January 22, 2023 – Sanctity of Human Life Sunday Text: Genesis 1:26-31a
Dear Friends in Christ,
Marriage is a blessing, a gift from God who created us. Marriage promises companionship and pleasure. But the meaning of marriage does deeper. We are each fearfully and wonderfully made. We each have a cardiovascular system, a digestive system, a circulatory system, all whole and fully integrated. Only one system is not complete in each of us – the reproductive system. When it comes to sex, we are complementary creatures. Two become one. Husband and wife together accomplish what they cannot do alone. No amount of social engineering or perverted sexuality changes the fact – you need the sexual organs of a male and a female for life to be created.
God intended marriage leads to children. Let’s recognize this – not every couple can physically bear children. They may be past childbearing age or have infertility which can be a heartbreaking issue. Children tie marriage together in permanence and life-long fidelity. The Sanctity of Life and the Sanctity of Marriage go hand in hand. This our theme for This Sanctity of Human Life Sunday . . .
“FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MARRIAGE, THEN COME . . .”
Marriage changes things. Our family lived it and is living it. Friday, January 13, at approximately 5:20 p.m. we were no longer just dad and mom. We are now also father-in-law and mother-in-law. Our verbiage changes. It has gone from girlfriend to fiancé to wife. If the Lord has it in His plans we look forward to grandpa and grandma, though personally I know we are much too young for that.
Husband and wife are an extension of God’s work of creation. They become an image of Christ and the Church. We are not just factory parts that reproduce. Each of us comes from the creative hand of God who loves and uses procreation to continue His good creation. The family that arises from this gives us a higher glimpse of love and a better perspective on God’s love. Being a dad has enlightened for me what God gave up with His Son. The sacrificial understanding becomes all too real when the Lord blesses with children.
The problem is we mess with God’s perfect plan. We distort the one-woman, one-man marriage with all sorts of silly ideas that we want to play house with. When we redefine the most important relationship from the beginning of creation then problems will ensue. All of us can lose marriage’s intrinsic link to children. When the “be fruitful and multiply” just becomes a suggestion then we see what is occurring. People are having less children and marriage is becoming less important. This has societal and economic impacts. The good news – many Christian homes are having multiple children which bodes well for our future.
Long before the push for abortion was the agenda of sexual liberation. Margaret Sanger wrote that “through sex mankind may attain the great spiritual illumination which will transform the world, which will light up the path to paradise.” The ultimate taboo for Sanger was large families. She wrote, “The most serious evil of our times is that of encouraging the bringing into the world of large families.” My sociological observation on this is limited, but the ones in large families I know have been blessed and happy.
This has been a challenge for the church. I know of very few LCMS churches who have larger Sunday Schools today than in years past. We need to reaffirm self-evident truths. Children are a gift from God. Marriage was designed so these children have a father and a mother. This gives us hope for the church.
Perhaps as Lutherans we would do well to recover the Hebrew wedding toast, “L’Chaim,” which means “To life!” – that is – “To new life!” Marriage is more than securing financial stability and present happiness. Children are a gift worth more than all the money and experiences in the world. Like I have told our boys, “Someday you will know why mom and I have been so blessed by you.” They have to experience it and I pray they will. Children bring joy to a congregation. A child can light up a room. I viewed two youngsters at the wedding dance having the time of their life. It gave me the warm fuzzies. No wonder our Lord loved to hold children in His arms.
This is all said with sensitivity to the barren, the widow, the orphan. This is life in a fallen world. Let’s open ourselves up to the love of marriage as God intended. We rejoice when a child is born. We celebrate when that child is baptized. In the waters, we see hope, we embrace the future, we taste eternity. As we care for our children, our Heavenly Father cares for us. We thank God for male and female. We praise God for the good gift of children.
In this dark world, there is this message of hope. We have a life-affirming faith that stands in wonder at the birth of the Christ Child. We give thanks that in Jesus, through His death and resurrection, our lives – and those of our children – will have no end.
Amen.