If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them.

What will Medicare provide, what will the military provide, what should foreign aid provide.

What can schools say, what can counseling clinics say, what can parents know.

At what term an abortion can be performed, what techniques can be used, what research can be allowed, and what tissue can be used.

What notification may be allowed, what information may be required, what delay may be required, what pictures can be shown.

What degree of danger to a mother’s health warrants abortion, what degree of damage to an infant’s wholeness justifies abortion?

What protest strategy to use, what picket distance to keep, what signs to hold, what language to use, what marches to join.

Whether to allow civil disobedience, whether to go to prison for our convictions, whether to kill others for our convictions.

What legislation to support, what agencies to aid, what co-belligerents to join, what amendments to advocate, what candidates to elect, what commercials to air.

Which mothers to shelter, how to entice them to such shelter or to counsel, what infants to adopt, where to get them, and how to “advertise” their availability.

Whether to lobby for what is winnable with a long-term plan for incremental progress, or never to compromise and accept only a total ban on abortion.

Whether to secede from the political process or a particular party; how to vote or whether to revolt.

1. What must the church say about abortion?
   
   
   1. The Unborn Child is a Work of God.
      
      
      1. The child in the womb is made by God. The Psalmist says God “knit me together in my mother’s womb” (vs. 13). But there are not merely anonymous chemical and mechanical forces at work in this process.
         
         
      2. The child in the womb is seen by God. The Psalmist says, “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together … your eyes saw my unformed body” (vs. 15). Neither the darkness of the womb, not its inaccessibility to human sight hides the child from God. God sees in the darkness (“the dark is as light to him,” the Psalmist says in vss. 11-12) and he sees the child whose mature body is yet unformed (vs. 13).
         
         As I was preparing this message, I was on an airplane and the man next to me was playing peek-a-boo with a child in the seat ahead of him. When the child hid his face the man would pretend not to see, but when the child put his hands down the man said, “I see you.” There is a wonderful little expression of care in that game, and the care is magnified when we think that while we cannot play the game until a child is several months old, God says to a child still hidden in the womb also, “I see you.” The phrase says something about the interest God has in the “person” that is in the womb, and that is the point that the Psalmist will now drive home.
         
         
      3. The unborn child is known by God, also. The Psalmist says that God does not merely see the child’s forming body, but foresees his life: “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (vs. 16). The words deny the raw science that says that the forming child is simply a conglomerate of protoplasm or the byproduct of conception. God records the days of the child before one of them comes to be. How many young mothers keep a book of the first year of life of their babies? Books of hospital pictures, coming home pictures, birth weights, growth measurements, and locks of hair. Each entry is a statement of how precious that little person is to the mother. And, God, with a degree of tenderness it is hard to take in says, I started keeping a book on you before you were born of all that I knew that you would be. What more powerful a statement could there be of the personhood of the child in the womb than that God already counts them so precious as to put them in his book.
         
         The fact that God is not limited to our timing is a powerful argument for the personhood of the unborn. Human minds try to assess when life begins biologically, but the Bible tells us that God gives his children his care and purpose even before they were created. God says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jer. 1:5). Paul reminds us that we were actually loved before the creation of the world (Eph. 1:4).
         
         
      The unborn child is a work of God: made by God, seen by God, known by God. All of these aspects of the child’s relationship to God signal more that the workmanship of the baby in the womb. They also signal that the unborn child is a wonder of God, as well as a work of God.
      
      
   2. The Unborn Child is a Wonder of God. The best statement of this is in the Psalmist reflection on the process by which the child is made. The Psalmist says to God, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (vs. 14). The human body brought out of microscopic dimensions with all of its intricate processes, mechanics, abilities, and beauties simply causes the Psalmist to pause and marvel in praise to God. But, then, the wonder takes on one more dimension. The Psalmist recognizes the human body in the womb is not wonderful merely because of the marvelous process of its creation, but because of its connection to the Creator. “Your works are wonderful, I know that full well,” says the Psalmist. Ultimately the child is a wonder because of its craftsman. If you were to come across a painting in your grandmother’s attic and it were to be signed by Rembrandt, or da Vinci, or Van Gogh - even if you could not recognize all the artistry in the painting the name of the one who created it would convince you of its value. I know a Rembrandt is worth something even if I know nothing else,” you could say. And, the fact that child is by the hand of God says it is a wonder. Its not a Rembrandt, or a da Vinci, or a Van Gogh …much better, it’s a Jehovah, a God work of art, and thus it is a precious wonder.
      
      These two thoughts - that the unborn child is a work and a wonder of God - should, at least, form a foundation for what the church says about abortion. And what the church does should be built on that foundation.
      
      
2. What must the church do about abortion?
   
   To answer that today I am not going to focus on political strategies, or picketing, life-chains, or the debates of the public square. By not focusing on these I do not mean to minimize the importance of such measures or to say that the church has no role in them. Rather my intention when answering what the Church should do about abortion is to call the church to what the Church does best. I want to challenge you to consider the unique contribution that the Church can make - to recognize that some of our tensions and frustrations with each other may result from trying to force the Church into patterns and practices outside her divine design. As a result, in our Church attempts to influence secular culture, we may have been too quick to seek alternatives to the spiritual forces that are the true and greater powers influencing the direction of any society, and that must be the chief preoccupation of the Church.
   
   What should the church do if, as the Scriptures say, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, the rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places” (cf. Eph. 6:12)? What should the church do?
   
   
   1. Teach the Value of Each Child.
      
      The fact that the child in the womb is a work and a wonder of God, gives the Church the right and responsibility to insist that, though unseen by the world, the babe is a child not a choice, a person not a lump of protoplasm. This is the most critical and important thing that the church must say. We should not believe that such statements are useless and fall on deaf ears. The reason that pro-abortion advocates are so zealous that expectant mothers not be shown pictures or models of pre-born children is that when mothers see what is being destroyed by abortion their hearts resonate with the Biblical perspective that the unborn child is precious. The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine reports that when mothers even see an ultrasound image of the child an emotional bonding takes place even before the child’s movement is felt. When God lets us see what he sees in the womb through the Psalmist’s words, then the divine imprint on the human heart whispers in the most powerful and deep chords, “This child is precious, and destroying it is wrong.”
      
      Actually most people believe that already. Survey after survey will tell us that most people believe abortion is wrong. They also believe that it is wrong for the government to be involved in abortion decisions because they fear big brother involvement in forcing the birth of damaged children or the children of rape and incest victims (a subject to which we must return). Still, most believe abortions of healthy children for convenience are immoral and wrong. We should not lose sight of the moral ground that has been won, lest we give up or retreat thinking that our efforts have had not results. The church must keep saying over and over again, the child is precious. This is making an impact.
      
      But it is not enough to say that the child in the womb is precious. I took care to say that the church must assert the value of each child of God. The Psalmist’s words do not refer merely to his pre-born state when he marvels, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” or says at the beginning of the Psalm, “…You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise…you perceive my thoughts… you are familiar with all my ways…you have laid your hand on me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” Key in the abortion battle is not merely affirming how precious is the baby to God, but how precious is the mother (another child of God) whom God made and knows and touches. The importance of placing value on the mother Frederica Matthewes-Green well explains in a recent article in Christianity Today (January 12, 1998):
      
      

      …[T]he it’s a baby!” message alone strikes the muddled middle (by this she means people that are not strongly allied with either pro- or anti-abortion advocates) as failing to take seriously the woman’s plight. Our apparent willingness to dismiss those difficulties as “inconveniences” strikes many as either callous or wildly naïve.
      
      Additionally, our opponents interpret this appeal as personal attacks on them. When we say, “Abortion is an immoral act because it kills a baby,” they hear, “People who favor abortion are immoral people.” I had long wondered why, at debates, I would attack abortion, and my opponent would not defend abortion but attack me.
      
      I came to realize that the “It’s a baby!” message, important as it is, does not offer all the solutions we’d hoped it would, and some instances creates more misunderstanding. It is a baby, and that ought to be the first point in presenting the pro-life position persuasively. But the conversation needs to move beyond that point.
      
      

      Matthewes-Green says the point to which the conversation must then move is insistence that abortion damages the mother physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I am not going to document what you already know about the truths of those arguments as much as remind us of the importance of saying that mother and child are both precious to God. Yes, “It’s a baby.” Yes, “It’s a child, not a choice.” But because mother and child are both precious we also say, “Mothers hurt when their babies die” or even as the Feminists for Life organization’s motto says, “Abortion hurts women, kills children and destroys families.” Somehow we must keep in tandem our concern and God’s concern for the mother as well as the child when we speak because both are a work and a wonder of God. This does two things: it modifies what we should be willing to say in the abortion debate, and it gives us a powerful spiritual weapon in persuading women not to have abortions.
      
      If the mother is a precious child to God (and not mothers considering abortions but even those providing abortions) then we must deal with them, as fellow image bearers. Hateful, disrespectful, demeaning speech and actions must be challenged in the light of what God says about each of his children. Whatever we say we must say it in the light that each child of God unborn and born is a work and wonder of God, precious to him. Although I want to be cautious in what I say here so as not to create misunderstanding, when I have picketed I have refused to carry signs that identify pro-abortionists as “murderers.” I do believe abortion kills. However, biblically murder implies motive, and I recognize that some abortionists believe, truly believe they are doing something courageous and noble, and it is not always the best approach (as much as I believe what they are doing is immoral) to accuse them of doing what they think is wrong and, therefore, murderous.
      
      Our moral cause will not be advanced by speech that others view as unfair in its characterizations. We have to learn the lessons of our times. Why after all did the president’s approval ratings stay so high in the face of undeniable scandal? I know the standard explanations are because of goodness of the economy and the moral decay of our society. These may explain the approval of the president but they do not explain the stunning rebuke of the Republican congress and the religious right in the previous fall elections. The American people were not merely calloused to moral failing; they were incensed by what they perceived as unfair speech and tactics in dealing with moral failing. In the mind of many Americans the attackers lost the moral high ground. There is hope in this, for it indicates that there is a moral dimension to public opinion. People do act on what they perceive as good, and they will act in behalf of mother and child if we do not surrender the moral high ground by rhetoric that is Biblically prohibited by the mandates to love our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute - even their own babies.
      
      Not only does saying that both mother and child are precious to God modify our speech; it can be a powerful spiritual weapon in modifying a mother’s behavior. These are remarkable words from Matthewes-Green:
      
      

      I spent a year [in researching a book] … seeking to discover the reasons most women choose abortion. I expected to find practical problems heading the list: financial needs, child-care woes, pressures to drop out of school. Yet after reviewing several studies and conducting my own, no clear pattern emerged.
      
      But when I spoke with groups of post-abortion women, a nearly unanimous consensus appeared. Women had abortions, in nearly every case, because of relationships. Most often it was to please the father of the child, who was pressuring for abortion. (In a couple of cases, the woman spoke of lying on the abortion table praying that a husband would burst in and say, “Stop, I ‘ve changed my mind.”) The second most common reason was pressure from a parent, most often the girl’s mother.
      
      

      Convincing a woman of her inherent value to God, regardless of what other people may think or threaten is a powerful tool in the battle against abortion. It is not a political tool, but it is powerful leverage on the soul to say the reason that you need not act against the instincts and desires of your own heart in order to placate another or secure their acceptance is that your Father God calls you precious to himself. He looks at you in your darkness, despair and shame and says, “You are mine.” You don’t have to do this to be loved or valued, because you are work and the wonder of God. You are somebody apart from the approval and acceptance of the person that is pressing you to abort your child, because you are precious to God.
      
      Teaching the value of each child of God is what the Church should do, and that message is made more credible and powerful when we also…
      
      
   2. Preach Grace.
      
      The same Psalmist who says that he is fearfully and wonderfully made (vs. 14) also asks God to “See if there is any offensive way in me” (vs. 24). The writer does not fear that his flaws will remove him from God’s esteem. In fact, in God’s love for what is flawed there is cause for special praise. We can be flawed and still precious to God. You and I know the spiritual comfort of this grace, but we need to translate it to all the areas of our thought.
      
      For mothers fearing the birth of a flawed child, we should never minimize the horrors of living in a fallen world and the heartache of bearing children who are not healthy in mind and body, but neither should we allow the notion that what is not perfect is not precious.
      
      I have a younger brother who is retarded. I have wished for many things for him, but I have never wished him dead. I have discovered part of the divine imprint on my own heart in loving as a precious gift one who is imperfect. If we really lose this capacity to care for the flawed, if all that we finally value are those whole, lovely, and well formed, then we will ultimately find we are incapable of loving any. For we are all fallen creatures in a fallen world, and if we must discard or kill what does not please us, then we will find there is no value in the old, the infirm, the incapable, or in our own imperfect lives.
      
      Grace teaches us something different: that the unlovely are loved by God. This message may not only preserve the life of the unborn that is in some way flawed or suspected of being flawed, it can also dissuade the mother who is seeking abortion. The shame that may be driving her to seek an abortion does not mean that she is unloved, a past mistake does not mean that she is unforgivable, even a past abortion does not mean that she faces eternal rejection. And the man who may be urging an abortion because of his own fear of shame or disadvantage or retribution, may also find new incentive to protect the unborn when he discovers the embrace of grace.
      
      That embrace will mean nothing, of course, if it is not accompanied by meaningful love. Thus, the church that would preach grace must also…
      
      
   3. Demonstrate love.
      
      The grace of God is the magnet that draws persons away from sin. But if those who say they are the represent grace are unloving, that grace has no apparent power.
      
      What does love require? It requires that we honestly identify sin and warn of judgment. The Psalmist does that here. He speaks of the Lord slaying the bloodthirsty, and promises to consider as enemies those who work against the purposes of God (vss. 19-22). Love does not mean silence in the face of evil. We must speak against what is abhorrent to God and warn of divine consequences. But we do so out of concern, dare I say “love” for those who oppose us. Yes, abortionists are our spiritual enemies, but God says we are to love our enemies, and in this Psalm he seeks the good of one who confesses offense.
      
      I believe and I think you believe that an understanding of whom God is and what he has done is what is ultimately needed to turn people away from abortion. But if those who supposedly represent this God present themselves as angry, hateful, and mean-spirited, then it is foolish to believe that their God will be perceived as anything different. To warn of sin’s consequences and still to love is our calling, and it is the power of the Gospel against the greatest of evils.
      
      Most of you know now of the story of Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in the infamous Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion in this country. In her book published last year, Won by Love, she writes of one the Christians who combined love with warning until she who is in many ways responsible for the deaths of 35 million, turned to God.
      
      The key person in the battle for Norma McCorvey’s soul was a seven-year-old girl named Emily Mackey. Emily’s mother worked in the Operation Rescue offices next door to the abortion clinic in Dallas at which Norma McCorvey worked. Biographer Gary Thomas writes,
      
      

      Emily’s blatant affection, frequent hugs, and direct pursuit disarmed Norma [who was skilled at cursing and spitting upon the abortion protesters]. The little girl’s interest was all the more surprising considering Emily made it very clear that her acceptance of Norma wasn’t an acceptance of Norma’s lifestyle. Early on in their relationship, Norma explained to Emily, “I like kids and I wouldn’t let anyone hurt little kids,” to which Emily responded, “Then why do you let them kill babies at the clinic?” [Hear the clear identification of evil even in the child’s innocent candor.]
      
      This childlike innocence cut open Norma’s heart. Norma wasn’t won over by compelling intellectual arguments… Over time, Emily began to personify the issue of abortion - especially when (Emily’s mother) Ronda broke down and told Norma that Emily had almost been aborted.
      
      … ”Miss Norma,” Emily cooed one afternoon, “it would be so-o-o cool if you would come to church with us.” [After many no’s, Norma finally said yes] because she was tired of telling Emily, no.”
      
      

      Many of you know the story of Norma McCorvey’s conversion when she did go to church. She claimed the love of Christ, because she had known the love of one of his children. With that claim of Christ also came a new conviction born of love and grace. Emily’s mother recalls Norma saying over and over at the church meeting, “I just want to undo all the evil I’ve done in this world. I’m so sorry God. I’m so, so sorry. As far as abortion is concerned, I just want to undo it. I want it all to go away.” The power of love had triumphed, as it must through us even when we face the evil of abortion. The stories could be repeated many times of abortionists or abortion-considering moms won by love Benard Natenson, Joy Davis, others you know. I do not mean to imply that the victories will come easily or swiftly, but we must not abandon what we know to be God’s way of turning the human heart. Spiritual warfare requires spiritual weapons and these include truth, grace and love. Love must be demonstrated by words and deeds of mercy that cost time, money and sacrifice because these are the church’s weapons in any cultural battle - yes, the church should be in the forefront of encouraging her people to care for desperate mothers and unwanted children whose lives need protection. Love must be evident in us and be expressed by us for God’s power to be present.
      
      Most of you know as well that when Norma’s conversion became public knowledge, not everything was all right with Norma. She spoke openly to reporters about still supporting legalized abortion in the first trimester, and this was used by both secular and Christian commentators to discredit her conversion and her commitments.
      
      What you may not know is that a few weeks after her conversion, Norma was sitting in Operation Rescue’s office and began looking at a fetal development poster. Later she said,
      
      

      The progression was so obvious; the eyes were so sweet…. It hurt my heart, just looking at them.
      [She ran outside the clinic, and later reported …]
      
      Finally, it dawned on me. “Norma,” I said to myself, ‘They’re right.’ I had worked with pregnant women for years. I had been through three pregnancies myself. I should have known. Yet something in that poster made me lose my breath. I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, ten-week-old embryo, and I said to myself, ‘That’s a baby!’ It’s as if the blinder’s fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth - ‘that’s a baby!’”
      
      

      “It’s as if the blinders fell off,” she said. The words are a cliché in culture, but they have deep spiritual meaning for us. The ultimate battle against abortion is a spiritual battle, as the blind are made to see. This ultimately is not a battle of the ballot box and the judicial bench but of the heart and soul. For this reason, I again say to you and to me that we must make sure the Church does not fail to do what it does best, and that means that it must…
      
      
   4. Exercise Spiritual Power.
      
      We cannot let apparent success or failure, or cultural boredom with the issue of abortion, keep us from our ordained tasks. We must preach against abortion because the unborn child is precious to God as this Psalm makes clear. We must equip the saints with the truth of God’s word about the value of life, and about the consequences of opposing God’s purposes. Such teaching and preaching must be sufficient to equip believers to stand for life and justice in whatever area of life God may call them whether that means defending life in courts, legislatures, or in conversations at our own kitchen tables for our own statistics tell us now that the abortion rate is not discernibly different in among evangelicals and the rest of our culture.
      
      Such figures make it clear that the battle against abortion will not be won by a law, or a court decision. The factors that led to and continue to fuel abortion are as diverse as the affluence of our culture that promotes selfishness, the entertainments that stimulate promiscuity, the careerism of parents and busyness of children that is dismantling family structures, the success agendas of local churches, the professionalism of the clergy. These matters will not change because we get the right political candidates in office. They are deep, intertwined parasites of the soul that even we have grown to love, and they will not be overcome but by the Spirit of God engaged through the prayers of his people.
      
      We must pray. This Psalm is a prayer that includes not only an appeal for God’s care, but also an appeal for victory over his enemies. We must pray consistently and diligently that God would remove this blight from our land, and the spiritual lethargy from our hearts that keeps us tolerant of its presence, and even feeding its growth. If prayer does not seem enough then we have not perceived the true depth of the problem and realized our helplessness against it apart from the power of God. Prayer is the power God provides and we must employ it against the evil that is greater than we.
      
      Long ago Thomas Chalmer’s said, “Prayer is not seeking a greater work of God; prayer is the greater work of God.” If we will humble ourselves and pray, then the Church is not doing the least that it can do, it is doing the spiritual work which it is ordained to do and it does so knowing all other work is vain apart from it. When we pray iron bars yield.
      
      At the St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig East Germany brochures still tell the account of the prayer movement that culminated 1989. For most of a decade the prayer group had met, praying for justice in Eastern Europe. Mass demonstrations happened in other parts of the country, political rallies, and legislative agendas, but all had little effect. And the prayer group numbers ebbed and flowed with sometimes a dozen or fewer praying in the massive church. But in 1989 the Spirit ignited the hearts of his people and hundreds then thousands began to come. East German troops blocked the exits of the autobahn on the days of the prayer meeting to keep people from driving into the town, systematic arrests of prayer leaders occurred on days prior to the prayer meetings, communist sympathizers were dispatched by the hundreds to fill us up the seats of the church so there would be no place to sit. But the prayers still came, and stood both inside and outside to pray while the communists listened to their prayers and many, thus, became part of the cause. When the numbers of prayers reached the thousands, troops were called in to handle the anticipated revolt, but all the people did was pray holding candles in both hands to show that they had no weapons. The spirit of prayer and hope swept the nation and, though it only lasted a few weeks, the party and Communist ideology lost all public support. The system collapsed.
      
      Later Sindermann, a member of the Central Committee of Communists ruling the country wrote, “We had planned for everything. We were prepared for everything. But not for candles and prayers.”