"O Lord, you are our Father; … we are all your people."

Isaiah 64:1-9

Today on this Father's day we want to ask God's blessings upon fathers. Fathers, like all parents, who take their calling seriously, have a great responsibility. It is not so much what you say and teach, but who you are that is important.

I was actually quite surprised, when later in life, looking back, I realised, how influential our being is to those who love us. If I could live my life all over again, I would be more aware of that and would do some things differently.

Children are very intuitive. They can separate the wheat from the chaff. May our being fathers radiate a little of God to those who take us seriously.

You know that the Bible and Jesus called God "father". Not only "father". They also called God "mother" and "shepherd" and "king". But father has become the dominant naming for God. That adds another responsibility upon us.

We don't only want to be good fathers for our children, but we also want to protect the dignity of the word "father" so that it can become a suitable vehicle to speak of God!

And in that regard the fathers of this world have not fared too well.

• We hear of fathers beating their wives in front of their children.
• Fathers coming home drunk, and then abusing women and children.
• Fathers gambling away money that should feed mouths and clothe bodies.
• Indeed, I know people who can't call God "father" any more, because the word brings into their consciousness horror instead of grace, punishment instead of forgiveness, tears instead of laughter, cold shivers instead of the celebration of life.

When we speak of God as "father", we need to inter-relate our experience of fatherhood with what we know of God on the basis of God's revelation in Jesus Christ.

It is always a matter of similarity and difference. What can our experience of fatherhood tell us about God and how does God's revelation evaluate and interpret our understanding of fatherhood?

I want to follow the text from the prophet Isaiah and take up the positive aspect of the word "father" and ask how it can remind us of God's dealing with us. The text climaxes in the confession: "O Lord, you are our Father; … we are all your people."

A father is there for troubled times.

• What father has not heard the cry of his children?
• What father has not wept tears of distress?
• What father has not lain awake at night and prayed to God for help?

There are times when the friends of God call on God to help them understand, master and interpret their situation: "O that you would tear open the heavens and come down."

There was uncertainty among the people of God. They were wondering whether God is really everywhere.

• In exile?
• Is God in Beslan, in the Republic of Ossetia in Russia? Among the children there were also three children of the local Baptist Pastor.
• Is God in Sudan and Iraq?

We can't blame God for what happened in Russia and what is happening in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. That is human work. That is the result of human ingenuity and greed and selfishness.

These words were written in exile. Israel was far away from the temple, from Zion, from the land that God had given them.

• Is God here - in a foreign land?
• Is the Spirit of God out there, we wonder - among the affairs of the world?

Upon reflection they discover a new understanding of God. Their understanding of God changes. God is not only in Jerusalem. God is also in Babylon.

Not only: "God cares", but "God cares everywhere".

But we are not in exile. We ask ourselves whether we can relate God with Beslan or Sudan or Iraq or Afghanistan, or what happens to disabled and indigenous people in our own country. Let me name three possibilities to respond:

1.  We can say that that is God's work. God's judgment on the sins of the people.

I would not go that way. I think that the terror, the war, the bloodshed is human work.

2.  We can think that it is too difficult to relate God to the world and therefore only speak of God in me. God, not out there, but God in my experience.

I would not want to go there either. Because the decisive aspect of the story of Jesus is that God has taken our history, our destiny, with all its problems, on board.

3.  The third possibility is that we follow the people in exile and learn a new understanding of God. God's almighty power is not the power of generals and armies and guns and bombs. It is not the power of force. It is the power of love. God's almighty power is the power of love, and therefore God becomes a suffering God when we depart from God's ways and hurt God's creatures.

So when we call God "father" in a situation of crisis we confess that God cares.

Just as we human fathers care for our children, so God cares for God's children.

So there is an similarity between God and us. The analogy is that fathers - we and God - care.

But there is also a difference between us and God. The difference is that while we care most passionately about the children that God has given us, God cares for all people. For all people equally with a special leaning for those with special needs. All people are God's children. God loves the world and God has reconciled the world with God.

We must not forget that as we try to understand and interpret our life.

Elections are coming up. Political leaders seek our trust and they seek our vote. The spin doctors work on the assumption that we will not want to see the big picture and that we will not ask the big questions: what is right, what is just, what is caring. They will work with the assumption that we are selfish, that we are only concerned about our bank book, our security, our health and our education.

Will we play the game by their rules, or will we insist that long term security and peace can only come with spreading compassion and justice and therefore having the big picture in mind.

Do you remember 4 years ago when Cathy Freeman became a name spelled with capital letters? A grand opening ceremony of the Olympic Games had sent a picture of hope and generosity around the world.

But soon after a Norwegian Freighter with the name "Tampa" with a human cargo on board began to question the generosity in our hearts.

What is the lesson?

• On the secular everyday level the lesson is that you can only be proud of Cathy Freedom, if at the same time you can also express shame about the Tampa and its consequences.
• And with regard to calling God "father", we can only do so with a good conscience, if at the same time we remember that that the Father God suffers with the children in Beslan and Sudan and Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever human life is cheap and human dignity is trampled upon.

As human fathers we know that often we participate in the brokenness of life. We don't know what to do? I don't know how often I have struggled with the question, how to be a good father. How often have I held God at arm’s length? How often have I failed to make space for God in my life? So, the human call for God becomes a call from the deep; from the depth of our awareness that we are separated from God: "our iniquities, like the wind, take us away"."

It is not God or the devil that take us away. It is our iniquities, our selfishness, our unbending self-will, that take us away from God and therefore from the source of life. We are not fated. We are responsible. God will not impose. When we are told that God "hides his face" it is not a wilful or arbitrary hiding. It is the hiding of love that is powerless in face of selfishness. The man of God laments:

There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

As human fathers we can experience the pain of separation, of misunderstanding, of estrangement from our children.

And it is interesting that the Bible portrays God as a "father" who hears the cry of his people, whose heart is moved, and who longs for their freedom.

But God goes beyond our own love by doing what we would like to do but find so difficult. God's love is unconditional and it is very deep! The apostle Paul said it this way.

… while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Rom 5:6-8)

"Yet, O LORD, you are our Father;
... we are all your people"

Human selfishness can do much harm. It can hurt and violate and rape and kill. It can destroy community. It can create racism and apartheid. It can abuse children and torture their parents.

One thing it cannot do. It cannot undo the patience of God.

Out of the depth of self-awareness there comes the realisation of grace: "Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; ... we are all your people." "Yet" - This "yet" is the powerful reminder that it is not us, but God, who will have the final word to say in history and beyond.

What we do now. What we think now. What we say now - we do before the face of God.

As we greet our fathers today, let us not forget that this wonderful word "father" is also used to bring God into our life. Let us rise beyond our self-interest and self-will and make it a good word. Let us raise our head and turn into the coming of God. God will breathe fresh wind into our restricted lives; God will give us power to break chains that bind us to the past; God will teach us that true freedom does not build fences and lock gates; but true freedom wants to be shared.

A good father creates room for his children to feel at home and learn the journey of faith and freedom. When we call God "father" then we join the divine passion for all people to have a home and enjoy the life that has been given to them.

TL: Kingston, 5/09/2004.