Thoughts for Father’s Day

Luke 15:11-22

Today is the National Holiday we call Father’s Day.  In 1911, Jane Addams, the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and was a progressive leader in the woman’s movement, commented: “Poor father has been left out in the cold.  He doesn’t get much recognition.  It would be a good thing if he had a day that would mean recognition of him.”  Sixty-one years later Father’s Day became a national holiday when, in 1972, President Richard Nixon signed Public Law 92-628 making it a Federally recognized holiday.  Father’s Day is quite a celebration, and American spend a lot of money on the holiday.  It is predicted that we Americans will spend $24 Billion on Father’s Day 2025.  However, Mother’s Day expenditures are around $34.1 Billion or $259 per person.  Those holidays are significant ones that recognize the importance of both mothers and fathers.  We know that both mothers and fathers contribute greatly to the wellbeing of the Nation.

Fathers do get some recognition in this country.  However, I have noticed that in the cartoons fathers are sometimes depicted as bumbling, foolish clowns.  Ninety-four years ago, the Blondie cartoon was published and it continues to be published today.  The father, Dagwood Bumstead, is portrayed as an odd bumbling character.  And in 1999, the Family Guy cartoon was made.  The father of the Griffin family, Peter Griffin, is variously characterized as “endearingly ignorant.”  Fathers get a mixed presentation in the cartoons and movies.  One of the main characters in the romance novel, The Wedding Kimono, says that he was impressed with his father who was a dedicated physician.  He would come home and spend time in his study and his son thought he was reading medical articles to keep up to date.  However, one evening he walked in on his father and noticed what he was watching on his computer.  Ready for this?  The physician father was watching funny cat videos on YouTube.  That changed his son’s perception of him. 

There is no such thing as the perfect father.  I am not a perfect father and I venture to say that most of the fathers in this room are not perfect either.  We learn about being a father from our fathers who were not perfect fathers.  I did not quite understand my father until I found a post card he wrote to his father when he was five years old.  Basically, he was wondering when his businessman father would come home.  Sometimes fathers pass on some negative things from their fathers.  In our contemporary culture, many fathers are both physically and emotionally absent from their families and their children and the nation suffer from it.  I have seen numerous videos of gangs of youth robbing and stealing.  They did not learn Christian values from their fathers who likely did not learn Christian values from their fathers.  Do you know what I am saying?  The Nation needs strong Christian fathers who are both physically and emotionally present for their children and who teach them how to be strong Christian adults.

In the Bible we read about the importance of bringing up children in a godly way.  Moses tells the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 6:4-7: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”  Jesus knew these words of wisdom and commands us to do the same.  A teacher of the Jewish law asked him, “Teacher which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37).”  It is of extreme importance to teach children the first and greatest commandment and the other of the commands of the Lord.  The apostle Paul writes specifically to the fathers in the church at Ephesus and consequently to all fathers: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).” 

There’s a little piece of father wisdom I found somewhere along the line and I want to share it with you:

At 4 Years the child says:  My daddy can do anything.

7 Years:  My dad knows a lot, a whole lot.

8 Years:  My father doesn’t quite know everything.

12 Years:  Oh, well, naturally Father doesn’t know everything.

14 Years:  Father?  Hopelessly old-fashioned.

21 Years:  Oh, that man is out of date.  What did you expect?

25 Years:  He knows a little bit about it, but not much.

30 Years: Must find out what Dad thinks about it.

35 Years:  A little patience, let’s get Dad’s meaning first.

50 Years:  What would Dad have thought about it?

60 Years:  My dad knew literally everything.

65 Years:  I wish I could talk it over with dad once more.

It is amazing how, as the years pass, we realize that our fathers had something worth listening to. 

In the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures, one finds the word, father, in reference to the Lord God around 15 times.  In contrast, one finds the word, father, in reference to God in the Gospels around 165 times.  The prophet Isaiah makes a grand statement about God as Father: “But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from old is your name (Isaiah 63:15).”  However, in the Old Testament they primarily saw God as the Sovereign Lord, not as Father.  They addressed him as Yahweh, Adonai, Lord and God.  His Name was so sacred to them that they would not pronounce it but called him Adonai rather than YHWH. 

It is hard to ignore Jesus’ teachings about our Father on this special day we call Father’s Day.  Jesus spoke the common language of Israel in the early First Century called Aramaic.  The Aramaic words in the Gospels are translated into koine Greek by the Gospel writers.  The Aramaic word for father is Abba.  It is not a formal word but the word little children called their fathers.  Some find it hard to comprehend that the word Abba actually is best translated “Dad” or “Daddy.”  I had a professor in seminary who taught that it is not proper to understand Abba as Daddy but “Papa.”  When I was once standing in the custom and immigration line at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel, I heard a little boy address his father as Abba.  Indeed, it is proper to address the Lord God as Abba, Dad or Daddy.  I have to confess it is hard to comprehend the Lord God as Daddy but I am quite comfortable in addressing him as Abba.

When Jesus’ disciples asked him to give them a special prayer as John the Baptist gave his disciples, he taught them a prayer beginning with “Our Father…”  Over and over again we read that Jesus perceived the Lord God as Father.  He calls the Lord God “My Father” 53 times in the Gospels, “Our Father” 21 times in the gospels and “Your Father” another 21 times in the gospels. 

How can we best understand the Lord God as Abba and what is Abba like?  Jesus taught us a find parable about our Abba and what he is like.  I know you have heard about the parable of the Prodigal Son.  However, I think the focus needs to be on the father, not his nasty son.  Let’s look at the father in the parable and see what he was like.  The first thing I can tell you is that the father in the parable was unlike any First Century father.  A First Century father would certainly never have acted as he did.  If a village father acted like him, his neighbors would think he was crazy.  Maybe they’d say he had dementia. 

The father in the parable was encountered by his youngest son who demanded his share of his inheritance now while the father was alive.  A village father would likely have given a son who made such a demand a beating.  He would beat some sense into him.  What does the father in the parable do?  He gives in to the outrageous demand of his youngest son and gives him his share of the estate.  He gave into the insulting demand.  The other men in the village would have been shocked by his actions.  Well, he gives in and his youngest son leaves home for the land of the Gentiles.

In the meantime, what does the father do?  He sits and waits and waits and waits.  The elders of the village would gather at the village gate or square to make decisions and catch up on the latest news.  The father in the parable would be watching and waiting.  Imagine him sitting and looking down the road.  What is he looking for?  He is longing for his youngest son to return to him. 

Jesus says, “But while he (the youngest son) was still a long way off, the father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him (Luke 15:20b).”  No respectable village elder would run.  In order to run, one has to lift up one’s robe and reveal one’s bare legs.  That is not good.  One writer says that when the early Arabic New Testament was translated, they said he hurried.  Translating the word as run was offensive to them.  Why did he run?  He wanted to meet his son before he got to the village.  If he walked into the village, the experts say that it is likely that the young men of the village would beat him.  Jesus is highlighting the compassion of the father and clearly is using the father as an analogy for the Lord God, our Abba.

The father tells the servants to bring his best robe and put it on him.  He tells them to put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Then he tells them to kill the fattened calf and call all the villagers for a party.  At this point, if there were any Pharisees listening to the parable, they would be scandalized.  Their religion was one where a sinner had to earn God’s forgiveness.  The father reveals that God wants sinners to come to him and does not require anything from them in order to gain his approval.  Jesus is using the father to help us understand who our Abba is and what he is like.  Even though the nasty son came home in his filthy stinking rags, his father reinstated him as a loved son.  Jesus is telling us that it is never too late to come home.  When a sinner comes to the Lord, he or she accepts them and makes them part of his family.  The Abba is about unconditional grace given without cost.

Today we celebrate and honor our fathers.  In addition, we recognize that the Lord God is our Abba, our daddy.  Unlike the pagan gods and goddesses, he seeks us and offers us his forgiveness and grace.  The Lord God is loving and kind to his people.  When we come to him in repentance, he adopts us into his family and we become one of his beloved children.  Today we can honor and give gratitude to our heavenly Abba for all that he has done for us in the past, for all that he is doing for us right now, and all that he will do for us in the future.  Thanks be to our Abba for his grace and mercy.

A sermon preached at Veterans Memorial Chapel on June 15, 2025