5 PENTECOST GLORIA DEI, ANCHORAGE
JUNE 19, 2005 (Father’s Day ) PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
JEREMIAH 20:7-13; ROMANS 6:1b-11; MATT 10:24-39
A Father’s Love
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we may believe and in believing we may obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
DFIC, GTYAPFGOFATLJX. Amen
The portrayal of fathers in our society has changed drastically since the 50’s and early 60’s. Back then on television we saw Fred MacMurray raising his three sons, Hugh Beaumont always giving sound advice to Wally and the Beav, and Andy Griffith guiding little Opie through life in the backwater town of Mayberry, R.F.D. What are some of the healthy characteristics that those fathers portrayed? Honesty, patience, trustworthiness…
Needless to say, some 50 years later things are a little different. Our children recognize such father figures as Homer from The Simpson’s and Al Bundy from Married with Children. The latter, that portrayal of everything good about our American culture, was on t.v. in Germany when I was over there studying at a Language Institute in the early ’90’s.
However, the Germans, with their concern about being specific, had renamed the program before inflicting it on their viewing public. To insure that folks knew it was meant to be a farce, they called it Eine Shreckliche Familie (which means, One Horrible Family). What are some of the unhealthy fatherly characteristics that Al and Homer portrayed? Al Bundy was lecherous, crude and self-centered. Homer Simpson wasn’t bad, just shallow, stupid and a whiner.
Thankfully, in real life, most fathers are a lot better. Granted, some are like Al and Homer…and, tragically, a few are even worse, but the fact is, we all know what a Father should, could, and would be in a perfect world.
Jesus affirms this notion when one day he asks the people, Which father, if his children asked for a fish, would give them a snake instead? Or, if they asked for an egg, would give them a scorpion? His point is that we are built by God to expect our fathers to display a basic measure of character, like truth, wisdom, integrity, discipline, love…
Does anyone have a “father” story to share that highlights one of these characteristics?
At the end of I Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul tells us: faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love. Maybe these few words contain everything fathers need to succeed…in fact, I can’t think of anything better than these three virtues. And it just so happens that I have three matching vignettes that come from some Gloria Dei members about the gift of fathers in their lives (and, ultimately, of God in our lives!).
FAITH: Our Youth Director, Karyn Hargrave, grew up on a little farm in Minnesota. Whenever she got in trouble, her mom would say, “We’ll deal with this when your father gets home!” So when it got close to supper, Karyn would perch herself on the big rock at the end of the farm house road and wait for her father to turn in their drive.
Seeing Karyn sitting on the rock told him that she’d done something wrong. So he’d slow down and up she’d jump, standing on the board and hanging on to his open window. From there to the house she would tell her version of why she was in trouble. Then with his lunch pail tucked under one arm, she’d grab his hand and confidently walk into the house.
Her mother, who knew exactly what was going on, would ask only one question: “Did you tell your father why you’re in trouble?” As long as she truthfully answered “Yes” then that was the end of the matter. Karyn had absolute faith that confessing her sin to her dad would result in her forgiveness.
HOPE: Katie Bender tells about how her dad, our Administrative Assistant, Rick, was usually the one to take her to the doctor when she was young since his job was always more flexible than Linda’s as a school teacher. So there she’d sit with her dad, waiting and wondering and worrying.
Pretty soon she’d reach out her little hand and wrap it around Rick’s big thumb. She was too small to grab his whole hand, but his thumb she could hold on to. And as long as she had ahold of that, said Katie, she had a sense of hope that the shot wouldn’t be too painful, the medicine too icky, the wait too long.
It is such a powerful a memory for her that when she had to have her tonsils removed just a couple of years ago as a twenty year old, she looked at her dad sitting by her side in the pre-op area…and guess what she did: reached out to grab his thumb.
LOVE: Finally, I have a story to share with you about my own Dad. When our daughter, Rachel, was an infant, the only person on the face of the world who mattered to her was…her mom. Literally, the only way she would let me hold her was facing out…so that she could at least see her dearly beloved mother. You might guess that there was hell to pay if we were ever left to fend for ourselves, and you’d be absolutely right.
Well, one night after a tiring seven-hour drive to Grandpa and Grandma’s, Rachel decided that even Carolyn wasn’t enough to calm her down. Screaming like a banshee when we opened the car doors, my Dad said, “Let me take her for a walk.” Now, this was about 2:00 in the morning, so I was sure that we’d hear about it from the neighbors the next day, but by that time I would have considered selling her to a traveling band of Gypsies.
So my Dad, who didn’t spend a lot of time with us when we were kids, put on the baby carrier like a pro, zipped our screaming Rachel inside, and set off in the dark of the night.
That is for me a wonderful description of fatherly love. Because he loved me, and, by extension, my family, he was not only willing but eager to take that crying child and hold her close, to walk her and try to help her let go of whatever was bothering her: pain, frustration or fear, and simply relax in his arms of love.
They were back from their walk in twenty minutes…anyone want to venture a guess as to what happened? Rachel fell sound asleep, and from that day on she would allow two people in this world to hold her: my wife… and my father!
Today we give thanks to God for fathers, and, by extension, the fatherly traits of our God who is not only willing but always eager to be by our side, to hear our confessions, to hold us close, to help us let go of our pain and relax in his arms of love. Amen.