WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.320 I'd invite you to take your Bible and go with me to First Timothy chapter five. 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:06.959 First Timothy chapter five. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:18.559 I would like for you to come with me to Rome. 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:23.600 Not Rome 2026, but Rome during Paul's day. 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:29.039 And walk with me down some of the streets on an ordinary morning in the city. 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:40.479 And there you'll see a father, a Roman citizen, perhaps a man of standing in the community, walking down the streets with a child in his arms. 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:46.320 And maybe it was a daughter and already had enough daughters. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:49.920 Maybe it was a son born with some physical defect. 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:54.880 Maybe it was a child he couldn't afford or simply didn't want. 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:00.240 In Rome, it didn't really matter what the reason was. 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:19.519 He'd walk either to the edge of the city, to the refuge heap, or perhaps to the base of the Columna Lactaria, the column of milk, the place where by Roman custom unwanted infants could legally be left. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:26.879 He would set the child down, he would turn around, and he would walk away. 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:31.920 It wasn't even shameful. 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:37.040 In Roman society at that time, it was legal and it was common. 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:42.239 It's even philosophically defended by some of the great minds of the day. 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:48.159 Aristotle recommended the exposure of defective children, as he called them. 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:56.799 Seneca spoke of it with this calm detachment, no more than a man discussing the management of his household. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:05.920 Roman law gave the Paterfamilius, the father of the household, absolute authority over whether the newborn child lived or died. 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:11.360 It was called the Pateria Potestis, the power of the father. 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:16.560 And that power extended even over the threshold of life itself. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:24.719 Infants were left exposed on dunghills, on hillsides, at the gates of temples. 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:29.840 Some died within hours from cold or hunger or exposure. 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:36.800 Some were gathered up, some out of compassion, but others not out of compassion. 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:39.039 Some were gathered up for profit. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:50.000 Traders would collect them, some were raised as slaves, others were raised for hard labor, and some, particularly the girls, were raised for prostitution. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:53.759 The Empire had a category for these children. 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:58.719 They were the unwanted, the inconvenient, the surplus. 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:10.000 And because the Roman world had no theology of the image of God, it had no category for putting inherent worth on any human being. 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:20.479 Their worth was determined entirely by utility, by the decision of one who had the power over them, whether anyone wanted them. 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:28.719 By way of contrast, let's go to a different part of Rome, to a church. 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:34.800 One like the one Paul talks about to Timothy in Ephesus. 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:38.000 And let's look at chapter 5 and what Paul says there. 00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:42.719 He's writing to Timothy about instructions about how a church should care for widows. 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:47.759 And he describes what widows the church should be supporting. 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:53.759 And he mentions that they should be women whose entire lives have been shaped by faithful service. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:13.520 In verse 9, no widow is to be enrolled on the list for support unless she's at least 60 years old, has been the wife of one husband, is well known for good works, that is, if she has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the saints' feet, helped the afflicted, and devoted herself to every good work. 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:18.879 I want you to notice that phrase, brought up children. 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:23.839 It means to nurture, to raise, to care for children. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:27.519 But there's something it doesn't specify here. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:31.759 It doesn't say her children. 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:34.319 Do you notice that? 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:39.279 It simply says that she brought up children. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:47.199 Now, certainly it speaks about a mother who would be nurturing, who would be caring, who would be responsible with her family. 00:04:47.680 --> 00:05:04.879 But could it not also speak, and commentaries and theologians have talked about this, of a woman who's taken the unwanted ones and brought those unwanted ones into their own household. 00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:14.959 In fact, Charles Ellicott, in his commentary on 1 Timothy, says that this phrase may include the little orphan ones entrusted to her care. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:21.120 Now set that up against the world that they're in at the time. 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:36.399 A world where the children are regularly discarded, where there's literally a place in Rome where those children can be left, where girls are collected and sold, where boys are turned into slaves. 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:45.920 And what if Paul here is commending those women who have done what would be unthinkable in Roman standards? 00:05:46.319 --> 00:06:06.240 Who have gone to the refuge heaps or to the foot of the column and picked up a discarded child, who have taken into their own homes the children the empire is labeled as worthless, who've looked at what Rome called refuge and saw the image of God. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:12.000 Why did they do that? 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:21.759 Well, that question is a question that's raised in the middle of the sort of study that we've been having these past several weeks and months. 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:26.079 What makes human life valuable? 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:28.560 It's an important question. 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:33.199 We're in our series called Imago Day, The Image of God. 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:40.639 And we've been working through this, what it means for God to stamp his image on created individuals. 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:47.279 What a staggering truth it is, and what a staggering responsibility it calls us all to. 00:06:47.519 --> 00:07:03.839 And today we come to one of the most urgent, the most contested, and most, I think, pastorally tender applications to the image of God, one that touches us from womb to deathbed, from the nursery to the nursing home. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:07.600 I'd like for us to talk about the dignity of human life. 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:13.199 And let's begin by going back to Genesis chapter 1 and have a look at what it says there. 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:24.959 And the first point that I want to make this evening is that the image of God establishes absolute non-negotiable dignity for every human person. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:31.920 Let's look at Genesis chapter 1 and verses 26 and 27. 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:37.839 God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:44.879 They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth. 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:47.600 So God created man in his own image. 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:08.000 We begin with the deliberation, this divine conversation of the Godhead, act talking and deliberating before acting in the creation of humanity. 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:11.920 And then it says, so God created man in his own image. 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:17.600 And then again it's said a third time. 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:29.839 Now, when scripture repeats itself like this, particularly repeats it so emphatically and so close to one another, we need to underline that. 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:36.320 Because scripture is repeating this so that we might lean forward and pay attention to what's being said. 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:45.600 This is God's holy insistence, making absolutely certain that we don't miss this vital point. 00:08:46.879 --> 00:09:02.960 Every human being, without qualification, without exception, and without some developmental asterisk next to them, is made in the image of God and is therefore a person of dignity. 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:11.759 So let's talk about the significance of this for a moment, and then we'll substantiate it with a couple passages. 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:21.120 The primary point that I want to bring out this evening is that the image of God is not primarily about what we can do. 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:23.759 It's not utilitarian. 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:29.759 Theologians have debated about the essential essence of the image of God. 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:41.679 And they've talked about rationality, they've talked about righteousness, they've talked about relationships, and they've talked about our representative rule as aspects of the image of God. 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:48.960 And those discussions are rich and full, and I think every one of those has something to say about us. 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:56.159 But at its most fundamental level here, the image of God is what we would say ontological. 00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:01.200 It's about who you are, not what you do. 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:06.080 It's about your being, not your function. 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:12.399 It is the mark that God has placed on humanity at the very moment of creation. 00:10:12.799 --> 00:10:17.120 A mark that doesn't come and go based upon circumstances. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:20.559 It doesn't fluctuate with the seasons of life. 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:24.240 It doesn't strengthen when we are at our most productive. 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:27.919 It doesn't weaken when we're at our most dependent. 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:30.159 God has placed it there. 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:40.799 And it belongs to every human person because every human person bears the image of God on them. 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:46.399 Now the Roman world operated in a completely different frame. 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:53.600 Worth in the Roman world was based upon your function and your usefulness. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:11:01.360 If you could work, if you could produce, if you could contribute, if you could compete, then you had worth. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:14.240 If you couldn't, if you were too young or too old, or too sick, or too weak, or too defective, then your worth was in question. 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:20.799 And a father could stand over a newborn and make that determination. 00:11:21.519 --> 00:11:28.159 The state could stand over the elderly and the infirm and make that determination. 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:35.759 Utility was the measure, and power was the arbitrator. 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:38.320 But look at the text. 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:47.919 God doesn't say let us make man in our image once he's reached a sufficient level of development. 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:55.840 It doesn't say let us make man in our image, providing he can contribute meaningfully to society. 00:11:57.919 --> 00:12:06.799 It doesn't say, let's make man in our image at least the capable ones, the functioning ones, the wanted ones. 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:11.919 He simply says, we're making humanity in our image. 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:16.240 The image is there the moment God acts. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:30.240 It's presence because God has put it there, not because we've earned it or developed it or been granted it because of some human conferring it on us because of the power they hold over us. 00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:42.559 It's not a status that we acquire, it's not a milestone that we reach, it's not a recognition extended to us by culture or voted on by the powerful or even ratified by the legislature. 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:49.200 It's not contingent upon our viability, our wantedness, or our capacities. 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:54.960 It's there because God has made us in his image. 00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:57.360 Now, there's a lot of ramifications for that. 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:08.000 I'd like to look at two passages of scripture that talk about how the significance of this is borne out in common society and within the context of the church. 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:12.320 So turn with me to chapter 9 of Genesis and verse 6. 00:13:14.879 --> 00:13:24.799 Here we are on the other side of the flood, and God is calling Noah and his family to begin to replenish the earth. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:29.360 And he makes a statement here in verse 6. 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:40.000 Whoever sheds human blood by humans, his blood will be shed, for God made humans in his image. 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:53.679 Now notice carefully what God is saying here, that he's grounding protection of vulnerable human life in the image of God. 00:13:55.360 --> 00:14:12.080 He's not saying that human life should be protected because they're the right age or they're the right strength or they're able to socially contribute or that they have some capacities of thinking, or whether they're wanted or valued by the people around them. 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:19.840 It doesn't say we should protect human life because the courts have recognized them, or that the culture is assigned worth to them. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:33.440 He's saying that vulnerable humans should be protected because they were made in the image of God, were post-fall, post-flood, in the in the society given at that time. 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:43.120 The protection of human life flows directly and exclusively from the fact that God has made us to bear his image. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:46.639 Now notice the placement of this. 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:49.440 This is Genesis chapter 9. 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:56.799 This is not God speaking to the nation of Israel within the covenant structures of the people. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:21.840 He is speaking to all humanity here, that every one of us that flow out of the post-fall, post-flood human race are here to maintain the dignity of human life and the protection of the vulnerable and end the just justice against those who would deface the image of God by committing murder. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:25.279 What is the principle that's here? 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:32.399 The principle is to take an innocent human life is to strike at the image of God itself. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:38.879 It is an assault against God Himself. 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:45.519 It's not simply a crime against an individual in the taking of their life. 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:52.480 It's an act of violence against God, in whose image all of us have been made. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:55.679 That's why it's so serious. 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:58.000 That's why it's so significant. 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:02.159 Now turn with me to James chapter three. 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:35.360 And in James chapter three, where he's telling us to control our speech, in verse nine, he confronts this contradiction of a tongue that blesses God and then turns and curses the people around them. 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:50.720 And he says in verse nine, with it, that is our tongue, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God's likeness. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:53.919 Now notice what James is saying here. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:17:03.759 He isn't saying that cursing some other person is simply unkind or socially unacceptable or emotionally hurtful. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:10.079 What he is saying is that this is cosmically contradictory. 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:22.400 That we cannot stand before God and worship him in one breath and then strip the dignity of a person with our speech in another breath. 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:31.119 We can't do that without the contradiction screaming in echoes through the heavens. 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:42.720 We cannot sing the praises of the Creator on Sunday and then dismiss the worth of one of God's image bearers on Monday. 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:49.039 The two positions cannot be held simultaneously without one of them giving away. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:56.720 You either are not worshiping God or you're not worshiping God in the care of his image and the others. 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:04.240 Now, this same logic applies in every other way that humans can strip the dignity of other people. 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:13.440 In our day, we find ourselves filled with language that is stripping away the dignity of humanity. 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:27.599 We talk about clumps of cells, we talk about non-persons, we talk about vegetative state, we talk about no quality of life. 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:33.119 We talk about not really a person yet. 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:40.480 We ask the questions, what kind of life would that really be anyway? 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:46.319 Those words reveal a worldview. 00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:58.559 Those words reveal a worldview that speaks in any way they think they can about a human being other than the realization that we are made in the image of God. 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:16.559 And without knowing it, we've adopted the worldview of that Roman father who's walked into the streets of Rome with an unwanted child and laid it down at the column of milk and turned around and walked away. 00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:26.240 Yes, we dress it up with scientific speech, but the worldview is no different than what they were doing in Rome in Paul's day. 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:43.359 That father decided, just like human beings are deciding today, that a person's worth is only because of the circumstances or the condition that they're in, or whether or not they're convenient to us. 00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:56.160 But the scriptures tell us that the image is absolute, that God made all of us in his image, post-flood, lasting even to the New Testament period. 00:19:57.119 --> 00:20:04.799 And this brings us to our second point that I'd like for us to look at today is that the image belongs to every stage of human life. 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:15.200 We're going to step into a moment that can be painful for some and difficult for all of us. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:18.079 But it has to be talked about. 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:24.880 Because we live in a culture that wants to talk about human dignity as though it's developmental. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:31.759 That a person's worth is something that they grow into or can grow out of. 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:48.240 And some human beings, because of their age or their stage of development, or because of their dependence or their cognitive capacities, don't fully qualify for the dignity and protection that we give to others. 00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:52.480 It's not a new argument. 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:55.359 It's the same argument Rome was making. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:12.240 But underneath it all, the logic is as ancient as Rome. 00:21:13.920 --> 00:21:17.759 But scripture won't let us stand alongside of our culture today. 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:30.079 In Psalm 139, in verse 13 to 16, David says this, and I want you to capture not only the poetry, but the theology of it, because it's magnificent in both ways. 00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:32.000 Listen to what he says. 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:35.119 For it was you who created my inward parts. 00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:37.839 You knit me together in my mother's womb. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:41.839 I will praise you because I've been remarkably and wondrously made. 00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:45.200 Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:51.119 My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:53.440 Your eyes saw me when I was formless. 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:58.640 All my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began. 00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:04.079 Look at what God is doing here in the womb. 00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:05.920 He's acting like a craftsman. 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:15.039 He's knitting, he's forming, he's seeing, he's even writing the history of this person before they were even born. 00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:26.000 The creator who has shaped all of the stars and set the boundaries of the seas is personally present and active in the formation of every human life. 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:31.200 God's eyes are on that child before those eyes can even see. 00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:37.920 And his book holds the child's days even before there can be a confirmed heartbeat. 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:51.519 Before there's a name, before there's a face, before the world has decided whether or not the child is worthy of dignity or not, God has already looked, he's already known, he's already written. 00:22:53.119 --> 00:22:58.799 This unborn child is not potential life waiting to become something real. 00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:06.640 This is life already, an image-bearing creator-attended life. 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:11.519 Listen to what Jeremiah says in chapter 1 and verse 5. 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:15.519 I chose you before I formed you in the womb. 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:19.680 I set you apart before you were born. 00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:25.119 There, the personhood of Jeremiah precedes even his conception. 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:31.839 The identity of Jeremiah was not constructed after his delivery. 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:39.839 It was established in the eternal counsels of God before there was any life in the womb itself. 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:42.319 Listen to Luke chapter 1. 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:57.680 In Luke 1, 41 to 44, there's this extraordinary moment where Mary, who's carrying the infant Jesus, perhaps only days or weeks after the conception, travels to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is six months pregnant with John. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:05.680 And these two women greet each other, and the spirit-filled recognition of the unborn Christ is made by the unborn John. 00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:08.880 The two children in the womb. 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:13.920 The Holy Spirit moves, and one child leaps for joy at the presence of the other. 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:18.240 And Luke does not call them products of conception. 00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:25.279 He calls them babies, brefos, infants, children. 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:35.920 It's the exact same word that he uses to describe baby Jesus in the next chapter in the manger, already a person. 00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:43.359 You see, the language of scripture doesn't draw a line between a child in the womb and a child in the manger. 00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:47.039 It's the same word, the same description. 00:24:47.839 --> 00:25:00.559 And so here we are, we see scripture tells us that we can't stand with the philosophies of Rome or the ideologies of our day that dismiss the dignity of human life. 00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:06.160 But it also extends to the elderly and to the dying. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:13.599 Our culture is increasingly placing pressure on families and on the elderly. 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:20.559 And it's no less pressing than the same pressure that we put on the unborn. 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:26.480 Death with dignity is being used. 00:25:26.799 --> 00:25:29.440 Quality of life is cast about. 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:50.240 And it's suggested that because of suffering, or because of some disability, or because of some cognitive decline, or some terminal illness, or simply the lack of will to thrive, that some lives are not worth protecting. 00:25:52.160 --> 00:26:08.960 When an elderly person with advancing dementia is spoken of in a way that subtly questions whether that person is really still there, or whether the burden of caring for a severely disabled family member reframes the question of their worth. 00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:19.119 This is no more than Roman philosophy marketed for our modern day. 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:26.640 The biblical vision is life has dignity all the way to the last breath. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:32.400 Life is upheld by compassionate care and a faithful presence. 00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:40.400 Life is protected from this utilitarian calculus that measures worth in terms of its productivity. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:53.839 It's about being faithful to show dignity all the way to the very end. 00:26:55.440 --> 00:27:04.559 That elderly saint who's in a memory care unit, who can't even remember her children's names, still bears the image of God. 00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:13.440 That man in the hospital bed who can't speak, can't move, can't respond, still bears the image of God. 00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:18.160 The diagnosis doesn't erase the image of God. 00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:21.759 The prognosis doesn't erase the image of God. 00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:26.000 The image is there because God put it there. 00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:29.839 Listen to what Job says in Job 14, 5. 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:41.599 Since a person's days are determined, and the number of his months depends on you, God, and since you have set the limits, he cannot pass. 00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:53.920 Our generation and the Roman generation has confused responsibility of human life with ownership of human life. 00:27:54.240 --> 00:27:58.640 And the scriptures here are telling us that the ownership belongs to God. 00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:01.599 God alone is the author of life. 00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:09.680 He numbers our days, which means he has the authority to grant it and to end it. 00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:14.319 The authority of life belongs to him alone. 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:30.799 And I want to say this with great care, because a lot of us have been in those places that are very, very difficult, under conditions that none of us should face without love and counsel and the grace of God. 00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:49.839 I want to say there's a distinction, a moral and a theologically significant distinction, mind you, between allowing the natural processes of dying to unfold without technological interference and the intentional taking of life. 00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:52.960 I've had to be there with my own brother. 00:28:53.920 --> 00:29:10.799 And after, because of his diabetes, he had had a significant um cardiac arrest, and that there was nothing left of his brain other than the ability to continue to breathe. 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:19.440 Should we continue to maintain that life by keeping him on a support system, or should we withdraw it? 00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:23.200 That is a hard, hard, hard place to be. 00:29:24.799 --> 00:29:35.359 But there is a difference between allowing the natural process of dying to unfold without technological interference and the active taking of life. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:50.400 There's a difference between withdrawing treatments that only prolong or prolong the life in the withholding of death, not the preserving of life and the active ending of life itself. 00:29:52.319 --> 00:30:04.640 We're not called to fight death with every technological advance that we can, but we're also called to never intentionally take life, also. 00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:27.920 And so compassion means that we alleviate suffering, we provide comfort, we remain present, we refuse to abandon, we honor the image and the person who is diminished, and we trust that God alone determines what time he's written in his book to bring that person home. 00:30:31.359 --> 00:30:35.839 The world says useful, but God says valuable. 00:30:36.079 --> 00:30:41.759 The world talks about productive, but God says human life is precious. 00:30:42.079 --> 00:30:47.599 The world says quality of life, but God says sanctity of life. 00:30:48.079 --> 00:30:53.200 The world says the image, our worth, our dignity can be suspended. 00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:59.039 God says image was never ours to suspend in the first place. 00:31:01.359 --> 00:31:04.400 But let me speak before we get into our last point. 00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:16.480 Perhaps you're here this evening and you made a decision years ago, in a moment of fear, in a moment of isolation, when no one offered you another way. 00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:24.319 When the only voices you heard were the ones that told you you have an option and you need to do it quickly. 00:31:25.039 --> 00:31:28.160 And you've carried the weight of that decision ever since. 00:31:29.839 --> 00:31:34.720 You've borne it in silence, you've borne it in shame, you've borne it in private grief. 00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:44.720 And maybe you've sat at the bedside of someone you loved and made a decision that you're still second-guessing. 00:31:46.079 --> 00:31:58.400 You made that decision in grief, in exhaustion, in impossible circumstances, without clarity or counsel that you needed, but no one was there to give you. 00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:13.839 The gospel is precisely and unapologetically for everyone who doesn't get it right. 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:28.319 Christ came for the broken as well as the breaking, for ones who have made devastating choices and have been living in the light of those ever since. 00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:41.599 God's grace seen in the cross is more than sufficient to forgive and to carry you through whatever you're carrying today. 00:32:42.079 --> 00:32:46.799 There's grace, real grace, at the cross. 00:32:49.920 --> 00:32:54.160 Let me move, last of all, to what God calls the church to do. 00:32:55.359 --> 00:33:05.839 Christianity has always been at its best when it's refused to let doctrinal truth remain theoretical, when it's moved the truth from the head to the heart and into the hands. 00:33:06.079 --> 00:33:13.200 Because theology that stays in the pews is nothing no better than an exhibit at a museum, to be honest with you. 00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:28.880 The Reformation was not merely a recovery of doctrinal propositions, it was a recovery of a living faith that transformed how people thought about work, how they thought about family, how they thought about the poor, and how they thought about the neighbor right in front of them. 00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:36.559 Listen to Proverbs 31, verses 8 and 9, because the image of God demands a response from us. 00:33:37.119 --> 00:33:42.880 Speak up for those who have no voice, for the justice of all who are dispossessed. 00:33:43.200 --> 00:33:49.759 Speak up, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the oppressed and the needy. 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:52.319 What does God call us to do? 00:33:52.640 --> 00:33:59.119 He calls us to act on those who cannot, to open our mouths for those who cannot open their mouths. 00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:01.200 And who has no voice? 00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:04.079 Well, the unborn child has no voice. 00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:08.400 The elderly patient with advanced dementia has no voice. 00:34:08.800 --> 00:34:11.840 The man on the ventilator has no voice. 00:34:12.320 --> 00:34:32.480 And the woman sitting in the middle of a crisis pregnancy, who's being told by everyone around her to just get rid of it, may have a legal voice, but in a cultural sense, she's even being removed of whatever voice might be there that God calls her to. 00:34:32.880 --> 00:34:41.199 And the people of God, understanding what the image of God means for all of us, are called to be the voice for those people. 00:34:41.760 --> 00:34:51.280 To speak with clarity, to speak with warmth and pastoral love, to speak in a way of rescue and not condemnation. 00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:56.960 We don't do this because it's a political party that joins with us. 00:34:57.119 --> 00:35:00.480 We do it because it's what God calls us to do. 00:35:02.159 --> 00:35:16.320 Because what we do is grounded in the image of God and the commands of God's wisdom to carry on, regardless of what power party is in power, or whether it's comfortable or uncomfortable in our society and culture today. 00:35:17.119 --> 00:35:20.320 So let me take you back to Rome for just a second. 00:35:21.519 --> 00:35:29.199 That father, that poor child, that column, that empire. 00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:40.400 It's a picture of a world in which the image of God has been stamped on every single one of those people, and they've decided not to look at it. 00:35:42.159 --> 00:35:46.320 They've mistaken authority over life for ownership of life. 00:35:46.639 --> 00:36:03.199 But in that same city, in those small, scattered, marginal communities of people transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, there were women who had heard something different about human dignity. 00:36:04.239 --> 00:36:25.840 There were women who had been told not by the culture of their day, but by God Himself, a God who became flesh and who himself became a vulnerable child, depended on those who cared for him, that every human bears the image that cannot be discarded and cannot be thrown away and cannot be overridden by the judgment of the powerful. 00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:29.679 And those women went where Rome would not go. 00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:33.679 Those women picked up what Rome had set down. 00:36:34.320 --> 00:36:37.840 Those women had brought home what Rome had written off. 00:36:38.960 --> 00:36:41.760 And Paul says, honor those women. 00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:43.679 Honor them. 00:36:44.559 --> 00:36:49.119 Because they've lived out the theology of the Imago Day. 00:36:49.679 --> 00:37:00.880 They have done what they truly believe, that every single person, though unwanted by family or society, is a person made in the image of God. 00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:05.280 But those widows weren't acting simply alone. 00:37:05.840 --> 00:37:20.239 What they were doing was acting within a community that had embedded within it, even in a weekly way, an understanding of the image of God in every human person. 00:37:21.360 --> 00:37:37.840 These individual acts of compassion that these women were to be honored for and to be cared for because of came out of a community that was shaped Sunday after Sunday after Sunday to see the world differently than the society around them. 00:37:38.800 --> 00:37:39.519 In A.D. 00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:50.719 155, barely a century after Paul writes to Timothy, Justin Martyr writes in his first apology, addressed to the Roman Emperor. 00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:53.760 And there he describes what Christians do. 00:37:54.079 --> 00:38:04.239 And he talks about the reading of Scripture, he talks about the sermon, he talks about the prayers, he even talks about the Lord's Supper, but he doesn't stop there. 00:38:04.960 --> 00:38:09.760 Listen to what he describes next: the offering. 00:38:10.960 --> 00:38:32.239 What is collected is deposited with the president, who supports the orphans and widows, and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word, takes care of all who are in need. 00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:34.559 Think about that. 00:38:35.119 --> 00:38:45.360 Listen first of all to the list: orphans, widows, sick, prisoners, strangers, anybody in need. 00:38:46.639 --> 00:38:48.880 This was not a members-only program. 00:38:50.320 --> 00:38:58.159 This was the understanding of the image of God wrapped up in the weekly worship of the Christian community. 00:39:00.159 --> 00:39:14.960 Every Sunday, as regular as the reading of Scripture and the sermon, and the prayers and the breaking of bread was an offering to be given for the benevolent care of anybody in need. 00:39:16.880 --> 00:39:18.960 It was the care of the vulnerable. 00:39:19.199 --> 00:39:24.159 And it wasn't an add-on to the worship, it was a part of the worship. 00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:32.800 To gather on Sunday was to participate in the rescue of the needy. 00:39:35.599 --> 00:39:47.840 And Justin Martyr is writing to the head of the very empire that had legalized the abandonment of children and the disposal of the weak. 00:39:48.239 --> 00:39:57.199 And what Justin Martyr is saying here is saying, this is how we treat the people that you discard. 00:39:59.840 --> 00:40:08.000 And the offering plate became a theological statement, as they gave in order to care for the needy. 00:40:09.440 --> 00:40:14.480 And so what Rome called a refuge heap, the church called a mission field. 00:40:14.719 --> 00:40:20.559 And what Rome called worthless, the church embraced as a neighbor. 00:40:21.840 --> 00:40:27.199 This is what it looks like when the community takes the image of God seriously. 00:40:28.400 --> 00:40:42.639 Not just in individual acts of compassion scattered across the congregation, but in a collective people that shape their weekly worship in a way that's visibly caring to all. 00:40:44.559 --> 00:40:46.639 So what can we do in our day? 00:40:46.880 --> 00:40:49.679 Well, there's several things I want to mention as we close. 00:40:49.920 --> 00:40:54.880 First of all, we can support our local crisis pregnancy center. 00:40:55.199 --> 00:41:02.400 Borough Pregnancy Counseling Center is doing exactly what these Roman widows were doing in 1 Timothy chapter 5. 00:41:02.719 --> 00:41:10.079 Standing in the gap, offering another way, walking with women in the hardest moments of their life, and saying to them, You're not alone. 00:41:10.239 --> 00:41:11.760 There's a pathway forward. 00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:15.519 This child is worth saving, and we can help you. 00:41:16.639 --> 00:41:18.239 Burrow needs our support. 00:41:18.400 --> 00:41:19.760 They need our hands. 00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:21.760 They need our prayer. 00:41:23.440 --> 00:41:35.920 Secondly, we consider seriously whether or not we can participate in foster care or adoption or something like Long Island Youth Mentoring, where we come alongside people and we help them. 00:41:36.400 --> 00:41:37.920 Yes, it's hard. 00:41:38.159 --> 00:41:49.760 Yes, it's costly, but it's also a very tangible way to care for people who have inherent dignity because God made them in their image. 00:41:50.320 --> 00:41:52.800 Third, we can visit a nursing home. 00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:57.280 We can sit with a person who doesn't even remember their own name. 00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:06.800 We can sit alongside them, and simply by being present in their presence, we can tell them that they have dignity and worth. 00:42:08.159 --> 00:42:12.480 Something else that we can do, we can watch our language. 00:42:13.679 --> 00:42:15.039 Remember, James? 00:42:15.519 --> 00:42:20.320 Blessing God, cursing someone else made in the image of God. 00:42:21.679 --> 00:42:28.960 We need to reject every dehumanizing vocabulary that our culture calls us to emulate. 00:42:30.800 --> 00:42:33.760 And it creeps into the church without noticing. 00:42:34.159 --> 00:42:45.519 We absorb it from the media, we consume it through our conversations, we're surrounded by it so much we begin to speak it without even considering what we're doing. 00:42:47.199 --> 00:42:58.159 We put people into categories, and by putting people into categories, we lessen our grip on the fact that they're made in the image of God. 00:42:59.519 --> 00:43:01.280 And so push back on it. 00:43:01.519 --> 00:43:10.400 Push back on it in your own mind, push back on it in your conversations, push back on it even within the context of your own family. 00:43:10.719 --> 00:43:17.119 Remember to show care for all people by the way we talk about one another. 00:43:17.360 --> 00:43:21.599 And last of all, we can refuse to be silent. 00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:36.800 In our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our families, in those conversations that we have on social media or around the dinner table or in the break room, to open our mouth for those that have no voice. 00:43:38.239 --> 00:43:47.039 Not to speak with contempt against those who disagree with us, but to speak about the positive, compassionate care that we have for all people. 00:43:47.679 --> 00:43:51.199 And by showing that, we will make a clear difference. 00:43:52.320 --> 00:43:59.920 So from the womb to the final breath, every person at every stage and every condition bears the image of God. 00:44:00.559 --> 00:44:11.679 And this is a reality that should have weight and consequence for every one of us in every place that we move and have our life. 00:44:12.559 --> 00:44:15.280 God has made us in his image. 00:44:15.599 --> 00:44:17.039 The image is there. 00:44:18.480 --> 00:44:28.000 And one of the things that we said at the beginning of this series was that we're made by God, marked by God, and to manifest his glory. 00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:34.400 And one of the ways that we can manifest his glory is by caring for those who bear his image. 00:44:34.639 --> 00:44:35.920 Let's pray. 00:44:38.159 --> 00:44:50.400 Father, we pray that we might be renewed in our mind by the influences of your word. 00:44:51.760 --> 00:45:10.400 That the things that you declare and reveal to us will have such an in influencing effect upon us that we begin to live distinctly in this world and to show ourselves as those who belong to a different kingdom. 00:45:11.519 --> 00:45:26.079 That we would live as those who in this life are sojourning through it as members of the kingdom of God, and that we might speak and act in a way that displays which kingdom we're in. 00:45:26.880 --> 00:45:35.679 We pray, Father, that it would be done with love, but with clarity and with courage, and even at a cost. 00:45:36.239 --> 00:45:50.639 And Father, we pray that in all of it you would be magnified as we show love to one another within the context of the body of Christ, and we show care and compassion and help to those even outside it. 00:45:50.880 --> 00:45:52.800 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:45:53.039 --> 00:45:53.440 Amen.