John 10:11-18  “The Value of Human Life”                                     

INTRODUCTION                                                                                                                             

Do you feel like a million dollars?  That’s what you’re worth according to the web site, Sound Medicine.  When broken down into fluids, tissues and germ fighting our bodies are worth more than $46 million.[i]  Wired magazine reported in its August, 2003 issue results of a survey that indicates that vital organs are no longer the most valuable body parts.  Rather, bone marrow tops the list at $23 million based on 1000 grams at $23,000 per gram. DNA will get you $9.7 million, while extracting antibodies can fetch $7.3 million.  A lung is worth $116,400, a kidney, $91,400, and a heart, $57,000.[ii]
            I doubt if any of us measures the value of human life by how much we can get for our organs and fluids, as if that’s the first thing we think about when evaluating our lives or others. Yet some people are placed in positions where they must measure in other ways how valuable human lives.  Kenneth Feinberg had to determine how much each family would receive from the federal fund established for the 2,973 victims as well as the 4,400 survivors of the 9/11 attacks.  His was an awesome task.  Establishing the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund was unprecedented in America’s history. Developing the Fund, Congress determined that some families would receive more than others, depending on the type of work the victim did.  So the family of a firefighter who died trying to rescue people in the World Trade Center would expect to receive considerably less than the family of a stockbroker.  Because the airlines as well as other businesses were faced with catastrophic losses, the fund was set up to avoid lawsuits.  A cap was place on financial liability for airlines and other parties.  Tort law guaranteed that survivors who took their cases to court would win awards based on the potential earning power of a person.                                                                                                                              Though a successful attorney, Feinberg took no pay during the year he administered the 9/11 Fund.  Three calculations were to be made: “non-economic loss — the pain and suffering of the victim,” that life insurance, pension benefits, etc. be deducted from the payments, and economic loss caused by the death of the victim based on earning potential.  Though the fund intended to weigh the relative value of people economically, Feinberg found ways to make it more equitable.                                     

In his role as special master of the fund, Feinberg sat through literally thousands of the application hearings, and he found a wide range of reactions, including anger, from families. But he also discovered that for many, being able to talk about the life of the departed was a way for them to say that, quite apart from potential earning power, “Our loved one was a unique individual of great worth.” They wanted to talk about what their lost loved one had meant to them and about the unquantifiable virtues of the person, such as his commitment to family or her generosity. Some families even brought in photos, scrapbooks, wedding videos, awards and honors the departed had received, and other physical evidence. Feinberg concluded that although people sometimes disputed the amount of their awards, they usually were not motivated by greed, but by a desire to assert the value of their lost loved one.[iii]

Kenneth Feinberg and his staff performed an awesome service to this country and the victims and survivors of 9/11. The great majority of those served felt they were fairly compensated.   Feinberg had to assign a dollar figure to the life of each victim, but “what he observed in those application hearings is that there is always something about human life that cannot be valued with cash.”[iv]
 THE GOOD SHEPHERD                                                                                                   The value of a human life.  How is it determined?  By the sum of it’s body parts?  By it’s earning potential.  No. God determines that each human life is of great value, not because of our physical substance or our earning potential.  Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Jesus is the good Shepherd. The prophets of the Hebrew people warned of false shepherds of Israel, who actually led people away from God.   Jesus, on the other hand, is the Shepherd who not only tends the sheep, but loves them so much he is willing to sacrifice his own life for them.
          Jesus contrasts the good shepherd with the hired hand.  Jesus has much more invested in the safety and well being of the sheep, because the sheep belong to him.  This Good Shepherd is intimately involved with the sheep, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (10:14), said Jesus.  A major tenet of Christian faith that distinguishes our faith from that of others is the personal relationship that is possible with God because of Jesus.  Jesus knows each one of us.  Furthermore, Jesus was willing to sacrifice his very life for us.                                                                                                                                      I don’t know how many of you have spent much time around sheep, but they are smelly creatures.  They are also as animals go, pretty stupid.  A sheep will start grazing and just follow it’s nose to the next clump of grass on and on until it’s completely separated from the rest of the herd.  That’s how shepherds end up with lost sheep.  We know the same thing happens the sheep of God’s pasture today.  Christ the Good Shepherd gathers us together in the church, but during the week and sometimes for years on end, the sheep go their own way, forgetting to return to the fold, oblivious to the calls of the Shepherd.  Being compared to sheep by the Biblical writers is not particularly flattering to us, but it is apropos in many ways.                                                       GENOCIDE
            How valuable is each human life?  Fortunately, we do not determine the value of every person. God does. God created us and redeemed us and we belong to God who values each one of us beyond our imagining. It is always good to remind us of the value of each human life. It follows that if God cares about each life, so should we.  Each person suffering in Darfur is valuable to God.  In the last few years an estimated 300,000 people have been killed in the Darfur region of Sudan.  500 deaths occur there each day.  3 million people have fled their homes.  Yet I met a Christian last week who had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned Darfur. There is much in the world that cheapens and degrades human life.  When people are killed in vast numbers, it is hard to think of them as individuals.  Yet Jesus died for them, no less than for you or me.                                                                                                               We can sit back safe and secure in God’s love for us.  But God’s intention is for the love we experience to be motivating.  So we are to demonstrate the love of God in our love for others, and not just the people in our own families, our own communities, our own church, or our own country; not just the people who share our skin color or age or ethnic identity.
            On June 22, 1996 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally at the City Hall. They had a permit for the event and it was advertised in advance, so not only the Klan showed up; more than 300 demonstrators appeared to protest the rally. One Klansman was wearing clothes that displayed the Confederate flag and was attacked by a swarm of demonstrators and pushed to the ground.
            Appalled, an 18-year-old African-American girl named Keisha Thomas, threw herself over the fallen man, shielding him with her own body from the kicks and punches. Keisha, when asked why she, a black teenager, would risk injury to protect a man who was a white supremacist, said, “He’s still somebody’s child. I don’t want people to remember my name but I’d like them to remember I did the right thing.”[v]  Today is older adult Sunday in the Presbyterian Church.  It’s a day when we celebrate the service of our older adults to our congregation and community.  Eva looked at the bulletin cover yesterday and said, “Mom, that’s not a picture of an older adult.  That’s an old adult.”  We are blessed in this congregation to have some retired folks who probably don’t want even to be considered older adults.  They work tirelessly demonstrating God’s love through their service to this congregation and in the community.  Just the other day, I caught Mary Jordan in the parking lot with a pick ax digging a hole to plant a tree.  We have strong older adults in our congregation. Many of you don’t see the work that goes on in this church during the week. This church would be impoverished without the ministry of Roy, Chuck, Barbara, Thurm, Louis, Carol, Judy, Pat, Sharon, Bill, Kate, Harriette, Dave, Ginny, Jean, Charlotte, Libby, Jane, Franz, Mary, Joyce, Pauline, Harry, Vivian, Charlene, Elaine, Tom, Betty, George, and Anna.  Thank you for showing us the love of the Shepherd.  The Good Shepherd set the example by laying down his life for us.  We, too, are called to continue to share God’s love in the world, whatever age we are.                                                                                                                                                          A little girl was working very hard and could not be induced to stop and rest. This was before the day of electric lights.  When asked, “Why do you not stop and rest?” she replied, “I have just one little candle, and it will soon be burned out. I wish to do what I can while the candle burns.”  So it is with us. Our little day will soon be gone. May we do what we can while the candle burns.[vi]  Each day offers us another opportunity to value human life.  We may not be able to love as profoundly as Christ loves, but we can certainly try. Let us pray:  Good Shepherd, you seek us, find us, and love us into wholeness.  In a world that often does not hear your voice, may we be your loving people, the sheep of your pasture.  May the world hear your voi