Sermons for the Month

Resurrecting God the Father
DATE: June 17, 2001
SERVICE: Pentecost II
TEXT: Luke 15:1-13, 11b-32
“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

It's Father's Day, and it's interesting - if not ironic - to note that the movers and shakers in most local churches are not fathers, but mothers; not men, but women.
Out-numbering men, 60 to 40 percent, women are the heart and soul of the church. The ratio in some cases may run as high as 7 to 1. Women constitute the majority party in Christianity, and some Presbyterian or Methodist congregations are now practically bereft of men. Even in churches like the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod that ordain only men, the inner circle of laypeople who actually run things is mostly female.
Is this late-breaking news? Not really. People who lament "the feminization of the church" have got to be careful. It's nothing new. There is a reason that Mary, the mother of Jesus has been venerated as the mother of God in Roman and Orthodox Churches.
Leon Podles writes in his recent book, The Church Impotent, "every sociologist, and indeed every observer, who has looked at the question has found that women are more religious than men." Men say they believe in God about as often as women do, but they attend church much less frequently than women, and they engage in private religious activities far less often. Most studies indicate that males are really less religious than females, and this appears to be true for all the Christian churches, denominations and sects in Western civilization.
So what is the church to do? Throw in the towel and become a single-sex spiritual movement?
Podles doesn't establish a correlation between the feminization of God and the decline in male participation in church. Still, perhaps it's time on this Father's Day, to take a fresh look at God the Father. If over the last decade or so we've killed off our understanding of the masculine side of God, perhaps it's time to resurrect it.
Today's passage from Luke tells the story commonly called "The Prodigal Son." Of course, since Jesus himself didn't give a title to this tale, it might also be called the parable of "The Lost Son," or "The Waiting Father," "The Loving Father, "Joy and Repentance" or "The Prodigal and His Brother." There are multiple characters and themes in this popular parable, and each is present with equal force and focus.
No need to retell the whole story. But to cut to the chase, we begin the story with a young hothead son who is arrogant and self-centered. He thinks he can sell space heaters in Sinai, refrigerators to Eskimos. He asks for his share of his father's estate, in advance of his father's death, a request that would have been a terrible insult to a patriarch in the ancient Near East. He is saying, in effect, "Father, you are dead to me. Show me your money!"
Of course, the kid returns home, humbled, acquiescent, penniless. And this is where we run into an unexpected turn of events.
Because we've developed a flat, one-dimensional "macho man" concept of fatherhood, we expect that if this father is true to his male genes, he'll practice "tough love" either by barring the gates and sending his scoundrel son packing, or at the very least, giving him a job hosing down the horses, cleaning out the stalls and letting him live with the servants.
That is the expectation of his older, very macho brother. "Come on, Dad, give him what he deserves. He's got it coming."
However, the father doesn't act that way, and in fact, behaves in quite the opposite manner, showing tenderness, forgiveness and mercy.
Ah, we say! That's because the Biblical image of God as creator, savior, comforter is really more feminine than masculine. After all, God is not stern, harsh and unrelenting - like typical human fathers, but really caring, loving, and forgiving - like typical human mothers.
Says who? Jesus had just as much testosterone as estrogen. Wasn't he the one who said to Peter, "Get behind me Satan" or took a whip to the temple entrepreneurs. The image of God has nothing to do with whether He is stern or soft, judgmental or forgiving. Scripture offers a view of God as Father and it depicts him using a metaphorically wide-range of human emotions. To argue that we need to reject the fatherhood of God as a useful metaphor today because the word "father" evokes negative stereotypes is sexist, naļve and theologically shallow.
In our text, we get a glimpse of God's full acceptance of those who rebel and return. It's full acceptance that comes even before the prodigal makes his confession. The story demonstrates just how committed God is to reconciliation, just how much he wants the unchurched, the prodigals, the drop-outs back into the family--no questions asked. This parable demonstrates a strength of character that is very genuine and very masculine. Yet talk like this may make some people squirm. After all, we're in a culture that is concerned about inclusive language, and careful about terms that could lock God inside a masculine box. Bottom line, of course, is that speaking of God in terms of male and female is merely an analogous or metaphoric exercise to facilitate our ability to grasp the nature of His indescribable nature. But if one is going to assign gender to God at all (and Scripture does it frequently) it's helpful to remember that while Scripture does reference God in terms of the feminine, the gender-of-choice is still male.
(And boy am I going to get in trouble for this one. But, heck, I can get away with just about anything cause I'm about to leave.)
The male metaphor emerges not just because of the paternalistic milieu in which the Scriptures were formed, for God would not allow a defective image to portray his nature - whatever the cultural ethos. The masculine character of God, allows just as much if not more so a comprehensive understanding of the nature of God than does the feminine. Biblical fathers, if they were true to their role, had hierarchical duties as the heads of families and clans to impose justice or show mercy. And they did both, as does God, as did the forgiving Father of our story and as we all should as well.
Today, the role of fathers as the "head of the house" has been culturally gutted, and the theological notion of God as Father has fallen into disrepute. Fathers as a result have abdicated to their wives rather than equally shared the responsibility for the spiritual needs of the family. You have to admit in the theological and cultural ethos of the church today, it's very PC to diss the Father, and hug the Mother as the ones responsible for placing the scriptures in their children's hands, teaching them the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and bringing them to the services of God's house.
Let me say very quickly this anti-Father bias has been the result of a very justifiable course correction of an extremely unjustifiable cultural disparaging of women through the millennia. The masculine emphasis of God has been used inappropriately and in some areas is still so. However, it is Father's Day. So we need to say happy Father's Day, God! And we invite fathers to be true men in the model of God himself. We invite fathers to teach their sons--as well as their daughters--what it means to be truly spiritual and what it means to have a deep masculine connection with Jesus Christ. We ask fathers to renounce senseless violence and unbridled rage as being anti-male, and anti-God. We fathers must not abdicate our responsibility to mothers to teach our sons that it is very masculine to love God and be committed disciples of Jesus Christ.
No, we are NOT saying that single mothers can't raise their children beautifully. But we agree with countless studies, that all things being equal, children growing up in homes with loving biological fathers as well as mothers do better in life than those not so advantaged. And children with godly, spiritual fathers, do even better.
The resurrection of God the Father may be a key to reconnecting men with the church, because it is often in relation to a good father that men discover how to be good sons. Jim Dittes, a professor of pastoral theology at Yale, holds up the image of the Son as a model for all men. He makes the case that men are always looking for new life through death and rebirth - which is why they so often upset the settled routines of life, go on pilgrimages and adventures, change careers and commit themselves obsessively to work or play or sex, in a hope of finding new life.
Sounds a lot like the Prodigal Son, doesn't it? So many males, in various ways, have played the role of the Lost Son at one time or another in search of something other than God to give them meaning and value.
But men behaving godly do so by taking a page from Jesus the Christ. Macho spirituality frequently involves a struggle.
Jesus struggled throughout his life
In the struggle of the garden of Gethsemane, he confronted God the Father and wrestled with his will.
Jesus also struggled with temptation, with evil, with earthly opponents, with his own perplexed disciples - and he challenges us to enter into these battles as well.
Through it all, God the Father is with us. He is like the father in the parable, accepting us when we rebel and return, when we wander and repent. He is the God of Gethsemane, laying challenges before us, but never abandoning us in our struggles. He is the God of resurrection, bringing surprising new life to those who have suffered and died in faith. He is a strong and compassionate God, loving us with the passion of a deeply committed parent.
The challenge for us men is to respond to such a heavenly father, on Father's Day and every day. To be like the Prodigal Son and return to him. To be like the Waiting Father in the parable and embrace your own children. To support your families through years of difficult and often unpleasant work, as men have done for centuries. To struggle with God and with temptation and with evil, as Jesus did throughout his own life. Sonship and fatherhood are two key concepts for Christian men to grasp, and they can give men a way to make a stronger connection with the church.
Gentlemen and Brothers and in Christ. It's time for us to step up to the plate. It's time to swing for all we are worth. Let's go to bat for our sons, as well as our daughters, for our children, and bring them home to the Lord.
AMEN