Transcript: Lesson 24 - The Nature of the Child

Welcome, friends. In this unit, we have been thinking about assisted reproductive  technologies and thinking about how those are connected to the meaning of sex of  procreation, how our our bodies and sexual union and marriage are all meant to point us to  the story of who God is as creator and as Redeemer, and how it's in our culture, it is very  common for us to to separate sex and procreation, both through contraception, but also  through many assisted reproductive technologies that really take new life out of the context  of sexual union and marriage, and make it the result of a scientific process. That is very  different from sexual union and from marriage. And so in this video, we want to pick up just a  little bit about the nature of the child and conclude this unit, by thinking about how the story  of infertility in our own lives might connect up with the story of Jesus. But when you think  about the nature of the child, I think it's important to affirm that children are meant to be the  fruit of marriage, and the conjugal act of the marital act might seem like a strange phrase.  When many in our culture, we just say sex. But part what I'm emphasizing here is that, that,  that this Act is an Act that conjoins that, that makes this promise of a spouse to one another,  and makes this promising eve to the child of love and care. And that the child is, again, the  natural outcome of this act of love, this communion of persons where in Adam knew his wife  Eve, and in that communion of persons, a new person is generated, a new person is born from that. And this is partly because this act, this is on page 11, in the instruction says that this  act, the sex sexual union, is an act that is inseparably corporal or in other words, bodily,  physical, and spiritual. And so because the nature of sexual union is that it's two people who  are this body and soul unity, who unite their bodies who unite their lives, the result of that is a new child. And that child is also this body soul unity, that there's this whole this integrity, that that the result of sexual union is not just not just a physical bundle of cells, but that it's a new  person with this spiritual dimension. And so part of the problem here is that if we simply  create a child through some of these other technological means, like invitro fertilization, that  really the danger here is that this child has created in this in a purely scientific, a purely  physical act, that there is, in a sense, this lack of spiritual bodily connection between husband and wife, but rather, it is a it is a medical doctor of scientists in a lab, who does this, and who  is in a lot of ways, treating this person as just mere matter. And so we're emphasizing another way to say this is that the new person is the result of a personal act, it's not the it's not the  impersonal act of science or technology, that just in the same way, we might do genetic  alterations to plants or producing a new compound in a lab in the same way, we just produce  a new human being, that this this way of this way of acting really is part of what reduces  humanity to nothing more than a physical biological being. And so the new person is, is really  to be the result of a personal act. And because of this it's also important, I think, to see this  dimension where the creation of a new child in sexual union is this free act of love, I freely  give myself to my spouse out of this abundance of love and generosity, that it's something  that in, in one sense, doesn't doesn't cost anything. Whereas when we think about assisted  reproductive technologies, part of the nature of assisted reproductive technologies, is that  money changes hand, that there is a that there is a payment for this. And again, part of the  danger here is right I think if we saw a human being being bought and sold, like I think back  to what drove many of the abolitionists in American history to react strongly against slavery is seeing human beings bought and sold treated as being nothing, certainly not as human  beings. That that was troubling to them. And so I think similarly, maybe we've broadly  accepted some of these practices but we haven't really thought about what does it mean?  That money changes hands, that this is something where a human life is really bought and  sold, and that there's something about that that really undermines the integrity and  undermines us respect and dignity of human life, that it's not just to be manipulated, it's not  just to be bought and sold. There's also this, the sense of the nature of the child upholds the  unity of marriage, that part of what the instruction says, I think that if you've read "For the  Sexes" interesting, it says, "part of what marriage means is that as I promised myself as a  husband, to my wife, and part of what I'm doing, there's, I'm promising that I will become a  father only through her and that she promises that she will become a mother, only through  me that that's part of the bond of marriage. And part of the unity of marriage is that not only  are we husband, a wife to each other, but we recognize that we will be father and mother only

through each other, not through the means of some other persons, certainly not through the  means of another person's egg or sperm. But that part of upholding the integrity of the unity  of marriage is recognizing this interconnection between sexual union marriage, and children."  If you've walked through infertility, you know that that can be incredibly difficult. It is not  something to take lightly, and the heart's desire for children to really pour out that that love  that you receive the love that you receive from your spouse in the sense that as you love your spouse, you desire that love to expand you desire to be able to pour that out on children. And  so it's heartbreaking to walk through infertility. But one of the things I think connects the story of infertility with the story of Jesus is the reality of patient suffering rather than impatient  grasping. In other words, that part of what Jesus did in his own life was, was let go of what  would have been maybe the easier road that then he's tempted by Satan to become king. The Satan said just fall down, worship me and you'll be king, you'll receive authority, just go  ahead and grasp that it's right in front of you. But instead, Jesus embraces this path of patient suffering, of saying, not just, I want to be king, no matter what, but but he says, I'm going to  be this kind of king, I'm going to be willing to walk this path of patient suffering, even crying  out to God, you know, what, why, where are you? You know, I wish things were different. And  so as we think about this, I am not in any way trying to say that we diminish the pain of  infertility, or that we ignore that we act like it's not there. But to recognize that sometimes in  God's mysterious Providence, he does call some of us to walk this difficult path of patient  suffering, but that as you walk that path, you are not alone. Jesus is with you, your church  family is with you. And that's why I think it is so important to affirm the reality of the family of  God that, that this is when we understand what Jesus has done is that he's created this new  family, and that even if you don't have biological children, God is still calling you to be father,  Jesus is still calling you to be mother, to those who are in the body of Christ. Paul himself in I  Thessalonians 2 says that he was among them, he says I was among you like a nursing  mother. He said, I was gentle with you. I was I was in tune with you. I ministered to your  needs. And like a father, I was there encouraging, comforting, urging you. So hear you have  the single, Paul, Paul who has no physical children, saying I functioned as a spiritual father as  a spiritual mother to you, that even in his singleness and celibacy, even in his state of not  having physical children, Paul understood that he could still in that state, participate in the  story of who Jesus is that in his life, in how he embodied his singleness, and how he embodied not having physical children, but instead, having spiritual children, he pointed people to the  reality of Jesus into the reality of God's love and faithfulness, and care for them. And so my  hope and prayer, my encouragement as you think about these things that we've talked about  in these last couple of units, it's just to reflect more on how do we with our bodies, with how  we think about sexual union with how we think about procreation and children how do we  communicate the depths of the gospel that marriage, the sexual union are meant to point us  to something deeper that they're meant to point us to something beyond ourselves that we  are not mere matter. It's not just nature and biology, but there's something more going on.  And as we embody that better and better. Our hope and prayer is that people will see Jesus  better and better. So until next time, blessings