This is Father’s Day as we consider it in the United States and other parts of the world.  I want to give a gift in addition to the prayer that you will find.  It’s based upon the Lord’s Prayer; it’s printed in the bulletin.  This will be displayed on the bottom of the screen; it is Psalm 5, Versus 7 and 8.  And I give it to you as an understanding of a principle part of what it means to be a man in this world who is either a biological father or a father of spirit and example.  The Psalmist writes in Psalm 5:7-8, “But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house in reverence when I bow down toward your holy Temple.  Make me, oh Lord, in your righteousness.  Because of enemies, make straight your way before me.  But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will bow down toward your holy Temple.” 

            That’s a call upon all people.  It’s an awareness that we are told to be in God’s house which is a symbol of being in the presence of God.  There is a difference between those two, by the way.  Because it seems that if you would classify people into rough groups, there are those who have a belief in God but don’t come to church or participate in any way on the outside.  What may have happened is, and I too at times will have questions about the belief in God, but the difficulty really comes not whether we believe in God but whether we believe God believes in us!  You see, as a child you grow up and your father seems to be distant and cold and not connected to you or harsh and judgmental, then you might respond one of two ways—the way we see God.  You may disconnect; you may choose just to break off all together.  There are a lot of people who believe there is a God but don’t trust the God they believe in.  And so they stay away, not just from church, but most importantly they stay away from God.   

They may feel that way, but the flip side is instead there are those who will choose to try and earn God’s faith.  Just like with a stern father, a man who comes with a set of rules and expectations and the child says, “I want to please my father or mother, any parent.”  And then they get in to being compliant, following the rules, doing all they can on the outside to earn the grace and the love and the acceptance of their earthly father or their heavenly Father. 

Maybe you have found yourself in one position or another.  Maybe you quit at one time and said, “I really can’t believe in that God.  There is one, but I don’t want that God.”  Or you come and you try to earn that right.   

It is a struggle being a father and raising children.  How much do you love them with an unquestionable love?  But also, how do you train them to raise them up and to know God’s way?  To be or not to be a father—that’s the question.  But even greater than that, to be or not to be a father in Jesus Christ—one who loves and accepts Christ in their life.  In looking at the passage for today in the Lectionary, I was kind of looking for something that can speak to Father’s Day.  And guess what, the passage from Luke is where Jesus goes in to the house of Simon. He is a guest of Simon.  Sits down at the table, or reclines, as was the custom.  And a woman from the street comes in, kneels behind Jesus and then begins to come around in front and cries enough tears to wet his feet and pours expensive perfume on His feet.  And she was a woman of the street, a sinful woman.  And Simon and others raise the question of Jesus at that setting, “How can you let a woman do that kind of thing to you when you know who she is?”  And Jesus takes them to task and says, “I’ve been here in your house and she’s showed me more love than any of you have.” 

I thought about that for Father’s Day and envision father’s relaxing back in a recliner and having some woman come and pour expensive perfume.  And I didn’t know whether that was to be their wife or a sinful woman and I didn’t want to even put those two together.  So I said, “Stay away from that!”  And I looked at the other passage for today from I Kings where King Ahab, who is not a good king, he’s an evil king, he covets this man’s property.  The man’s name is Naboth.  And he tells his wife, Jezebel, who is not a good queen; she’s from Phoenicia and she brings in all this worship of Baal and other gods besides the true God.  And she takes it on herself to do something as a loving gift to her husband, the king.  And she has Naboth killed.  And then she says, “Now you can have that land.”  And he takes it over.   

Now this is the King that I read in the passage.  And even further, Elijah comes and chastises him about it.  And I thought, “Well, now that’s not a good model for a father either.”  So I dropped that passage and I went back to the Luke passage because when in doubt go back to Jesus.  If you read something in Scripture, if you are bothered by it at least go back and re-read what Jesus says about something.  So the emphasis isn’t for fathers today or men or anyone to recline in a chair and have someone come and do those things to you.  It’s a symbol of what the woman is doing. 

And that’s the focus for today.  To be a father is to be one who knows that they are not any better than any one else.  But desire to come to the feet of the Lord!  To find a way whereby you can see beyond one’s own sin and the sin of others and be a person who follows Jesus, the Christ.  And this is good for you as work camp people.  As you go to do your work in your presence in Red Lake, Minnesota, and also in Belize, remember that you go no better than anyone else that you’re serving.   

Fathers have a tendency, men do, of wanting to prove their worth by being providers, being stronger, being greater.  Men tend to do this.  It’s sometimes called the “macho” type of thing.  But otherwise, what Jesus is saying in the passage for today is, as he says to this woman, “Your sins are forgiven.  Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace.”  What if every man on the face of the earth could see beyond their own sin, that they try to hide usually, or see beyond the sins and infractions of their children?  And, yes, give them guidance and structure, but do so with loving grace and understanding. 

It’s so easy.  I think back as a younger father how easy it is to be irritated with what your children do or distracted with things that are going on around.  You go back 39 years ago yesterday, when Joyce and I were married.  It was interesting; the most wonderful day of your life right?  When you get married and everything is going well and your father-in-law who is a minister is performing the service for you and you are recording the service so that you can have it for posterity and listen to it every year on your anniversary (which we did not).  But right in the middle, Joyce says it was during the solo and I said it was during the vowels, but nonetheless a siren went by outside the church and drowned out the recording.  I was irritated by it.  I was irritated because something disrupted my view of the way it should be.  That’s the way fathers can be with children.  You want them to be over here but they are not over here, they are over there instead.  And so you get irritated and frustrated with what they are not doing.  And do you know what the truth of the siren was that interrupted that wedding service?  It was an ambulance going to pick up a man who’s a member of that church who was having a heart attack.  Well, that brought me down a little bit latter when I realized, “Why should I be irritated about that?  The man almost lost his life.”  It changes your whole perspective when you realize there are things that are greater than you, greater than your perspective of the way things are suppose to be.   

And the other is to recognize that our self-centered desires and our greed and our misunderstanding of the way we see other people can get in the way of our own children.  Our attention to detail in work can get in the way of our children.  I think back on the time when the church was more important than my girls.  And you say, “Well the church is important.  Pastors have that holy thing to do.”  Well, I’m no different.  It was no different than any other male who was given the privilege of having children.  To see that their work is not more important than their children!  It’s hard to do because you are called to be a provider in that one aspect, but the other is you are called first to be a father to those children.  Now I don’t think either girl today remember those times when I ignored them when I was watching the TV or going off to some meeting at the church when they wanted me to play out in the back yard or all those other times.  Fortunately they have forgotten that part.   

But the reality was that I was no different than anyone else, can not judge them.  Jesus was saying, by letting that woman anoint him, that do that most important things you can.  Show love and grace and appreciation to those that you love when you have those moments for you may not be able to recapture or you may regret it later when they are no longer around. 

You see, Jesus also used in this passage today the response to Simon.  Well, let me tell you the story about two men who owe a debtor—one who had loaned money to these two.  One was 500 denarii, we’ll say $500; and the other was $50.  Both of the men were forgiven of their debts.  Jesus’ question to Simon was, “Which one do you think appreciated the forgiveness more?”  “Well, the one who was forgiven the most!”  And He pointed to the woman and said, “She’s forgiven. She may be the greatest sinner that you know of, but she has the most to be appreciative of.”  

The passage of going in to the Temple means that you have to humble yourself.  In Psalm, what they are saying is each of us, in our journey with Jesus Christ, must come to the point where we recognize our sinfulness first.  But not to disconnect ourselves from God, not to run and think God is a holy God and is too great and judgmental of us nor to try to do the rules just right so that God will love us.  But simply to accept that gracious love and mercy that only God can provide and then to turn around, in the work camp situation that you are in or as a mother or father or just a person trying to do God’s will, to offer that mercy and forgiveness to others around you.  It’s a great gift to be forgiven as that woman knew.  And she was forgiven by the faith that she had that God loved her.  And she offered it in return. 

On this Father’s Day, to be or not to be a father, first of all ask the question, “To be or not to be a father of Jesus Christ”.  One who understands what forgiveness is in your own heart.  And then to apply it fully, generously, richly whenever, with all that you can, in all ways that you can.  And if you are blessed to be a father, start it with your children and love them beyond their expectation.  It will work better in the long run.  It will mean that they come to you because they know you love them with heart, not to prove themselves worthy. 

I watched a movie over the weekend called, The Good Shepherd.  It had nothing to do with religion, church, Jesus Christ.  It was with the CIA.  And it wasn’t the point of the story except that you watched a man grow up and learn that his father didn’t love him and he could not then love his own son.  And all the way through life, he couldn’t love any one.  What a sad, lonely person he became.  He could not love others because he hadn’t accepted love in the first place.   

May you go knowing God loves you and trust, as we all do, that in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit, as you receive that love, you can then love others.  Let’s join together for prayer, “Each in their own way, gracious Father, know that we have fallen short.  But you still invite us to come before you in your presence and to know you as a loving and forgiving Father, a heavenly Father, the God and Creator of us all.  We thank you that you came in Jesus Christ to continue to emphasize and reinforce forgiveness and new life and a new way of living.  If we have been a bit bothered by the rules that sometimes the church applies, may we remember it is not the rules that save us, it is your forgiving grace.  So may we feel a renewed sense of that flowing grace in our hearts this morning and go out from here to serve you in the name of Jesus Christ loving others in that same merciful way.  In the name of Christ our Lord we pray.  Amen.

E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman

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