1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is taken from John 1:1-14, it’s entitled, “Life Shines in Darkness,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Life begins in darkness. Shadows fell over the deeps. But life only begins in darkness. At Northwestern University in 2016, researchers captured on camera proof that life shines in the darkness. They filmed fireworks marking the moment of fertilization. The instant that sperm meets egg membrane, zinc ions ignite and twinkle as a new embryo comes into being. Like the sun’s corona when the moon eclipses it, a halo radiates a galaxy of kindled flecks that flashbulb the otherwise obscured sphere –microscopic, of course, but nevertheless undeniable. And every human life features this flash of the Maker’s magic no matter the circumstances.
3. Picture yourself on the other side of the bathroom door, locked and lying on the floor. Suppose you’re crumpled among a heap of paper wrappers, fine print inserts, and pregnancy sticks with little plus signs. Assaulted at the party and impregnated unwillingly, now throat knotted, eyes hot, guts twisting, spine quivering, fingers clenching. The anxiety of obligations overtakes the excitement of opportunities like a storm cloud. Reputation at risk, freedom and future in danger, success and sanity at stake, pulse pounds, doubts and debts mount. Baby daddy bullies you, your father yells at you, mom turns her back on you, even the doctor diagnoses deformity. Abandoned, ashamed, afraid, and what now?
4. The shadow of death settled over the valley. And it blackens every bit as grim as you assume, black like Hagar the handmaid having Abraham’s illegitimate son, like Bathsheba bearing a baby not belonging to her husband. It gets black like Lot’s daughters when they got their father drunk and lay with the old man, like the adulteress laid bare before the stone throwers. It goes black like Mary knowing not a man and subject to public disrepute. The darkness has a name and it is sin. It goes by privacy, choice, or just abortion. But working darkness on the outside doesn’t remedy the darkness on the inside. It doesn’t safeguard anyone. Weep for whatever you’ve done that led to it.
5. Because a better rescue remains. There’s an answer for the darkness. Light always attends. Jesus, the Son of God came near, made like his brothers in every respect, form of a servant, and obedient unto death. With grace and forgiveness Jesus enters, driving away the dark by the eternal light of God. Jesus has died on the cross to forgive your guilt, and He’s returned from the dead so that your conscience has release. For those that but perceive it, life shines in the darkness. To live is Christ, and I will fear no evil for Thou art with me. His own special light creates life no matter what age, that all may have life unconditional.
6. Behold the blessings, even on the other side of the bathroom door. You’re awaiting ultrasound pictures, first word and first step, snuggles and giggles. You’re anticipating birthday wishes and bedtime stories, tea parties and finger paintings, pillow forts and water fights. You’re at the threshold of wiping gameday sweat and drying homework tears, learning to drive and late-night heart-to-hearts. You’re appointed for graduation caps and wedding gowns, “thank-you-mom”s. Life shines in the darkness.
7. So, let’s face it head-on and not in fear. Put yourself behind the bedroom door, head hung low. You’re buried under collection letters and divorce papers, criticisms ringing in your ears. Screams gone silent and tears run dry. It’s brought you to your knees, but you can’t put a word together or hold a distinct thought intact to pray. Ready to make the haters pay, gaze at the blade to take your life. Desperate to take the pain away, you hold the gun in your hands. Who would listen? Who would miss you?
8. There is One who would. Darkness settled over the whole land. Darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the peoples, the sixth hour until the ninth hour, then stretching into three days. The darkness has a name and it is death, devil, and hell. Some call it escape, ending it all, giving up, or just killing yourself, empty as any one of us in our own customary uncharity and jealousy. But wielding darkness on the outside won’t relieve the darkness on the inside. It doesn’t secure anything. Confess all you’ve loved that let it happen.
9. Because a greater reversal remains. We have a cure to the darkness. The thick abyss does not invade on its own. Light ever ensues. It fits for sufferings not worth comparing with glory to be revealed, fits for divine intervention. Jesus, the eternal Word was made flesh, present and powerful, subject to weakness, sharing in the flesh and blood the same as the children. With compassion and mercy from above, Jesus engages, casting out the darkness by heavenly light of life. This Christ has died innocent as atonement for your sin, and He’s risen again so that your body and being have relief. There’s nobody the darkness doesn’t hunt, but there’s nobody the good Lord doesn’t shepherd. For all who but believe it, life shines in the darkness. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, neither death nor life nor things present nor things to come will separate us from His love. His own precious light redeems life into our kind regardless of appearance, that we may have life abundant.
10. Catch sight of the gifts, even behind the bedroom door. You’re escape for the pressure, another knowing what you’re going through. You’re enlisting in shedding control and settling into trust, standing alongside and sitting with Jesus. Life shines in the darkness.
11. Let’s face it down toe-to-toe and not flee. Place yourself beyond the back-room door, drifting between consciousness and confusion, mind too dim and mouth too dry to communicate. See you hooked up to ventilator and catheter, hemmed in by bed rails and monitor beeps. Layered under severe diagnoses and several drugs, medical specialists quit counting. Edema in extremities, abdominal nausea, and aching everywhere else, like an after-hours alleyway. Spoon-fed and sponge-bathed, like a dilapidated shack. Who’d live like this? Why not speed the process?
12. Sun turned black and moon to blood. Cosmic powers spread this present darkness in the heavenly places. The Apostle Peter, now elderly, dressed by someone else and led where he didn’t want to go. It blemishes us like Job, bereft of everything dear and beset with terrible disease. It blights all like Cain or Naaman or Bartimaeus, even like Jesus Himself, disrobed and disfigured. The darkness, it has a name and it is wickedness, wrongdoing and lawbreaking and disobedience. You know it as end-of-life options, medical aid in dying, or death with dignity, menacing as every one of us in our own idolatry and blasphemy. But the darkness outside can’t heal the darkness inside. It doesn’t sustain anyhow. Repent anything you’ve become that left you here.
13. Because a truer redemption remains. Here comes an authority over the darkness. The pitch black cannot occupy all by itself. Light inevitably removes it. It fits us for flesh that manifests Lamb of God sacrificing and arising, fits us for holy incarnation. Jesus our Immanuel gave Himself for us. Messiah Immanuel gave self, high priest carrying sicknesses and bearing our sorrows, able to sympathize and tempted as we are but without sin. With substitution from on high, Jesus embraces, pushing back the dark by the light of love. Your Jesus has died righteous in exchange for your soul, and He’s resurrected so that you very soon and evermore have rejoicing. There’s nothing that darkness doesn’t crush, but there’s nothing that the Lord God doesn’t hold on tight. For if we but receive it, life shines in the darkness. He is the resurrection and the life, who keeps whole spirit, soul, and body blameless at the coming of His kingdom. His own light calls life into every human being through whatever ability, that they may have life everlasting.
14. Witness the privileges, even beyond the backroom door. You’re discovering concerns cast aside and distractions dismissed, singing to and praying with. You’re ordained into validating vulnerability and honoring them with your needs. You’re advancing toward family reunited and history relived, gripping hands and kissing foreheads, “I-love-you”s and community. Life shines in the darkness.
15. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. Instead, expose them. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God’s own possessing. And you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. They will see Jesus’ face, and His name will be on your foreheads. Night will be no more, and they will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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