Brothers and Sisters,
I find Psalm 139, our psalm appointed for this coming Sunday, both powerful and moving. You’re likely familiar with it. In verses 12-16, we read:
For you yourself made my inmost parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are your works, and my soul knows it very well. My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret and fashioned in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my substance, while I was yet unformed; and in your book were all my members written, Which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Two things stand out to me immediately in this section of Psalm 139. The first thing that stands out is how much the Lord loves us and how fully he knows us. Imagine the Almighty One tenderly knitting together a tiny, unborn baby.
Before we were ever born, God not only formed us, but knew us and loved us. Before we ever took a breath, we were treasured by God.
The value of human life in the eyes of God is also evident in this text of Scripture (and in others). That’s why the Anglican Church in North America is committed to defending the sanctity of human life. The Canons of the ACNA represent the official position of our church: “God, and not man, is the creator of human life. The unjustified taking of life is sinful. Therefore, all members and clergy are called to promote and respect the sanctity of every human life from conception to natural death.” The defense of the value of human life is and must be a part of our church’s witness to a culture completely confused about these things. Psalm 139 is a reminder that every life matters, including the lives of those who are not yet born.
In Christ,
Fr. Caleb