Rev. David Holwick R Mother's Day
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 13, 2012
John 16:21
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I. Mother's Day is based on a simple fact.
A. We are here because a woman gave birth to us.
1) Even if you were conceived in a test tube and placed
in a surrogate in India, there was a womb somewhere.
2) It is something we all have in common.
a) It doesn't say anything about the character or
motivation of the one who carried us.
b) Nor does it speak to what we ourselves have done with
the life we have been given.
c) We are here because someone reproduced.
B. Don Jacke objected to my tacky title.
1) "Reproduction" seems so cold and clinical, like your
seventh-grade science class.
a) It is something that birds and bees and slugs do.
b) Glenn Meyer commented, would people reproduce if they
knew they were going to become teenagers?
2) Don did like the verse I picked, about a woman's joy when
she brings a child into the world.
a) It is more human-oriented, more personal.
b) Kathy Clark sent me a text message on Wednesday:
"Heather is having a girl!!!"
That is 5 words and 3 exclamation marks.
She doesn't seem depressed about it, does she?
Childbirth is an exciting event for most people.
3) But I stuck with my title for a reason.
a) It goes beyond what happens in a delivery room.
b) It reveals something about God's plan for our universe.
C. Should we have kids?
1) Everyone here is the product of a woman who made this
decision.
2) Not all women (or men) do. Does it matter to us? To God?
II. It is a topic that is contemporary and urgent.
A. A dramatic case in China.
1) Blind Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng ran to our embassy
because he had been systematically harassed for exposing
China's harsh enforcement of its "one child" policy
through forced abortions.
2) I listened to a call-in radio show and one older woman from
New York said we shouldn't interfere with them.
If the Chinese want to force people to abort, let them.
There are too many Chinese as it is.
Even the host of the show seemed a little stunned.
He could have responded, many think there are too many
old people in America.
Maybe we should eliminate them...
B. The world's population has reached 7 billion.
1) That's a lot of mouths to feed!
2) In 90 years, there will be 14 billion people here.
a) Or 9 billion.
b) Or we will shrink to 5.5 billion.
1> All these figures are projections by the U.N.
2> No one really knows which way it will go.
III. The case against kids.
A. Charles Knowlton may have started the debate in 1832.
1) Interesting article by Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker.
a) Knowlton was a free-thinker from Massachusetts.
b) As an impoverished medical student, he dug up his own
corpse for dissection class -- he was a little odd.
2) He wrote a pamphlet that there were too many people on earth
so we need to practice birth control.
a) Sex and procreation can be separated.
b) Children went from being a consequence to being a choice.
B. An argument by a Canadian philosophy professor.
1) Christine Overall thinks childbearing is not natural and
needs justification.
a) We have many biological urges that we should choose
NOT to act upon.
b) Perhaps childbearing should be one of them.
2) Reasons we give for having a kid.
a) Having a child benefits the child.
1> They cannot experience the joys of life without
being born.
A> But nonexistent people have no moral standing.
B> They can't argue for themselves, because they
don't exist.
2> Another problem: if babies increase the world's
happiness, why ever stop having them?
A> The world would have more and more people
who have less and less happiness.
B> Eventually the happiness of each individual
would approach zero.
b) Having a child benefits the parent.
1> They can take care of us in our old age.
A> But those who think this are probably deluded.
2> They can make parents happy.
A> But scientific evidence doesn't support this.
B> Those who have kids are no happier than those
who don't -- it often goes the other way.
C> Using someone else to make us happy is also
morally unacceptable.
C. An even more extreme argument.
1) Philosopher David Benatar thinks having kids is evil.
a) Children don't suffer if they are never born.
b) They probably WILL suffer if they are born.
2) His conclusion: a life filled with good, and a tiny bit of
bad, is worse than no life at all.
a) Therefore, not only should you not reproduce, you should
not have been produced.
b) If we all saw the logic of this, within a century the
world's population would drop to zero.
Benatar hopes this comes true.
He writes, "Humans are the most destructive and
harmful species on earth.
The amount of suffering in the world could be
radically reduced if there were no more" of us.” [1]
3) Believe it or not, some Bible verses reflect this.
a) Job's lament in 3:3-4:
"May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was
said, 'A boy is born!'
That day -- may it turn to darkness; may God above not
care about it; may no light shine upon it."
b) The prophet Jeremiah in 20:14-15:
"Cursed be the day I was born!
May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
who made him very glad, saying, 'A child is born
to you -- a son!'"
c) It should be noted that both of these guys were very
depressed at the time.
IV. Life is a blessing.
A. God created us to live, and pass on life.
1) The classic passage is Genesis 1:28:
"God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and
increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.'"
2) Humans are stewards of the earth.
a) While we can sometimes mess things up, we can also fix
them.
b) Most of the doom-and-gloom predictions on population
growth have been wrong.
c) Humans have a way of transforming their situation.
1> When hunting and gathering petered out, agriculture
started.
2> The industrial revolution came new, plus the green
revolution.
3> Who knows what will come next?
3) Even though life has pain, it is worth living.
a) Disabled people can still have meaningful and joyful
lives.
b) Even though we don't know what the future holds, we
have faith that God is still in charge.
1> Having kids is a statement of our confidence in
a God who can provide for us.
B. There are advantages to having kids.
1) Bryan Caplan thinks their value increases over time.
a) Little kids are a lot of work, so people in their 30s
want one.
During your 40s, the best number rises to two - you have
more time as your kids assert their independence.
In your 50s, the kids have their own lives so you should
have four of them to periodically drop by.
In your 60s you have lots of free time and want
grandkids, so five kids would be a good insurance
policy against grandchildlessness.
b) Having more kids isn't necessarily more work.
1> Scientists say genetics is more powerful than
parenting skills.
2> Your personal effort doesn't make much of a
difference.
c) More kids means more people on earth, means more ideas,
which are the fuel of progress.
2) Are there any limits?
a) Some argue that God's command to fill the earth is complete.
1> We don't have to over-fill it.
b) Catholics believe it is sinful to limit reproduction.
1> Or I should say the leadership believes this.
2> Most Catholics are no different than anyone else.
c) Protestants believe children are a good thing, but not a
required thing. It all depends on God's will for you.
V. There is a different way to be fruitful.
A. Biological growth has its limits.
1) Quality of life is just as important as the quantity of it.
2) Loving and caring for an elderly person is just as valid
as having a baby.
3) Life is more than biology.
B. Reproduce your faith.
1) How many people have been born again because of your witness?
2) The results can be dramatic.
a) Jesus' parable - 30, 60, 100 times more offspring.
b) Any of us can be the Duggars family spiritually.
3) Even churches depend too much on young families and
biological growth. They shouldn't.
a) The only lasting growth comes through conversion.
b) We don't have to re-create the 1950s to survive.
C. It is not a human decision, but a divine one. John 1:12-13
"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God --
children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision
or a husband's will, but born of God."
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] Quote from the article, “The Case Against Kids: Is procreation
immoral?” by Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, April 9, 2012.
<http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/04/09/
120409crbo_books_kolbert>
This and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
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