Share the Message of our Heavenly Father with Your
Children
June 15, 2003, 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 AM
Typed from audio transcript
Rev. Earl Pierce
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, grace, mercy,
and peace to you from God our Father and His one and
only son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
This sermon almost didn't get written. There was a
time when nothing got in the way of my work. When I
was a carpenter, getting the job done was paramount.
When I was a contractor, the customer was king. After
I became a pastor, the sermon had to get written. I
had to do all those things because that's what put the
bread on the family's table, right? That's what is expected
of a husband and father, right? Isn't that what most
of us grew up being taught? Isn't that what most of
us grew up believing? It's the man's job to get out
there, do the work, and bring home the bacon. It's a
man's job to sacrifice time at home for time at work.
How in the world did we ever end up falling for such
a line? Today you go down to the mall and you will find
one of the most popular plaques there that has a saying
on it, "No one ever went to his grave wishing he
had spent more time at the office." And yet, isn't
that the implication of what we are to do? More time
at the office. Work harder. Do more.
And so what happened? How was it that this sermon came
almost not to be prepared? Well, you see, Ivan came
for a visit. Ivan is my first grandchild. He just turned
10 months old last Friday and lives in Montana with
his dad and our daughter. Ivan brought Deidre, our daughter,
along for a visit too. Before Ivan was born, I remember
talking about grandchildren with Pastor Osslund up at
Memorial in Ames and his quote that he had about them
stuck with me. He said, "A grandchild is the greatest
thing you never did." And I really like that. And
for me to agree with Pastor Osslund, you would have
to know him and see how odd that is that I would agree
with him. But it is true. A grandchild is the greatest
thing I've never done. But this shift in priorities
was really starting before Ivan came along; and I think
most of us, as we approach middle age, we start to think
about priorities and we start to think about what's
really important and what's not. It may be called the
change. It may be called a mid-life crisis, but even
a mid-life crisis is changing and becoming younger and
they're talking about a quarter-life crisis as more
and more 20-somethings are starting to say, even as
they begin their careers, what's really important? Had
I known the change that Ivan was going to bring in my
life, and especially coming for this visit, I would
have turned Pastor Burcham down flat when he asked me
to preach today. But my thinking was still the old thinking;
and, at the time that he asked me, I said, "No
big thing. Be happy to do it." My schedule was
clear for this Sunday. It was just Ivan and his mom
coming for a visit, and I could set them aside to get
this job done.
Well, all day Thursday is playing with Ivan, watching
Ivan, talking to Deidre, our daughter, going to the
zoo with Ivan. Ivan didn't ask to go to the zoo, but
we were sure he wanted to go to the zoo. After all,
they don't have any zoos in Montana. They just have
the wild animals and no fences. And then Friday, here
we go again, Ivan talking, Ivan entertaining. Raquel
Woolsey, who is the 2-month-old daughter of our missionary
to Hispanics, she brought her parents for a visit and
got to meet Ivan. And then finally, Ivan's mom and grandma
decided to go to the mall. And I had a chance to work
on the sermon. There are limits, after all. It was now
or never because already Saturday was planned. We were
going to Farmer's Market first thing. We were going
to get up bright and early because Ivan always gets
up at 6:00. Ivan decided to sleep in until 8:30. So
we went to Farmer's Market. Then we went to Gray's Lake.
Then we still visited.
I am sure by now that you're wondering if these are
just the rantings of a proud grandfather. I'll show
you pictures after the service. Or does it have to do
anything with the sermon somewhere? Probably both. Because
today is Father's Day. And while I might not be the
best father in the world, I have three great daughters
and one fantastic grandson. And, as God would have it,
not only is today Father's Day by government decree;
but, in the life of the church, today, the first Sunday
after Pentecost, is also known as Trinity Sunday. Trinity
Sunday was established in the early church to focus
on Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was established
because most of the church holy days focused only on
Christ. Last Sunday, we focused on the Holy Spirit and
the coming of Pentecost. And, even though we don't spend
a lot of time on it, with every invocation, the trinity
is there. And every baptism, the trinity is there. And
nearly all of our prayers, the trinity is there. Every
time we say one decree, the trinity is there. Father,
Son, Holy Spirit unique in all the universe but only
on this Sunday do we focus all of our readings and all
of our thoughts on Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with
a special emphasis on God the Father. How much more
appropriate could it be on Father's Day?
The lessons we just heard reflect on that as well.
The first lesson decreed of Israel, as I mentioned,
the Jews today put that right where we put the Apostle's
Creed, the foundation of our faith. For a Jew not to
know the Shamah, as it is called, they would be a total
heresy. They would be cast out. If they cannot recite
Shama, Adonai, Elohanum, Adonai Echad - Konkel they're
not a Jew. Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord
is the only God. And then our passage gives us instructions
on what to do with that, what we, as fathers and mothers,
are to respond to those words, that confession of truth.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your strength. Take it to heart
the words that I give you today. Repeat them to your
children. Talk about them when you are at home and when
you are away, when you lie down, when you get up. Write
them down. Tie them around your wrists. Wear them as
a headband as a reminder. Write them on the doorposts
of your houses and on your gates. That's what we are
to be. That's what we are to be about. In love with
God. In love with our children. So in love with both
that we want to make sure that our children are in love
with God as well.
That's what Paul is talking about in our second lesson.
In him, we cry Abba. We don't have this remote God somewhere.
Paul says you cry out Abba. Daddy in English. Daddy,
Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit.
Paul goes on that we are God's children. If we are children,
then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
And, as we see those words, "Love the Lord your
God with all your soul, with all your heart, and with
all your strength, we are reminded, too, that teaching
the children the words of scripture is not all there
is to being an example and a mentor to God the Father.
It's our actions and our inactions, our modeling that
fathers do that children learn what God the Father is
really like. There is a joy and an awesome responsibility
we have right there, isn't there? We as dads have. It's
as if we could hear one say, "God the Father couldn't
make it today, so He left you in His place." What
image comes to your mind when you hear the word Father?
More often than not, the first image that comes to any
of our minds is of our own fathers. And what kind of
image is that? A warm, loving individual who's always
there for us, who never misses any one of our games,
who never is late to any one of our performances. He's
there to greet us with a big hug as we hit our first
home run, and he's also there to greet us with a hug
when we strike out. That's the idea. But what's the
reality? Is it Mom making excuses for him because he's
working late? Was it a warning? "Just wait until
your father gets home." Or did he get home worn
out, tired from work, angry, another bad day at the
job. Or, for many more today, does he come home at all?
The unfortunate reality for the image of God the Father
is human fathers. We're not always there when our kids
need us. We're not always ready with a big hug, and
that reality of human fathers often gets in the way
of people seeing God the Father as Daddy. I heard a
bible translator speak one time about the work he was
doing in one particular part of Africa, and they had
to translate the Lord's Prayer, "Our Uncle who
art in heaven." Because, you see, in that culture,
the father strictly only fathered the child. Once that
was accomplished, it was up to the uncle to be with
the mother through the delivery process, and then it
was up to the uncle to raise the child. Had they translated
that prayer, as we would have it, the people would have
probably run. And as we know, and many of you have probably
experienced, people do run from God the Father because
of their own experiences with their fathers. There are
people in counseling for years because of the damage
done by poor fathering. Some psychologists have suggested
that was Luther's problem. That's the whole reason that
Luther started the reformation was his own experience
with his father. He had that kind of father, a father
from which he did not receive love and a father from
which he did not receive hugs. He saw God the Father
in exactly the same light.
How can we take a message of love and forgiveness from
a loving Father to someone who has only heard hate and
retribution from their own? That's the challenge we
face when sharing our faith in Jesus Christ. Sharing
the good news. Sharing the love of a Father who will
never turn from you, a Father who will always be there
for you, a Father that will love you regardless. That's
the message our newest our district missionary, Pat
Monroe, is sharing with the deaf community with western
Iowa. What you may not realize is it's probably one
of the more difficult mission fields, more difficult
than you can imagine. We know society somehow, in a
lot of the cases, turns away from deaf people as different,
as wanting to keep them at a distance. But not only
that, many parents turn away from their deaf children
as well. Our other missionary to the deaf, Dennis Conklin,
was put up for adoption by his parents once they found
out that he was deaf. Hard to imagine, but that's the
way people treat them.
We're going to be praying over Pat in a minute, but
I'd like her to stand up right now. Pat's going to be
working with us. At our last mission society meeting
here at Gloria Dei, we decided to support Pat with this
work with your special mission envelopes. And then for
next year, your special mission envelopes will go divided
between Pat's work and Steve Oliver's work, our missionary
in Taiwan. And I hope you get a chance to meet Pat after
the service. She'll be here all morning. And also a
chance to be with us on July 12. It will be a Saturday
night. We're going to meet Steve Oliver, our missionary
in Taiwan. Pat's going to need your prayers along with
your support as she begins this important work alongside
Pastor Conklin, reaching out to the hearing impaired,
showing the love of God the Father to those children
in the Iowa School for the Deaf and for the deaf throughout
the Council Bluffs area. And, in many cases, she'll
do it with a hug. Because, after all, you know a hug
is probably one of the strongest touches of love we
have. You can do more with a hug than you can with a
wave. You can do more with a holding handshake than
you can with a spoken word. Even when we don't want
one, when we're too upset, we're angry, we're frustrated,
somehow a hug can always make us feel better.
I've seen that in the past couple of days with Ivan.
At 10 months old, he is into discovering the entire
world all by himself. He's beginning to walk. He turns
loose and heads across the floor. He gets 6-7 feet before
he crashes down. He picks himself up and gets going
again. He knows how to open up those cabinet doors.
Grandma and Grandpa have sure learned how to keep those
things wired shut. And you have to watch him like a
hawk. But one thing you don't do with him, you don't
pick him up when he doesn't want to be picked up, and
you don't try to hug him when he doesn't want to be
hugged. And it's absolutely astounding how strong this
10-month-old child is. As you pick him up, he begins
to squirm and wiggle and work himself out of your arms
because you want to hug him. If that doesn't work, he
goes board stiff and you can't possibly hold onto something
like that. But then later, he'll come up to you and
put his arms out and let you pick him up and hug him.
What a vision that is for us as Christian moms and dads,
as Christian evangelists.
Often times, when we attempt to share the good news
with someone, they're like that squirmy 10-month-old.
They don't have time for it. Don't bother me. I'm too
busy. Go away. And often, we take them at their word
and do exactly that. We know better than to do that
with our children. We stay nearby, ready for that time,
ready for when they are ready. There's a lesson there
for sharing the gospel. It may not be the first time,
it may not be the second time, it may not be until the
thirtieth time that those people are ready to share
that hug from you.
I have a friend that's now retired who was a missionary,
and he was asked one time to teach a class in evangelism
at the seminary. He told the story to those group of
young seminarians that he went to one family in a town
where he was starting a church, and he called on that
family and went back once, went back twice, went back
ten times, went back thirty times, went back forty-two
times before that family finally accepted the hug of
Jesus from this friend of mine and came to faith and
came to church. The father and the three children were
baptized. And one would assume that, in telling that
story, the class of seminarians would have been overjoyed
to hear the way the Spirit does work even if it takes
forty-two times. But, on the contrary, one of the students,
speaking on behalf of many in the class, challenged
my friend with the question, "How many others were
lost because you spent so much time with that one family?"
Without missing a beat, my friend responded, "I
have no idea, but I know one family that wasn't. For
God so loved the world that He gave His one and only
Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but
have eternal life." For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world but to save the
world through Him.
Dads and Moms, we're not going to save the whole world.
That's God's job. But He does it through us as we share
that message with our children and our grandchildren.
There's no other job in the world that is more important
than this one. Here, Moms and Dads, the Lord our God,
the Lord is one, share that great news. Share that news
that we have of God who loves us, who cares about us,
who does save us. Repeat these words to your children.
Talk about them when you're at home, when you're away,
when you lie down, when you get up. Write them and tie
them on your wrists and wear them as headbands as a
reminder. Write them on the doorframes of your houses
and on your gates. And give your children a great big
hug. Amen.
Copyright 2003 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
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