Breath of Life

Breath on me breath of God. Your Spirit blows through life animating us in your image, filling us with your Spirit, empowering us to walk in your ways. Amen.

    Another of the difficult questions lying at the heart of the Hobby Lobby case and long debated around the issues of Roe vs Wade is when does life begin and how do we determine that. For the last 40 years that question has been a bone of contention between segments of the Christian community and the secular community but, also, within the communities of faith, as well.

    Portions of the church today contend that life begins at the moment of fertilization. Biologically, someone might well make the argument that uninterrupted the birth of a child is the natural process set in motion by fertilization of an egg. All the genetic material for the creation of a new human life is present. The problem is that word, "uninterrupted." In the reality of biology and reproduction as many as 60-80 percent of fertilized eggs never implant in the uterus wall and are flushed out by the female body without the possibility of producing life. 

    This would seem a horrible waste of God's gift of life and yet it is built into the very fabric of human reproduction occurring without any intercession or causation through human medical procedures. It would seem to be in some way an organic expression of the very will of God within the process of creation. Can we inspect the mind of God to understand his will in such things? Are we to say that it is God who causes the elimination of these fertilized eggs? Those are fearful steps to tread.

    Some would argue that we should consider implantation of the blastocyst into the uterine wall the beginning of pregnancy. Yet there are still spontaneous miscarriages without any medical causation. So while the percentages are reduced dramatically the question still remains are we still to consider these the will of God.

    Or is the attempt to use science to define the beginning of life to remain distinctly unsatisfying to communities of faith and particularly Christian communties. If so, what is the yardstick for making a faith based determination? For Lutherans that always raises the issue of sola scriptura. What does scripture say and how does it define the beginning of life?

    Throughout portions of the Old Testament the people of God are told to kill the people of other cultures and religions. Horribly, they are even they are even told to "tear open the wombs."  Clearly, the God of Israel gives no special protection to the unborn "innocent" of those cultures.

    In Numbers chapter 5:11-31, God gives instruction for a test of faithfulness by which an unfaithful woman is caused to lose a pregnancy to miscarriage. Given the agency of a concoction which God's gives and which is prepared by the priest this is a means of abortion by jealousy trial. Are God's instructions again the source of abortion in this trial?

    In Exodus 21:22f, a situation is described in which two men fighting cause a woman to lose a unborn fetus to injury. The compensation for the loss of the fetus is based on a fine by the judge and not a life for a life.

    In addition to these passages above, there are passages which affirm the beginning of life and the nature of life as the presence of breath, breath which is the source and nature of life as God's gift.  In Genesis chapter 2, God breathes his own breath and Spirit into and animates the red clay dust we know as Adam. Breath brings life. Ezekiel is told in chapter 37 to prophesy and God's breath enters into the valley of bodies and they come to life. Ecclesiastes 12 identifies life with breath. Job identifies life with the breath of God several times. Again and again it is breath that is associated with life. Isaiah 42 identifies God's breath as the source of life in his people.

    In scripture when breath is present there is life and humanity and without breath there there is only the raw materials of origins and creation. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Even dust is the substance of God's creation but it is breath in the scriptures that brings and is life.

    Does any of this mean we should be callous about abortions and take no consideration of the importance of supporting all options for the possiblity of healthy gestation and delivery? No. But let us be honest about when scripture says life begins. It begins with breath, not with the merging of sperm and egg, not with a dividing blastocyst, not  even with implantation in the uterus wall and the developing embryo and then fetus. Not it the first, second or even third trimester. The biblical understanding of life is the breath of God. To say that is to acknowledge and honor scripture. 

    Consider how tenuous the arguments of Hobby Lobby become when one identifies with the Bible that life begins with breath.