Quote from Forum Archives on June 19, 2003, 10:47 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

OUR FATHER FOR EVERY DAY
June 15, 2003

Text: Galatians 3:26-4:7

Until last year, I did not know anything about the origin of Father’s
Day. The Father’s Day devotional entitled “Smart Dad” in last year’s Our
Daily Bread informed everyone who read it. “A hard-working single dad
named William Jackson Smart was the inspiration for the creation of
Father’s Day. His wife died in 1898 while giving birth to their sixth
child, and the Civil War veteran was left to raise the children alone in
rural Washington. In May 1909, Smart’s daughter, by then a married woman
named Sonora Dodd, heard a sermon enumerating the virtues of motherhood.
It was Mother’s Day, a new American holiday that had begun the previous
year. Sonora decided to honor her dad’s dedication to his children by
seeking to have a Father’s Day designated on the calendar. The day caught
on, but it wasn’t permanently established as an annual holiday in the
U.S. until 1972.” That’s the history of the day in brief. J. David
Branon, the devotional’s author, continues. “What a vital role fathers
can play in the home as they train their children to follow God’s ways!
Proverbs 4 gives these nuggets of wisdom that dads can pass on to their
children: ‘Do not enter the path of the wicked’ (v. 14). ‘Keep your heart
with all diligence’ (v.23). ‘Put away from you a deceitful mouth’ (v.
24). And finally, ‘Remove your foot from evil’ (v. 27). We honor our
godly fathers by obeying their instruction. And we should pray for our
dads to recognize their God-given role of training in the home.” (“Smart
Dad,” Our Daily Bread, Grand Rapids, MI: RBC Ministries, June 16, 2002)

I think this was a good devotional for the day, as is this year’s.
Fatherhood should be celebrated not only because it has become an
American tradition, but primarily because of the importance placed upon
it throughout the Bible. The heritage of God’s chosen people is traced
back through father Abraham. God is known throughout all the ages as our
Father. Knowing something about fatherhood is an important part of our
Christian spiritual growth because God is our Father and we are His
children.

It wasn’t until I entered and studied in seminary that a fairly obvious
truth became made known to me. One of the goals of seminary training was
to develop a level of awareness of and sensitivity to how others around
us react to different things. As a result, I learned that not everyone
reacts favorably to the Father image of God. I don’t mean they reject God
or anything like that. It’s just that the image of father that some
people carry with them is not a pretty picture. For some, the image of
father is the man who abandoned his family, or a person they never knew.
Others have an image of a man who was cruel and abusive. There are images
of men who always had time for work but never time for his children.
These are just some of the images that some people might have of
fatherhood, and whether they mean to or not, these are the images
conjured when God is spoken of as Father.

Does this mean that God is unreliable, cruel, or unavailable like some
fathers? Does this mean that we should not speak of God as Father? The
answer to both questions is “no.” God is still Father, but He is a far
different Father than even the best earthly fathers. The good news in
this matter is that God has given His children tremendous capacities for
healing from even some of the worse kinds of trauma. Many children have
found healing from even abusive situations, especially when they open
their lives up to the love of God in Christ.

Part of the secret of such healing is learning the truth about the nature
of God. When this is done, we learn that God is our trustworthy Father.
The nature of God is revealed throughout Scripture. We discern some of
His nature in these verses of Galatians.

First, we discover that God is accessible. This is not true with almost,
if not every, god of man-based religions. In many religions, their chief
god is virtually unknown. He is not accessible by sinful, mortal beings.
There are no provisions to seek his presence. Even in those religions
where there is some sense of accessibility, the procedures to “gain an
audience” are painfully convoluted. Many acts of righteousness and many
rituals must be accomplished in order to obtain the briefest glimpse of
the contrived god.

Not so with God the Father. He has made Himself available, and anyone who
approaches Him through the crucified and resurrected Jesus gains a
permanent audience with the Father. As Paul writes, “You are all sons of
God” - the use of sons by Paul did not exclude the female, so we can
legitimately say “sons [and daughters] of God” - “through faith in Christ
Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ.” The importance of this, which Paul expands even
more in the next verse, is that we have been made into the likeness of
Jesus Christ. It tells us that God the Father is accessible because He
has made Himself accessible. This is the testimony of salvation. There is
nothing we can do to earn God’s love, merit, or salvation. These are all
given freely from the Father because that is His nature. God’s
accessibility will not be withdrawn. When we have received salvation
through Christ in honest confession, we will not one day hear Him say,
“You are no longer My child. I never want to see you again.” This happens
with some earthly fathers, and it is a tragedy when it does, but it will
not - in fact, cannot - happen in our right relationship with God. Why?
Because all of the initiation to establish a relationship between God and
humanity comes from God. All of the requirements necessary for us to
become heirs of God are met by our Father. Since it is God who is
faithful to keep His promises, which are just, then we can trust His
everlasting accessibility.

Continuing, Paul writes to the Galatians that “there is neither Jew nor
Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus.” Now these verses have been used to justify some different things
than I think they were intended. I’m not going to take up all the
different applications that have been tagged on this verse. I want to
emphasize the simple application that Paul was making: God the Father has
brought us into His family as sons and daughters. As such, there is no
favoritism. You are as much a brother of Jesus as I am, and you are as
much a sister of Jesus as she is. No one here has any higher standing
with the Father than anyone else in the family. Indeed, what higher
standing can any of us have beyond the Father’s good and merciful gift of
salvation?

The distinctions that Paul made - and he doubtless could have used some
more if he had wanted - were distinctions deemed important by the secular
world in which he lived. If you lived in Rome, you received more benefit
by being a Roman citizen than by being a Jew. If you lived in Jerusalem,
being a Jew was much more important than being a Gentile. In probably all
of society in which Paul lived, there were more benefits provided the
male than the female - sorry ladies. We usually assume that masters are
better off than slaves.

When it comes to making distinctions between people, no age has differed
that much from another. During the European middle ages, those born into
privileged families were deemed to be better people than those born into
families of serfs. During the Jim Crow law days of our own nation, it was
advantageous to be born white instead of black. What kind of nonsense is
it to make distinctions based only upon one’s family of birth and
completely ignore any other qualities and abilities and skills a person
may develop and exhibit in a lifetime?

Writing under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us that these
human distinctions are nonsense and are made void by the Father. The
Smother’s brothers made a sibling spat famous in their comedy routine in
which Tom would spout back to Dick, “Mom always did like you best!”
Likewise, human history has always tried to set up ways to determine
favoritism. God the Father says, “You are My favorite, and you are My
favorite, and you are My favorite.” He is able and capable of doing that
because He is eternal and never-changing. If issues of favoritism in your
own family are keeping you from receiving the joy of fellowship with God
the Father, then you can drop those concerns by the wayside. Turn to
Matthew 23:11-12 to read the attitude that Jesus wants us to exhibit.
“The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself
will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” The next
time you think that you have lost the Father’s favor, apply those simple
verses to your life to see where you really stand.

All of this leads to the glorious conclusion that Paul builds up in this
part of his letter: “Because you are sons [and daughters], God sent the
Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba,
Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a
son, God has made you also an heir.” These words should thrill us! Know
why? Because no one is left out of “the will.” We are all made heirs by
the Father! Heirs of what? Heirs of salvation.

I don’t know what images you have concerning “stars in your crown,” or
different gradations of mansions, or any other such “heavenly rewards.” I
know that there are different ideas about such things. If you think of
them, though, as being the point of the Gospel, then you think wrong. The
point of the Gospel is salvation in Jesus the Christ. We are heirs not of
stars or crowns or mansions or rewards, we are heirs of salvation through
Jesus. No one who comes to the Father through the Son is left out of the
inheritance.

So, then, when we practice chosen rituals of worship - such as the music
we hear and sing, the order of service, the place we meet, the styles we
choose - they are not rituals devised to seek favor with the Father, or
to beg Him to remain in our presence, or to coerce Him to do our will.
They are rituals of thanksgiving for who He is and what He has done. They
are rituals of praise to the one Father throughout eternal life who is
completely trustworthy. They are rituals of celebration delivered to the
Father who is our Father every day.

The end result, or “the bottom line” as we like to use in our day, is
that no matter what image comes to mind about earthly fathers, the image
associated with God the Father is one of complete, enduring trust.
Consider the observation of Dave Stone in his sermon, “Keep the Dust Off
the Highchair.”

“Several months ago our family went to a swimming pool. I was down in the
deep end by the diving board swimming around, and my four-year-old,
Savannah, came tottering into the shallow end of the pool. She can't swim
yet, but she wears these big orange "floaties." She can't sink with these
huge orange floaties on. Savannah came down the steps, and as soon as she
got out there in the water, she said "Daddy, I'm scared. I want to come
where you are." I chuckled at her naïveté and said, "Savannah, it's a lot
deeper down here." She said, "I don't care. I want to be where you are."
"Okay, come on," I said. She began dog-paddling across the pool ...
three-foot ... six-foot ... nine-foot ... 12-foot-deep water. When she
came up to me she grabbed my neck, and her look of panic gave way to
relief. Next to her father she felt secure, and it made very little
difference how deep or how dangerous the water was.” (Dave Stone, "Keep
the Dust Off the Highchair," Preaching Today, Tape No. 143).

Not all human, earthly fathers are equal. I wish I could say differently,
but I can’t. Not all talk about fathers and fatherhood brings good images
to everyone. I wish I could say differently, but I can’t. But I can say
this with certainty and truth: regardless of your experience with your
earthly father - good or bad - you will have a better experience with God
the Father. You will find relief; you will be secure next to the Father.
Always; without exception, because that’s the way that God the Father is.
He is our Father for every day.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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