Father's Love

The scriptures referred to are primarily Philippians 2:2-11.

The year I first preached this sermon we had an interesting coincidence: Father's Day fell on Trinity Sunday. Usually on this Sunday we preach on a doctrine that is just as important as it is hard to grasp. Yet seeing God as Father is the most understandable part of the Trinity for most people. So let's begin by looking at fatherhood.

Sadly, for an increasing number of children, fatherhood is almost as abstract a concept as the Trinity. A lot of children have little or no contact with, or even knowledge of, their fathers. Boys who grow up without fathers are not, as commonly believed, likely to be mama's boys but are actually at greater risk for being violent and involved in criminal activity. Fathers, it has been found, have a key role in modeling and teaching boys how to play with others and how to deal with anger and frustration. And a study revealed that girls whose fathers left when they were small are at greater risk for teenage pregnancy.

Of course, sometimes the lack of a father is the lesser of 2 evils. On a NPR interview, one girl remembered confiding things to and receiving praise from an imaginary father, whom she had substituted for her real and abusive father. “My real father had to leave,” she said, “so that I could grow up without fear.” What a sad thing for a child to realize.

The desire for a father is a strong one. An article I read in Solares Hill told of how a Big Pine Key man who was going to a small town on the mainland for business found out that his father was living there. He discovered half-brothers and half-sisters he never knew he had. We often read or see similar stories of adults searching for their fathers. These stories are popular because they are heartwarming. But they are also sad. The pictures of long separated offspring and their fathers embracing each other are tinged with regrets over what might have been.

So when we talk of God as Father, these days we have to spell out exactly what we mean by it. The word “father” doesn't have the universal connotations it once had.

When the Bible speaks of God as Father, we must realize that we are harking back to the reality of the role in Old Testament times. Before Israel, or any people for that matter, became a nation, the father was the highest authority around. The oldest male, whether he was the actual father or the grandfather or an uncle or the eldest son, was head of the family. And by family we mean the entire clan or tribe, including servants. The father was ruler and judge of the tribe. Though a wise father listened to others for advice and different perspectives, ultimately his word was law and his decisions were final. The well-being of the family depended on him. His decisions on where to graze the animals, what other tribes to work with, what land to buy, and what price to set on goods determined the fortunes of the whole clan. If he made bad decisions, his tribe could suffer. If he made the wrong alliance, he could put his clan into the middle of a bloody land dispute. If he planted or harvested too early or too late, his family might starve. So while he had absolute power over his tribe, he also assumed a grave responsibility for the welfare of them all.

Widows and orphans (literally the “fatherless”) are a special concern throughout the Bible because they did not have such a powerful protector in the community. So God is called “a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows.” (Psalm 68:5) This reminds others that when they are dealing with widows and orphans, they are dealing with members of God's family. How they are treated is an important indicator of how well Israel is keeping her covenant with God. (Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18 and 27:19) It is in this vein that James names the care of widows and orphans as a defining sign of pure religion. (James 1:27) Among the tangible benefits of having God as your Father in ancient Israel were the laws giving widows and orphans every third year's tithe to the temple, requiring harvesters to leave sheaves in the field for them and some fruit on the trees. (Deuteronomy 14:28-29; 24:21; Leviticus 23:22) In New Testament times, special offerings were taken each week by the local synagogue for widows and orphans. The people in charge of this charitable activity were the forerunners of our deacons. (Acts 6:1-3) So when we think of God as Father, one of his prime characteristics is that of provider for and protector of the powerless. Remember that whenever you see someone in unfortunate circumstances and treat them accordingly. (Deuteronomy 15:7-8)

As creator, God is, in a sense, the father of all people. One of the reasons we are commanded to love our neighbor is that he too is one of God's children. But not all of God's “children” are on friendly terms with him. Many are estranged and disobedient to him. If you think back on the role of the father in the Old Testament, you can see the folly of this. If you left the protection of the father and went your own way, you could end up lost, thirsty, hungry and at the mercy of bandits and hostile tribes. Obedience to the father meant safety, nourishment and support.

There is a sense in which each king descended from David was considered God's son. Speaking of Solomon, God says, “I will become his father and he will become my son.” (2 Samuel 7:14) So God's relationship to the king of Israel was supposed to be a special one. The ruler was also to be an example to the people. Israel generally prospered when the king lived up to his role and they suffered when the king was unfaithful to God and his principles. (Proverbs 29:14)

Jesus is God's Son in a unique way. He is not a man adopted or empowered by God but, as Paul says in his letter to the Philippians, “He shared the very being of God.” (Philippians 2:6, William Barclay's translation) He shares the nature of God the same way a lion shares the feline nature of his sire and the way we share the human nature of our parents. Just so, the offspring of the divine is equally divine. Another way of expressing this is the way we say it in the Nicene creed: “light from light.” When you light one candle from another, the second light is not less bright and the first is not diminished by generating the second.

In Biblical society, the first born son is the most important. He is given 2 times the inheritance of any other sons and he becomes the head of the family in the absence of the father. In Egypt, the reign of the son of a pharaoh often overlapped with that of his father, making them co-rulers for a time. As such the son had the same authority as the father. So too Jesus is given authority to act in God's name. (John 5:26-27) What's more he is, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, “the exact imprint of God's being.” (Hebrews 1:3, NRSV) The Greek uses the language of a king's seal. The impression in the wax corresponds to the seal exactly. In Jesus we see clearly what God is like. We sometimes see this in human sons. There is no doubt that Michael Douglas is the son of Kirk Douglas. The resemblance is uncanny.

So when we are dealing with Jesus, we are not dealing with a lesser or secondary being but with God. He has God's nature and authority. That is what makes what he does with it all the more remarkable. To return to Philippians, using J.B. Phillips' translation this time, Christ “did not cling to his privileges as God's equal, but stripped himself of every advantage by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born a man. And, plainly seen as a human being, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, to the point of death, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal. That is why God has lifted him to the heights, and has given him the name above all names, so that, at the name of Jesus 'every knee shall bow,' whether in heaven or earth or under the earth.” (Philippians 2:6-10, Phillips' translation)

Since Jesus possesses the same nature as the Father, we see a new aspect of God: self-sacrificial love. God becomes one of us in order to save us from the consequences of our estrangement from God. Those who exiled themselves from the father in the Old Testament were at the mercy of a hostile environment and hostile forces. God doesn't wait for us to return but seeks us out. He sends his son to find us and bring us back at great danger to himself. Jesus, the beloved Son, strips himself of his privileges as God's heir and takes on the role of a slave. He dies a horrible and shameful death in our place that we might return to the protection of the Father.

The Father and Son roles are familiar to us. The hardest part of the Trinity to understand is the Spirit. But here too the metaphor of a physical relationship to a family might help.

We are what we are due to a great extent to our DNA. This blueprint, or analog to a computer program, is derived from our parents. Half comes from one parent and half from the other. When you have a child you will notice at different times the way he or she resembles you and the ways the child resembles your spouse. Sometimes it takes a third party to point out that your son has your knack for numbers and your spouse's way with people. Or your daughter has her father's sense of humor and her mother's practical turn of mind. You could say that a child is like a little “trinity”: the union of two people that creates a third, who comes from and reflects each and yet is an individual in his or her own right. In the Nicene Creed we say the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Spirit is the eternal love of the Father and the Son personified.

When we respond to God's self-sacrificial love in Christ, we become his children in a special way: we are adopted as heirs and enter a loving relationship with him. And he gives us the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us, as a pledge, a down payment, a first installment on our spiritual inheritance. (Ephesians 1:13-14) But the Holy Spirit is more; he is God in us, working to restore God's image in us. (1 Corinthians 3:16)

If your child was dying, you would give your blood to save him. If her DNA was defective, you would let scientists take your DNA and use gene therapy to correct hers and make her healthy. Think of the Holy Spirit as God's spiritual DNA. (2 Corinthians 3:17) God puts a bit of himself in us to help us grow up spiritually healthy. (Romans 8:9) The Spirit of God works to change our resistant sinful nature into his divine nature. (Philippians 2:13) We are in the process of being reborn. God took on our nature that we might be able to take on his. He is in us and we are in him. (1 John 4:13)

Still unclear about the Trinity? That's okay. The doctrine of the Trinity merely seeks to preserve the paradox presented to us in scripture: that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God and yet there is only one God. (1 Corinthians 8:6; John 10:30; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Mark 12:29) If we could comprehend everything about God, we would be as smart as God which would mean he would not be God to us. As it is, we don't understand everything about the universe or even ourselves. Some aspects of God's nature are a mystery. But it is a wonderful mystery, just like the mystery of how, despite what we have done to ourselves, each other and to his Son, God can still have such a self-giving love for us, his wayward children.

First preached on June 15, 2003. There has been some updating and revising.