A Simple Question

Before getting to this week’s topic, a note about two very important events observed this week:

• July 4 is Independence Day in America. It commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. America has been called “The land of the free and the home of the brave.” That distinction is being challenged these days. God bless America!
• July 5 is the 21^st birthday of Terry’s and my dear grandson, Kolby Ryan Keith. He’s a very fine young man who brings much joy to his family and to many other people. God bless you, Kolby! Mimi and I love you very much!

Now to A Simple Question. Lots of bad things happened last week and, so far, this week:

• The savage and satanic killing of nine Christian women and men in a Charleston church.
• The massacre of at least 39 people, mostly foreigners, on a beach in Sousse, Tunisia.
• The mid-air explosion of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after Cape Canaveral liftoff.
• A 350 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
• The Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states of the U.S.

The Supreme Court ruling drew lots of attention. Almost immediately after its release, religious and political leaders from the U.S. and other parts of the world offered their opinions. Some were emotional. Some were rational. Some were theological. Some were political.

Rather than add a lengthy opinion to that growing body of literature, I suggest we consider one simple question. Carried to its logical conclusion, if same-sex marriage someday replaces traditional marriage, either totally or essentially, from whence will the next generation(s) come?

God ordained marriage as a special, lifelong union of one man and one woman. His plan includes the natural order of procreation by which the population of the world is replenished by the fertilization of an egg from the body of a woman by a sperm from the body of her husband.

Artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization, both still requiring egg and sperm and both including their own set of moral and ethical questions, are the current options. In the future, watch the soaring value of companies that specialize in those procedures.

Hard decisions for church and clergy may very well lie ahead. In the meantime, the church needs to continue to be the church, proclaiming the Word of God in all its truth and purity. That includes the miracle of God’s grace, his undeserved love and forgiveness for sinners—male and female, young and old, black and brown and white, heterosexual and homosexual.

The church should never condone what God’s Word considers sinful. Nor is it our place to judge, a responsibility reserved for God alone. Here’s one Law and Gospel reality: When we think someone else does not deserve God’s grace, we need to remember that neither do we.

Especially at this time of previously unthinkable developments, Lord, have mercy!