Leader: We gather here today to seek the mercy of the one true Creator, to stop the killing of the unborn in this place. Hear the words of the prophet Jeremiah:

   People: This is what Yahweh says: "Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near
the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you."

   Leader: The Valley of Ben Hinnom in 600 B.C. was used for places of Topheth, where infant children were burned alive to the Canaanite god Ba'al. Topheth means a fireplace for
child sacrifice. Today we stand in front of an abortion center where human life is
destroyed. It is a modern, updated Topheth shrine.

   People: "Say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is
what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster
on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.' "

   Leader: Judah faced Yahweh's judgment in 586 B.C. with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple they made into an idol, and thus the destruction of the nation, followed by their
exile to Babylon. To the extent that this nation sanctions and continues the practice of
human abortion, we invite Yahweh's judgment.

   People: " 'For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods, they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever
knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent." ' "

   Leader: In the idolatry of Ba'al, the Hebrew people were seduced into believing that by burning their infant children alive they could gain fertility, peace and prosperity. Today we see
an "idolatry of choice" where "choice" becomes a false god used to destroy unborn
human life, instead of true choice which nurtures all human life.

   In a life disrupted by a crisis pregnancy, human abortion is sold as a means to regain a
lost sense of peace, order, stability and hope. But human abortion does not restore these
shattered remains of God's image. Rather, it only fractures a broken life more deeply
yet. This is idolatry, and we Christians are just as vulnerable to idolatry apart from
God's grace.

   People: " 'They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to
Baal – something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. So beware,
the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when people will no longer call this place
Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.' "

   Leader: This abortion center is a modern Topheth shrine, and a signpost to our own nation's
judgment, to our own Valley of Slaughter. The victimizers become the victims, and one
day human abortion will be remembered not as a woman's freedom or empowerment,
but of her and her nation's slaughter. A slaughter not only of the unborn, but of
women's dignity and men's dignity as life-nurturing humans.

   People: " 'In this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give
their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. I will devastate
this city and make it an object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff
because of all its wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and
they will eat one another's flesh during the stress of the siege imposed upon them by the
enemies who seek their lives.' "

   Leader: Jerusalem's idolatrous sacrifice of her infant children led to a literal cannibalism. This nation's destruction of her unborn progeny cries out for a modern equivalent. Family
fratricide, social disintegration, drug abuse, sexual abuse, homosexual glorification, violent crime and coercive euthanasia equal the "writing on the wall."

   The harvesting and cloning of human embryos for research and transplants is its own
form of human cannibalism. And why do we presume that we are above the descent into
literal cannibalism one day? From the ground beneath our feet there cries out the blood
of millions of unborn U.S. citizens. We will reap what we have sown, apart from God's
mercy which triumphs over judgment for those who seek him.

   People: "Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, and say to them, 'This is what Yahweh Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter's
jar is smashed and cannot be repaired.' "

   Leader: The jar Jeremiah used was similar to that used to bury the charred remains of the
sacrificed children. And the parents truly wept as they buried them. This is the terror of
idolatry. But today, the idolatry of human abortion hides the terrible act of its destruction within the machinery of the suction apparatus, or through the assault of toxic chemicals. There are no coffins, no tombstones, and too often the grief remains hidden and festering.

   As surely as Jeremiah's breaking of the symbolic clay jar signaled Yahweh's impending
judgment, we believe Yahweh Elohim pronounces judgment upon the sites and
apparatus of human abortion, and upon those who cling to its idolatry while mocking the
Lord and Giver of life. As Jerusalem became like Topheth, so too will the ethos of
human abortion kill the culture that enshrines it.

   Therefore I break this jar as a prayer for Yahweh Elohim to bring an end to the evil of
human abortion, and the male chauvinisms that undergird it. We thus proclaim
Yahweh's love to the women and their unborn children so victimized. I also break this
jar as a symbol to break the powers of darkness which govern the abortion mind-set. In
the name of Jesus Messiah, Yahweh Elohim incarnate, let it be.

   [break jar]

   People: " 'They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares Yahweh. I will make this city like
Topheth. The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled in this
place, Topheth – all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry
hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.' "

   Leader: When Jeremiah broke the clay jar, he declared that he was not the Judge. He trusted Yahweh Elohim as the only righteous Judge, and faithfully called upon King Zedekiah
and the other leaders to put an end to the shedding of innocent blood. To do so, they had
to first put away the sins of sorcery and worshiping the stars, which leads to human
sacrifice.

   Likewise we trust in the one true Creator and the power of loving persuasion in the
public arena. No people are our enemies, even those who perform or support human
abortion. Only the devil and his demonic host are our enemies. Thus we seek to win
hearts and minds through the truth, love and beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Messiah. We
seek the fullest dignity for women and their unborn children equally.

   People: Thus we affirm:

   • Yes to the marriage of one man and one woman for one lifetime.
   • Yes to loving and faithful fatherhood.
   • Yes to women and their unborn.
   • Yes to the image of God in all people – born and unborn.
   • Yes to the power to give in face of the power to take.
   • Yes to informed choice which serves human life.
   • Yes to the power to bless in the face of the power to curse.
   • Yes to the power of love in face of the power to hate.
   • Yes to the Good News of Jesus the Messiah.

   People: Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, and
stood in the court Yahweh's temple and said to all the people, "This is what Yahweh
Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 'Listen! I am going to bring on this city and the
villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-
necked and would not listen to my words.' "

   Leader: We are all stiff-necked apart from God's grace, and we who are believers welcome the toughest questions from abortion supporters who might be seeking the same grace in the
midst of their broken lives.

   People: Jeremiah also says, "See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death." And Moses says, "Now choose life." So listen to the words of Jeremiah spoken to King
Zedekiah, "This is what Yahweh says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the
hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the
alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood."

   Leader: Jeremiah promised peace for Israel if King Zedekiah were to obey. The same promise is before us today, if we as a nation, beginning with our leaders, would turn away from the slaughter of unborn human children.

   If there is no true Creator in heaven who judges the acts of men and women, and if Jesus
Messiah is not who he said he was, then abortion supporters can be at ease. For if this is
the case, all we do is break a piece of pottery in an act of feebleness.

   But if the one true Creator is the one true Creator, then this symbol of the broken jar is
inescapable. The idolatry of human abortion is in direct opposition to the Creator and
Author of human life. And we will all stand at the judgment seat of our heavenly Father
one day.

   Forgiveness is offered to all who seek it, and it is complete in its healing of past sorrow
and guilt for those who dare to believe.

   People: We say to all who would listen:

   • You have the power to choose life, if you dare to believe it and ask God for it.
   • If you do not have this power, what power and choice do you have?
   • If you have power and choice, why not use it?
   • Courageous and compelling choice always nurtures human life, and in Jesus Messiah, such courage, power and choice is uniquely available.

Amen.

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