RESOURCES FOR FATHER'S/MEN'S
DAY
Third Sunday in June
If you illustrations, stories, prayers, web links,
sermons, whatever appropriate for
Father's/Men's Day, please send them to me at bass.mitchell@homiliesbyemail.com
and they will be added here with due recognition. God bless.
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news article |
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A Sermon |
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A Puppet Skit |
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STORIES, ILLUSTRATIONS, QUOTES
Father's/Men's
Day
#1
My dad
also loved me. I've known that from my
earliest moments of
awareness. I'm told that when I was a small child,
perhaps three years of
age, we
lived in a one-bedroom apartment. My little bed was located beside
the bed
of my parents. Dad said it was not
uncommon during that time for
him to
awaken at night and hear a little voice whispering, "Daddy? Daddy?"
He
would answer quietly, "What, Jimmy?" Then I would reply, "Hold
my hand!"
My dad
would reach across the darkness and grope for my little hand, finally
engulfing
it in his. He said the instant he
encompassed my hand, my arm
would
become limp and my breathing deep and regular.
I had gone back to
sleep. You see, I only wanted to know that he was
there!
—Dr.
James Dobson, Straight Talk to Men and Their Wives
#2
While
Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman was conducting a prayer meeting a man gave this
testimony:
"I got off at the Pennsylvania depot as a homeless person, and
for a
year I begged on the streets for a living. One day I touched a man on
the
shoulder and said, 'Mister, please give me a dime.' As soon as I saw his
face, I
recognized my father. 'Father, don't you know me?' I asked. Throwing
his
arms around me, he cried, 'I have found you; all I have is yours.' Think
of it,
that I, a homeless person, stood begging my own father for ten cents,
when
for eighteen years he had been looking for me to give me all he was
worth!"
#3
A
father was watching his young son trying to dislodge a heavy stone. The
boy
couldn't budge it. "Are you sure you are using all your strength?" the
father
asked. "Yes, I am," said the exasperated boy. "No, you are
not," the
father
replied. "You haven't asked me to help you."
#4
Perhaps
you've seen the poster that pictures a dad and his seven- or
eight-year-old
son in an old rowboat on a little lake.
It's early in the
morning,
there's a faint mist still on the lake, and the father and son are
sitting
there, quiet and still. They're each
holding little bamboo fishing
poles,
and the two corks attached to their lines are floating motionless on
the
placid water. Underneath the picture
are two words: "Take Time."
#5
A young
boy was driving a hayrack down the
road, and it turned over right
in
front of a farmer's house. The farmer came out, saw the young boy crying,
and
said, "Son, don't worry about this, we can fix it. Right now dinner's
ready. Why don't you come in and eat with us and
then I'll help you put the
hay
back on the rack." The boy said,
"No, I can't. My father is going
to
be very
angry with me." The farmer said,
"Now don't worry, just come in and
have
some lunch and you'll feel better."
The boy said, "I'm just afraid my
father
is going to be very angry with me."
The farmer and the young boy
went
inside and had dinner. Afterwards, as
they walked outside to the
hayrack,
the farmer said, "Son, don't you feel better now?" The boy said,
"Yes
but I just know that my father will be very angry with me." The farmer
said,
"Nonsense. Where is your father
anyway?" The boy said, "He's
under
that
pile of hay."
#6
Fatherhood
isn't brain surgery. I say this in defiance of the new
conventional
wisdom that being a father is breathtakingly difficult, that it
creates
tough dilemmas, and that fathers need a strategy for carrying out
their
duties. I don't think so. Most men I know have an instinct for
fatherhood
that is triggered the day their first child was born. They
instantly
recognized the number one requirement of fatherhood: to be there.
—The
New Republic
#7
Illinois
Bell reported not long ago that the volume of long-distance calls
made on
Father's Day was growing faster than the number on Mother's Day. The
company
apologized for the delay in compiling the statistics, but explained
that
the extra billing of calls to fathers slowed things down. Most of them
were
collect.
#8
A
church in Florida had been having monthly family events for the whole
community
in an effort to reach new people. They were having a problem,
however,
with some parents dropping off children but not coming themselves.
To
combat this problem, they issued the following announcement: "The Magic
of
Lassie, a film for the whole family, will be shown Sunday at 5 P.M. in
the
church hall. Free puppies will be given to all children not accompanied
by
parents."
#9
Carlyle
Marney says that we need to take three trips home. First, we need to
go home
to ask forgiveness for what we have done wrong. Second, we need to
go home
to forgive our parents for what we feel they have done wrong. Third,
we need
to go home and ask our parents to accept us the way we are.
#10
"The
thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey
their
children."
—Duke
of Wellington
#11
Nervously
preparing to meet her boyfriend's parents for the first time, a
young
woman noticed that her black pumps looked dingy. So she gave them a
fast
swipe with the paper towel she had used to blot her breakfast bacon.
When
she arrived at her boyfriend's impressive home, she was greeted by his
parents
and their much-beloved but rotten-tempered old poodle. The dog got a
whiff
of the bacon grease on her shoes and followed the girl slavishly. At
the end
of the evening, the pleased parents remarked, "Cleo really likes
you,
dear, and she is an excellent judge of character. We are delighted to
welcome
you into our little family."
—"Off
the Record," Detroit News
#12
Parents
often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have
anything
to do with it.
#13
Often,
the difference between an emotionally strong child and a weak one is
how
well parental expectations match the child's capabilities. A mismatch
can
leave a child naked to misfortune. Psychiatrists Stella Chess and
Alexander
Thomas studied a group of middle-class children from birth to
maturity.
One child, Tim, could not do what his father wanted—stick to a
task
for hours on end. "You have no character," the father raged, "no
willpower."
Finally, the boy decided his father was right—he had no
character,
nothing. So he simply gave up, dropping out of school and
drifting
as an adult.
#14
Police
received a complaint of a man and woman fighting. Officers questioned
the
couple, who said they were arguing about which justice of the peace to
use
when they got married.
—Democrat
Herald
#15
When
Lauritz Melchoir, the great Wagnerian tenor, was a young man studying
music,
he was sitting in the garden of his boarding school in Munich.
Practicing
a certain passage of a song he was learning, he sang out one of
the
lines. It went, "Come to me, my love, on the wings of light." Scarcely
had he
sung the words, when a young lady literally dropped out of the sky
and
landed at his feet. The young lady was Maria Hacker, a Bavarian actress
who had
been doing a stunt for a movie thriller. Part of her act was to
parachute
from a plane. The winds had changed and she landed far from her
mark.
Instead she landed in the garden of the music school. In a short time
Lauritz
and Maria were married.
#16
When a
couple come to see me about their wedding, they are always filled
with
excitement and hope. They are so much in love! Do I ever say, "Come on,
settle
down. People get married every
day!"? Never! People do get
married
every
day, but for this couple it is new. Similarly, a couple always rejoice
at the
birth of their first child. Do I say,
"Aw, settle down, children are
born
every day!"? Of course not. Children are born every day, but for this
couple
it is new! So with the gospel. Whenever this old, old gospel is
heard
and believed, for the believer it is new.
—Dr. C.
A. McClain
#17
Two
ladies attended a fashionable brunch in Boston, where the local minister
gave an
inspiring speech on the beauties of married life. The ladies left
the
church feeling uplifted and contented. "That was a wonderful sermon,"
one of
the ladies said. "Oh yes, it was," said the other. "I just wish
I
knew as
little about the subject as he does."
#18
A house
without a roof would scarcely be a more different home, than a
family
unsheltered by God's friendship, and the sense of being always rested
in
God's providential care and guidance.
Horace
Bushnell
***************************
Subject: If Men Were to Rewrite the Rules
Rule #
1 - Anything we said six or eight months ago is inadmissible in an
argument.
All
comments become null and void after seven days.
Rule # 2
- If we say something that can be interpreted in two ways, and one
of the
ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other way.
Rule # 3
- It is in neither your best interest or ours to make us take those
stupid
Cosmo quizzes together.
Rule # 4
- You can either ask us to do something OR tell us how you want it
done -
not both.
Rule # 5
- Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during
commercials
or time-outs.
Rule # 6
- Christopher Columbus didn't need directions and neither do we.
Rule # 7
- When we're turning the wheel and the car is nosing onto the off
ramp,
you saying "Is this is our exit?" is not necessary.
********************************
From: Bass Mitchell bass.mitchell@homiliesbyemail.com
Worship Resources
Father’s/Men's
Day
PRAISE
SONGS
Father,
We Adore You
God and
God Alone
Honor
Him
How
Majestic Is Your Name
I Give
All My Life to You
Lord of
All
Love
Runs in the Family
Love
Will Be Our Home
HYMNS
Where
Charity and Love Prevail
When
Love is Found
Help Us
Accept Each Other
Gift of
Love
Happy
the Home When God Is There
O Lord,
May Church and Home Unite
Our
Parent, By Whose Name
Children
of the Heavenly Father
For the
Beauty of the Earth
Faith
of Our Fathers
GREETINGS/CALLS
TO WORSHIP
LEADER:
May the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with you.
PEOPLE: And with you also and with all who
would call Christ
Lord.
LEADER: Our God is merciful and loving and
seeks only what
is best for us.
PEOPLE: Even when we were yet in our sin
Jesus died that we
might know God's love.
LEADER: Then let our hearts be joined in
praise for God's
loving grace.
ALL:
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
OR
L: We
have gathered here to honor the One who created us.
P: The
One who gave us life.
L: The
One who sustains our lives each day.
P: The
One who is our constant companion.
L: The
One who loves us more than a father and mother.
ALL:
The One who is worthy of our praise and of our service all the days of
our
lives.
OPENING
PRAYERS
O God,
You are the power that moves and shapes the universe,
yet You are so gentle and kind to us.
Touch us, Lord,
and use us, for we would be Your loving
servants. in
Christ we pray. Amen.
OR
Lord,
how good it is to come together with our sisters and
brothers, mothers and fathers, your great
and wonderful
family - all here to praise and thank
you. Help us this
day to be reminded of all your many
blessings,
especially the special people you bring
into our lives
to bless and love us. In the name of
Jesus, your
greatest blessing, we pray. Amen.
OR
We sing
praises to you, O God; we raise a psalm in your
honor. You clothe us in all goodness; we
are draped in
accordance with your design. As you have
sent Jesus
Christ to make your will known, you
promise your Holy
Spirit to guide us along your path. As
your holiness
fills this place, hear us as we worship
your name.
Amen.
PRAYER
LITANY
(Silent
prayers may follow each petition)
For our
fathers, who have given us life and love,
that
we may show them respect and love,
we pray
to the Lord...
For
fathers who have lost a child through death,
that their faith may give them hope,
and their family and friends support and
console them,
we pray
to the Lord...
For
men, though without children of their own,
who like fathers have nurtured and cared for
us,
we pray
to the Lord...
For
fathers, who have been unable to be a source of strength,
who have not responded to their children
and have not sustained their families,
we pray
to the Lord...
God, in
your wisdom and love you made all things.
Bless
these men, that they may be strengthened as Christian fathers. Let the
example
of their faith and love shine forth. Grant that we, their sons and
daughters,
may honor them always with a spirit of profound respect. Grant
this
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
OR
Pastoral
Prayer for Father's Day
Loving
and Merciful God, whose power is beyond our scope
and
whose wisdom is beyond our understanding,
We turn
to you in faith assured that know our every emotion
and are
aware of our every need.
Our
thoughts and prayers today are turned towards our fathers.
For
those whose fathers have increased the joy in their lives,
we give you thanks.
For
those whose father's presence is greatly missed
may we take time to gratefully recall all
they have given to us,
providing for us in our growing.
For
those whose fathers have recently lost
or who are facing the imminent loss of their
own fathers,
may
they find comfort in their grief, hope in their despair,
courage in the love that their fathers have
given them.
We give
thanks, God, for these good men
who sustain and support us in our living,
who love us no matter
what!
What a
blessing they are to all who know them!
We give
thanks to you, O God,
for all those whose gift for fatherhood is
so strong
that their have allowed their caring to
spill over into the lives of
others providing the guidance and stability,
the nurture and the
love needed.
How
distressing it is for us to consider
that not all fathers have been good
fathers.
We
pray, compassionate God, for those whose father has been
a source of hurt and pain,
for all
those for whom one or more members of their family
has caused them to suffer.
May
their wounds be healed.
May
they find in you, in us, in others,
the nurturing, sustaining love that is
needed
for their growth and well-being.
We
recall with sadness fathers who are separated from their children
though life choices made by them or others.
Give
them the insight and wisdom, the courage and perseverence
to parent in whatever creative and
life-giving ways are open to
them.
Give
them the courage to make the decisions which allow their children
to
prevail.
We
remember to you single fathers and mothers who struggle to be both
parents to their children
--to provide all the emotional, physical and
spiritual needs without
the constant support of a spouse.
May
they find the strength, the courage and wisdom for their task.
We pray
for those fathers whose relationships with their children have
been
difficult or disappointing.
We
pray, too, for those who have been denied a chance to be fathers,
and for those whose years of parenting have
been cut short by the
loss of a child.
We turn
to You, most holy God, knowing trusting that you can console
where
consolation seems impossible. May these
receive comfort for their
soul and peace and hope for living that
their gifts may not be
denied to others.
Finally,
O God, we rejoice with you, O God, at the many fine men, who
in
spite
of confusing roles in a rapidly changing
society, have taken their
place as fathers with open hearts, with willingness
and joy.
And we
join all fathers everywhere in praying that their children may
be well
and happy, a source of joy for years to
come.
Hear
our prayers this day, O God,
and give to us such assurance of your love
that your love may spill forth from us into
the lives of others.
Amen.
(FROM Gayle)
OR
Newspaper
columnist Abigail Van Buren has composed a "Parent's Prayer" in
which
she stresses the practical side of raising children. Says "Dear
Abby":
"Oh,
heavenly Father, make me a better parent. Teach me to understand my
children,
to listen patiently to what they have to say, and to answer all
their
questions kindly. Keep me from interrupting them or contradicting
them.
Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me. Forbid
that I
should ever laugh at their mistakes, or resort to shame or ridicule
when
they displease me. May I never punish them for my own selfish
satisfaction
or to show my power. Let me not tempt my child to lie or steal.
And
guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate by all I say and do that
honesty
produces happiness. Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me. And when I
am out
of sorts, help me, O Lord, to hold my tongue. May I ever be mindful
that my
children are children and I should not expect of them the judgment
of
adults. Let me not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and
to make
decisions. Bless me with the bigness to grant them all their
reasonable
requests, and the courage to deny them privileges I know will do
them
harm. Make me fair and just and kind. And fit me, O Lord, to be loved
and
respected and imitated by my children. Amen."
OR
Let us
pray:
Dear
Lord, we who are fathers and mothers need your help.
You
have placed in us the care of each other and of our children.
Give us
the strength and patience to cope with the many ups and downs of
family
life.
Grant
us the grace to be deeply thankful for its laughs, joys and blessings.
Let our
children come to know of your love through our love for them.
Help us
as we try to make ours a home where love dwells, a home like that of
Jesus,
Mary and Joseph in Nazareth.
When we
fail each other and when we hurt each other, soften our hearts so
that
forgiveness and reconciliation comes quickly and easily.
Protect
this family, Lord, and let it flourish in your light and in your
love.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen..
OR
Lord,
Keep my
parents in your love.
Lord,
bless
them and keep them.
Lord,
please
let me have money and strength
and
keep my parents for many more years
so that
I can take care of them.
(Prayer
from a young Ghanaian Christian)
BENEDICTIONS
Let us
leave this place to go to our homes and live there the love of God.
Let us
be God's love for and to one another. Let love dwell in our hearts
and
overflow into God's world.
OR
Go,
knowing God goes with you.
Go,
knowing Jesus goes before you.
Go, knowing
the Holy Spirit is within you.
Go,
knowing that we, your brothers and sisters, walk beside you.
<>< <>< <><
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<>< <><
Bass
Mitchell, Hot Springs, VA
HOMILIES
& BIBLE STUDIES BY E-MAIL
Check
out my web site at http://www.homiliesbyemail.com
bass.mitchell@homiliesbyemail.com
****************************
(Some
of these you can use and others not!)
WHY MEN LOVE BEING MEN
1. We know stuff about tanks.
2. Only one suitcase required for a 5-day trip.
3. We can open our own jars.
4. We can go to the bathroom without a support
group.
5. The same hair-style lasts for years -- maybe
decades.
6. We can leave a motel bed unmade.
7. We can kill our own food.
8. We get extra credit for the slightest act of
thoughtfulness.
9. Wedding plans take care of themselves.
10. If
someone forgets to invite us to
something, they can still be our friend.
11.
Underwear is $10 a three-pack.
12. If
you are 34 and single, nobody notices.
13.
Everything on our faces stays the original color.
14.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
15. We
don't have to clean the house if the meter-reader is coming.
16. Car
mechanics tell us the truth.
17. We
can sit quietly and watch a game with a friend
for hours without thinking "He must
be mad at me."
18.
Same work -- more pay.
19.
Gray hair and wrinkles add character.
20. We
can drop by and see a friend without bringing a gift.
21. If
another guy shows up at a party in the same outfit
you just might become lifelong friends.
22.
Your pals will never trap you with: "So, notice anything different?"
23. We
are not expected to know the names of more than five colors.
24. We
almost never have a "strap problem" in public.
25. We
are totally unable to see wrinkles in our clothes.
26. We
don't have to learn to spell a new last name.
27. We
don't have to show below the neck.
28.
Belches are expected and tolerated.
29. Our
belly usually hides our big hips.
30. One
wallet, one pair of shoes, one color, all seasons.
31. We
can do our nails with pocketknife.
32. We
have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache.
33.
Christmas shopping can be accomplished for 25 people
on the day before Christmas and in 45
minutes.
34. We
know nothing about "dust" and we don't care.
*****************************
From:
Bass Mitchell <bassm@va.tds.net>
Pass It On
Psalm:
78:1-4
Key
Verse: We will not hide them from our children; we will tell to the
coming
generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and God's might, and the
wonders
that God has done (Ps 78:4).
(I use
a ruler below. You could use something that belonged to someone
special
in your life who passed along much that helped make you who you
are).
Laying
on my desk right now is an old extension ruler. It's made of wood
with
metal brackets holding it together. It extends to six feet. Some of the
markings
and numbers are faded and others missing from years of use. Some of
the
joints are loose, almost worn out. It belonged to my father who was a
carpenter.
I saw him use it so many times on so many projects. It was the
only
thing I have really asked for that was his. I think of him each time I
see it
and wonder if I will ever measure up to the man he was, if I will
ever
make as good a use of the tools God has given me as he did.
As a
pastor, I have seen so many families torn apart after the death of a
parent
because of arguments over the inheritance. Someone thinks they
deserve
something but someone else gets it. Jealousy. Anger. Old sibling
rivalries
come back to the surface. Why? Over things! We let things - pieces
of wood
and metal - divide us, keep us from the best thing of all - love for
one
another. To sacrifice a brother or sister for a clump of wood or glass
or even
money does not make a lot of sense.
Yes,
Dad's ruler is special to me, but if my brother or sister wanted it, I
would
gladly give it to them. For the greatest inheritance I have received
will
never be things but his love, his example, his gentle spirit, his
wisdom,
his faith - all these and more live within me. He passed along a lot
of who
he was to me. This I value above all material things. These no one,
not
even time, can take away. You can't put them in a bank but they have
made me
wealthy. And he also passed along a brother and three sisters who
mean
the world to me, so that I will not let things come between us. He
would
not want that.
I know.
This is not the experience of everyone, perhaps even you. What you
inherited
from your father or mother - internally - you may well wish you
could
get rid of. But like it or not, our parents brought us into the world
and are
a part of us. They passed along much of who they were to us - for
good or
ill. I hope it was for good, at least
some of it. But they were not
perfect
and neither are we. God help us to forgive them as our children may
well
need to forgive us.
I pray
today that I might pass along more good than ill; more wisdom than
foolishness;
more faith than fear; more love than neglect; more pride than
judgment;
more understanding than impatience. I pray that when they see a
ruler,
or a book, or a sermon, or a pen left to them from me, that they
might
have more good memories than bad. I will work hard to pass those
higher
things along to them, those things that matter more than money and
material
things.
What
are the most meaningful "possessions" that have been passed down to
you -
material and spiritual? (Share them or ask people in the congergation
to do
so).
What
are you passing along to your children and grandchildren?
Prayer:
God of love, you give us so much. You pass along so many blessings
that we
cannot count them all. Thank you for our parents, imperfect as they
are.
Thank you for those who have been like parents to us. Help us to daily
pass
along to our own children and to children we have adopted as our own,
those
things that matter most, that last for all time. Amen.
Might
use the chorus, "Pass It On," as part of this.
<>< <>< <><
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<>< <>< <>< <><
<>< <>< <><
Bass
Mitchell
HOMILIES
BY E-MAIL/BIBLE STUDY BY EMAIL
bassm@va.tds.net
visit
our web site at
http://www.homiliesbyemail.com
toll
free number 1-877-681-3349 (for USA, Canada)
****************************
Here's
a wonderful and moving sermon which I think is most appropriate for
Father's/Men's Day. Thanks to Peter for allowing me to share it
with you.
Bass
From: Peter K. Perry
<pkperry@cableone.net>
Sons of Zebedee
Mark
1:16-20
January
22-23, 2000
Prescott
United Methodist Church
(Mark
1:16-20) As Jesus passed along the
Sea of
Galilee, he saw Simon and
his
brother Andrew casting a net into the
sea--for
they were fishermen. [17]
And
Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I
will
make you fish for people."
[18]
And immediately they left their nets
and
followed him. [19] As he went
a
little farther, he saw James son of
Zebedee
and his brother John, who were
in
their boat mending the nets. [20]
Immediately
he called them; and they
left
their father Zebedee in the boat
with
the hired men, and followed him.
James
and his brother John were called by
Jesus
to become fishers of men.
They
were part of the inner circle of
disciples. They were close to Jesus.
The
tradition says that they were
tempestuous,
like when they tried to
summon
fire from heaven as punishment for
a
village that rejected Jesus.
They
sometimes seemed selfish, like when
their
mother sought a special
position
for them in Jesus’ kingdom. But
they
were faithful disciples,
present
along with Peter at the
transfiguration
and the crucifixion.
John
was the beloved disciple, the
traditional
writer of the fourth gospel.
And
James was the first of the twelve
martyred
for the faith, executed by Herod
Agrippa
about 44 AD. There is a lot more
we
could say about James and John.
But
today I want to lift up simply that
they
were the sons of Zebedee.
"As
Jesus went a little farther, he saw
James
son of Zebedee and his brother
John,
who were in their boat mending the
nets. Immediately he called them; and
they
left their father Zebedee in the
boat
with the hired men, and followed
him."
James
and John we know, but who was this
Zebedee,
and why does Mark bother
to say
anything at all about him? Is he
important? Is he significant in
any
way? Was he famous? Maybe some of
those
who heard the gospel story
told by
Mark and Matthew, Luke and John,
maybe
some of them might have known
Zebedee. Maybe they bought their fish
from
him. Maybe he was a member of
their
synagogue. Maybe they were related
by
marriage. Maybe not.
On
January 5th of this new year a man
died in
Fullerton, California. His
name
was Thomas Clifton Perry, and he was
my
father. Not many here in Prescott
had met
him. You knew him only through
his
son, and maybe you knew him better
than
you might because Dad made for some
pretty
good sermon illustrations over the
years. He wasn’t famous, though he had
many
friends. He worked hard all his
life,
and in his own way he made the
world a
better place. And I am proud to
be his
son. You see, here in Prescott
Tom
Perry is just the father of Peter…but
back
home Peter is just the son of Tom
Perry.
Zebedee. In Hebrew tradition, one was
known
as the son of one’s father.
James
and John were the sons of Zebedee.
James
bar Zebedee. John bar Zebedee.
One’s
last name was the name of one’s
father. I would be Peter bar Thomas.
Centuries
later in our European
tradition,
I would still bear my father’s
name
and I would be Peter Thomason.
Today,
I almost wish we still followed
those
naming customs, for those I believe
reminded
people of from where they’d
come.
I
wonder if James and John looked like
Zebedee. Or did they more closely
resemble
their mother? I wonder if they
sounded
like Zebedee? I wonder if
they
walked like him, shook hands like
him,
laughed like him? While Zebedee
was
teaching his sons to mend the fishing
nets,
what else did he teach them?
Did he
tell them about how a man should
love
and honor a woman? Did he
instruct
them in the wise use of money?
Did he
encourage them to believe in
themselves
and live for a high purpose?
Did he
ever talk with them about
God? Did Zebedee have any daughters?
What
lessons did he teach them? What
gifts
did he give them?
What
does a father give to his children?
What
lessons do we learn from our
fathers? In the Proverbs of Solomon, it
is
written…
"Listen,
children, to a father's
instruction,
and be attentive, that you
may
gain insight; for I give you good
precepts:
do not forsake my teaching.
When I
was a son with my father, tender,
and my
mother's favorite, he taught
me, and
said to me, "Let your heart hold
fast my
words; keep my commandments, and
live.
Get wisdom; get insight: do not
forget,
nor turn away from the words of
my
mouth." (Prov.4)
James
and John, the sons of Zebedee, grew
up, and
God in Christ called them
away
from their father and his life’s
work. When Jesus called, Mark says
they
immediately dropped their nets and
followed
him. But I guarantee you
that
the lives of James and John were
shaped
by the life of Zebedee, just as
my life
has been shaped by my father, and
your
life has been shaped by your
father.
Not
everyone has a loving father. Was
Zebedee
a loving father? I don’t
know. No father is perfect. Zebedee was
a just
a man, with all of limitations
that go
along with being human. So too
with my
father.
Tom
Perry had his share of problems in
life. He had a horrible childhood,
abandoned
by his father, passed off by
his own
mother as her little brother,
raised
alternately by his mother, his
aunts,
his grandparents…he never had a
stable
family. And so that became my
father’s
driving purpose in life…to
create
the kind of family he never had,
to
provide for his children the kind
of
father he only dreamed of having.
Most of
the time he did a pretty good
job of
doing that. And two weeks ago,
all
five of his children gathered
together
to say by our presence together
as a
family, that he had succeeded
in
instilling in us the importance of
family. Each of us has left home,
followed
our dreams, created our own
families,
and without realizing it, we
have
furthered our father’s ambition.
As you
sit here today, I want you to
think
of your own father. I hope you
knew
him. I hope you loved him. I hope
he was
a good father, as mine was.
But
even if you didn’t know your father,
even if
you didn’t love your father, your
father
has still helped make you,
negatively
or positively, who you are
today. Some people spend years in
therapy
trying to figure out if
that’s
a good thing or a bad thing. :-)
But
good or bad, it is true. James
and
John and Zebedee, Peter and Thomas,
even
Jesus and Joseph. You and
your
father. There is a bond between
father
and child that nothing can
break,
not even death. And I think I’ve
learned
that the process of grief
somehow
makes that bond even stronger.
Several
years ago, on Father’s Day, a
friend
gave me a book called Letters
to My
Son (Kent Nerburn, new World
Library,
1993). In the first chapter of
the
book, the author writes these words:
None of
us can escape this shadow of the
father,
even if that shadow fills
us with
fear, even if it has no name or
face. To be worthy of that man, to
prove
something to that man, to exorcise
the
memory of that man from every
corner
of our life - however it affects
us, the
shadow of that man cannot be
denied…we
all labor under the shadow. It
makes
us who we are and shapes the
[person]
we hope to be.
To
become a father is to understand that
power
of that shadow from the other
side. You realize that the touches you
make
upon your son will shape him,
for
better or for worse, for his entire
life.
And who
can know which touches have
meaning?
A word here, a glance there, a
time
together, a time apart - which will
be the
moments that will rise up in
memory
and shape the child that looks
without
judgment on all you do and
say?
Friends,
I wonder if we realize the
strength
of the bond that exists between
father
and son, between mother and
daughter? Do we understand that the
things
that have happened in our
families,
and are happening in our
families,
indelibly imprint the next
generation
with a story, with an
understanding
of life, and shapes the
future
for better or for worse?
The
death of my own father has helped me
better
understand the role each of
us
plays within our families. I rejoice
that
years ago, I was able forgive
my
father for the pain his alcoholism
caused
me. I rejoice that that I was
able to
see my father as a man who loved
and
needed love. I rejoice that I
found
the courage to speak words of love
to him,
and to discover that he
loved
me. I am lucky. The words that
needed
to be said were said. I said
them
again a few days before he died,
when we
thought he was going to get
better
from his pneumonia. I stood his
bed in
the hospital and I said, “I
love
you, dad.” And he said, “I love
you,
son.”
Brothers
and sisters, it is never too
late to
make amends if we have wronged
another. It is never too late to offer
forgiveness
to those who have
wronged
us. It is never too late to say
“I love
you” to another, or to hear
another
say “I love you” to us. Whether
you are
a father, or a son, a
mother
or a daughter, it is never too
late to
touch and be touched by those
with
whom our lives in are forever
inextricably
bound.
James
and John were disciples of our
Christ,
but they were forever the sons
of
their fathers and their mothers. The
lives
they chose when the dropped
the
nets and followed the Christ took
them
far from their places and people
of
origin. But deep down inside, they
were
still the Sons of Zebedee. That
’s the
way God made us, and God would
have us
nourish the relationships that
bind us
one to another. In the days
ahead,
find ways to speak words of love
to your
children and your parents.
****************************
Ideas for Honoring Father's/Men
#1
My
power supply, therefore my computer, was down for a week. I just bolted
it on
and am parsing through the old mail.
Thought you'd be interested
that I
stopped my sermon about 1/8 of the way, after a story, and took a
huge
tray of very large chocolate chip cookies off the altar and walked
down
the center isle asking all the dad's and who would be dad's to come
forth
for a cookie! I said that, for any
reason whatsoever, they could
munch
on a cookie during my sermon. I passed
the extras out as folks were
leaving
the church. Our service lasted about
1.5 hours and many visitors
said
that our hospitality and spirituality was something they'd like to
take
home with them to their home church [an ultimate compliment!]. Best
in
Christ to you.
Rev.
Martin R. Fors
#2
This
Sunday, we're going to recognize some special fathers: the one who has played
the most golf in the last week, the one who has attended the most activities of
his children (ball games, graduations, etc.), and the one who has given his
children the most money. These are not
my suggestions, mind you, and the last one is so WASP it isn't funny. But we finally (and thankfully) grew tired
of honoring the oldest, youngest, and most childrenest. For Mother's day we honored the mother who
had ironed clothes that morning for their children (five mothers held up their
hands!), the one who had been through drive-thru windows the most in the past
week, and the one who had a child farthest away (Germany). It worked well and so my creative layfolks
came up with the Father's Day categories.
At least, in the event of the deaths of my older women, it stopped folks
from saying "Well, now that so-and-so is dead that makes so-and-so the
oldest mother to get the rose on Mother's Day!"
#3
There
will be a display in the narthex with photographs and momentos honoring the
oldest father in our congregation. We will then honor him by taking up a
special offering which will then be given in his name to the United Methodist
Homes' Good Samaritan Fund - a fund that helps make it possible for persons to
enter our United Methodist Homes who might not otherwise be able to afford it.
#4
Our
worship committee is given bedding plants to everyone. Everyone has a
father. Plants may be planted in honor of dad or may
be given to dad to
plant. The plants will be on a table in the foyer
and everyone will be
invited
to pick up a plant on their way out. We
did the same thing for
mothers
day and it worked pretty well. The left
over plants were planted at
the
church in planters that will be moved into the sanctuary on some Sundays
during
the summer. Presently those plants are
blooming and grace the
outside
of the church building.
If I
had my way I would give everyone a tree to plant. I would give apple
trees. John Chapman is a hero of mine. A peacemaker, a planter, and a down
to
earth sort of guy that the world needs more of. Come to think of it, a
Johnny
Appleseed illustration has to be woven into the sermon this week. I
intend
to use lots of stories on Sunday that illustrate the significance of
little
things, since little things grow into something else. A TREE FOR
PETER
is another story that illustrates that point.
John
Otto
#5
Regarding
how fathers can be honored on Father's Day, we are giving each
Dad a
small gold-plated lapel pin that is a cross with "Special Dad" in
letters
across the bottom part of the vertical post.
The come attached to
s small
card with a scripture verse or a poetic thought on it.
They
are inexpensive (12-49 for $1.49 each, 50-99 for $1.19 each, 100+ for
$.99
each. We ordered them from an outfit
called CTA (1-800) 999-1874 in
Missouri. They accept credit cards and if asked, might
be able to Fed Ex
the
stuff to you.
We also
had small lapel pins for Moms too from the same people. It went
over
well, and was something different from the flower thing we have done
for
Moms on previous years.
****************************
Subject: News briefs from Associated
Baptist Press
American men 'most
pagan' on earth, researcher says
OXNARD, Calif. (ABP) -- American men "represent one of the most pagan
subcultures on earth today," according to the Barna Research Group, a leading
surveyor of religion in American life.
"There are 94 million adult males in America. Unfortunately, the church does
not have much influence in the lives of most of them," notes the
organization's president, George Barna, in the latest edition of its
newsletter, The Barna Report.
One third of adult males claim to be born-again Christians, the Barna
Research Group discovered in a 1996 nationwide survey. That means
non-Christian American males outnumber Christian men by a 2-to-1 margin.
Barely one in four adult males (28 percent) attends church services on a
typical weekend. And just 29 percent of American men read the Bible other than
at church each week.
"The trend lines show that there has been little positive change recently
within the male population," Barna reported. "Since 1991, church attendance,
Bible reading, Sunday-school attendance, volunteering at church and donating
to a church have all declined among men. The proportion of born-again men has
remained unchanged.
Associated Baptist Press (written on Mon, Feb 10, 1997 at 12:00 pm)
***************************
Fishing: A Father's Day Reflection
by Hugh
Strickland
My
Father was born in 1906 in a little rural area outside the little
south
Georgia town of Glennville. His life
reflected a rural touch. Let
me tell
you about my Father, two of his gardens and the mysteries of God.
Not far
from our home was the St. John's River and Blue Springs. Much of
this
area is now preserved as State Parks and wild life refuges. In the
twinkle
of an eye, it changed. It is a
preserved garden that we are can
never
be really sure about how it grows or why it's there.
Once my
Father began what I called his water garden.
There was, down on
the
river, a long old steam boat dock for ghost sidewheel steam boats
from an
age my Father could remember but not show me.
We, and lots of
other
folks fished from this dock for food.
It was not an imaginable
thing
to see bass boats with huge motors racing off to fish. Those that
rented
a boat or owned one rowed or used a small motor to get a few miles
into
the back water of swamps and logging canals.
There we fished for
hours. How did we fish? We caught what we could eat that day and then
went
home. Sometimes we caught more than we
needed and gave away what we
wouldn't
need that day to someone who was going to need food that day.
Once I
remember that My Father collected all the stale bread ends and
moldy
pieces for a while and put them in a medium sized burlap bag when
the bag
was full he took it fishing with us down to the dock. He tied a
string
around to and a piece of brick and threw it
just about in the
middle
of under the dock. It was out of the
way and yet it was as I
called
it a secret water garden.
The
next few months, all the people who fished for small bream, a
delicious
kind of sun fish, were feed by what they all called the great
fishing
that was to be enjoyed from the dock.
The amazing thing about
bream
is that they are not big fish, they are fun to catch and sweet to
eat. What a crop of the mysteries of God were
harvested by everyone who
came
and never knew why the fishing were so
plentiful and good. Many
people
remarked in years after how it was funny how there just seemed to
be
certain times when there were plenty of beam to catch and to eat. God
in the
same way throws burlap bags under our dock every day and we wonder
how the
fishing and eating are so good. Usually
we say how lucky we are
and
isn't it a mystery.
In the
small town I grew up when the two lane road through town was four
laned.
There a large muddy lake was dredged out to hold the run off water
from
the road. It was an old lake full of
mud, yet as they dredged it
out,
the white sand of ancient seas began to line it's banks.
The
sand transformed the lush green lake banks into a white hot desert
next to
standing water that seemed devoid of life.
The lake was located
in a
section of town that had been the community of black people who
lived
separately among us. I knew many of
them, and played with most of
the
children. I t was not exceptional for
me to wave and speak to black
and
white people alike as I road and went with my Father all around town.
It was not what white people usually did or
how they behaved.
One day
he showed me a small patch of sand, that had been rowed up and we
spent
time talking about growing a garden. I
though he was nuts, to
plant a
garden in the sand. So we froze the
seeds to improve germination
rates,
I read this later in a horticulture book and my Fathers crazy idea
was
transformed into knowledge. We planted
in the sand mostly Okra, a
very
southern vegetable. Some other things
we planted I do not remember.
I do remember the okra. it grew amazingly well, and soon there was a
stand
of okra five feet high with bright green pods and more and more
yellow
flowers. I notice that our okra was
being harvested by others and
I
ask. My father only said "we have
enough". So people ate from our
garden,
we never saw them I only saw the signs of missing vegetables. On
that
white sand desert a marvelous garden grew for underneath was the
forgotten
fertilizer of past life, and put into the ground was the hope
of life
restored and multiplied.
The
kingdom of heaven is like a man who puts a
burlap bag of bread under
a dock
and feeds people to their amazement and the kingdom of heaven is
like a
small garden planted in what looks like desert that can grow into
a rich
community supporting place.
So our
Father gives us the potentials of the Kingdom of heaven. Look
around
you and look for the place that you could raise a garden of
amazement
for others or start a community of life where non exists. This
is the
possibility in the Kingdom of God.
Thanks to my father the Gospel
came
alive.
Peace
and all good,
Hugh
Strickland, St. Martin's Episcopal University Center
814
West Maple, po box 1190, Fayetteville, Arkansas,72702, USA, North
America,
Earth, solar sytem, Milky Way Galxay, Cosmos, all the stuff we
don't
know
***************************
From:
Denzel Nonhof
June
15, 1997
11th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Father’s
Day Sermon
Text: 1
Samuel 16:7
Ezekiel
17:22-24
2
Corinthians 5:6-10
Mark
4:26-41
C.S.
1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to
Samuel, 'Do not consider his
appearance
or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look
at the
things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the
LORD
looks at the heart.’” NIV
Many years ago my brother Martin gave me
an old office chair. It was all
in
pieces, and at that time I was in woodworking class in high school. Two
things
stood out on that chair. First, the
arms were the smoothest of any
wood I
had ever worked with. On the flip side,
the underneath portion of
the
seat was totally rough. It had never
been sanded.
One mark of old furniture is the fact that
the underneath parts are always
rough. Who wanted to spend time sanding and
finishing stuff which really
didn’t
matter, anyway, especially when it had to all be done by hand? It
was
important to work on what really counts!
Have we missed that? Do you spend time on what really
matters? Life is a
series
of decisions, and I like the one quote I heard a while back which
really
puts things into perspective: “In a hundred years, will this
decision
really matter?”
This last week I read and reread this one
little sentence in 1 Samuel
16:7,
which tells us that we need to look at God looks. God does not look
on the
outside of a person, but on the heart.
What is important to God, is
character. Character counts! Character matters to God, and it needs to
matter
to us. It is as though God is saying,
“What most of you are
concerned
about, is like the bottom of an old chair.
Who cares? What you
need to
work on is what is really important!”
I know many of you listen to Dr. Laura
Schlessinger on the Radio. She has
been a
counselor on the radio for many years, but she says in her book, How
could
you do that? that her radio show really took off when she started
talking
out honor, integrity, and ethics. We
know instinctively, that what
matters
the most is often what we have tended to the least.
This last week, I have been thinking about
what matters to God? Back in
the Old
Testament days, a King was elected by one vote — God’s. God had
elected
Saul to be King, but later God rejected him.
I wondered why? Why
was God
electing a new King, David? What had
Saul done that he should
become
abandoned by God?
I have to admit that I like Saul. The first time we ever meet Saul in the
Bible,
he is out looking for donkeys. He is a
donkey wrangler. He is not
a rich
man. He is not a poor man. He is your average young man who is
working
for his dad. Some donkeys were lost and
he was looking for them
when he
comes to Samuel. When Samuel caught
sight of Saul, the Lord said
to him,
“This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people.”
What is important is not your job — but
your calling. God calls a donkey
wranglers
to be King. God calls farmers and
housewives, sellers of purple
and
fishermen, all to go and do his work and tell his story. Saul is
anointed
with oil. Being anointed with oil is
kind of like receiving a
baptism
which sticks, (or should I say a sticky baptism?)! Surely Saul is
struck
by this, wondering, “Can this really be happening to me?” Samuel
tells
him three things which are going to happen to him, to prove that he
has
been called to serve in this way! He is
to meet two messengers with a
message
from his father. He is to meet three
men who will offer him food.
And he
is to meet some prophets. Samuel said
to him, “And you will
prophesy
with them; and you will be changed into a different person.”
When we become Christian, we are anointed
with the Spirit of the Living
God. We are changed by the Holy Spirit. We become different from what we
once
were. I have heard the arguments from a
variety of people, trying to
state
their case about what is the most important.
What is most important,
is that
God calls you into his kingdom?
Calvinists like to put emphasis on
this
call — unfortunately not enough put emphasis on the fact that Calvin
also
wanted us to persevere until the end.
Some want to put emphasis on baptism, a
kind of spiritual anointing which
enters
us into the Kingdom. Is baptism
enough? I have argued with people
saying
that if all God wants is for us to be baptized and that is God’s
only
concern, please lets slip into hospitals and baptize all the babies
before
they leave that place. God cannot be
manipulated, and baptism and
anointing
are not acts of magic.
I have heard many put the emphasis on
receiving the gift of the Holy
Spirit. I would never want to put down the
importance of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus
does his present work in us and through us by the Holy Spirit. If we
want to
please Jesus, we must want the Holy Spirit to live in us and work
through
us. He is the vine, and we are the branches,
and without the Holy
Spirit,
we are nothing. Saul had all this — and
it wasn’t enough!
Something
was lacking — something which drove a wedge between him and God.
When Saul was first introduced to the
people as King, some trouble makers
said,
“How can this fellow save us?” Saul
held his tongue. He went back
home
and was farming when the need for his leadership arose. He heard the
challenge
of the Ammonites, and the Spirit came upon him and he had
righteous
anger! Saul called an army
together. Saul led the army of
Israel
and they defeated their enemies. Saul
was a gracious man and God
confirmed
his call before the people with the sound of thunder. God also
sent
rain to confirm Saul’s call to be King and during a time when it never
rained!
The rain is coming down and thunder is all
around them. In the middle of
this
strong confirmation from God, Samuel gives a powerful warning, in 1
Samuel
12:20, “serve the Lord with all your heart.”
Laura Schlessinger says is plain, “We are
what we do.” (How could you do
that? Page 21.)
Forest Gump put it another way, “Stupid is as stupid
does.” As much as we may hate it, our character is
defined, not by what we
say,
but by what we do. Whether or not we
serve the Lord with all our
hearts
is not revealed by what we say, but by what we do. A time of
testing
came to Saul — would he honor the Lord by doing what God commanded,
or
would he do what he thought was right?
I don’t know about you, but this kind of
definition makes me a little
uneasy. This is saying that what is really important
is not the crown, nor
the
oil, not the Holy Spirit, but simply doing what God has said to do.
Character
is defined by the willingness of a person to do what is right
following
a code of conduct which is the basis of the community and the
faith. Saul had been told to sit still. Samuel promised that he would
come
and make the sacrifice, (this was a communal meal seeking the blessing
of God
before going out to battle). Samuel was
slow in coming, Saul was
anxious
because soldiers were starting to leave, and he knew the only way
to hold
them together was to get this meal and sacrifice started. Saul did
what he
thought best — in direct opposition to what God had commanded. He
had
been told to wait! He failed the test.
God wants us to use our minds. God wants us to think, but God does not
want us
to be disobedient. What has God told
you in the Bible you should
not do,
and it troubles you? What had God
troubled your conscience about
because
you know you should not do it - but you have done it? We might
argue
that nobody knows. We can argue that
everybody else is doing it. We
can try
to rationalize our actions, but we have an obligation to God and to
others. Though it may seem small at the time —
disobedience to God does
matter
a hundred years from now. What we do
when nobody else sees, is seen
by God,
and that matters.
Saul was chosen, anointed, and had the
power of the Spirit of God come
upon
him. But, he disobeyed God. When another test came to him — he
failed
again, and God turned away from him.
Saul was unsuitable because he
lacked
character. He was disobedient and so a
new king had to be chosen.
When
Samuel went to anoint David as King, Samuel was warned not to look at
his
size, age, or appearance. What was
important was what was in his
heart.
Modern Evangelical Faith has put too
little importance on character.
Character
does matter. Jesus said, “Be perfect as
your heavenly Father is
perfect.” Paul says in his letter to 2 Corinthians
3:18, “As all of us
reflect
the Lord's glory with faces that are not covered with veils, we are
being
changed into his image with ever-increasing glory. This comes from
the
Lord, who is the Spirit.” (GWT)
This poem by an unknown author helps to
show the important of character:
Watch
your thoughts; they become words.
Watch
your words; they become actions.
Watch
your actions; they become habits.
Watch
your habits; they become character.
Watch
your character; it becomes your destiny.
Paul wrote (in Philippians 3:13-17 ),
“Brothers and sisters, I can't
consider
myself a winner yet. This is what I do: I don't look back, I
lengthen
my stride, and I run straight toward the goal to win the prize
that
God's heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus.
Whoever has a mature
faith
should think this way. And if you think differently, God will show
you how
to think. However, we should be guided
by what we have learned so
far. Brothers and sisters, imitate me, and pay
attention to those who live
by the
example we have given you.” (GWT)
On this Father’s Day, I wish to give a
special challenge to all the men
here
today. You are an example to those
around you, especially to
children. Be a person of character and integrity. The Kingdom is
established
not because you were called, nor by the gift of the Holy Spirit
given
to you — but through your obedience to God.
Let each of us be
obedient
to the glory of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
AMEN!
****************************
I want to wish all of our Fathers out there a Happy Father s Day. When
looking back over the 6 years that I have been here at St. Mary s, I realize
that each year when Fathers Day comes along, I seem to draw the short straw
which means it is my turn to give the homily. I don t really mind, but I hope that
the reason I give the homily on Fathers Day, is that I am plodding away in the
trenches, and not because I have any unique wisdom on the subject.
I, like most fathers, kind of fell into the job of being a father. None of
my children came packaged with an instruction manual, in fact, I still remember
some 20 years ago when Yvonne and I brought our first born, Christopher, home
from the hospital. We laid him on the bed in our bedroom and just looked at
each other with a whole lot of fear in our eyes. Now what do we do? We can t
just call a nurse to come and help us out, we have to handle it ourselves. We
were scared to death.
Being a father is more than just a biological function. Sure, that was part
of it, but that flash of sparks was nothing compared with the relationship role
of being a father. And, being a father is hard, but joyful, work. As none of
our children came with an installation manual, which I probably wouldn t have
read anyway, or with a do-it-yourself video, all I could do is the best that I
could do. That is all any of us can do.
While most of the time I was really trying to do my best, I also have to
realize that there were times when I fell quite a bit short of the mark,
probably when I was concerned more with peace, or what I was going to have to
do, rather than being the best father. But, from what I see around me, this is
normal, part of being human, so I shouldn t beat myself up too badly.
One thing that I have come to learn the hard way about being a Father over
these past 20 years, is that I am not really in control. I am not sure that I
want my children to hear this, but they probably already know it anyway,
"I can t make them do anything!" No matter what I suggest, no matter
what I ask, no matter what I demand, I can t make my children do anything. It
is they that have to make the choice to agree or disagree, to get to work, or
to just ignore.
We have all heard the quote: "I can t hear what you are saying because
what you do speaks so loudly." This is especially true of fatherhood. When
I look at my three children (all of whom are opposites if you can have three
opposites) I see my wife and myself staring back at me, and I am not just
talking about the good stuff. I know that the not so good stuff is not how I
told them to be, so I must face up to the fact that "Do as I say, not as I
do" just doesn t work.
Several years ago, I had a single parent come in to see me because she was
at her wits end, she had two girls and a boy, and the two girls had made the
wrong choices which ended up in their getting pregnant. She didn t know how it
could, because she was always so strict and constantly telling them that
premarital sex was wrong. I asked her how the message was getting through to
her girls when she had her boyfriend in for over night visits, and then even
living together for a while.
Our God is not just a God of the great, he is also a God of the minute - Not
just a God of the universe, he is also a God of the individual heart. His
Kingdom is not just made up of universe, worlds, suns, nations and peoples, his
kingdom is proclaimed in the unique and personal life of each of us. Our own
homes, our own families proclaim the Kingdom of God. When a man and wife choose
to enter into a covenant for the whole of life, they provide the ground in
which the small mustard seed of the Kingdom can sprout and grow. And just like
the mustard seed sprouts and grows without farmer knowing how it happens, so
the seed of the Kingdom sprouts and grows in our families without us knowing
how it happens.
So fatherhood is more about providing the good soil for the seed to sprout
than to provide the rules and demands to make it grow into the tree or shrub
that we want it to grow into, so we can harvest what we want to harvest. And,
like the farmer, we don t know how the growth happens until one day we are
jolted to reality when an aunt or a cousin who hasn t seen our family for a
while, is astonished at what our children are becoming.
Even realizing that as Fathers we need to provide the good nurturing soil,
and the we aren t in control, we are often concerned about the lack of success
which our efforts for our children, for God and for good seem to have. Today's
parables encourage us to allow our God to be God! - To work in His mysterious
and surprising ways. We can be sure that the harvest time, when He will reap
good fruits, will eventually come.
How do we provide this good soil in our families that will nuture each
member and provide the growth? Paul, in our second reading, talks about making
it our aim to please God in all our life (he uses home as an image for this
life or body), but pleasing God is not just something for our minds and lives,
our literal homes must also be a place, an arena in which we also seek to
please God.
Is God pleased with who we are in our homes, what we are in our homes, what
we do in our homes, what values we teach in our homes? Who are we trying to
please more than anyone else in our homes? I wonder what a home would look like
if pleasing God was the guiding principle, the determining factor for
everything there? Or is God something we confine to a church building on Sunday
(if that much)? Maybe we need to get back to the first Christians who had the
church in their homes.
It seems to me that if the church is not in our homes, it is no place - at
least for us. If God is just something we think about on Sunday in a certain
place, but not a living Presence we love, honor and seek to please in our homes
where we live and move and have our being, then is God real to us?
So fatherhood can be described as pleasing God. If pleasing God is my
aim in life, what difference would it make in my marriage? How much more
fertile would the soil be to nuture my children and yes my wife and myself as
well. If it was my aim to please God above all else, what difference would it
make for me as a father or brother or sister or in-law or grandparent? Will
this please God? What a tremendous guiding question to ask continually in our
homes.
Truman Stevens
E-Mail: Deacon_truman@religious.com
Personal WebPage: http://www.mdex.net/~trumans
St. Mary's WebPage: http://www.mdex.net/~trumans/st_mary.htm
*****************************
When
watching a ball game or some other sporting event where the camera
sometimes
pans the crowd, have you ever seen anyone hold up a sign that
reads,
"Hi, Dad"? Nope, neither have
I.
Is this
a suggestion that women are more likely to be watching
television
than men are? Is the inference that
womenfolk are
quite
likely to be glued to their Tv screens during important
ball
games, whereas it would be pointless holding up signs that
read,
'Hi, Dad,' because the menfolk would be busy struggling to
keep
the house and grounds tidy and providing food for the table?
Surely
not...
Quite
possibly the reason is simply that while it is perfectly acceptable
for men
to display their affection for their *mothers* in public, some
men are
less willing to openly demonstrate their love for their *fathers*
--maybe
because their fathers are of the same gender. I long ago came to
the
conclusion that women in general have less problems with sex and
with
gender-identity than do we men. Even as children, some of us were
encouraged
to give Mummy a kiss but to greet Daddy with a handshake.
************************
A Puppet Skit By Bass Mitchell
LOUSIE: Hey,
do you know what day it is?
THELMA: Yeah,
it’s Sunday, June 15, 1997.
LOUSIE: No,
I don’t mean the date.
THELMA: But
it IS Sunday, June 15, 1997.
LOUSIE: Okay,
but do you know what is special about Sunday, (date)?
THELMA: (Pauses,
thinking) Uhhhh...nope!
(Roscoe comes on the stage)
ROSCOE: Hey,
guys! What’s happenin’!
LOUSIE: I’ll
bet Roscoe knows.
ROSCOE: Knows
what?
LOUSIE: What
today is? Don’t you?
ROSCOE: (Says
proudly) Sure I do.
THELMA: Well,
what is it?
ROSCOE: It’s
Sunday, June ____, 200___!
LOUSIE: (Groans)
THELMA: (Giggles)
ROSCOE: What?
What? It is Sunday, June 15, 1997!
THELMA: (Still
giggling) I know...I know...
LOUSIE: You
two are impossible! It’s a wonder you made it past the first grade!
ROSCOE: Well,
I’m still in the first grade...
LOUSIE: (Groans
again) It’s Father’s Day, Banana brains!
Father’s Day!
ROSCOE & THELMA: (Together say) Oh...why didn’t you say so?
LOUISE: I
was trying to...
THELMA: Oh
no!
ROSCOE: What?
Why “Oh no”?
THELMA: I
haven’t bought a gift for my dad yet. What can I get for him?
ROSCOE: I’m
gonna get some golf balls for my dad. He’s always losing his. How about some after shave stuff. We men
love that kind of thing. Drives the ladies crazy.
THELMA & LOUISE: (Together) Pleeaassee... you drive ‘em crazy without
it!
ROSCOE: Why,
thank you!
LOUSIE: That’s
not what we mean, Aqua Velva breath!
ROSCOE: (Looking kind of hurt) Just tryin’ to be helpful. You got a better
idea, smarty pants?
LOUISE: As a matter of fact, I do! You don’t have to
spend lots of money on your dad. My dad says that to us each year and he also
says that’s the only time we listen to him. I’m not sure what that means. But
you can get him something that doesn’t cost money.
THELMA & ROSCOE: (Together) What?
LOUSIE: Love!
ROSCOE: Love?
Nah, I think he’d rather have some cologne, you know, that stuff that drives ladies...
THELMA: (Interrupting)
No. I think she’s onto something here. But how do you give your dad love?
LOUSIE: Lots
of ways. Draw him a picture. Sit on his lap. Give him a great big hug. Help him
do things. You can show love in all kinds of ways.
THELMA: I like that idea. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll
give my dad love.
ROSCOE: (Reluctantly) Well, I guess I will too…but I
hope he’s not too disappointed when he doesn’t get the after shave that drives
the ladies…
THELMA & LOUSIE: (Together) Roscoe!!!!
LOUSIE:Boys and girls, give your dad, granddad, and all
those special men in your lives the best gift of all this Father’s Day. Give
them your love. In fact, if your dad, or granddad or a special uncle or person is
here today, why not go right now and give them all a great big hug!
ROSCOE: But
I bet they really would like after shave…
THELMA & LOUSIE: (Together) Roscoe!!!!
PUPPETS SAY TOGETHER: Happy Father’s Day,
everyone!!!
**************************