Author: Higher Things

In my college days I heard this statement more than once – “Oh, I couldn’t even think of having a child. The world is so messed up I wouldn’t want to bring a child into it.”

Fifteen years later, the environmental movement which was just gaining real steam in my early 20’s has now given us a new reason not to have children. Each person has a “carbon footprint”. This carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide that is a byproduct of the fossil fuels it takes to support a human life. These carbon dioxide emissions contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Global warming is (supposedly) threatening life on earth as we know it (or is it?).

Is it not reasonable to reduce the cause of all of this carbon dioxide pollution? Therefore some environmentalists are suggesting strict public policies on having babies – like the controversial one child policy in China. Now the majority of environmentalists holding this position aren’t advocating forced sterilizations and abortions like the Chinese government has done, but they are advocating additional taxes for having more than one or two children.

Is global warming real or not? This is a hotly debated issue and there are reputitable scientists on both sides of the issue. This is not really the question that is most important to answer. The more important issue here is God’s Word as it relates to children and having babies.

Genesis 1:26 -28

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (NKJV)

“Be fruitful and multiply” was actually the first command God gave human beings and it was a blessing! True this blessing came before Adam and Eve disobeyed God and fell into sin, but our sin does not negate the blessing God has given us in procreation.

How do we square God’s blessing and command to be fruitful and multiply with the opinion of some scientists that more human beings will destroy life as we know it?

When all mankind fell in Adam’s fall into sin, the blessing of children never ceased to be a blessing. If we look at the Biblical heroes of the faith in the Old Testament there is always great joy expressed in having children (and in many cases a lot of children!). Jesus Christ told his disciples to let the children come unto him – later admonishing them that child like faith is saving faith. It is a faith that trusts in the living Word. It is a faith that clings to the Savior and His cross. It is a faith that is given in baptism. A faith given to most of us as tiny babies – blessed with life eternal in the second birth given in baptism.

God’s Word affirms again and again that having children is a true blessing. And although we are born sinful, we are redeemed by Christ the crucified. Christ atoned for every person that ever lived and will ever live. The opinion, that limiting human reproduction will solve an environmental issue, is not in harmony with God’s Word or 2000 years of Christian thought and tradition based on that Word.

Due to sin, human beings do harm to one another and to the environment. But consider the following: You are a clerk at a convenience store. You are all alone on a hot summer day and crowds and crowds of people are coming into the store for slushies. You are furiously ringing up customers at the counter. You are so busy that you don’t have time to clean the counters and mop the floor. The trash bins are overflowing and in your exasperation you scream out, “I wish there weren’t all of these customers! They do nothing but make a mess!”

The store is making lots of money because the business is so good. A mess is certainly happening, but maybe the store is understaffed? Maybe the boss made an error by having only you cover the store on such a hot day.

In the midst of messy counters and sticky floors it sure seems like the cause is the people, but it isn’t. An extra person on duty probably would have made the perceived problem no problem at all. It wasn’t a factor of the amount of people; it was a matter of one more person in a vocation that was serving rather than being served.

The Christian Church has faced movements that have seen reproduction as something evil before. The Manicheans in the 4^th century are a great example (St. Augustine was a part of this movement in his youth and later strongly renounced it). They saw all flesh as being evil and only the spirit as being good. They therefore saw procreation as a bad thing. The Church using God’s Word responded with Christ’s birth, the Incarnation. Christ took on human flesh. He is true man. He is true God. He remains forever true God and true Man and He has redeemed human flesh. Original sin and our own personal sins cannot overcome what Jesus has accomplished in His incarnation, death and resurrection.

When faced with the opinion that limiting the amount of humans will help save the world, just keep this mind: If the all knowing, all powerful Father created people knowing that we would sin and ruin everything and He created us anyway, how can we who are not all knowing ever think that cutting down on the amount of the pinnacle of God’s creation, humans, will solve any problem? Christ became one of us! He took mankind into God! He sends his Holy Spirit to work through us to speak His Word and to strengthen us to serve our neighbor in love.

Maybe the better solution to any environmental problems we may face is another person, freed by God’s grace, to serve his or her neighbor.

by Jon Townsend

In Gloucester, MA at the local high school there was a sharp increase in the number of pregnancies amongst the students – four times higher than normal. This sparked a debate about handing out contraception in the school – even without parental permission. TIME Magazine asked the principal Dr. Joseph Sullivan about the issue and he responded: “a lack of birth control played no part” …. “That bump was because of seven or eight sophomore girls,” Sullivan told TIME. “They made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.”

The media glommed onto the story. It was in all the papers. It was debated on the radio and every talking head on cable news had every pundit possible show up to talk about sexual education – pro and con – or contraception in schools – pro and con – or the psychological reasons for it – was it the movie Juno or was it Jamie Lynn Spears or was it social isolation?

The Christian answer to the question “Why?” is our sinful nature. Regardless of how educated one is, regardless of the means one has to avoid natural consequences, regardless of what one watches or whom one idolizes or one’s familial and social circumstances – our sinful nature is looking for something or someone to fulfill it, to soothe it, to make it well again. It will never find peace and comfort where it should be found because Christ wants our sinful nature put to death. The old Adam is forever doing his own thing and trying to escape God’s punishment. He is broken beyond repair. The New Man, in Christ, the baptized Christian, however, is saved and free from the curse of the Law and the sting of death — and therein lies the hope for us and for those looking for fulfillment apart from Christ.

Old Adam vs. New Creation – A battle that cannot be won by Law.

The young ladies in the story aren’t talking much, but it was generally reported that they were in the “at-risk” category – they didn’t have stable families, they hung out with the wrong crowd – there are a lot of things lacking in their lives that would provide them with the ideal environment in which to spend their teenage years. In one of the TIME Magazine reports on the subject it was quoted that some of the girls involved wanted “unconditional love” and they were hoping that a baby would provide that.

Think about that for a minute from a Lutheran perspective: We all were born in sin and in iniquity did our mothers conceive us. Although helpless and cute, babies are not without sin. That is why Christ baptizes them! Unconditional love is not something that can be found in other sinful humans, but our families are to be models of Christian love. Christian love is not human dependent but is living a life of forgiveness and mercy that comes from Christ alone. Parents are to care for and support their children in their earthly needs the best they can, but they are to especially take care of their children’s foremost need; that the Word of God and Means of Grace are available to them. Christian love is giving away what you haven’t earned, but rather what Christ has.

If the young ladies in this story are from homes without a proper concept of Christian love and their families have not enforced a more practical lifestyle upon them, they are looking to correct the problem by starting over with a new family. They are hoping that a new relationship, in which they as the parent (“I won’t make the same mistakes my parents made” LOL) and the still “innocent” new life will wipe the slate clean.

The problem is that this is an old Adam solution – no human relationship is going to repair the damage of sin. There is only one “birth” that makes our slates clean and that was the virgin birth of our Lord who gives us a second birth in Baptism.

We could approach this overall problem for the perspective of the Law: We could curb teenage pregnancy by punishing the people involved. We could show them the error of their ways and shame them. We could show them role models of other kids that have become great successes by being chaste. Or we could take a more worldly law approach and find ways to take away the outcomes of uncontrolled natural impulses.

Is any of this going to bring about true repentance, forgiveness, and change? The answer is no.

The relationship with the Child of the only unwed-but-virgin mother is the answer. Repentance and mercy must be preached into the broken homes. Forgiveness must be offered to fallen sinners and to those tempted to sin. Especially when there is no family available where all gather around the dinner table nightly, to give thanks and to “break bread,” the Lord’s Table must be shown as the meal together with our heavenly family. Here the love between Father and Son is perfect and proceeds to call, enlightens and sanctifies us in the Holy Spirit.

Policies and programs, teachers and school boards can do their best to use their God-given reason to help curb the manifestations of sin in our schools and world, but the true answer to the problem is in the hands of our Lord and His Church. The answer for our own personal chastity lies in Word and Sacrament and daily repentance and contrition. God will answer our prayers and send us comfort and escape from temptation when the old Adam is screaming at us to use his solutions.

We also have the ultimate honor to invite those who are hurting and looking for sinful solutions to come with us, to come home to Church, where they too can receive the forgiveness that is lacking in our families and is fed on food that gives us life and salvation.

by Jon Townsend

Lately my husband, David, and I have been watching HGTV’s “House Hunters” show in the evenings after our children go to bed. Many of the commercials are various HGTV stars promoting and encouraging viewers to “change the world…start at home.” Of course they want me to do this by changing my light bulb, turning off unused appliances (or buy new, more efficient ones), or some other such “green” thing. But I change the world more by being a mother who stays home, fulfilling my role as a woman.

I’ve always wanted to be a mother. In my public high school senior ethics class, I remember that another girl asked me, “Do you really think that you can be a stay-at-home mother in today’s world? Or is that just your dream.” I replied “Yes, I believe it.” The only other one who agreed with me was the Roman Catholic girl in the class.

During a particular hard time of freshman year of college, I wrote home to my mom saying, “I wish I was barefoot and pregnant! Then everything would be better.” Mom made sure I wasn’t thinking of doing anything stupid (I wasn’t) and that I knew that there were also problems with being “barefoot and pregnant.”

My belief that a woman should stay home and raise the children was put to the test upon returning to the seminary for David’s fourth year of study after vicarage. We had our first child, a daughter who would be a year old that fall, and I was given the option of teaching full time at the same school I had taught during his second year of studies. It would be “perfect.” David’s older brother, a first year student, and his wife would be willing to baby-sit. I could use my college degree, and we would be better off financially. I was ready to say yes. But then I realized what I would miss: Hannah and all the new things she would learn and need to learn. No, David and I decided that I needed to be the one to care for her and teach her. So I declined the offer.

12 years later, I am the mother of five children and I am blessed. I am the one that has wiped their noses and bottoms, kissed their owies, bandaged their cuts, washed their clothes, cooked their food, made their beds, swept their floors, taught them to fold their hands and when to make the sign of the cross. I am the one that has said prayers with them, and for them, spanked them, hugged them, read to them, and sat with them in church every Sunday. I am the one that they have yelled at, cried for, and run to when they are afraid or sick. They trust I’ll always be there for them, and with God’s grace, I will.

It isn’t easy, there are trials, tribulations, and hurts which are different for each family. Every vocation has its cross to bear, and motherhood has its share. Children rebel and sometimes turn away from parents and the Lord. The devil, the world, and our own sinful nature work hard tempting us to do many other things. But don’t run from your calling. What God ordains is always good, even the roles of father and mother, and He will bring about good from those callings even though it isn’t clearly seen now or ever.

God has given me great goodness through motherhood: He has brought me out of selfishness and into servanthood. He has given me a greater understanding of His love and forgiveness for His children though they err and fall away again and again and again. And, of course, He places more prayers on my lips. In no way am I perfect, but often as I clean up my children’s messes, I think how God cleans up my messes and I thank and praise Him for pulling me ever closer to Him; for forgiving and loving me and therefore allowing me to forgive and love my children.

Yes, you can change the world by starting at home, by staying at home. As I tell my girls, “When God blesses you with children, stay home and raise them.” And I tell my boys, “Work to support your wife so that she may be home to raise your children.” I pray that God grant them and you the strength to do such good works as being fathers and mothers to His precious little ones.

by Glenda Mumme

The way we dress communicates something about us, doesn’t it? Some professions have ways of dressing that identify people as having certain vocations. Whether they are actual uniforms or unique attire, we can usually pick out of a crowd someone who works in the medical field by her scrubs, a member of the clergy by his clerical collar, a road construction worker by his orange vest and hardhat, or even the pairs of local Mormon missionaries by their black pants, white shirts, and clean-cut hairstyles.

Did you know that according to Scripture, wives have something of a “uniform” for their vocation? St. Paul taught the Corinthian Christians the tradition of women covering their hair after marriage. By covering their heads, adult women in the early church dressed modestly and showed honor for their husbandly, spiritual heads.

Headcovering is a tradition that has largely fallen out of practice today. Just a generation or two ago, a proper lady wouldn’t dream of leaving the house hat-less. But things have changed since then. Sure, some pious Christian women follow certain rules about wearing head-coverings and unique styles of clothes – most often people associate head-coverings with members of Amish, Mennonite, or other more “fringe” groups. However, doing so also sets them apart, rather conspicuously, from the prevailing American culture…which seems (in my mind anyway) to defeat the entire purpose of dressing “modestly.”

As with other traditions, Christian women are free to cover our heads – or not – if we so choose. There are all sorts of great reasons that this practice has been followed across many cultures for centuries. It was an easy way to identify a woman as married or “available” because a woman’s veiled head communicated that she had placed herself under her husband’s headship. Headcoverings of one sort or another have long been part of a modestly dressed woman’s normal attire. In fact, in New Testament times, adult women who went around with uncovered heads often had the profession of a prostitute. Who would want to be mistaken for being one of those?!

Strangely enough, the tradition of women covering their heads after marriage still carries the same message today that it always has – a woman is respecting the headship of her husband. Even in a culture that considers “submission” a four-letter-word, and where more than half of marriages end in divorce, that message still comes across loud and clear. What has changed, however, is that an uncovered head (even a mostly uncovered body!) doesn’t necessarily communicate immodesty or advertise a prostitute’s body for sale anymore. In fact, a woman with a veiled head today often stands out quite clearly in a crowd.

So how’s a young woman to understand St. Paul’s instruction about women’s attire in 1 Corinthians 11? Thankfully, it’s possible to dress modestly – even fashionably – with today’s styles, without drawing all sorts of undue attention to yourself. And if you and your parents want to come up with some handy guidelines about necklines and skirt lengths to make your shopping trips easier, you’re free to do so. Or you can just wing it. Dressing modestly without flaunting your sexuality like a prostitute might is the easy part – it’s just clothing!

Honoring to your husband (or your father, or your future husband) by what you wear, and doing so inconspicuously… that’s a little trickier these days. A modern symbol comparable to a wife covering her head might be the wearing of a wedding ring. It’s a far more subtle symbol of the marital relationship than a veil or a scarf, but it communicates a similar message.

Don’t forget St. Peter also teaches that a woman’s true beauty doesn’t have anything to do with her hairstyle, clothing, or even her jewelry, but is, “…the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious,” (1 Peter 3:4, ESV). It’s simple to tie a scarf on your head and portray outward submission to your father or your husband out of fear of the Law. You might even secretly feel a little pride for being so obedient. But actually trusting him out of faith in Christ – with a gentle and quiet spirit that does not fear anything frightening (1 Peter 3:6) is far more precious and beautiful than any hat, scarf or veil you may wear.

And if you want to cover your head – whether married, single, at home, at church or all the time – you’re free to do that as well. Just remember that you have been washed and dressed in the garments your Bridegroom has given you in Baptism. Nothing beats the beautiful splendor of living in the forgiveness the Lord Himself has given you through His sacrifice for your sins.

by Sandra Ostapowich