It is right that we should have a Fathers’ Day celebration. After all, we do celebrate Mothers’ Day. Celebrating Fathers’ Day at least makes fathers and mothers equal before God and to each other.
One of the most maligned usages of “father” is when it is used to refer to God. It used to be that the usual and predictable beginning of any prayer is addressing God as “Father.” Today many people have problems with such usage, for it makes God a male. This has led some people to start addressing God as “Mother,” but that would make God a woman!
So some persons have introduced yet another formula: that of calling God as Our Father and Mother, or our Parent. But the basic weakness of all these formulas is that they put gender as a category of God.
So what is the way out? One way is to realize that when “Father” and “Mother” are used for God in the Scriptures, they are used figuratively. When God is described as Father, God is being compared to a human father, and when God is described as mother, then God is being compared to a human mother.
In the Scriptures, God is usually addressed directly as “Father,” but is compared to a mother. In both cases, the focus is on the functions of fatherhood and the functions of motherhood. It is, therefore, important for us to go back to the culture behind the Scriptures and see what is expected of human fathers and human mothers.
And as we celebrate Fathers’ Day, we want to concentrate on God being addressed as Father in the Scriptures. Consider the following verses, all quoted from the New Revised Standard Version:
Psalm 103.13 As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him.
Isaiah 64.8 O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us?
And, of course, in the New Testament Jesus calls God “Father,” or “My father.” And he enjoins his disciples to also call God “Father.” When the disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, he taught them the prayer which is still used today throughout the Christian world: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Now, what did the Hebrews mean when they used the word “Father” to refer to God? What kind of God did they want to portray when they addressed God as “Father”? We can answer these questions in this way: When the Hebrews addressed God as “Father,” they were using a human analogy. This means that they were using their understanding of human fatherhood as the basis for their idea of who God is and what God does. We should, therefore, ask the question: What were the functions of the father in Hebrew culture in Biblical times? We can mention only a few.
First, the father was a person to be respected and obeyed at all times. When we read the story of Abraham and Isaac on the mountain of Moriah in Genesis 22, we are startled by the absence of any objection from Isaac when Abraham tied him to the wood and lifted up his knife in order to kill his own son. Why did not Isaac complain? Why did he not resist? Such questions would be irrelevant against the background of absolute obedience that is expected of children to their father.
Now we see why it was so meaningful for the Jews to address God as “Father.” To call God “Father” is to submit to God and to promise absolute obedience to God’s will. And in much the same way that children who do not show respect to their father are punished, sometimes with capital punishment (see, for example Exodus 21.15, 17), so it was expected that people who were disobedient to God would also be punished.
But here is where one other characteristic of fatherhood comes in. A father was expected to have compassion and pity for his children. So Psalm 103, it says: As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
Certainly the father in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15) would be no exception. You remember the parable. The younger son has squandered all his share of the family wealth and was very hesitant to return home. But when he finally returned home, he was welcomed as a long-lost son.
The text tells that he was still a long way from home when his father saw him. His heart was filled with pity for him. He ran to meet him and put his arms around him and welcomed him not as a son who did wrong but as a long-lost son who has returned.
The sight of his son made him forget all the pain that the son had caused him. And when he embraced his own son, he was completely indifferent to the filth, dirt and dust that his son had become.
And if now you recognize this human father as a symbol of God, then you are right! This is the Old Testament God. The prophet Jonah knew this, and that is why he did not want to go to Nineveh to proclaim judgment on those terrible enemies of the Israelites. He wanted them punished, but he knew that if he proclaimed God’s judgment on them that they would repent, and this God, this merciful God, would have pity on them and would allow them to live! So it says in Jonah 4.1-2:
1 Jonah was very unhappy about this and became angry. 2 So he prayed, LORD, didn’t I say before I left home that this is just what you would do? That’s why I did my best to run away to Spain! I knew that you are a loving and merciful God, always patient, always kind, and always ready to change your mind and not punish.
So did we say that God punishes everyone who disobeys God? We are wrong. God would rather restore than punish; God would rather love than hate. And that is why one of the most frequently used expressions in the Old Testament is: God’s love is eternal. And that love is made fully known at the cross of Christ, through which we who deserve to be judged and punished are instead restored to a right relationship with God and receive new life.
But now we have to complete the picture. We started with human fathers then went to God and apply these categories to God as “Father.” Now, we need once again to return to the human level. We now need to say that these divine traits of love, pity, forgiveness and restoration should be seen in the life and actions of fathers of today.
Fathers of today should be defined neither by the obedience they demand from their children, nor by the absoluteness of their power and authority over their wives and other members of their family, but by the virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control. Then and only then can fathers of today approximate in some way the kind of relationship that God has or intends to have with human beings.
That is why it is so disturbing to read news items about fathers being cruel to their own children, of daughters raped by their own fathers, of children battered by cruel fathers, and of fathers who forsake and neglect their own children. It is fathers like these who make it difficult for people to know God as a loving Father.
We need to mention one more function of the father in Hebrew culture, and that is, he was responsible for the religious aspects of family life. He nurtured his children in the faith. He brought his whole family to God through worship. In fact, at worship, the father represented the whole family before God. In a real sense then, the father was the family priest.
Now what has happened? This function has been neglected by fathers! Instead, it has been surrendered sometimes to mothers, but more often, to the school and to the church. Isn’t it time that fathers once again take seriously their duty of providing spiritual nurture to their own children? And that would be possible only if the fathers themselves know what they believe, for as it is often said, “You cannot share what you don’t have.”
I remember an experience we had in a small church called “The Church of the Savior.” One time, we decided to come up with a new way of observing Holy Communion. On Friday evening, we gathered all the fathers and we talked among ourselves about the meaning of Holy Communion.
On Sunday morning, the families sat as separate groups. When the sermon time came, it was not the preacher who gave the sermon; instead, the father of each family faced his own family and talked to them about Holy Communion. Family members were encouraged to ask questions, and many did so. In the partaking of the elements, each family received a loaf of bread and a cup. The father served each member of the family; they ate from the same loaf and drank from the same cup. Let me tell you, there were tears in many eyes that morning. Fathers commented that that was the first time they ever talked about spiritual things with their own families.
The model for us human fathers is the God of the Bible—not primarily the God who demands absolute obedience, but primarily the God who loves and is concerned for people.
The challenge to us human fathers is to do justice to the Scriptures and, through our actions, to recover in some way the meaning and significance of calling God “Father” and regarding God as Father, with the hope that when the people of God pray and say together, “Our Father who art in heaven,” they understand what that means.
In memory of Bishop Daniel C. Arichea’s fourth death anniversary.
Originally published in The Filipino Methodist Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 2 (April–June 2018)
Image by skalekar1992 from Pixabaym Pixabay
Thank you, Bishop Arichea.