Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Sandwich, Massachusetts

June 18, 2006       2 Pentecost

Father’s Day

 

 

Today we honor our Fathers, and that’s good.  Dads don’t get much respect nowadays.  A doting father used to sing his little children to sleep, even learned a few lullabies to lend some variety to the task.  This is something he could do at night to help his wife out.  And he kept up this task until one night he overheard his four year old give her younger sibling this advice.  “If you pretend you are asleep,” she said “He stops.”  That was the end of the father’s lullabies.

 

 Garrison Keeler, I think a number of you know, is the host of Prairie Home Companion on the Public Broadcasting System.  And he also writes something called “Writer’s Almanac” on National Public Radio.  And it reminds us that Father’s day goes back to a Sunday morning in May of 1909 when a woman named Sonora Smart was sitting in church in Spokane, WA. listening to a Mother’s Day sermon.   She thought of her father who had raised her and her siblings after her mother died in childbirth.   And she thought that Father’s should get recognition too.  So she asked the minister of her church if he would deliver a sermon honoring fathers on the father’s birthday which was coming up in June.  The minister did, and the tradition of father’s Day caught on, though rather slowly.   Mother’s Day became an official holiday in 1914; Father’s day not until 1972.   Mother’s day is still the busiest day of the year for florists and restaurants and long-distance phone companies.  Father’s day is the day in which the most collect phone calls are made. 

 

In this morning’s gospel reading from Mark, Jesus is describing the kingdom of God.  This is what the kingdom is like: “A man scatters seeds on the ground night and day whether he sleeps or gets up.  The seed sprouts and grows though he does not know how.”  Now Jesus in not talking about fatherhood in this passage, but isn’t this the very first area in which he participates in the coming of God’s kingdom to earth.  It is in the raising of our children.   Raising good children is like scattering seed on the ground.  There are no guarantees in either raising children or gathering seed.   A farmer can do all the right things and still lose the crop.  And so can parents.  The farmer can till the ground at the right time, put in the right seed and irrigate and fertilize according to the textbook.  But that does not guarantee a good crop.  Some of you have learned the hard way that there are no guarantees.   But generally if we have done the best we can, in planting and nurturing the seed, which are our children, God will reward us with children that we can be proud of.

 

I want to begin here, on Father’s Day 2006, Father’s are important.  It doesn’t always work out, of course, and many young women today are doing a superb job, a difficult job, of raising their young without a Dad.  But where possible, having a father around can make a real difference.  Human beings need Dad’s.  Those of us who grew up in families where dad was a positive influence will quickly agree.  It doesn’t always work out like that of course.  There are some families in which Dad is absent and that can not be helped.  There are other families where Dad’s do more harm than good.  But fortunately that is true in only a minority of families.  Most fathers do the best they can, and we are proud to be able to honor them.

 

Father’s are important.  A conscientious father can do wonders in the lives of his children. And many of us have witnessed this in our own families.  A conscientious dad can have a wondrous impact on the lives of his offspring.  For football fans, there is a father who is rightfully being celebrated this year.  He is Archie Manning, former National Football Leagues quarterback and successful businessman, husband and father to three sons.  Two of them, Payton and Eli, are starting quarterbacks in the National Football League.  Even more important, all three Manning boys are men of character.  Archie Manning claims that one of his greatest joys in life is his relationship with his sons.  All the Manning boys praise their father for being actively involved in their lives.  They describe him as loving and supportive.  And Archie Manning recalls that as his sons were growing up, he made sure to spend lots of time with them.  One reason Archie Manning has been so deliberate in building a relationship with his sons is because he lost that chance with his own father.   Archie Manning was just 19 when his father committed suicide.  He determined that he would never waste an opportunity to show his sons how much he loved them. And he didn’t. It inspires us when any man takes his responsibilities at home seriously.  We celebrate sports heroes as dads only because their examples make us want to do better. 

 

In 1985, Tim Burke saw his boyhood dream come true the day he was signed to play in the major league with the Montreal Expos.  After four years in the minor leagues, he was finally given a chance to play in the big leagues.  And he quickly proved to be worth his salt by setting the record for the most relief appearances by a rookie player.   Along the way however, Tim and his wife Christine adopted four children with very special needs.  Two daughters from South Korea, a handicapped son from Guatemala and another son from Vietnam.  All the children were born with serious defects or illnesses.  Neither Tim nor Christine was prepared for the tremendous demands such a family would bring.  And with a grueling schedule of Major League Baseball, Tim was seldom around to help.  So in 1993, only 3 months after signing an almost million dollar contract with the Cincinnati reds, Tim decided to retire from baseball.  When pressed by reporters to explain his decision, he simply said “Baseball is going to do just fine without me, but I am the only father that my children have.”

 

Of course you don’t have to be a sports hero to be a great dad.  There are men all over this world who are seeking to model what it means to be a dad who believes in God.    Maybe you know the story of the Hotel manager in Rwanda named Paul.  In 1994 Hutu militants began a brutal assault against the Tutsi neighbors, and more than a million people were murdered by the Hutu.  In the midst of the slaughter, 1200 desperate people took refuge in Paul’s hotel.  Daily Paul faced down Hutu troops who wanted to invade the hotel and kill the occupants.  Paul’s courage and steadfastness in protecting the refugees was so remarkable, that they made a movie entitled “Hotel Rwanda” about this event.  Paul credits two heroes with giving him the courage needed in that critical hour.  His father and Nelson Mandela.  His father had been well respected in the community as a wise man and he always told the truth.  And when there were disputes in the community, the elders called on Paul’s father to mediate.  He was so honest that if one party in the dispute was lying, they often confessed their lies as soon as they saw Paul’s father.  His noble character made him influential in his community.  Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa, inspired Paul because he used non-violence and communication to bring about peace between enemies.  Paul claims that the examples of  his father and Nelson Mandela inspired him as he faced murderous mobs during the Hutu massacre.  

 

A great dad can have that kind of influence.  Many moms are just as courageous.  Still it is true that a conscientious father can do wonders in the lives of his children.  There are no guarantees.  But when a conscientious man or woman plants a seed, and takes the necessary steps to nurture that seed, miracles can occur.  Of course the love of any parent is but a pale reflection of the love of God.  God is the ultimate sower of good seed. We would not even know how to love if God had not loved us first. 

 

My mother’s influence growing up was powerful.  My father had an interesting job, he was an milk man, early to rise and early to bed.  He worked long hours and I didn’t see him much, but my father’s love helped me get off to a good start.  My grandfather died when my father was fifteen years old.  But my father had learned the good traits of honesty, hard work and love from my grandfather.  I give thanks for that.  But I would be the first to acknowledge that my father’s love, regardless of how intense, is but a pale reflection of the love that God has for each of us.  Do you understand that God has a photo of you that God looks at everyday?  What a wonderful thought that is.  I have pictures on my desk of my wife and my children and my grandchildren.  God has a photo of me and you on his desk.

 

 Fathers like mothers are important.  A how much our father loves us, or our mom, there is someone who loves us more.  Someone who gave his only son on our behalf.  So let us honor our fathers this day.  Let us praise god who is the source of light and life and love.

Amen.