This Sunday, January 21, 2024, is Sanctity of Life Sunday.  Because I preach through Bible books like I’m doing now with Proverbs, I don’t focus my preaching on the various “special Sundays” on denominational calendars.  There are simply too many special Sundays to cover, and we would simply go from one topic to another without ever working through a book of the Bible. 

But don’t assume that my silence on Sunday about “Sanctity of Life” Sunday means that I don’f feel strongly about abortion. It’s wrong. I believe that all human life is created in the image of God.  Therefore, human life is special and sacred and needs to be cared for and loved.  Abortion—except in very rare instances—is wrong because it destroys human life.

But I want to carry sanctity of life well beyond what it has come to mean in modern evangelical circles.  We use “Sanctify of Life” as an anti-abortion rallying cry.  If we want to be Biblical and consistent, it is much more than that.  To believe that life is special and sacred means many things and we need to love the unborn and also extend our love well beyond them.

To special needs children.  To abused children.  To foster children.  To homeless adults.  To hungry adults.  To senior adults with dementia.  To asylum seekers on the border.  To atheists.  To prisoners.  To ex-cons.  To addicts.  To mentally ill and troubled adults.  To Blacks.  To those on the opposite end of the political spectrum.  To women.  To men.  To those who identify themselves as LGBTQIA+.  To Muslims.  To Jews and Palestinians.  To Native Americans.  To all Americans.  And Africans.  And Asians.  And South Americans.  And Central Americans.  And Europeans.  To those who speak English.  And Spanish.  And Chinese.  And Arabic.  And Hindi.

You get the idea, for the preceding paragraph could easily be a thousand times longer.  If we really believe in Sanctity of Life—and I do—then I need to carry it to it’s logical and Biblical extreme.

I am called to love and care for human life.

All of it.