Rev. David Holwick ZL Modern Controversies #4
First Baptist Church (adapted from Serm05l)
Ledgewood, New Jersey
November 11, 2012
Ecclesiastes 8:8
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I. We don't do it that well.
A. My son Daniel’s band wrote a song about it.
"Laying out at the Jersey shore underneath the starlight
Be mine and I'll be yours; we'll never have to say goodbye
O goodbye
Cuz I'm dying, I'm dying in Jersey"
1) I am grateful he has a day job now.
2) Yet it's almost a little prophetic - if you were laying out
at the Jersey shore recently, you certainly would be
dying.
3) Residents there have not only said goodbye, they wonder
if they'll ever be able to say hello again.
B. The band may have been on to something.
1) New Jersey is known as the most expensive state to die in.
a) This is largely due to our high death tax.
b) But it also has to do with our approach to healthcare.
Back in 2007, the Star-Ledger compared how people spend their
final days in two states, Utah and New Jersey.
In their last six months of life, patients in Utah spent an
average 2.1 days in the ICU.
In New Jersey, patients spent 4.5 days.
Patients in Utah saw 16 specialists in the last two years of
their lives.
In New Jersey, they saw 43.
Medicare spent less than $13,000 to treat patients in Utah
during their last six months of life.
The figure exceeded $24,000 in New Jersey.
Despite all the medical intervention, people in New Jersey do
not live any longer than those in Utah.
Neither do we die any more comfortably, according to experts.
We need to die better. [1]
2) Debates over life and death are a hot issue these days.
a) There have been several controversial court cases.
1> Christians scream on one side, secularists on the
other.
2> The issues are too important to be reduced to just
sound bites.
b) Society is under great pressure.
1> People are living much longer.
A> Medical care is far more expensive.
2> Social programs like Medicare are stressed and
looking to cut costs.
3> Practices that are controversial today, will be
accepted tomorrow and required soon after that.
3) It is a topic we will all face personally.
a) Becky Pruitt is not here today because her brother is
near death in hospital in Carolina. [Amazingly, he
pulled through.]
b) Daniel's wife Kara has a grandfather here in Jersey who
was put in a hospice program yesterday.
C. What does the Bible say about these things?
1) The Bible knows nothing about respirators or feeding tubes.
2) But there are many principles in it about the value of
life and our attitude toward death.
3) What shapes your attitude - the teaching of the Bible, or
the slippery slope of society's ethics?
II. Christians believe in the sanctity of life.
A. All human life is valuable because God created it.
1) We are different from animals because we alone are made in
the image of God.
2) Our value does not come from what we can do, but who we are.
3) Tiny babies and fragile old people have as much value as
a husky teenager or a billionaire businessman.
a) Defending the weak is a duty of Christians.
B. Society is definitely moving in a different direction.
1) You are in danger when you are born, and when you are old.
a) Worldwide, the total number of abortions has been
1.2 billion. That's a "b".
b) In England, when an unborn child is found to have Down's
syndrome, 90% of them are aborted.
1> To many people, this is sensible even if it is harsh.
2> Disabled children can be a heavy burden.
A> Would it be better not to bring them into the
world?
B> And now people are asking, if they are in the
world, should they remain?
C> It is tragic that the Holocaust of the Jews
began with the "mercy killing" of the
developmentally disabled.
D> Yet Europe, and increasingly America, is moving
back in this direction.
2) A real "Million Dollar Baby."
The Oscar-winning film by Clint Eastwood chronicles the
short career of a young woman boxer.
She comes from a deprived background and dreams of escaping
though her ability to box.
Her final fight goes very badly and she has severe brain
damage.
She can't face life as a quadriplegic and begs her coach
to kill her.
He does.
That is Hollywood's version, but Chuck Colson found out the
real-life story that probably inspired it.
Katie Dallam was a Missouri girl who grew up in poverty,
just like the girl in the film.
In 1996, she began boxing.
After just two months of training, her coach urged her into
a professional match with a much more experienced boxer.
By the end of four two-minute rounds, the referee stopped
the fight, but it was too late.
Katie had received 150 blows to the head and was in a coma.
Doctors told her sister that she probably wouldn't make it,
and, if she did, she would most likely be a vegetable.
But Katie survived. Barely.
She had to relearn how to walk and read.
Her injuries affected her vision and memory.
Deeply depressed, she attempted suicide.
But instead of helping her sister kill herself, her sister,
Stephanie, moved Katie into her home.
Seeing the movie MILLION DOLLAR BABY gave Katie nightmares.
But it also led to her decision to talk with others about
life after a devastating brain injury.
As Katie told the NEW YORK TIMES, the fictional coach in
MILLION DOLLAR BABY "took the easy way out by killing
[the boxer] rather than having to deal with what her
life would have been like."
People, you see, can live on after terrible injuries and
live rich, productive lives.
One example is Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic who
suffered a spinal-cord injury.
She also paints and has a wonderful ministry.
As journalist Sanda Allyson writes, "In the face of
devastating injury, many people feel they want to die.
But they move from depression and feeling that there is
nothing for them" into a new hope and even joy.
"We can have peace and happiness," she writes, "in the
midst of situations that might have previously been
thought of as unendurable.
That is just one reason why virtually all disability
advocacy groups ... are so vehemently opposed to this
idea of 'helping' someone die.
It may sound warm and fuzzy, but in the searing light of
truth, it's just murder.
#27416
III. Christians accept the reality of death.
A. We don't believe that life is the only option.
1) The Apostle Paul even preferred death. Philippians 1:21-24
a) Death meant that he would go to be with Jesus.
2) But he also knew that God had a purpose in him staying here.
B. God should control death, not us. Ecclesiastes 8:8
1) We are not the masters of our fates.
2) Therefore Christians feel it is wrong to actively initiate
death except in extreme circumstances.
a) This is why we oppose doctor-assisted suicide, which
was narrowly defeated in Massachusetts in last
week's election.
b) But what about suffering?
1> No one wants to see a loved one lingering in pain.
2> You must keep your eye on the larger picture.
Working with the dying is a regular part of Edmund
Pellegrino's medical practice.
He has, at times, been asked to "assist" a patient in dying.
Pellegrino's response to one such request is typical:
After the patient expressed his wish, Ed sought to meet
the real needs behind the request.
First, he gave the patient control over their pain relief.
This patient was also feeling guilty, clinically depressed,
and concerned about being a burden to others.
Pellegrino treated the depression and brought in a pastoral
counselor to address the guilt.
He then gathered the patient's family to help them see how
their response to this man's illness was aggravating his
sense of unworthiness.
Once those needs were met, the patient thanked Pellegrino
for not responding to his earlier request to die.
"The most valuable days of my life have been the last days
I have spent," he said.
#29294
C. It is appropriate for Christians to write out their wishes.
1) Living wills have become important in health care.
a) How much care do you want? You must spell it out.
b) Don't assume your family already knows your feelings.
2) Withholding care, or withdrawing it, are not the same as
actively killing someone.
a) Doctors can do far more than they used it.
b) It is not a sin to say, "Let God take me."
IV. It is more than a "culture war."
A. Christians have become known for our opposition in this area.
1) Early Christians were as well - they stood against
infanticide which was practiced in the Roman Empire.
2) But they also did positive things.
a) The opened orphanages and hospitals.
b) They financed services for the poor.
The Emperor Julian, who hated Christians, was frustrated
that Christians helped poor people more than his
own government did.
#35254
B. Do more than take a stand.
1) We should visit the elderly, comfort the sick, and not
avoid those who are dying.
2) Robert Lynn says we can learn from the book of Ruth.
Most of us know it as a love story - a widowed foreign
girl moves back to Israel with her mother-in-law.
They have nothing but each other, but God provides a
kind-hearted relative named Boaz who marries Ruth.
She becomes an ancestor of Jesus himself.
But there is more to the story.
These three people are a part of a little community called
Bethlehem.
We see Bethlehem as a place where the poor are fed, children
are wanted, the elderly are cared for.
The family is valued, the weak and the vulnerable are
protected, justice is prized.
Relationships are marked by loyalty, love and integrity.
In a world filled with brokenness, Bethlehem was an island of
caring and peace.
They didn't go around yelling about what they were again.
By their actions, you know what they were for.
#35254
I think that's what God wants Christians to do.
V. There are worse things than death.
A. Life will someday end for all of us.
1) No matter how much you jog, take vitamins, and think
positively, you will eventually die.
2) What happens then?
3) Beyond having a living will, are you prepared to meet God?
B. Death is our final enemy but the nail is in its coffin.
1) Jesus defeated death on the cross.
2) Have you accepted him as your Savior?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] “Where peace is the last medicine,” Vinessa Erminio, The Star-Ledger
newspaper, December 3, 2007, <http://blog.nj.com/ledgerarchives/~
2007/12/where_peace_is_the_last_medici.html>.
#27416 “The Real Million Dollar Baby: Courage and the Sanctity of Life,”
Charles Colson, BreakPoint Commentary, March 11, 2005.
Colson is adapting material from the article, “Far From
Hollywood, a Boxer Whose Dreams Died in the Ring,” by Rick
Lyman, The New York Times, March 9, 2005.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/national/09boxer.html?ex=~
1268110800&en=5d5861e0a3d8b010&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland>.
#29294 “The Most Valuable Days of His Life,” Gary L. Thomas,
Christianity Today Magazine, Article: “Deadly Compassion,”
June 16, 1997, page 17.
#35254 “Living in the Middle of the Culture Wars,” Rev. Robert Lynn,
Breakpoint Worldview Magazine, March 2009.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
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