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A young person who had just passed his driving test, asked his father, who was a minister, if they could talk about the use of the family car. His father took him to the study and said, "I'll make a deal with you. Improve your subject grades, study your Bible, and get your hair cut, and we'll talk about it."
After about a month, the young man came back and again asked his father if they could discuss use of the car. They again went to the study where his father said, "Son, I'm proud of you. You have improved your grades, you've studied your Bible, but you still haven't got your hair cut!"
The son replied, "You know, Dad, I've been thinking about that. Samson had long hair, Moses had long hair, Noah had long hair, and even Jesus had long hair." To which his father replied, "Yes, and they walked everywhere!"
Today, as you may already have gathered, is Father's Day. When Rosie and Joanna were talking about a suitable Father's Day gift yesterday, Rosie helpfully mentioned that she'd seen an ad for anti-aging cream, while Joanna was wondering about a toupee! Ah well! Many people certainly look on Father's Day as an invention by greeting-cards manufacturers to make even more money. But did you know that it actually originated as a church service in America? While there are debates over the origins of the idea of setting apart the third Sunday in June as a special day to honour fathers, the best claim is focused on the selfless love and care of a father who brought up six children on his own.
William Jackson Smart was an American Civil War veteran, who lived on a farm in eastern Washington. He was widowed when his wife died giving birth to their sixth child. Years later, one of his grown up daughters was listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909 at her church in Spokane. As she did so, she recalled all the sacrifices her father had made for her and her brothers and sisters. So she approached her minister about having a church service dedicated to fathers, near the anniversary of her father's death. And so, on the third Sunday of June that year, the first Father's Day service was held in Spokane. Since then, it has become an official national holiday in the USA, and the custom has spread across the world.
Today, you and I can remember our fathers, and those father figures who have been an important influence on us. In doing so, we can pray for fathers everywhere, giving thanks for what is good in our shared experience of fathers, and praying for healing where relationships have broken down. And hurt there will doubtless be, for even the very best fathers are not perfect role models.
The Spanish have a story about a father and a son who became estranged. The son left home, and the father later set out to find him. He searched for months without success. Finally, in desperation, the father turned to his local newspaper for help. He placed an ad which simply read, "Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your father." On Saturday, 800 young men named Paco showed up looking for forgiveness and love from their estranged fathers. Whether it is a father seeking their child, or a child seeking their father, somehow a move has to be made, if there is to be any hope of reconciliation. Walls of division that have been built up need to be broken down, if relationships are to be healed.
Today, on Father's Day, we are assured that such healing is possible. Why? Because the One who is the true Father of us all has already taken the initiative, made a decisive move, to show us His love and forgiveness. In Jesus Christ, the Father's love has been made visible, reaching out to seek and save the lost, waiting to welcome home His prodigal children, even while they're still far off. And as we know ourselves to be God's beloved and forgiven children, then we - like the woman in the Gospel - are more able and willing to express that love to others.
Unlike some human fathers, our Heavenly Father has no favourites. Each of us is unique, and infinitely precious to Him. Once, when addressing a congregation of people from many denominations, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the papal household under Pope John Paul II, said: "When Christians quarrel we say to God 'Choose between us and them.' But the Father loves all his children. We should say, 'We accept as our brothers and sisters all those whom you receive as your children."
Yet how hard it can be to do so! Like countless others, before and since, Simon the Pharisee had chosen to distinguish between those he deemed acceptable, and those who - like the woman with the jar of perfume - were totally 'beyond the pale.'
As a Pharisee, he would doubtless have known the ancient morning prayer : "I thank you Lord, that I am not a Gentile, a slave, or a woman." Yet, unlike Paul - another Pharisee - Simon did not know the depth of the Father's love for all His children. Love incarnate that he once unknowingly invited to dinner, and whose gracious life transforming presence and power he could not recognise or accept. Perhaps it was the sheer grace of God that stuck in his self-righteous gullet.
Our Father loves all His children. And there is nothing we can do to earn or buy that love, whether keeping the law, living a good life, attending church or anything else. That's what Paul came to know, and it turned his life upside down. And in today's passage from Galatians, Paul also wants us to know this amazing truth. In Jesus Christ, we are put right with God. Our sin-spoiled relationship has been restored, the walls broken down. This is the amazing grace of God our Heavenly Father at work, grace we receive "by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Our Father loves all His children. That gracious love is unconditional. The question is: do you and I really know that? Not just in our head, but deep down in the very depths of our being? Perhaps some of us here today have never experienced God in that way. Perhaps, through our own experience of human fathers, we have a picture of God as being distant or aloof, an absent father-figure. If that is true for you, then the Gospel says this: it doesn't have to be like that! The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the One who comes to meet us with forgiveness on His lips, and healing in His hands. What you and I need to do is to open our lives to the Father's love as it reaches out to us in Jesus Christ, and is poured into our hearts by His Spirit.
Today, as we come to share in Holy Communion, you and I are invited to do so with hands open to receive the self-giving love of God made tangible for us in Jesus Christ. In prayer ministry, we can also bring to the Lord our longing to know His love more fully, and seek His healing presence in those people and situations on our hearts and minds. And we can join together with Jesus in prayer to our loving Abba, Father, the One who delights in you and me as His dearly beloved children.
John Barr
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