By: The Rev. Lee Nelson
Many, many times in Sacred Scripture, that which is in accord with the purposes of God is simply called “life.” Here, the Prophet Amos describes this life as one which seeks goodness and not evil, and which exists in the very presence of God. In the Garden of Eden, God placed a tree of goodness called the Tree of Life. He breathed the “breath of life” into Adam and Eve. Later, in the New Testament, John the Evangelist says of Jesus: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4) The Creeds testify to the truth that “by Him all things were made.” The life which you and I live is, in fact, mediated to us by the continual work of the Son of God, who came that we “may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)
For we who would have abundant life, it falls to us to hold human life as utterly sacred from conception to natural death. We are to see all of life as a gift of God and as an arena for goodness. It further means that any attack upon life is an offense to God, a great injustice. Amos watched as injustice was committed in the very entrance of the city, and he received the word of the Lord: “Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate.” Who knows what kind of injustice was practiced there, but we know what injustice is practiced in our day. We know that human babies are regularly dismantled and killed within their mothers’ wombs. 1.3 million human lives are squelched every year in the United States alone, and like Amos, we cannot be silent. The call must be made to the Church to be vocal about life. First, to vocal in prayer to God in intercession for our abortive and unjust culture. Second, to be vocal as a voice for those who have no voice to speak for them, to speak the truth and to call our culture to repentance.