I. The Fathers of Our Church 00:00
…and that you would help us to see not only you but the people around us, Lord, through your eyes. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers in the room. It’s interesting, because our past month was basically all about the fathers of our church. We had Bishop Kessler (maybe I call him the grandfather now), and he came and gave his retirement sermon, and we celebrated his ministry and the movement that he birthed and helped birth in the CEC, and the impact that he’s had not only here but internationally. And then Bishop Hannington comes by and goes, “Man, you guys changed our life in Africa.” And we got to see one of our visiting fathers from abroad, one of the people who is very much a part of our church family, and he shared with us about seeing God in the world and how he provides in our life. And then we had Bishop Chris, because we just weren’t done. He came along, and he’s our newest father of our diocese, the father of the West out here. And each one of you should look to him as he guides us into this next season of this diocese. I mean, I can’t talk highly enough about him. I’ve had lots of fun conversations with him in the past weeks, and expect him to be very evident and present as we move forward in the Diocese of the West and in our church.
And of course you can’t talk about fathers at Saint Michael’s right now without mentioning our very own Father Powell, who’s taking on the burden and the privilege and the responsibility of leading this wonderful group of very docile and obedient people here at Saint Michael’s. I knew that would get a laugh.
But I want to start here to remind us that God’s government is built on fathers. His whole plan for the world is built on raising up fathers to lead. Now, you should be celebrating at that, because he didn’t raise up dictators, he didn’t raise up tyrants; he raised up fathers. And the relationship aspect of our faith is that all of the authority in the world is based on God: not just the King, not just the Lord of all, but God the Father. And he is so good to lead us in relationship, and not just by telling us where to go.
II. Safe or Strong? 02:21
But I wanted to start this way because I had a great opportunity last week, while my wife was out of town, to be a father and to really just lean into that. And so I have a couple of examples this morning for you to watch. This is what happens when the father is here.
Before I play the first one, I want to give you some context. We built a loft bed for Rowan, our six-year-old, and then Rhys is sleeping under it, so we can make room for our newest baby coming in August. And that was fun. And then our one-and-a-half-year-old found it. There’s a ladder, and there’s a slide on the other side. And the question was: do you find a way to keep your one-and-a-half-year-old safe by keeping her off the bed, or do you make her strong by teaching her how to use the bed? Here we go. Let’s watch this first video.
And so the cycle has begun. And they did that for approximately two hours, nonstop, just over and over. That’s right. That’s what fathers do: they make you strong enough to face the challenges.
And I have one more video, because I have to be honest: maybe the mother could have been around for this one, and something might have been avoided. So let’s play that next video: Rowan learning how to ride a bike for the first time without training wheels. Okay. You can watch it one more time.
So, fathers: how wonderful, how terrible, how great. This is what life was like when the mom was out of town. But let’s just talk today about what those two videos illustrate. I actually want to make a point out of them; I wasn’t just showing my kids, which I love to do. It’s that we have God, the perfect Father.
III. Our Earthly Fathers and the True Father 05:05
And today I want to preach about how we relate to him as Father, and I think that that is an essential point. Normally we don’t follow the secular holidays. We’re not usually talking about Mother’s Day or Father’s Day or Veterans Day, etc. Usually we’re following the liturgical calendar. But as I was praying through it and reading it, God just put this message about fathers on my heart. And I don’t think you guys will be surprised, because when you look at the world, it is insanely clear that there is a lack of good fathers. What a tragedy.
And so when you see the bunk bed thing, I think that’s a great victory, unalloyed, without commentary. What a victory: Margot can climb the bed and go down fairly safely. But the thing is, all of us have earthly fathers who have also done the second one: not paid enough attention, and then let you just get run over by a bicycle. I’m not even necessarily saying that that was some big failure. But I want you to think about the ways that we disconnect from God because of the failures of our earthly fathers.
So as I talk about this, I want to talk about the true and good Father. But even I (I don’t know if it’s “me” or “I” in this sentence), even the person who has the best father in the world, Ed Harris… I mean, you guys know this guy. He’s prized for a reason. He is the father of all fathers. I love my dad. Even I grew up with wrong ideas about who God was, because my dad’s not perfect, because I imaged God based on my relationship with my earthly father, as we all do. And as wonderful as they are, we need God’s grace and revelation to show us who he is. Because at some point you have to realize that God as your Father is a greater reality than even your earthly father. You have to take that on. You have to move out of your house and become the person who looks to God your Father.
You don’t ignore your earthly fathers. I just got done talking about how the whole church is built on this model of looking to earthly men who image the Father for us. But you have to come to grips with and a realization of, and often that includes healing and revelation of, who God our Father is. It’s so unbelievably revolutionary to talk about God as Father, and when we talk about that, we mean some things.
IV. God the Creator 07:14
And so I’m just going to talk. It’s not super organized today. I don’t have three points for you to take home and teach everyone or remember. I don’t have any alliteration that I have recognized in here. But I’m just going to talk about some things that stuck out to me about what God does as Father for us.
First of all, God is the Creator. And in the same way, what do fathers do? They procreate. I mean, they need a mother, I understand. Let’s just get that out of the way: everything I say about God today that talks about relating to him as Father does not exclude the role of the mother. I think we’re good on that. But first of all, he relates to us as Creator, progenitor, the person who created everything.
And you need to know that you have God’s DNA (using an analogy here, or a metaphor) far more than you have your dad’s DNA. You are much more like God than you are like your earthly father. That’s a crazy reality. But the way that you think, “Man, I have my dad’s eyes,” or “I have my dad’s temper,” or “I have my dad’s love of people,” or whatever it is: all of that, you have more claim to God’s fathership. And you need to start seeing, “Where can I image my Father God better in my life?” Because he created you and designed you to reflect his glory and his majesty.
In fact, think of the greatest thing you’ve ever seen. Some of you have seen the James Webb telescope images and this amazing panoply of beauty that exists in the universe way out there. And it’s like, nobody lives out there. But God knew that someday we’d be able to see it, and he made it beautiful. And you think sometimes in awe how amazing our God must be. The pinnacle of that is you. The pinnacle of that is the person across the pew that you don’t like so much. Humanity is God’s greatest creation, especially made in his image. So we are called to image God our Father, because he created us. And that’s something that we need to relate to him in.
Let me say it this way: God is both farther from you and closer to you than you could possibly know. He’s both holier and closer and more intimately involved in your life than you could possibly know. So I’m inviting you to walk in that relationship. What if on Father’s Day you ignored your father? You didn’t send him a text, you didn’t call him, you didn’t spend any time with him. What a show of disrespect. Well, I’ve got something to tell you today: every day is God’s day, and we just go about our business. He wants to relate to us. He wants to be in relationship with us. I’ll say one more thing: what if the only time you talked to your earthly dad was on Father’s Day? That’s not much of a relationship. Just things to think about.
V. You Are My Beloved Son 10:48
Second, I want to point out that God names us. He gives us our identity. The Father teaches us both who we are and who we are not. And this is where we’ll go to Mark chapter 1 and look at Jesus:
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Mark 1.9–11
This is the fundamental revelation of the Christian life. Because how do you enter Christianity? By joining with Jesus in his baptism. And what does God say when you come up out of the water? “This is my beloved son, my beloved daughter, with whom I’m well pleased.” Yeah, you: the failure, the sinner, the person who doesn’t measure up. You’re the one who is his beloved son, his beloved daughter, with whom he is well pleased. Every other thing in Christianity comes from that primary relationship of love from our Father, purchased by Jesus Christ, inspired by the Holy Spirit. You are chosen.
So when you relate to God, it’s actually not like we often think of relating to our dads. I saw a meme today, and it was like, “My stepdad is so disappointed in me it feels biological.” That’s how we image dads: disappointment. And that’s so real in the world. I had to deal with that. Nobody can live up to Ed Harris’s expectations. By the power of Christ I strive.
But think about this. We have this burden of shame and guilt, and yet I’m telling you the fundamental revelation is God’s pleasure over you, his love in you. That’s amazing. So when we do Father’s Day, let’s remember the love of our Father. It doesn’t matter what your earthly father thinks of you if you get the greatest revelation of God’s love. And by “it doesn’t matter” I mean that your value comes from God’s love and not necessarily your earthly father’s love. You have to work out your relationship with the people on earth, absolutely. Don’t neglect it. But remember that your foundation, the rock on which you build your life, is the love of your heavenly Father.
So when we think about that, you have to remember: everything God ever does or allows to happen in your life starts with love. So when he corrects you, instead of saying, “Man, I guess I’m just not good enough for this,” remember that his correction comes from that place of pleasure and love.
VI. Driven into the Wilderness 13:19
Let’s keep looking here, because the very next verse gives us a little bit more. So Jesus comes out of the water: “This is my Son; I’m well pleased with him.” Mark 1:12:
12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. Mark 1.12
That’s part of what fathers do: “Get out of here. Get into the place of trial and temptation, because you need to figure out who you are.” Let me say it this way: what Jesus was doing in the wilderness was internalizing the revelation he received at his baptism, that he is God’s beloved Son. Internalizing is kind of a weird word to use for it. What I mean is, it’s like when you’re building a house and the cornerstone comes in. He’s setting it in place in his life, and then he’s mortaring it together, and everything else is going to be based on this. And he’s doing that in the wilderness.
What does the devil tempt Jesus with? “If you are the Son of God, do this” (Matt 4.3–6). God just literally tore the heavens open: “You are my beloved Son.” And the devil goes, “Did God really say that? Can you trust that?” And yet every one of us knows how that feels. We get this time where we have this revelation, this encounter with God, and we feel full and known and loved. And then we go to work on Monday morning, and our boss chews us out for something we didn’t even do, and we say, “If I was the son of God, this would have never happened.” Maybe we don’t use those words, but we act that way. The same Spirit that calls you his beloved son or daughter drives you into the wilderness, because you need to learn that lesson.
It’s the same story as Exodus. What does God do? He rescues his people out of tyranny and slavery and drives them into the wilderness so that he can teach them to be his people. And during that time he uses all of the trials and temptations to destroy the parts of them where they had internalized the tyranny and slavery of Egypt.
It’s the same thing every dad does, because your toddler is a slave: a slave to their desires and passions, a slave to their stupidity and stubbornness. I could go on and on; I’ve got a lot of fingers. But the point here is, it is the image of the father who looks at that slave and says, “I am an enemy of every part of you that holds you back from the life and freedom that God has for you.” Every man is looking for those things to destroy.
Ultimately, what you do as a father, as you image God the Father, is you teach your children self-control, which is life, and life forevermore. It’s the freedom to choose good. We think of freedom as no holds barred: everything is open to me. And then we think of this idea… it’s so ridiculous, because then you look at a child. Nobody would blame them for anything; they’re free to do whatever they want. But you know what? Ninety-nine percent of the things they want are terrible and enslaving. They can’t say no to themselves. We teach our children to say no to themselves and to choose God. And that’s what the Father does for us.
So if you feel like you’re in the wilderness, and you’re thinking it was way better in Egypt, you are in good company. The Father is doing work in you. It is the work the Father does: he calls you his own, and then drives you into the wilderness and teaches you what that means over your lifetime. But you know what? There’s a promised land. Every one of you can take another step closer to the promised land today.
VII. The Lawgiver 18:06
God invites us every day: walk into the promised land. And we go, “But there are giants over there.” Or we go, “I don’t want to.” Or we say, “I want more food or clothing,” or whatever it is between you and just giving it to God.
And that’s why God has to be, as a father, the lawgiver. Now, we fathers get to participate in that. “You don’t touch that door.” “Why not?” “Because I said so. That’s good enough.” You as a father have authority over your children, because you’re borrowing, participating in, embodying God’s fatherly authority. And so you get to tell them what to do. In fact, if you’re participating with God in the Holy Spirit, you will have revelation on exactly what rules to put in place to make your children the most angry, so that they can get rid of the slavery.
The whole idea here is a transformation. That’s why you see the Israelites in the desert being given the law: because they need to be taken out of who they are, and then they need to learn a way of living. Like your children when they sit at the dining room table. Did you know you have to explain to children that feet don’t go on the table? It’s not obvious to them. In fact, you have to explain literally everything to your kids about how to sit at a dining room table. It is not natural. They have to learn how to stay in a chair. They have to learn how to pick up a fork and eat food off that fork, and it is hard for them.
And yet when God tries to teach us the simplest lessons, we’re like, “No, my way,” and we’re like little children. Now, all of you wonderful mature people are way better than me at this, I am sure. But the invitation is there to join him at the table. He just has to teach us some manners. And so when you think about that, you think about what the law means: it actually means freedom to sit at the table, to join him in the feast, to go into the promised land. And the law is one of the tools God uses to teach us not to be slaves to our own passions and desires.
VIII. Take Your Son, Your Only Son 20:25
Ultimately, the law calls us to sacrifice everything to God. In Genesis 22, beginning in verse 1, God’s talking to Abraham:
1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Gen 22.1–2
What a Father’s Day verse. That’s insane. I don’t think it says that he told Sarah what he was doing, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t. I don’t know if you can get away with telling your wife what you’re about to do. But he went out and he took Isaac, and he even bound him and raised the knife. That is incredible. Do you know why? Because what he was doing was saying, “I trust the heavenly Father more than myself. I will do what my heavenly Father says, even more than what I think I should do.”
Now, of course, great news: we all know the end of the story. God wanted to demonstrate that child sacrifice is not on the table, except when he gives his Son. He’s the only sacrificial lamb that will ever be required of you. But we have to learn how to give it to God. The law brings you to the point at which you say, “Even the promise, the promised one…” I mean, can you imagine? Abraham and this child who he had wept for and prayed for and yearned for, finally given, and even that promise fulfilled, and God said, “Lay it on the table.” And he said, “Okay.”
And guess what? That guy is free. Because Abraham is free to do whatever God tells him to. He put it all out there. He laid it all down. And what happens when you do that is that the law ceases to be an external force on you, and it becomes an internal force within you. You start wanting to do what God wants you to do. You start wanting to love people, wanting to sacrifice, wanting to give.
And so what is the Father’s job? It is to call you out of slavery and to teach you to become who you have always been made to be. And he uses the law and the wilderness and these experiences, not because he doesn’t like you, but because he loves you.
IX. God's Funhouse Mirror 22:48
Also, you might just think, “Why would God love me?” It’s a great question. For some of us it’s a greater question than for others. But you think about this, and I’ve thought it many times: how can God love me, the wicked sinner that I am? All of this has to do with Jesus. Because God doesn’t see you the way you see you. God’s got a funhouse mirror, and it’s a lot funner than anything you can imagine. It actually reveals to him who you really are. God doesn’t just look at you where you’re at. He looks at you where you’ve been, where you are, where you’re going. And God in his righteous judgment (he’s not mistaken, he’s not blinded), knowing you for who you are, says, “You are worthy. You are loved.” So that voice that says, “How could he possibly love you?” is just a lie. It’s only a lie. It has no value. The voice that has value is the voice that says, “Now stop being a slave, and come with me to the wilderness.” That’s the voice we’re looking for when we look to our Father.
X. Nailed to the Cross 24:03
I’ll tell you one more story as we wrap up. So much in my life was built on the idea that I had to perform in order to earn love. Not because my parents didn’t give me love freely; not at all. But because it’s a broken and fallen world, and that is one of the enemy’s favorite tools to separate you from the Father, especially when you’re in the church. Because in the church you know better. I tell my kids that all the time: “Rowan, you know better.” “Margot, it’s okay, you don’t know better.” You make those distinctions. But what happens in the church is you know how you should behave, and then you still don’t do it.
I mean, even Paul, the superhero of our faith (besides Jesus, Paul’s pretty far up there; I guess Mary’s probably maybe higher), even Paul says, “The things I want to do, I don’t do. The things I don’t want to do, I do” (Rom 7.15). What’s going on in me? You’re shedding your slavery and entering freedom. But what can happen when you misinterpret that is that you can put a burden on yourself: “I should be better. Yeah, maybe God paid for those sins, but now I should be wiser and better and more intelligent,” far more good-looking, I’m sure. And you get this shame on yourself, because you’re still human. You’re still you. And what happens is you run into these walls where you do things, and they pile up, and you feel the burden of the bricks on your shoulder, and then you stop going to God because you don’t want him to see it. Which is so silly. It’s like Adam and Eve: “Where are you?” “We’re hiding.” It’s God, people. He sees everything. He knows.
But I had this stuff that had built up in my life where I had wanted to do it by my own strength. I mean, I still struggle with it; I’m talking like it’s past tense. The journey of life is letting go and letting God. But in particular I was really struggling with insecurity and shame, and I went to a friend of mine who is trained in this thing called Sozo. Long story short, it’s the type of inner healing where you pray with the person and you just ask God into the room. You ask the Holy Spirit into the room, Jesus into the room, God the Father into the room, and you talk about how they appear to you. Now, I’m not saying the heavens are open and God the Trinity shows up in the room in some crazy way, like he did on the Mount of Transfiguration or anything. I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is it allows you to bring your imagination, your thoughts about God, out of you, and then be corrected by God. I realize this is harder to explain than I thought. But I’ll just tell you what happened, and if you have questions about it, I can talk to you more later.
He said, “Okay, invite the Holy Spirit into the room. What do you see?” And you close your eyes and you say, “Well, I just see this flame, kind of an incandescent thing.” Then he said, “Invite the Father into the room.” And I felt like immediately this idea just jumped into my head, of me holding a report card, or it might have been a disciplinary report. It was like both at the same time; I had a lot of experience with those. And I was holding it up, and it was like God was way up there, and I just felt this radiating judgment, like I was just not good enough to even approach the throne of God, because I had this list of reasons why I didn’t measure up. But it was also all the reasons why I thought I could measure up. That’s where the report card had A’s on it. The disciplinary report had all the bad things I couldn’t do. And it was this weird combo, where it was everything in my life, and I still wasn’t good enough.
He said, “Okay, invite Jesus into the room.” And in that moment, right away, I saw Jesus walk by, grab that report, and nail it to the cross. It was like everything you’ve ever done and everything you could possibly do, good, bad, ugly, whatever, is encompassed in the wood of the cross. Jesus has cleared that all away, and you can just approach God the Father as your Father. You don’t have to justify yourself. You don’t have to prove yourself. You can just come to God, and he is right there with open arms.
Like the story of the Prodigal. What happens? He sees his son, who literally all he’s done is realize that he could be a slave and eat better than wherever he was living. He hasn’t built any orphanages. He hasn’t repented. He just turned around and said, “I should be at my dad’s house instead.” And what does the father do in the story? He sees him, and he runs to him (Luke 15.17–20).
And all of us walk around thinking God as Father means God as our disciplinarian, God as our judge. And he’s sitting there going, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11.28). That’s the Father. That’s a Father’s Day message. That’s what we should think about. And man, if you’re a father in here, and you don’t feel the burden of that: that’s who we should image. We should be like that with our kids. Call them out of slavery, through the wilderness. Tell them who they are. Build it all on love. And every time they mess up, run to them with open arms: “Come back. Come back.”
And so, with all of that, today I just wanted to end by saying: every one of us needs a better relationship with our Father. And it’s life, and life forevermore. Amen.