Pastor
Jim Kniseley prepared this sermon for Father’s Day, June 17, 2007, at
Resurrection Lutheran Church, Fredericksburg.
The idea of observing Father’s Day started
in church. In May of 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd was sitting
in a church in Spokane, Washington, 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
fathers should get recognition too. So
she asked the minister of the church if he would deliver a sermon honoring
fathers on her father’s birthday, which was coming up in June, and 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. Did you know that Mother’s Day is
still the busiest day of the year for florists, restaurants and long distance
phone companies? Father’s Day is the day
on which the most collect phone calls are made.
Here’s a story about the essence of
fatherhood that I gleaned from the Christian Reader. It is called “Priceless
Scribbles.” A young boy watched as his
father walked into the living room. The
boy noticed that his younger brother, John, began to cower slightly as his
father entered. The older boy sensed
that John had done something wrong. Then
he saw from a distance what his brother had done. The younger boy had opened his father’s brand
new hymnal and scribbled all over the first page with a pen.
Staring at their father fearfully, both
brothers waited for John’s punishment.
Their father picked up his prized hymnal, looked at it carefully and
then sat down, without saying a word.
Books were precious to him; he was a minister with several academic
degrees. For him, books were knowledge. What he did next was remarkable, says the
author of this story. Instead of
punishing his brother, instead of scolding or yelling, his father took the pen
from the little boy’s hand, and then wrote in the book himself, alongside the
scribbles that John had made. Here is
what the father wrote: “John’s work, 1959, age 2. How many times have I looked
into our beautiful face and into your war, alert eyes looking up at me and
thanked God for the one who has now scribbled in my new hymnal. You have made the book sacred, as have your
brother and sister to so much of my life.”
“Wow,” thought the older brother, “This is
punishment?” The author of the story,
now an adult, goes on to say how that hymnal became a treasured family
possession, how it was tangible proof that their parents loved the, how it
taught the lesson that what really matter is people, no objects: patience, not
judgment,; love, not anger.
Today’s gospel reading gave us a glimpse of
Jesus’ family life when he was 12 years old.
I suppose I relate to that story on Father’s Day because it talks about
Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather. I am a
stepfather. Someone once told me that I
could never really understand the bond of a real father and his child. To that I say baloney.
God entrusted Jesus to Mary and
Joseph. When their child was missing,
both were frantic with fear, for they loved Jesus. They may not have understood completely what
was his destiny and purpose, but they did know that their calling was to parent
this child and teach him all they could to prepare him for being an adult.
Yes, they found him in the temple area,
conversing with Jewish teachers, who were amazed at his understanding. And then Luke tells us: then (Jesus) went down with them and came to Nazareth, and he was
obedient to them. His mother treasured
all these things in her heart. And Jesus
increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.
It is my hope and prayer that every father
within sound of my voice will take seriously the call of God to be a good and
faithful parent. It is also my hope and
prayer that every son and daughter here will be like Jesus and be a good and
obedient child to their parents.
Thanks be to God.
Amen