Download LifeDate Summer 2023
by Pastor Michael Salemink
Pastor Salemink delivered these remarks April 29, 2023, at the annual March on the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.
In a moment we will make our way toward the majestic St. Louis Gateway Arch. 60 years ago, its first sections found their footings on the banks of the mighty Mississippi. This gleaming monument stretches to connect the earth and the heavens and reaches to unite east and west. It symbolizes equal opportunity, expansion as a people, advancing into the unknown, standing firm in the face of adversity. And it embodies not only life’s heights but the entire voyage from fertilization to final breath.
The patriot whose foresight brought this great nation the frontier which our beloved landmark celebrates and whose hallowed ground we occupy at this hour, Thomas Jefferson, gave voice to the entire American enterprise when he declared, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
We have gathered here today as heirs of this legacy, this family tree. Yet as we soon will also pass by the historic old courthouse, we will have to retrace the footsteps of Dred and Harriet Scott. In a time not long enough back, they had to sue for their very freedom from a civilization that denied human dignity to them and their little daughters and instead defended enslavement and officially considered them property. We must also admit this as the legacy handed down to us. The family tree features forked branches as well.
For the last 50 years the leading minds among us, whom we ourselves appointed with the authority to adjudicate, perpetuated the injustice under a more sophisticated and therefore more sinister semblance. Roe v. Wade endorsed not just servitude but execution. We have indeed received our genes in the image of Adam and Eve, selfish and sinful, comparing and competing. We, too, and often in the name of righteousness, regard ourselves superior while using our fellow human beings, then belittling or abandoning the ones we believe undesirable or inconvenient. We must remember and we must repent on this of all days.
History, science, and Holy Scripture affirm: No matter what age, every human life has irreducible worth. No matter what appearance, every human life has inestimable purpose. No matter what abilities, every genetic member of this one race and species of ours has incomparable and irreplaceable sanctity—the cute little babies and the dear old ladies, yes; but also those who in pride promote, those who in anger permit, those who in fear participate in the devil’s deception that death supplies a suitable solution to difficulty—none so helpless, dependent, and undeserving as we ourselves.
For the sake of each one, the Almighty Maker has grafted Himself into our family tree—or rather the Lord God has grafted our kind into His own. He knits together at conception by His good pleasure and in His image. He redeems through the incarnate coming of His Son, embryo and infant and adolescent and aging and crucifixion-incapacitated Jesus. He inhabits with His Spirit, embraces under His name, adopts as His kingdom and family. Heavenly Father creates, redeems, and calls every human being as His own precious treasure, with all the glory and honor pertaining thereunto.
His atoning intervention, His gracious forgiveness, His power and presence and promise provide all the justification any of us ever need.
We may rejoice to accept, appreciate, and treat every neighbor as gift and privilege—special and blessed, one and all, as much as you and me. Their family tree inextricably intertwines with ours, root and limb. Behold in the one right before and the one right beside, a sister-in-waiting and a brother-to-be, to delight together in the never-ending new age and creation.
Today we act in behalf of humanity, both the whole and the vulnerable individual, them and their mothers and fathers, their siblings and offspring, their tribe and their line.
So let us march, but let us not just march. Let us declare and let us demonstrate. Let us not only speak God’s truth but also show Christ’s love. Let us not only save lives but also share life. Let us not only change regulations but change hearts. Let us not settle for autonomy or even majority but insist on community. Let us not undertake out of rage or dread but in joy and hope with courage and compassion.
Go forth in His name, at His Word, and with His blessing. Do not simply march today; advocate. And do not simply advocate; engage. And do not simply engage; assist. And do not simply assist; celebrate!