We have just celebrated God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ promise, recorded in John 14:18 ‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.’
Within a day I received this email message from 2 different companies I buy from -
We understand that Father's Day can be a sensitive time for some. If you would prefer to not receive Father's Day emails from us, just let us know and we'll take care of it.
I know Father’s day is not a religious festival like Mothering Sunday but Christians worship God who Jesus described as Abba, Our Father.
The Aramaic root Abba is used to address God directly in certain solemn, ancient pre-Christian prayers. Abba suggested a deep, respectful, and personal relationship with the divine. In giving us the Lord’s Prayer with its opening call to ‘Our Father’ we are reminded that, by grace and through Jesus, we are adopted into God’s family as sons and daughters.
Throughout the world, as Christian brothers and sisters, we have been praying between Ascension and Pentecost ‘Thy Kingdom Come’. The petition is that others may know Jesus, His kingdom and God as creator, divine source of life. Genesis describes men and women, humanity, as is in the image of creator God.
As disciples of Jesus we are commissioned to share news of God and His Kingdom not to create a kingdom of God based on our experiences of human behaviour. We worship the perfect parent not a gender based being. We are also commanded to share the gospel in and for every generation which does mean we have to know the society we are seeking to reach out to.
St Paul described many ways he could associate with those around him with an understanding of their situations – he connected as a zealous Jew, an educated Pharisee, a persecutor of Christians, a convert to Christ, a tentmaker and missionary, a Roman citizen and a prisoner, an intellectual capable of debate using Greek philosophical concepts, and knowing what it was to live with ‘a thorn in the flesh.’
Jesus associated and connected with those around him by living a life of loving self-sacrifice. He showed empathy and compassion with generous grace, acceptance and unconditional love. This was his consistency to all and in all places - always putting God first.
In doing this, Jesus met the needs that underpin the sensitivity that my email message suggests – individuals who mourn their fathers, fathers who mourn their children, men who would love to be fathers, fathers and families estranged, fathers feeling mental pressures especially when stereotyping conflicts with their normal. Not all fathers love football!
That email both made me sad that it was necessary and yet I am thankful it challenged complacency. It alerted me to the complex needs of all parents, the realities many live with - the changing nature of society.
And it is today’s society we are called to serve.
Let’s be culturally different to the tone of the email. Let’s not need one day to say thank you to our father figures. Let’s meet men and women where they are in life. Let’s be confident in how Jesus revealed Our Father’s love for each and every one with no gender questions.
May every day be one where Abba’s presence guides and blesses us.
Shalom ~ Pam <><