Well, we all know what today is don’t we? Father’s Day, so happy Father’s Day to all you dads and grand-dads and godfathers.
But did you know this day is shared with other recognized events? This day is also family awareness day, husband caregiver day, annual go fishing day, international panic day, international picnic day and annual splurge day – all of which fit so nicely with Father’s Day, don’t you think?
We do much better than the ladies—Mother’s Day is shared with national buttermilk biscuit day, national underground America day, and national dance like a chicken day. Sorry ladies!
I’ve always found Father’s Day to be a bit of a strange holiday, if we can call it that. It’s not really observed with the pizzazz and excitement of many other holidays, and sometimes it goes by almost without notice. When I was a kid growing up we would scramble around at the very last minute with mom to come up with some ideas to get dad something special. it always seemed to boil down to a new tie, new pair of socks, a package of handkerchiefs, or new underwear. It never really dawned on us to ask dad what he wanted. it would’ve been so much easier to get him a beer out of the refrigerator and let him alone to watch the ball game. Happy Father’s Day, dad.
And yet fatherhood is a such a very significant part of our reality, both sociological and theological.
In 2006 the government published a handbook for counsellors highlighting how important a father was to a healthy marriage and to the wellbeing and successful rearing of children.
And you can find a host of material on the internet, from counselling journals to newspaper reports noting the overwhelming positive influence a father can have on children, family and society.
As Christians, one of the first theological assertions we make about God is that he is father.
Every time we gather in worship we say it in the creed, “I believe in God, the father almighty…” and in the Lord’s prayer we affirm our unique personal relationship to God by addressing him as “Our father who art in heaven…”. God is father, and he is the source of what our understanding of fatherhood should be.
Have you ever heard someone use the phrase: “like father like son?”. It implies that the father has imprinted his image on his son, and that might be a good thing or a bad thing.
When I was first married, if Gail really wanted to get my goat, she would say to me: “You’re being just like your father.”
That was my hot button, and anytime I was not behaving rightly, at least in her eyes, and she was right most of the time, she would say: “You are acting just like your father” and I would go ballistic…. and interestingly, the more I tried not to be him, the more I acted like him. It took me about two years of counseling to figure this out. I discovered it was ok to be like my dad; that’s how it’s supposed to work but that I am not my dad and I can keep and cherish those good traits I inherited, and I can change those things that need to be changed. There were a lot of things that needed to be changed!
I think it’s gotten better over the years. Either because the counselling worked and I really matured, or Gail has just given up!
Like father like son. That is what I think is behind the gospel lesson this morning. The one true son, teaching and encouraging other sons, adopted sons, to be like the Father.
Remember how Jesus identified himself? He said in one place in scripture—no one comes to the Father but by me. When asked in another situation by a disciple who wanted to see the Father, Jesus responded: When you see me you see the Father.
He talked about he and the Father being one. He talked about being about his father’s business. at his baptism and at the transfiguration the gospel authors state that God himself spoke and declared Jesus his beloved son.
Jesus is the son of God, whose life is defined by doing the Father’s will. Our relationship with Jesus as Christians is likewise defined as doing the will of the father, which is, in essence, imitating Jesus.
Paul speaks about this saying: Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Matthew says: in the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.
John in one of his letters says: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
Jesus did his father’s will; he perfectly lived “like father like son.” Following Jesus is to imitate Jesus in that same vein.
In this passage this morning, we see Jesus modeling what it means to do his father’s will; what it looks like to imitate him.
Jesus first sees as the Father sees. When he looks out at the people around him he sees sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless. they are literally running in all directions, without purpose, without protection. that pretty much defines the lives of many in our culture. people living life without purpose, without a center, without hope.
Jesus feels about these people as the father feels about them. He has compassion on them. He feels their ‘lost-ness’, their hurt, their loneliness, their fear. He is not distant and unconcerned, but weeps over those he has created to be in relationship with him.
Jesus then acts for these people as the father acts. God acted in ultimately sending Jesus to be his image in the world, and to give his life for us. In that, he teaches and proclaims the truth, the good news of the gospel, he cures diseases and sicknesses, he casts out evil spirits, raises the dead. He gives evidence the kingdom is near: God sees, God cares, God has provided a way, there is an option to being lost, scattered and harassed.
And then Jesus, the son, sends out his disciples; the adopted sons, as workers into the fields to do likewise, to imitate him, to do the Father’s will.
So, he gives them authority to cure the sick, raise the dead cleanse the leper—to basically do as he has done.
Sounds fantastic—but John records that Jesus told his disciples: I assure you, if anyone steadfastly believes in me, he himself will be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these because I go to the father.
And then there is the great commission in Matthew: and Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus lived out perfectly that reality of “like father, like son.” And as disciples of Jesus, we are called likewise to imitate Jesus; to bear witness to the father.
So, we are to see the people in this world as Jesus sees them, as sheep without a shepherd.
We are to have the same response that Jesus had: have compassion.
and we are to do as Jesus did-teach and give virtual evidence that the kingdom of heaven is near.
But also note we are to start locally. Jesus told them don’t go the Samaritans, to the Gentiles, but to the House of Israel. Go to those closest. He had plans for the rest of the world using Paul and Barnabas and others later.
But start close first, start locally. With our families, our church, our workplace, and out into the world.
Research has revealed that if a child is the first person in a household to become a Christian, there is a 3.5 percent probability that everyone else in the household will become Christians.
If the mother is the first to accept Christ, the percent goes up and 17 percent of the homes will see the remainder of its members trust Christ.
But if the father is first, there is a 93 percent probability that everyone else in the household will follow.
Jesus lived out the saying: Like father, like son – perfectly. And he calls out to us dads, fathers, grandfathers, Godfathers to follow him and do likewise.
No doubt we will booger it up sometimes because we are not Jesus. Our following Jesus will be flawed—our identifying with our heavenly Father and his will, sometimes will be confused, but hopefully not to the point of needing counselling. But if you need to do it, do it,
because our greatest mission in this world as Christian fathers is to as nearly as possible model Jesus. To proclaim with our lives that the kingdom of heaven is near, to draw other lives, other souls, through the work of Jesus in us and for us, to know and love the Father, beginning with our families and moving out from there.
At some point, when Jesus presents us to his Father in eternity, wouldn’t it be something if after reviewing our lives in this world, after reviewing the years of our relationship to him, the Father might summarize his response to us saying: Like father, like son.
Let us pray it might be so.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard C. Marsden
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
2 Pentecost
25 June 2017