Pentecost 13
Today is Father’s Day. We give thanks to all fathers, grandfathers, adopted fathers and all the men who have helped to mentor and support children and young people. Richard Rohr reminds us how precious is the relationship between parent and child, between father and son, just as it is between mother and daughter, and between father and daughter and mother and son. The extraordinary opportunity many people have, to love a child, to raise them, to bless them in their daily lives, supporting and encouraging, guiding and enabling them, is life-giving and life-changing for everyone.
Today’s readings remind us of God’s love for us, as God’s children. Psalm 139:12,14 tells us:
For you have created my inward parts:
You knit me together in my mother’s womb. ‘
You knew my soul, and my bones were not hidden from you:
when I was formed in secret, and woven in the depths of the earth.
This is an extraordinary reminder of how precious we are in God’s sight, and the love God has for every one of us, individually, purposefully created uniquely in God’s image with the hopes and desires God has for each of us in our lives.
God worked with Mary and Joseph to bring God’s Son into the world. Joseph’s love of God and Mary meant Jesus had a human father and God as Father, to guide and support him each step of the way. God’s love is present and poured out on Jesus in the stories told about his birth, his baptism and every step of the way in his ministry to the end. And, as parents we know how hard it is to let our children go their way, make their choices and live and die with them.
So today, we give thanks for fathers and grandfathers, for uncles, brothers and nephews and for loved family friends who contribute to the lives of all children, and to our church community, who support and love each other.
I’m sure you’re now thinking about the love we have for our children – it seems innate in all human families and communities across the world. It helps us to think about God’s love for God’s children as we think about the examples God gives us; the love we have for one another, for family, for friends and this community. Love shows up in so many ways: in the pets we love, or in the love of God’s creation and for the beauty of the world around us. There is the love for our hobbies and the ways we spend our time, where we prioritise our money and our interests. There are so many ways to think about love. But there in the centre, is God’s love, which has shown us how to love with such abundance, joy and gratitude.
We know also, we can and do love sometimes in spite of difficulties, challenges, and unpleasantness. Anyone who has been in a long-term relationship will be able to describe the ways in which love comes under pressure over time, when things go wrong and difficult decisions are made; yet love continues to be shaped, re-formed, as it matures and grows. We change our relationship with our children over time, as they grow and learn independence. God shows us how love continues in the darkest of times, in the hardest of places, and what it looks like when it is broken, when we break with God. We recognise when love is no longer love, when it has become crooked, distorted and unloving. We see this when it is controlling, coercive and based on power ‘over’ someone else, when it seeks to dominate and own, with violence and abuse, rather than love expressed as God loves.
Paul’s Letter to Philemon is about family, ministry and love. Paul wrestles with the relationship between the two brothers in the letter who don’t get on. Paul realises he can’t do the work of the gospel without reconciling the two brothers, Onesimus and Philemon.
Paul reminded us if we turn against one another, our love grows cold and also against God. When the church relationships are not loving and caring, ministry becomes impossible. When we cannot agree on love for one another and are unable to practice as we preach and teach it, irrespective of who the people are, then we are wasting God’s love and squandering it. People around us instead, see our hypocrisy and selfishness.
Jesus’ words about the cost of discipleship are timely and clear. If we put things, or our pride, the desire for revenge or cling onto our reasons for disliking someone ahead of love for God, we squander God’s love. I remember the parable of the prodigal son, the father running down the road to greet his son, with such joy and love in his heart. He has been waiting, hoping and praying for his son’s return.
Jesus is making it really clear, God’s love for us and our love for God, is the centre of our lives, the purpose for all our lives. In realising our love of God overrides our love of our possessions and guides all our relationships, Jesus shows us it is through God we learn about love. In that learning and experiencing of God’s love, we are guided in our relationships with one another. If we are unable to see God in the other person, we have misunderstood God’s love. In loving others in God’s way, Jesus wants us to understand, this is not the world’s way; and, if we still choose sides, prioritise individuals or groups as less worthy, if we discriminate, hate, or despise others, then our love is not reflecting the love of God as our loving father, mother and brother. For Jesus, this means:
Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:27)
I was talking to a refugee recently from a warzone, and his patient reminder to me, was unless we can carry the love of Christ to everyone, bringing and sharing the peace and love God has given us, in the face of everything else confronting us, we have not understood the gospel. And, it is likely, he said, this gospel will get us killed; yet we do this for the love of God and for God’s people which is always our priority. It is no wonder people walked away from Jesus. These are hard words to hear. We celebrate God as Father and remember God’s love for all of us. The Lord be with you.