Tenth Sunday After Pentecost

Today's scripture is Isaiah 55, verse 1 through 3 and 6 through 13.

Isaiah 55:1–3

All you who are thirsty come to the water.

You who have no money, come by food and eat.

Come by wine and milk without money, without price.

Why spend your money for what is not bread, your wages for what fails to satisfy?

Heed me, and you will eat well.

You will delight in rich fare.

Bend your ear and come to me.

Listen that you may have life.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you in fulfillment of the blessings promised to David.

Seek me, Yahweh, while I may still be found.

Call upon me while I am near.

Let the corrupt abandon their ways, the evil their thoughts.

Let them return to their ways.

Excuse me, let them return to Wah Yeh, and I will have mercy on them.

Return to God, for I will freely pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says Yahweh.

As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.

For just as from the heavens the rain and snow will come down.

And do not return till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the sower and bread for food, so will my word be that goes forth from my mouth.

It will not return to me empty, but will carry out my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.

You will go out joyfully and be led out in peace.

The mountains and hills before you will break into cries of joy, and all the trees in the countryside will clap their hands.

The cypress will grow in place of the thornbush, their murder will replace the briars, and they will stand as a memorial to Yahweh, an everlasting sign never to be destroyed.

May we hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

So I went to the Bible to learn what it really says about reproductive rights.

I discovered that women don't have them, so I guess I'm done.

No, seriously, seriously, though.

I don't know how I ended up with the least fun topic to address in this whole what the Bible really says about series.

So I had to at least start it off with something to laugh about.

But that seems to be what happened.

Although I guess I do know how I ended up with this topic.

It's due to the beauty of us being part of a denomination that doesn't just ordain men.

So we can have a woman preach on topics that deeply impact women.

Representation matters.

So if you were to ask what the most controversial political topic in faith circles is, abortion and by extension reproductive rights would top the list.

Now I've said this before, but it bears repeating.

Topics are made political when those in power want us to stop talking about them.

Think of all of the times when we've been having a conversation with someone and then it's ended by another person saying, now, now, now, that's getting political.

Let's steer away from it.

Here's something to keep in mind.

All of the things that truly matter have been turned into political topics.

If it matters to human beings, it's political.

And that is by design.

But we have the power to reject those labels that keep us quiet and compliant.

When we refuse to be silent about things that deeply matter, the seeds of change are planted.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program.

There is a lot of struggle among people of faith regarding what faith says about reproductive rights, with people from differing sides proclaiming their side to be the faithful one, the one that's most adherent to God's will, the one most supported by the Bible.

So I think it's important for us to start with the simple fact that the Bible doesn't talk about abortion.

I'm serious.

The Bible contains no direct reference to abortion.

That is interesting for a number of reasons.

The first is there are lots of references to abortion and reproductive care throughout the ancient world.

You can find these discussed in text from Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and in limited amounts from Mesopotamia.

So the lack of textual reference to reproductive care in the Bible is interesting, to say the least.

I imagine that may also be surprising to many here, given that I am sure almost all of us walked into this room having heard someone assert that the Bible has a clear position on this issue.

So let's take a look at some of the verses that get used as evidence of a biblical perspective on this topic.

There are a series of verses that lift up the sanctity of life before birth, verses like Jeremiah 1, 4 through 5.

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

Or Isaiah 49, 1, listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you people from far away.

The Lord called me before I was born.

While I was in my mother's womb, the Lord named me.

Or in Psalm 139, 13 to 16, for it was you who formed my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother's womb.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

There is a passage in Luke's Gospel where Elizabeth felt the child in her womb leap for joy when Mary's greeting to Elizabeth was heard.

There's a passage in Galatians 1, 15, where Paul writes, But when the one who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles.

These are not passages to sneer at.

Another aspect at work is that in biblical times, one common thought was that men's seed contained fully formed human beings that needed to be planted in the garden of a woman's womb in order to grow into human beings that could move throughout the world.

That understanding of how babies were made can be seen in some of these passages.

But that doesn't mean that we should laugh at how silly the people in biblical times were.

These were people just trying to figure out a way to describe what they saw with their own eyes and experienced with their own lives.

Limited scientific knowledge of how conception works doesn't make them laughable.

And all of these passages show something else at work.

These are people remarking on the mystery of life and how we came to be.

The mystery of life is still something we write about in books, in poetry, in music and plays.

It is something humanity will continue to explore through a variety of media because life is amazing.

Now the Bible also contains passages that talk about life beginning at first breath.

Passages like the second creation story found in Genesis 2.

Then the Lord God formed man from the dust on the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Or in Ezekiel, then the Lord said to me, Prophesy to these bones and say to them, Oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord God to these bones, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live.

I will lay sinews on you and put and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

When I read all of these passages, whether it's about life at first breath or life in the womb, I don't see them as negating the others or as passages that can serve as a gotcha, because again, these are passages that lift up the mystery and beauty of the gift of life.

None of these passages, whether used to prove life at conception or life at first breath, are meant to be used as bludgeons to beat people over the head in order to convince them that your way of seeing things is the right way.

Now there is a passage found in the Bible that I have heard some people lift up as a recipe of sorts for abortion, but the more I look at it, the more I think that that interpretation is in poor taste.

And I wonder if you may agree with me when I share this passage with you.

First of all, reading that passage from Numbers 5 sounds like reading something out of the Salem witch trials.

I'm not gonna read the entire passage to you, but I am gonna read a significant portion of it just to give you an idea of what we're dealing with here.

And I think it's important to note that the heading of this passage is concerning an unfaithful wife.

Okay, here we go.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the Israelites and say to them, if any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, if a man has been with her, but it is hidden from her husband, so that she is undetected, though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not caught in the act.

If a spirit of jealousy comes on him and he is jealous of his wife, who has defiled herself, or if a spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, then the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and he shall bring the offering required for her, one tenth of an ephah of barley flour.

He shall pour no oil on it, and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.

Then the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord.

The priest shall take holy water and an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and put it into the water.

The priest shall set the woman before the Lord, dishevel the woman's hair, place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy.

In his own hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse.

Then the priest shall put these curses in writing and wash them off into the water of bitterness.

He shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her and cause bitter pain.

The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand, and shall elevate the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar, and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial portion, and turn it into smoke on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water.

When he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall discharge, her uterus drop, and the woman shall be an execration among her people.

But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be immune and be able to conceive children.

So many problems with this passage.

Where to begin?

I mean, did you all get the Salem witch trial thing?

You know, like if you put her in the water and she floats, she's a witch, and if she sinks, she's not.

Oh well, too bad, so sad.

Okay, first of all, this is a ritual that can be done if a woman has been unfaithful or even if just the husband's jealous.

All he needs is the spirit of jealousy to come upon him.

It doesn't even matter if the wife did anything to bring about this jealousy.

Second of all, this ritual would result in what seems to be the infertility of a woman from that point on.

And that seems rather extreme for a tribe of people who knew that procreation was the only way to grow in strength and power among many much more powerful and larger tribes.

Third, there isn't any indication that this ritual was ever actually done.

Fourth, for a society that spoke so vehemently against sorcery and witchcraft, this sure sounds like sorcery to me.

Fifth, the woman has absolutely no agency in this ritual.

It is 100% something that is done to her without her consent for the satisfaction of her husband, whose property she is.

So the fact that this is a passage that gets lifted up by reproductive rights proponents, I that I don't, that doesn't make sense to me.

This is not the passage to use for that, okay?

This is not a passage that has any bearing on reproductive rights or what God or the Bible has to say about them.

Now there is another passage in the Bible that deals with the value of the life of the unborn.

It is found in Exodus 21, 22 to 25.

When people who are fighting, I think in this case it's two men who are fighting, injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman's husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine.

If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

I have read perspectives on this passage from both sides of the argument.

There are some who say that this proves in ancient Israel the life of the fetus in utero is not the same as the life of the mother.

The loss of the life of the fetus results in a fine being paid.

Injury or loss to the life of or loss of life to the woman is paid in kind.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for a life.

Now the second interpretation is that the fight induces labor that leads to a premature but live birth.

Therefore, the harm that follows that birth may refer to the health problems for the baby andor injuries sustained by the woman.

And that's what the eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life comes from.

The studying I've done this past week indicates the first interpretation is the stronger one, but the differing interpretations point to something very important for all of us to keep in mind when we are engaging these, what the Bible really says about arguments.

We cannot help but approach the text with our own lenses, our own experiences, our own biases.

It was astounding how thick and obvious these lenses were in the various articles and blog posts that I read this week.

No matter how much the different authors asserted that they were sharing God's interpretation, God's understanding, and not their own.

They were just saying what God tells us.

People cannot help but bring their biases to the text, looking for ways to prove that their way of understanding is the correct and perhaps only way of understanding.

And I'm not just pointing the finger at one denomination or swath of Christianity.

I am looking at all of them, us included.

We can't help but go to the Bible with our presuppositions in mind and then look for verses that support those presuppositions.

And news alert, usually we can find them.

Because the Bible, contrary to what some me some people may tell you, the Bible does not contain a single unifying voice.

Which is why I drew upon Isaiah 55 for the text this Sunday.

And it God says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.

As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.

For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the sower and bread for food, so will my word that goes forth from my mouth.

It will not return to me empty, but will carry out my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.

But you will go out joyfully and be led in peace.

The mountains and hills before you will break into cries of joy.

God's ways are not our ways.

God's thoughts are not our thoughts, no matter how hard we try to impose our ways and our thoughts onto God.

But in that passage is also a reminder that the words God has given us are meant to bear fruit through study and wrestling and seeking, and that the words of God nurtured by our study, wrestling and seeking, will carry out God's will, which leads us to go out joyfully and be led in peace.

So, how does that inform our thoughts on this fraught topic of reproductive rights?

Reverend Jessica Young Chang reflects what I see in scripture, in terms of what does the scripture have to teach us about abortion specifically, is about interpretation.

And interpretation is about power.

So when I look at the Bible and what it says about reproductive rights, and I hear all of these different interpretations bandied about, I find myself asking, who has power in these interpretations?

Or maybe an even more important question to ask is who doesn't have power in these interpretations?

Reproductive rights and abortion and pregnancy and childbirth are things that affect the bodies and agency of women deeply.

And because of that, these are issues that should not be treated flippantly.

Regardless of where you fall on these issues, the people who fall on the other side take their beliefs very seriously because life matters deeply to them.

And I'm talking about whether you are pro-life or pro-choice or somewhere in between.

People on all sides of this issue are arguing from a perspective of valuing life.

And the differences are determined by when they believe life begins, or who should be able to have agency, or what policies we should have in place to ensure that all life can thrive from womb to tomb.

But none of that is something to sneer at.

It's something to hold tenderly and treat with care.

Because demeaning a person won't ever win an argument.

So what does the Bible say about reproductive rights?

Not much.

But it has a lot to say about care for our fellow human beings.

In Isaiah 1, 17, learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

In Isaiah 58, is not this the fast that I choose to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the strap of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover them and to not hide yourself from your own kin?

In Proverbs 31, eight, speak out for those who cannot speak for the rights of all the destitute.

In Leviticus 19, when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest, you shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard, you shall leave them for the poor and the alien.

I am the Lord your God.

You shall not steal, you shall not deal falsely, you shall not lie to another, you shall not defraud your neighbor, you shall not steal, you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning.

You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind.

You shall not fear, you shall fear your God.

I am the Lord.

You shall not render an unjust judgment, you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great.

With justice you shall judge your neighbor.

You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand idly by when the blood of your neighbor is at stake.

I am the Lord.

You shall not hate in your heart any one of your kin.

You shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself.

You shall not take vengeance or bear grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord.

Words Jesus himself echoes when asked what the greatest commandment is: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

And the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself.

The Bible says to engage one another in love, to deal with one another with compassion and justice.

That is how we are called to live in this world.

And I think these words should be especially taken to heart when talking about issues that have such a deep impact on our lives and our hearts.

Living in this broken world is not for the faint of heart, but we can be agents of healing and hope in the midst of it.

Thanks be to God for words in Scripture that remind us of this way, and for the person of Jesus who showed us how to walk this way upon the earth.