Bonus Father’s Day Sermon

Sermon

Third Sunday After Pentecost (Year A) (Proper 11) - Father’s Day

Baptism & Holy Communion – June 18, 2023

Genesis 25:19-34

Psalm 46

Romans 5:6-11

Matthew 9:35-10:15

“A Worthy Model”

In this age of role and identity confusion and ambiguity, it is important to keep one essential fact in front of us. However, before I go on to that one essential fact, let me mention one other thing: fathers, earthly fathers, are often characterized these days—and criticized—as persons of doubtful or questionable influence or impact on their children’s lives.

And certainly, there is more than enough evidence to give credence to such an idea. Even the examples given in the Scriptures would give support to it. We see the patriarch of our faith Abraham, our example of faith, twice trying to pass off his wife Sarah as his sister in order to save his own skin. So much for a great example of a father!

And we find numerous examples, Isaac and Jacob for instance, of fathers indulging in a very unhealthy discrimination and favouritism among their children. With Isaac, we see an example of this in our first reading. Isaac, the father of two sons, Jacob and Esau, loved Esau—and favoured him—because he was fond of the wild game that Esau brought in to him.. Meanwhile, his wife Rebekah loved and favoured the other son, Jacob, and connived and wheedled her way into getting him ahead of the older son, that is, in first place. The result was a house so badly divided that Esau hated his brother and wanted to kill him.

You would think that Jacob would have thereby learned his lesson, but, oh no, he so favoured his son Joseph that he exempted him from hard labour (thus the coat of many colours) and had him spy on his brothers. Once again, the result was that the brothers so despised Joseph that they too wanted him dead, and in fact, sold him into slavery in Egypt to get rid of him.

Then we have King David, someone who is described as ‘a man after God’s own heart’, that also failed miserably as a father. He failed to see what was happening in his own household and failed to deal with it. Thus, when his own daughter was raped by a half-sibling and her brother Absalom avenged this by murdering the perpetrator, he did nothing. And likewise, when that same son rose up in revolt against him again he did nothing. So David was not a great role model or example as a father.

In the New Testament we have fathers who are just as bad. Herod Antipas, for example, had John the Baptist executed because a stupid drunken promise to his stepdaughter Salome. Then there’s the elder Herod, Herod the Great, who had several of his children—and his wife as well—murdered because he thought that they posed a threat to his rule. No, in the Bible, there are a number of fathers who don’t get very good press, no, not at all.

And so, because of such dismal examples—and yes, we can all add some from our own experiences and knowledge—our heavenly Father is sometimes seen in a similar light, ‘tarred with the same brush’, as it were. However, the reality is really the opposite. Our heavenly Father is supposed to be the example, the model, for our earthly fathers, not the other way around. This is the essential fact that I mentioned at the very beginning of my sermon today. Our heavenly Father should be the one we look up to and try to imitate. Earthly fathers should seek to be like Him, to model themselves in His likeness.

So, what is our heavenly Father like? Today’s psalm and epistle both give us insights to His nature and activity. In the psalm, Psalm 46, we hear firstly that God is ever present, a very present help. As the psalm says twice, ‘the Lord of hosts is with us’. He is always there, always present, always available. Secondly, we hear that He is ever dependable, ‘well proved’, in fact. The psalmist has put God to the test, as it were, and always found Him to come through for him. So, no matter what transpires, he will not be afraid. And finally, the psalmist knows God to always be helpful, his refuge and strength, his fortress, where he can feel safe and secure.

Our epistle (or letter) to the Romans goes on to give us some further information about our heavenly Father. There He is described as ever merciful and ever loving. Three times there, Paul tells us of how God took the initiative on our behalf:

While we were still weak…

While we were still sinners…

While we were enemies…

While we were still weak and helpless and unable to help ourselves and get ourselves ‘out of our mess, God acted on our behalf and redeemed and saved us;

While we were still trapped by sin and slaves to sin and couldn’t get free, God extinguished the power of sin on our behalf and set us free;

And, while we were His enemies, rebels against God’s rule and determined to do and go our own way (as in Frank Sinatra’s famous song, “I did it my way’), God forgave us, bridged the gap that existed between Him and us and reconciled us.

In those ways our heavenly Father proved His love for us and demonstrated His mercy in such practical ways. In those ways He showed, once and for all, what a real father is supposed to be like. (Shortly we will hear a song by George Strait, “Love Without End, Amen”, that describes what that’s like).

But, before that, one last thing, a necessary thing in an age when men in general are often put down, and even seen as the source and origin of pretty well most of our problems. At such a time it is good and beneficial to go back and look at the perfect man, Jesus Christ, and see what His example can say to us about fathers. Jesus, more than any other human who has lived on earth, perfectly reflected His Father’s character and personality, reflected what a father is supposed to be like, even though he was not, in fact, a father.

In our Gospel reading, we are told that He was moved by compassion for the crowds He met. The Greek word used here for ‘compassion’ is very visceral, very earthy. It means to be moved by ‘bowels of mercy’, that is, to be impacted by the very depths of one’s personality, the very depths of one’s being.

In the gospels we read of Jesus being ‘moved’ in this way by human pain, human suffering and pain, human hunger and human helplessness and loneliness. Here, in today’s passage, however, He is moved by our very

human bewilderment and lostness. As far as Jesus is concerned, the crowd He encounters are like sheep without a shepherd. This sentiment of Jesus’ part is exactly like that of His Father, our Heavenly Father.

But that is not all: not only His attitude, but Jesus’ words and actions also betray how God works in His world, in our world. Here He perfectly carries out God’s purpose and will, as Jesus was known to say, “I do only what I see my Father do.”

So, Jesus immediately establishes that the job is too big, the need too great, for Him to tackle it all by Himself—too much for just one person. And so He farms it out to the Twelve. He takes on assistants to whom He can delegate some of His task, and so is able to multiply the possible coverage and get more done. That is how much Jesus, here modelling the Father’s love, cares for us His people.

And so, in Jesus and in His Father, we have worthy models, worthy examples of what our earthly fathers should be like—but, not just them, but all of us. We should all show that same dependability, that same care and helpfulness towards, that same compassion and understanding, that same love, as shown by them. That is the example they leave for us. That is what we are to be like. Thanks be to God. Amen.