God The Father
Sermon
I've recently read a novel called "Beach Music", by Pat Conroy. It has a number of different stories woven into it and kept me gripped from beginning to end. Although it's a long novel, I was really sorry when it ended and am determined to look for more works by Pat Conroy.
Several of the stories within the book are concerned with relationships with fathers. One father was so adversely affected by his experiences as a Jew in Poland during the Second World War, that it completely screwed up his relationship with his own family. Although he and his wife escaped to America and remained there, his daughters were brought up in a household of fear and darkness and their childhood was a Polish Jewish one which was completely alien in America. Eventually the eldest daughter committed suicide.
Another father was an alcoholic and although he was a County Judge, he frequently beat his wife and his five sons. All the sons reacted differently to their childhood of violence and fear and one became schizophrenic.
And yet another father, who was a professional soldier and was a General in the Military, verbally and physically abused his son to such an extent that the boy grew up to be completely wild, getting up to ever more dangerous pranks in order to prove himself to this father who regarded him as a "mummy's boy" and was constantly trying to toughen him up. That boy eventually became a priest, but not before he had killed somebody in his wildness.
Although the majority of children have loving fathers and are brought up within a loving home, in past years many children have at the least been in awe of their fathers and at the most, terrified of them. Fathers were generally regarded as the disciplinarians, and no child enjoys discipline. It's only in very recent years that physical discipline has become regarded unacceptable within the home and it's only in very recent years that fathers have been encouraged to take a real and active part in their children's upbringing.
Some would say that all this liberation has been a bad thing and that a little healthy fear never hurt anybody. And it certainly seems to be true that some children today have no sense of self--discipline whatsoever. But that has to be balanced against the children of the past who grew up with no sense of self--worth whatsoever. Fortunately, many families and many fathers have managed to strike the right balance between discipline and indulgence and have raised children who are self--confident, sure of their own worth and are excellent citizens.
In today's reading from the book of Jeremiah, God describes himself as a father to Israel, describing Ephraim as his first--born. Ephraim was the second son of Joseph, but Jacob (Joseph's father) gave the blessing of the first--born to Ephraim, thus placing him above his brother, Manasseh. Ephraim then became the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. It may also have been the name of part of the geographical territory taken over by the Ancient Israelites.
Jeremiah was a sixth century prophet who was eventually one of those carried off into exile in Babylon, but his image of God as a father to Israel is taken from an image first pictured by Hosea, some two hundred or so years earlier. In a famous passage, Hosea uses almost the same words about God as Jeremiah uses. But Hosea has developed them to produce an image which is perhaps even more motherly than fatherly. In Hosea's book God says this: When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.... It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them (Hosea 11:1--4 ).
The prophets are all quite clear that discipline is a major role of God the Father. Throughout the Old Testament -- the story of God's relationship with his people -- God constantly warns the people about their evil ways. When the warnings fall on deaf ears, God punishes his people, not in order to make them suffer, but in order to enable them to see the harm they are inflicting upon themselves and to turn away from the pathway that leads to their own destruction.
But God has a habit of cutting short the punishment, of bringing it to an end, and always follows up the threat of punishment with promises of love and restoration and renewal. In today's reading from Jeremiah, God promises to lead the people back. God says, " I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble" and later in the same passage God continues, "They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again. Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty."
So although God is a father who disciplines his children, he isn't the sort of father who terrifies his children by his harshness. God is also a loving father who teaches his children to walk, who takes them by the hand, who feeds them and cares for them. God's discipline is always for the sake of the children, never because God loses his temper or is just fed up with the children.
God's final and amazing gift to his children is a Messiah to lead them out of darkness into God's glorious light so that they can actually experience all those wonderful things that God has promised them. In order to finally show them the way to live, it seems God has perhaps given up on punishment with its threats and rewards, and has instead sent someone to actually demonstrate the right way to live. In God's most powerful message to his children, God's "Word" -- Jesus -- lives on earth with God's children, experiencing all that they experience and showing them how to receive all that God is longing to pour into them.
Those that turn to him, open themselves to receive his gifts and follow him, experience eternal life. And that eternal life is one where young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. It's a life which will become like a watered garden, and where they will never languish again. It's a life where they will be radiant over the goodness of the Lord.
And that's a life worth having.
Several of the stories within the book are concerned with relationships with fathers. One father was so adversely affected by his experiences as a Jew in Poland during the Second World War, that it completely screwed up his relationship with his own family. Although he and his wife escaped to America and remained there, his daughters were brought up in a household of fear and darkness and their childhood was a Polish Jewish one which was completely alien in America. Eventually the eldest daughter committed suicide.
Another father was an alcoholic and although he was a County Judge, he frequently beat his wife and his five sons. All the sons reacted differently to their childhood of violence and fear and one became schizophrenic.
And yet another father, who was a professional soldier and was a General in the Military, verbally and physically abused his son to such an extent that the boy grew up to be completely wild, getting up to ever more dangerous pranks in order to prove himself to this father who regarded him as a "mummy's boy" and was constantly trying to toughen him up. That boy eventually became a priest, but not before he had killed somebody in his wildness.
Although the majority of children have loving fathers and are brought up within a loving home, in past years many children have at the least been in awe of their fathers and at the most, terrified of them. Fathers were generally regarded as the disciplinarians, and no child enjoys discipline. It's only in very recent years that physical discipline has become regarded unacceptable within the home and it's only in very recent years that fathers have been encouraged to take a real and active part in their children's upbringing.
Some would say that all this liberation has been a bad thing and that a little healthy fear never hurt anybody. And it certainly seems to be true that some children today have no sense of self--discipline whatsoever. But that has to be balanced against the children of the past who grew up with no sense of self--worth whatsoever. Fortunately, many families and many fathers have managed to strike the right balance between discipline and indulgence and have raised children who are self--confident, sure of their own worth and are excellent citizens.
In today's reading from the book of Jeremiah, God describes himself as a father to Israel, describing Ephraim as his first--born. Ephraim was the second son of Joseph, but Jacob (Joseph's father) gave the blessing of the first--born to Ephraim, thus placing him above his brother, Manasseh. Ephraim then became the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. It may also have been the name of part of the geographical territory taken over by the Ancient Israelites.
Jeremiah was a sixth century prophet who was eventually one of those carried off into exile in Babylon, but his image of God as a father to Israel is taken from an image first pictured by Hosea, some two hundred or so years earlier. In a famous passage, Hosea uses almost the same words about God as Jeremiah uses. But Hosea has developed them to produce an image which is perhaps even more motherly than fatherly. In Hosea's book God says this: When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.... It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them (Hosea 11:1--4 ).
The prophets are all quite clear that discipline is a major role of God the Father. Throughout the Old Testament -- the story of God's relationship with his people -- God constantly warns the people about their evil ways. When the warnings fall on deaf ears, God punishes his people, not in order to make them suffer, but in order to enable them to see the harm they are inflicting upon themselves and to turn away from the pathway that leads to their own destruction.
But God has a habit of cutting short the punishment, of bringing it to an end, and always follows up the threat of punishment with promises of love and restoration and renewal. In today's reading from Jeremiah, God promises to lead the people back. God says, " I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble" and later in the same passage God continues, "They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again. Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty."
So although God is a father who disciplines his children, he isn't the sort of father who terrifies his children by his harshness. God is also a loving father who teaches his children to walk, who takes them by the hand, who feeds them and cares for them. God's discipline is always for the sake of the children, never because God loses his temper or is just fed up with the children.
God's final and amazing gift to his children is a Messiah to lead them out of darkness into God's glorious light so that they can actually experience all those wonderful things that God has promised them. In order to finally show them the way to live, it seems God has perhaps given up on punishment with its threats and rewards, and has instead sent someone to actually demonstrate the right way to live. In God's most powerful message to his children, God's "Word" -- Jesus -- lives on earth with God's children, experiencing all that they experience and showing them how to receive all that God is longing to pour into them.
Those that turn to him, open themselves to receive his gifts and follow him, experience eternal life. And that eternal life is one where young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. It's a life which will become like a watered garden, and where they will never languish again. It's a life where they will be radiant over the goodness of the Lord.
And that's a life worth having.
