Father’s Day
Written by: Gordon McPhee
Scripture Readings: Isaiah 40: 25-31
Philippians 4: 4-9
John 1: 1-18
SERMON TITLE: “Father, What’s in a Name?”
SERMON SCRIPTURE: Philippians 4: 4-9 (First Nations Version)
Always dance with joy before our Honoured Chief! I will say it again: dance with joy! Let everyone see how kind and thoughtful you are. Our honoured Chief is close at hand.
Do not let your hearts be weighed down with anything. Instead, with every step you take, send your voice to the Great Spirit, asking him for the things you need. And in all your prayers, remember to give him thanks. Then the peace and harmony of the Great Spirit, which goes far beyond our small and weak ways of thinking, will watch over your hearts and minds through the Chosen One, Creator Sets Free (Jesus)
Last of all, my sacred family members, if anything can be seen as good and honourable, think deeply about these things. Things that are true and noble, upright and pure, full of beauty and worthy of respect. Follow the way of life you have seen in me, the things you have learned from me, heard from me, and received from me. Keep walking in the traditions I have passed on to you. Then the Great Spirit of Peace will continue to walk with you on this road.
INTRODUCTION:
Father’s Day
Philippians 4:4-9 doesn’t specifically use the word father. Still, if we broaden our understanding to include what father means when used to describe God the Father, then I think Paul says a lot about how we see our roles as parents, leaders, and yes, fathers. Hopefully, without getting too wrapped up in woke gender controversy, we’ll take a look at the label ‘Father’ and ask, What’s in a Name?
I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.
Smudging = burning incense, burnt offerings
Four Directions = the four winds, four corners, doors to the Temple mount. East, the rising sun
Animals = have souls or at least are saved, preserved
Music
Circle = Alpha-Omega, eternal life
Feather, Talking Stick, Totem = Staff, Authority
Not introducing pagan superstition
embracing the earliest worship practices, God loved
before Christianity and the Church
before Moses and the Torah
The worship offered by Abram, Job, Noah, and Enoch, who, btw, pleased God and didn’t see death.
SERMON:
Let’s begin our consideration of the name Father with a little mind teaser. Julian of Norwich was a twelfth-century English Catholic Christian mystic. She sequestered herself in a life of prayer and contemplation and documented a series of divine visions in a work titled “Revelations of Divine Love.” In one revelation, the Virgin Mary speaks of her son, Jesus, as also being her Lord and God the Father. So that in this impossible cyclic relationship, her son is also her Father who gives her life. It’s reminiscent of the cyclic reference in Matthew 22:41-45 that Jesus made, quoting Psalm 110:1, in which David refers to the Messiah, whom the Jews supposed to be a descendant of his, as his Lord. I’ll leave you to think about all that yourselves, it's all way above my pay grade.
Suffice it to say that these relationships are not as straightforward as we would like or imagine. At the simplest level, a father is a biological or social and legal parent, a male who assumes the responsibilities, rights, and duties of raising a child. However, the term father embodies the idea of creation and leadership. We readily speak of the originator or founder of something as its father. The Founding Fathers is not a gender-specific term, but our male-dominant history has left its mark, and so we also have, from the American Civil War, the Founding Mothers.
Actresses notably adopted the title “ actor " to make the point that they were on a par with their male counterparts, reacting to the idea of the male lead and the female supporting actress. And so the term ‘actor’ loses its male connotation.
Father can also refer to the forebear of a family, race, or group of people, in which case it usually retains its male gender component. However, when used to denote a leader or elder, there need be no gender specific implication. We have become comfortable using the term father without really thinking about what we’re saying. It is convenient to refer to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, thinking of the Father as an old man with long hair, yours truly notwithstanding, and never considering Julian of Norwich’s scripturally supported portrait of God’s nurturing, life-giving, all-female motherly nature.
Truly, we need a better vision of who The Father is, especially if we, men and women, are to be good examples of a caring, capable Father Creator. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, gives us a glimpse of just that.
The portion we read today is his sending, at the end of his letter, before the benediction. Paul begins by turning our focus on God, the Honoured Chief, as expressed in the First Nations Version translation. “Dance with joy!” What a wonderful way to express the NIV’s more conservative “revel in him!” And why do we do this? So that everyone can see how holy and righteous we are? Or maybe how much better we are? No, none of it. We dance with joy before the Honoured Chief to “Let everyone see how kind and thoughtful you are.” Because our “honoured Chief is close at hand.”
Then, after a few more encouraging words, Paul comes to what he really wants to say, “Last of all.” “If anything can be seen as good and honourable, think deeply about these things.” And what are these things? Paul doesn’t disappoint. “Things that are true and noble, upright and pure, full of beauty and worthy of respect.”
“Things that are true and noble, upright and pure, full of beauty and worthy of respect.” My goodness, if we set that as the minimum bar for everything we say and do in life, would it not transform everything in our lives? And everything and everyone around us. I grant you, it would take the fun out of some things, but deep inside, we know those things are of no consequence and usually eventually bring hurt.
I don’t know if you see in this adjuration of Paul’s the same things that I see, but they sound very similar to the words of respect for people, animals and all of creation that I hear in the best of indigenous worship and praise. Some of the things we spoke of today.
Over the centuries, and I dare say millennia, we have sanitized our worship of God to remove many things our culture finds uncomfortable. And although it has the appearance of making our beliefs more palatable, I think we, in fact, suffer from the loss of substance this engenders. Long before our church traditions, God’s people worshiped Him, turning to “things that are true and noble, upright and pure, full of beauty and worthy of respect.”
The name Father was given to God not only as the progenitor of all creatures and creation, but because everything that is “true and noble, upright and pure, full of beauty and worthy of respect” is manifested in Him. It is our English language and the history of our patriarchal social structures that imprint this male gender on the name Father. In fact, I could call any one of you, man or woman alike, Father, and mean that you have shown yourself to be true and noble, upright and pure. full of beauty and worthy of respect.
That we refer to the male parent as Father, I think, is most appropriate as it demonstrates the high standards expected of such an office. And knowing we are absolutely unable to wear this praise should encourage every father, as Paul speaks of to the Philippians, to look to Jesus and the transforming life of the Holy Spirit for help.
“Follow the way of life you have seen in me,” Paul says, “ the things you have learned from me, heard from me, and received from me.” Paul was neither married nor had children of his own, yet he often referred to the communities with whom he worshipped as his children. And as a father to them, he was bold in Christ to set himself as an example of what it is to be, like Jesus, “true and noble, upright and pure, full of beauty and worthy of respect.” Would that every one of us, whether we bear the name Father as a male parent or as someone in a position to lead and inspire, exemplify to those who look to us, all the character and quality Paul is saying we see in our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s what’s in the name, Father.
And why? Because, as Paul says, “Then the Great Spirit of Peace will continue to walk with you on this road.” Just as Fathers accompany their children, and we all accompany each other, our family, friends, and neighbours, on this journey of life, in this circle of sharing and fellowship, so Jesus, the Great Spirit of Peace, accompanies us, showing us the way of the Father that is, “true and noble, upright and pure, full of beauty and worthy of respect.” That’s what’s in the name, Father.
Pass the feather.
Thank you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for this sharing.
Amen