The title of the homily this morning is simply father, father. It doesn't sound strange to our ears to hear God addressed as father because that is a strong part of the Christian heritage now for two millennia, for 2,000 years men and women have been calling upon the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Almighty God, the provider, the rock, the eternal everlasting God as father. But it did sound strange to the ears that heard Jesus teach it because for all of the information and revelation that we have in the Old Testament and throughout ancient holy history as God revealed Himself to His people through the days of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, all through those thousands of years of God's self-disclosure, there's very little that indicates He wanted to be called, father. It was light in the history of Israel when Hosea of the prophets said, speaking of Israel, out of Egypt I have called my son, God was not understood to be a father in any wide sense of the word, God Almighty, the Lord God, the God high and lifted up, was called a father. It was seen that He was a father in that He was the progenitor of the race. It was God Himself who created man, Adam and breathed into His nostrils the breath of life and having created Adam in His very own image placed Him upon this earth and gave Him their responsibility to be the progenitor of a nation, a race of people, told Him to be fruitful and multiply and to bring forth sons and daughters and be referred to as the father of all. But when Jesus addressed His disciples, He told them to use the term father in speaking of God Almighty and here's why He could do that, is that Jesus came as the son, you're not a father till you have a child and the eternal son, the only begotten of the father came to earth in the flesh a little baby in Bethlehem and when that great event of God's plan unfolded in the incarnation that is God coming in the flesh when the incarnation became a reality we now have walking upon the earth the son of God and as Adam had been in the image of God and had fallen and now that image of God on earth was marred and scarred Jesus comes in the image of the father and He reflects perfectly and completely the father so much so that He could say He that had seen me has seen the father. You see what I'm trying to say? It is Christ the son who recognizes identifies and designates and glorifies and magnifies God as father in a very unique way Jesus is the son of the heavenly father. Jesus comes to not keep that unique privilege to himself but to enable us also to participate with Him in calling the Lord God Almighty the maker of heaven and earth father. The writer of Hebrew who says it very beautifully when he says that Jesus is the first born of many brethren it is he Jesus Christ who comes to bring many sons and ladies when we say sons you know we're referring to male and female men and women boys and girls many sons to glory you see God is our father because his only begotten son has made us brothers and sisters has made us accepted into the beloved family it's because of the work of Christ that brings us into this filial relationship it is the work of Christ that makes God our father his father so when he tells his disciples to dress God as father this is what he has in mind now it's not difficult for us to see the attributes of God in terms are fatherly attributes some people complain that the Christianity and the New Testament and basically biblical religion in general is very oriented toward fathers very patriarchal
that's because that's the way God created the order in reflecting God fathers reflect his divine nature we that's what it means to be in the image it means to be a reflection and so here we have pro-creative powers we have strength integrity compassion we have all of those attributes of God that are seen as communicable attributes that is attributes that are of God that can be communicated to his creation God is father and he has created and ordained the fatherhood of humanity so each man in this room and as I look around the room I see that probably most of us are fathers more than we care to admit may be grandfather's and I see a few great grandfather's here one of the saddest things of my life is that I have not reflected the wonderful attributes of my heavenly father in my own life the perfections and the glories of the father God Almighty has not been part of the image that I have projected in my life whereas my heavenly father has absolute integrity I have prevaricated sinned vacillated and fallen whereas my heavenly father is absolutely truthful in all ways his baracity is infinite I on the other hand have been misleading misguiding I have lied I have misrepresented as a father whereas my heavenly father is completely compassionate merciful loving in an infinite way I as a father have had resentment anger hostility insensitivity insensitivity I think that might be the story of others in this room other than just me we have failed to reflect that great fatherly image of God in our own lives but here's what the Lord does for us he treats fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers like little boys and he opens his arms wide and calls us back to himself and as the prodigal son that we studied about a few weeks ago he receives us back to himself he dusts us off he drives our tears he lifts us up he strengthens us he encourages us he reinvigorates us and he gives us renewed commitment to be the sort of fathers grandfathers and great grandfathers that we ought to be one of the great emotional and psychological holocausts in our society and in our generation has been the failure of fatherhood and I'm here to tell you that when fatherhood and all that that entails would Christian fatherhood fails there is an insidious feminism that will arise and I fear that we are witnessing in our society at large and even in our churches the deleterious effects of this insidious feminism but it's here because the glorious fatherhood has not prevailed instead of love and compassion and understanding and wisdom and guidance we have been derelict in our duties we have forsaken our responsibilities when it came time to stand up to the serpent where was Adam when it came time to defend and dialogue about the word of God and interpret the word of God where was Adam when it came time to interpose between the serpent
and Eve where was Adam our first father failed and we have failed my call simply this morning is for each one of us as fathers to humbly repent before the Lord and to seek his face for that restoration that strength that revival that resolution and that particular rebuilding in our own lives from this moment on to be the kind of fathers the kind of grandfathers and great grandfathers we ought to be to have the godly influence to reflect the nature of our father in heaven it's interesting that St John when he writes his letter he says behold what manner that the father has bestowed upon us what manner of love that the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God we are God's children all of us Christ has made us accepted in the beloved we are in familial relationship with our big brother our older brother the first born Jesus Christ himself when the disciples were instructed by Jesus to enter to address the Lord God Almighty as father he was moving them into that relationship he was training them in that relationship and it's interesting that the prayer that Jesus prayed that's recorded for us in John 17 that's often called the high priestly prayer of Jesus the prayer often uses the term father it's simply this Jesus calls us and enables us to have his father as our father