Invocation

Eternal God, who sees beyond our ability, and plans beyond our understanding.  We come before you on this day humbly seeking to know the presence of your Holy Spirit.  Anoint us with your Spirit.  Fill us with your word and rise up among us leadership with a love for you and your ways.  Be with us in this time of worship and guide us we pray.

Message

On this Father’s Day weekend, we celebrate the gift of faithful Christian fathers. Christ-like fathers who are fully present in their children’s lives.

NOTHING CAN SUBSTITUTE FOR YOUR PRESENCE. Many fathers rationalize by saying, “I don’t spend much time with my kids, but what we have is quality time.”

A first-grader asked his mother why his Dad brought home a briefcase full of material each night. She explained that he had so much work to do that he couldn’t get it all done at the office.

The youngster pondered this soberly, then asked, “Well, why don’t they put him in a slower group.”

But Presence is not just sharing time and space, a Christian Father is called to create nurturing space. This is the most important Job a Father has.

It has long been observed that our children get their view of God from their fathers. In fact, some of you have shared this experience with me.

The way a father treats his child, speaks to his child, disciplines his child, plays a major role in the formation of that child’s understanding of God.

If the father is overly critical then that child grows up to see God as judgmental. If a father is neglectful then the child concludes that God does not care.

If, on the other hand, dad is supportive, loving, and attentive, then the child grows to see God as their intimate and caring Heavenly Father.

And, it is only possible to use these gifts to their good purpose when God is allowed in. When we allow the LORD to define who we are and who we can be for our families.

I have long thought that we have not given Joseph, Jesus’ father, his due in the church.

There is so much of an effort to venerate Mary, and some of that is necessary. No one would deny that mothers are special, but in the process of holding up Mary we almost ignore Joseph.

Let’s look at the biblical record. When Jesus was born his father was present. When Jesus suddenly disappeared in Jerusalem at the age of twelve we are told that both parents were frantically searching for him. Joseph was certainly no detached father.

At the circumcision of Jesus, Joseph was present. We can certainly assume that Joseph performed the traditional task of the Jewish father and took Jesus to Jerusalem for the three-week-long festival. That was a father-son affair only. No mothers allowed.

And the very fact that Jesus later assumed his father’s profession lets us know that Joseph must have spent many hours with Jesus patiently teaching him the skills of the trade.

 Of course, by the time Jesus was thirty and started his ministry, his father was dead. Although this is never mentioned in scripture, (I cannot help but think in my own mind) that Jesus must have thought of his father often during that critical three-year period.

The very fact that when Jesus prayed to God he referred to him as Abba, or daddy, lets us know that he had a role model who was a loving dad.

Even Jesus himself was greatly influenced by his father. And if He, then how much more are we shaped by the actions of our fathers?

The role of a faithful father cannot be ignored.

But what if our father was absent? According to the 2017 U.S. Census Bureau report, 19.7 million children, more than 1 in 4, live without a father in the home.

Consequently, there is a “father factor” in nearly all of the societal ills facing America today. Research shows when a child is raised in a father-absent home, he or she is affected in the following ways…

• four times greater risk of poverty;
• more likely to face abuse and neglect;
• twice as likely to drop out of school;
• more likely to commit a crime; and so on.

In my years in ministry,  I have seen God do miracles in the lives of fatherless children. This has been and should be one of the most important ministries of the Church.

At-Risk Youth were loved into new opportunities like through 15^th Ave. Christian Church’s like Rise Up. Youth Sponsors, who were male role models for youth.

One of my former youth ministers had a youth leader who became like a father figure for him and helped set him upon a blessed life path.

Church Member David Popp, who became a Life Navigator for the Quad Cities’ Opportunity Community, a program to help navigate neighbors out of poverty culture and into the middle class culture. He has and continues to help numerous people into blessed lives,

But my favorite story is his helping an African refugee realize his dream of becoming a law enforcement officer. I will never forget when we introduced him to the Chief of Police who counseled him and gave him a tour of the facilities. Today he is a correctional officer making plans to take the police exam.

In our church there has been a history of men who have graciously filled in for absent fathers. These men have loved the children as if they were their own. And we give thanks to God for these “Father Figures” on this Father’s Day Service.

In their gifts of presence, grace, and acceptance, we have experienced the presence of God.

Pastoral Prayer

Heavenly Father, Today we ask You to bless our earthly fathers for the many times they reflected the love, strength, generosity, wisdom and mercy that You exemplify in Your relationship with us, Your children.

We honor our fathers for putting our needs above their own convenience and comfort; for teaching us to show courage and determination in the face of adversity; for challenging us to move beyond self-limiting boundaries; for modeling the qualities that would turn us into responsible, principled, caring adults.

Not all our fathers lived up to these ideals. Give them the grace to acknowledge and learn from their mistakes. Give us the grace to extend to them the same forgiveness that you offer us all. Help us to resist the urge to stay stuck in past bitterness, instead, moving forward with humility and peace of heart.

We ask your blessing on those men who served as father figures in our lives when our biological fathers weren’t able to do so.
May the love and selflessness they showed us be returned to them in all their relationships, and help them to know that their influence has changed us for the better.

Give new and future fathers the guidance they need to raise happy and holy children, grounded in a love for God and other people and remind these fathers that treating their wives with dignity, compassion and respect is one of the greatest gifts they can give their children.

We pray that our fathers who have passed into the next life have been welcomed into Your loving embrace, and that our family will one be day be reunited in your heavenly kingdom.

In union with Joseph, whom you entrusted with Your Son, we ask Your generous blessings today and every day.  We ask these things in the name of Christ Jesus who taught us to pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.