that is due; an awareness that honors God and places God in a position of honor and respect in our lives.  Not worrying about who is in control, but recognizing and realizing that the life that God has given to us is meant to bring praise to Him, not to us, but to Him.

May we as God’s people be aware and be sensitive. God breathed His life unto us.  No other creature did He do this.  He breathed that breath of life. He shared His life with us.  He multiplied.  He said to us, “In My image and in My likeness, I bless you also to be fruitful and to multiply.”  Multiplication is more than just filling the earth with children; but filling the earth with the very presence of God, the very essence of His life.  This is the challenge that is ours. We hear many voices today belittling God, putting God down, that God has made massive mistakes, and man is going to have to correct them by himself.  Man does have responsibility, yes. Man was given that responsibility to cultivate and keep but at the same time, it is all in coordination and in recognition that it all belongs to God. It is His and He is the One who sets the course and the direction for us.

As we celebrate this life that we have, the life that came from God, this should bring security to us. It should bring ability to us.  It should give us that stability, that confidence, that awareness that is unshakeable.  If God is with me, who can be against me? Scriptures says that the life that He has given to us will quicken this mortal flesh. That is the life that God has brought to us. It will make this flesh vibrant, alive, and capable.  So in this Feast of our Lord, the Giver of life and the Sustainer of life, it is He who sustains that life for us.  We walk in that awareness, in that ability, and that hope that comes from Him.  Let this be a joy for us.  We share this life; it should lift us.  It should bring joy to our hearts thanksgiving.  God loves us so much that He has shared His life with us.  What that life does for Him, in like manner, it will also do for us.