Father God, by the gift of Your Holy Spirit, help us to know that we are Your beloved children, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Today - just in case you've missed it so far - is Father's Day.
Unlike Mothering Sunday, Father's Day does not have its origins in a church festival. Yet over the past century in many countries, the third Sunday of June has now come to be set aside as the day to celebrate fatherhood. So what do we make of it? Is Father's Day just an excuse for card shops to make money, or should the church take it seriously?
The card shops certainly do benefit from Father's Day. Last week, I found myself looking for a suitable card to send my own Dad. The Father's Day selection was typical - a mixture of the funny, the sentimental, and the hobby or leisure related themes. Pictures of fathers looking a little worse for wear sat next to cards about Dads who are into DIY, sport, food and drink, gardening, or any combination thereof! And then of course there were the ones with sentiments which waxed lyrical about the ideal father and/or their children. Eventually I found one that I was happy to send.
As well as providing card shops with extra income, Father's Day has also provided some amusing quips. For example, did you know that there are some things you will never (or rarely ever) hear a Dad say to his teenage or young adult children:
E.g. Here are the keys to my brand new car. Oh, and take my credit card, too. Have fun!
Or Mum and I are going away for the weekend. Would you like to throw a party?
Or You don't need a job! I have plenty of money for you to spend.
And how often do you hear a Dad (or indeed any man without satnav) say this: Well, what do you know? I'm completely lost. We'll just have to stop and get some directions.
So how have any Dads here scored on those four?! Nought out of four - join the club! A sense of humour is important, isn't it? It can help us to acknowledge the rich mixture of experiences of fathering. And there certainly is a funny side to being a father - if you don't believe me, then just ask Rosie and Jo !
But should the church also take Father's Day seriously? Well, in a recent newspaper article, Bishop John - our Diocesan Bishop - argues that the Church should indeed be taking Father's Day seriously. I quote: "Fathers are never far from the headlines, from controversies around teenage fathers to reports on how good fathers have such a positive influence on the development of their children. All this coverage shows that we instinctively recognise the importance of fathers to us individually and to society as a whole. So we shouldn't be surprised that this emphasis on, and honouring of, good fatherhood is a reflection of the way in which God deals with the human race. … Let's celebrate Father's Day in our churches, honouring those fathers who have shown us something of God's love, praying for fathers to be given strength in their crucial role and remembering that God, who is our Father in heaven, loves us more than we can grasp."
Today, then, it is doubly important for us to take Father's Day seriously. Firstly, it is important because fathers everywhere need our prayers and our encouragement. To quote Bishop John again: "It's crucial that we should pray for fathers. How they manage their responsibility will have a very big impact upon the future of children - and of our society." As we prayed together in the words of the special collect for Father's Day:
"Bless all fathers as they care for their families. Give them strength and wisdom, tenderness and patience; support them in the work they have to do protecting those who look to them."
And secondly, it is vitally important for us to remember that - whatever our own experience of having (or being) a father has been - we have a compassionate and merciful Father in Heaven. For the God and Father of Jesus Christ is the One who loves us without strings attached, and who longs for us to come home to His welcoming outstretched arms.
However at this point, we may hesitate. For example, if our own experience of an earthly father has been far from ideal, then any talk of our Heavenly Father's love and welcome may seem totally alien. If our picture of fatherhood is based on an experience of someone who is physically or emotionally absent, or someone who is a stern disciplinarian waiting to punish us, or a perfectionist who is never satisfied, then we need the Holy Spirit to come and free us, so that we can know our Heavenly Father's loving welcome.
And it's not just our own experience of fatherhood that can cause us to doubt our Father's welcome. As George Herbert reminds us at the start of his poem Love, our consciousness of our own sin can also make us hesitate: "Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back, Guiltie of dust and sinne."
Yes, there are real barriers that can come between us and true intimacy with God, our Heavenly Father. But these barriers need not be permanent. Both of today's Bible readings invite us to reflect on this wonderful truth of God as Father, the One who reaches out to us in love and mercy. The Psalmist begins by giving thanks for God's goodness: "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love" (Psalm 103: 8). And the psalm then goes on to liken God to a father: "As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we are made; he remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103: 13,14). These verses of Psalm 103 may be familiar to many for a poignant reason. They are often used by the graveside, or in a crematorium, just before the final prayer of committal. When death stares us so painfully in the face, we are reminded of our own frailty and mortality, of just how fleeting this life really is. "As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more" (Psalm 103: 15, 16). Yet, even in the face of this awful truth, the Psalmist remains confident: "But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children" (Psalm 103: 17). Our hope can be securely placed in God, our compassionate Father, the One who knows our weakness, and whose steadfast love holds us in being.
If the Psalmist begins to offer us a glimpse of God as Father, then Jesus brings this fully to light. And, in what is probably His most well known parable, Jesus invites us to discover how God our Father wants to relate to us. Perhaps this parable should be known as the parable of the Loving Father, for this is the picture of God Jesus gives us. Here we see a loving Father who waits for His beloved but rebellious child to come home.
When I was growing up in Belfast, my Dad was often away for several weeks at a time on business in America and Canada, or Australia and New Zealand. Home wasn't the same without him, and my Mum, younger brother and I would count down the days until Dad was due to arrive back at Belfast airport. When the day finally came we'd go to meet him and would wait expectantly in the arrivals lounge with a growing sense of expectation and excitement. Sometime there'd also be anxiety - why the delay? Then, at last, I'd catch my first sight of Dad, and would run towards his outstretched arms.
In the parable of the Loving Father, Jesus wants you and me to know in the deepest depths of our being a wonderful life-changing truth: That God is our Heavenly Father, who waits longingly for His beloved sons and daughters to come back home to be with Him. And, even while we are still far off, He sees us, and runs to meet us and put His arms around us. God loves us with no strings attached. Jesus has fully reconciled us to God, breaking down all the barriers that separate us from our Heavenly Father. In Jesus, we are found by God, and are welcomed home as the beloved children of our 'Abba', Father. Now that is something to celebrate, on Father's Day - and always.
John Barr
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