|
Everlasting Father . . .
A Sermon Preached
by Dr. James Flamming
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Dec. 25, 2005
Scripture: Isaiah 9:6
I knew the Scripture by heart and have for decades. I
quoted every Christmas season as it rolled around. I have thrilled to the music
of Handel’s Messiah as the great master composer put music to it. Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. But it has not been
until this Christmas and the series I have been preaching, that I have become
keenly aware of the incredible balance the Holy Spirit gave Isaiah eight
centuries before our Lord was born. Each phrase has a correction as well as a
new dimension.
Wonderful Counselor – God is approachable
Mighty God – Not just a counselor, but vaster and more
intimate than we
can imagine.
Everlasting Father – We need family, a loving Father.
Prince of Peace – the author and finisher of peace within.
Today – Everlasting Father.
Most of us have a work-place relationship with God. I
talked to one some time ago who worked for a large company of which one of our
members is the Chief Executive Officer. When I mentioned he was one of ours the
response was, “Well, he is way up there. I almost never see him. But I do know
who he is.” So many have this view of God – way up there. I never see him. But
I do know who he is.”
Another relationship at the work-place is that of partner.
You do your job and I do my job and the work gets done. For many good religious
Christians this is their relationship to God. God, you do your thing and run the
universe, I will do my thing in my world.
And usually there are one or two at work we share with.
They are the kind we could call in the middle of the night if we needed to. But,
they are not family.
When Isaiah paints across the front of our minds,
Everlasting Father, he is speaking of family.
God is not like a CEO. Not even a partner nor
one with whom we can
Share. God is family.
In his human journey, with the divine knowledge of heaven
within him. Jesus related to God in a way no one had related before. When he
prayed he prayed, My Father. A German scholar by the name of Jeremias searched
for others who addressed God like Jesus did. He found none. He wrote, “Abba, as
a way of addressing God, is the original utterance of Jesus.” If we believe that
Jesus was in heaven before he came to earth, he has understanding no one else
has. More, Jesus, the beloved Son, does not keep this experience to himself. He
invites us, indeed he calls us, to share the same intimate and liberating family
word as we pray.
Abba is a family word, a familiar word, a deeply child-like
word. It can be translated Daddy, or Peterson in the Message uses Papa. It was a
scandal to the Jewish people of his day. It is a scandal to our Muslim friends
today. To think that you could address God as a three year old child would call
Daddy. But the early Christians seized it. It was for them such good news that
they shared it everywhere. Paul wrote to the roman Christians, “For all who are
led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit
of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received a spirit of adoption.
When we cry ‘Abba’ it is his spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are
the children of God.”
John the Apostle wrote – As many as received Him he gave
power to become Chilren of God even to those who believe on his name.
Drennan Manning, whose early life was religious but
suspicious writes. The greatest gift I have ever received from Jesus Christ has
been the Abba experience. My dignity as Abba’s child is my most coherent sense
of self.
So – how can we experience this Abba experience ourselves?
Childlike – G.K. Chesterton has helped me here as I tried
to see God as childlike and deal with his famous quote: “We have sinned and
grown old, and our Heavenly Father is younger than we.” Wrote Chesterton,
“Chldren love to have things repeated. They always say, “Do it again”; and the
grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are
not strong enough to exult in repetition. But perhaps God says every morning,
“Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may
not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God
takes delight in making every daisy separately, but he never got tired of making
them. It may be that the Father has the eternal appetite of childhood; for we
have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
No wonder Jesus said, “Except you become like little
Children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”
Experience God as the great gift giver. James says, every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above from the Father of lights in whom
there is no inconsistency.
Around countless thousands of trees this morning Father’s
watched their children open gifts. They may not have chosen them specifically,
someone else may have done the choosing and the wrapping. But behind it all is a
Parent who is picking up the bill – Father or Mother.
Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock, for it has please the
Father to give unto you the Kingdom.”
We raised three sons. Now we have seven granddaughters. One
grandson. Go figure! I do not go shopping with our granddaughters. They are
wonderful and I love them to death but Shirley is the one who can spend a whole
day with them shopping. To them she is Memo and as you know, I am Poppie. Early
on she got in the habit of puttingthe plastic charge card where you pay the bill
and saying, “Thank you Poppie.” Now they will write and say, “Thank you
Poppie.”
One of the great delights of my life is providing for our
children and our grandchildren. If I as a human father and grandfather take such
delight in giving, how much more our Father who is in heaven. The real question
is whether we are willing to ask and receive. “But as many as received him to
them gave he the right to become children of God.”
Experience the Love of God
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us
that we could be called children of God.”
What manner of love is this. He loves us enough to
discipline us, to teach us, to forgive us, to lead us, to pardon us, to save us.
You may remember the play, Raisin in the Sun. An
African-American family inherits $10,000 from their father’s life insurance
policy. The mother of the household sees in this legacy the chance to escape the
ghetto life of Harlem and move into a little house with flower boxes out in the
country side. The brilliant daughter has a chance to live out a dream and go to
medical school. But against her better judgment the mother give in to the son
who wants to go into business with a friend. He reasons that if he can get his
business going, then he can afford to do everything else.
Asyou might expect, the so-clled “friend” skips town with
the money. The desolate son has to return home and break the news to the family.
His sister tears him apart with ugly anger She calls him everything despicable
she can think of. Her contempt for her brother has no limits.
When she takes a breath her mother says, “I thought I
taught you to love him.” Beneatha, the daughter, answers, ‘Love him? There is
nothing left to love.”
The other responds – “There’s always something left to
love. And if you ain’t learned that, you aint learned nothing. Have you cried
for that boy today. . .
Jesus looked at Jerusalem and wept as he said, “How often
would I have gathered you to myself like a hen her chicks, but you would not.”
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us
that we are the children of God.
Let me close with Presence.
Behind every stable family is a strong parent, mother or
father, whose presence makes the difference. Our Abba in heaven has given us the
greatest gift of all – his presence.
Do you remember the children’s movie, The Bear. It is the
saga of a tiny cub whose mother dies. The cub survived but the viewer knows that
the long term chances are nil. Then the unexpected happened. The little cub gets
adopted by an enormous Kodiak bear. The giant is always watching over the cub.
He protects it from the mountain lion that has been stalking him. He teaches the
cub how to be a bear. Everything the father bear does, the cub imitates; he
waddles in a stream and stabs at fish like the daddy bear, he stands on two legs
and scratches his back against a tree as he’s seen his father do. You watch this
and are filled with hope – the cub has a future.
One day they get separated. The little bear can’t see his
father anywhere. The mountain lion has never forgotten the cub and now sees hi
opportunity. He comes swiftly, silently, face to face with the cub. The little
bear does what he has seen his father do. He rears upon his hind legs, lifts his
paws and tries to growl fiercely but what comes out is a frightened squeak.
Everyone knows the cub is about to die. The camera focuses on the mountain lion,
whose face suddenly registers a look of fear. He keeps snarling, but he turns
and slinks away. Now the camera returns to the cub. He is as surprise as anyone.
Could the growl have worked so well. Then the camera pans back and we see what
we did not know was there. We see what the little bear cannot. Behind that
little bear is the great Kodiak, standing on his hind legs, his massive body
poised to save his son with a single swipe. Suddenly we know. The little bear
had nothing to worry about. The father had let the cub begin to stand on his own
two feet, but was present all of the time. The father could be trusted even when
it seemed that he was absent.
The Psalmist, wrote, “Whither shall I go from thy Presence.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You know me altogether.”
His name shall be called, “Everlasting Father . . .”
|
