Back to the Basics - This We Believe!
I Believe in God the Father, Almighty
August 17, 2008
Luke 15:11-24
I believe - we believe - in God the Father Almighty!
Last week, we explored what it means to say, "I believe," and in the importance of creeds in helping us remember what we believe. Starting today, we are going to look at each of the major claims of the Apostle's creed, unpack their meaning a bit while we explore what it means in our daily lives to believe such a thing.
What does it mean to say, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty"?
To believe in this God is to believe in a particular God. This God is not some generalized spirit floating out there. Nor is this God one of many possible gods. This is the one God-the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God who made a covenant with Abraham, the people of Israel, and finally with those who claim Jesus as Lord.
This is a God who is best described by story. So let us begin with a very familiar story that Jesus told. But today rather than focusing on the son and the grace he receives, I would like you to focus on the Father. What is he like? What does he do? What kind of Father is he?
Then Jesus said, "There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, "How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands." ' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, "Quickly, bring out a robe-the best one-and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate. Luke 15:11-24
We call this the story of the prodigal son, because the word prodigal means "rashly or wastefully extravagant" and, goodness knows, the young man who squandered his inheritance in dissolute living was rashly extravagant. But prodigal also means "giving in abundance, lavish, profuse." And as Henri Nouwen once pointed out, the truly prodigal character in this story is not the son but the Father! The father is prodigal in both senses of the word. He wastefully gives money to a son who is obviously not mature enough to receive it and use it wisely. But he doesn't stop there, because when the son comes home with his head hung low, the Father gives lavishly again to the wayward son-the best clothes, a fatted calf and a party that we are still talking about today! By earthly standards, this is a wasteful, foolish father. Can you imagine the look on the face of his financial manager? His business partners? His other son?
Yet this is the kind of Father Jesus proclaims that we believe in. We believe in a Father who gives to us more abundantly than we deserve despite the fact that we are often ungrateful and rebellious. We believe in a Father, who has the power to deny us what we want, yet gives us freedom to make our own mistakes. A Father who rushes out to greet us when we drag ourselves back to the altar to confess our foolishness. A Father who accepts us back home. And this Father doesn't accept us back grudgingly. He is lavish in his acceptance! Our return is not the opportunity for a lecture but for a party! This is the Father that Jesus says we see in him as he rashly goes to the cross for us. This is what is mean when we proclaim that we believe in God, the Father Almighty!
So with this story in mind, let's go back and reflect on the words of this phrase.
I believe in God the Father.
To call God Father is to say that God is the source of our lives. God created all things, both heaven and earth. God is the one who breathed life into Adam. God is the one who knit us together in our mother's womb. In all these ways, God is our Father, the source of our being.
To call God Father is to say that God is our protector. He is the one who provides for us. The one who protects us from danger. He is the one who provides what we need to live, to flourish, and to survive.
To call God Father is to say that God is a person and not an object or a concept to contemplate, but a person with whom we can have a relationship.
Unfortunately, for many people, calling God Father is a stumbling block to faith. For some, their own experience of fatherhood is so deficient that the term has little meaning to them. For others, their experience of fatherhood is so abusive that the term frightens them-especially when we coupled with the word "almighty"! For others, the word Father is problematic because it seems to suggest that men are somehow more like God than women. But the real problem with all these misconceptions of God as Father is that they define Fatherhood by human standards rather than by God's standards.
After all, God is almighty. God is wholly other-wholly different than us and that means that our language and our imagination will always fall short of explaining God. Every word and every image we use to describe God will always only give a glimpse of who God really is. That is why the Bible is full of images of God: rock, stronghold, shepherd, mother, mountain-to name just a few. Every one of those images tells us something about God that is missing from the other images. Yet even if we piled up the words and the images, we would still only get an inkling of who God is.
So to call God Father is not to say that God is exactly like our earthly fathers. At their best, our earthly fathers (and mothers for that matter) give us a taste of what God is like. From them, we learn what it means to be loved and cared for. They give birth to us, nurture us, discipline and teach us. They love us and see us as beautiful even when others don't. At their best, they give us a glimpse of what God's love is like.
If you want an image for what we should be like as parents, look at the prodigal father. He is not a helicopter parent-hovering over his child, swooping down to rescue him from the pigs. He lets his son make his own mistakes and learn from them. The prodigal father is also not a mean or angry Father. At no point in this story does he yell at the younger son or even the more obnoxious older son. Instead, he calmly speaks the truth in love to them. Nor is he a cold and distant father. He goes to them before they come to him. He sees the younger son returning and he runs and embraces him. The older son goes off somewhere to sulk and the Father goes after him. He accepts them as they are-even when what they are is far less than perfect. He loves them even when they are turn against him.
At our best, we give our children a glimpse of that kind of love. And, at our worse, we can become a barrier to our children's experience of the love of God. We create barriers when we hold them too tight or let go too easily; when we expect them to fulfill our dreams instead of God's; when we abuse them by using our hands or our lips to do violence to their bodies or their souls; or when we protect them from the consequences of their actions or we harshly punish them for falling short of our expectations.
Sadly, far too many parents are far from perfect. As a result, far too many people struggle believe in a God that is anything other than remote, angry and punitive. And if you are one of those people, I pray that you can come to understand that to say God is Father is not to say that God is like your father. Rather to believe in God the Father is to say that when, in fact, our parents are not what God intends them to be-God the Father is our true parent--the one who does loves us, who does accept us, who does protect us even when our human parents fail us!
Nor does calling God Father mean that God is male. The Christian belief is that God is spirit and as such God has no gender. In fact, the Bible teaches us that both male and female were created in God's image. God is neither male nor female. God is God.
However, God is also not an "it." God is not an object or an idea but a person. Not only is God a person, but God is a person seeking a relationship with us. And the English language doesn't provide acceptable gender-neutral ways of referring to anyone you are in relationship with. For instance, the words father and mother are specifically male and female. The gender-neutral term is Parent. Now I suspect there have been many times in our lives when we have cried out for help from our father or from our mother. I suspect most of us have declared our love for our mother or our father. But how many people in times of need or panic have ever called, "Parent! Parent! Would one of my parental units please help me!!"? God is a person with a name, someone we can relate to, someone who loves us and calls us to relationship with him. He is a father not a parent.
And to swap genders would not be helpful either. God may not be male but God surely isn't female either. And every person who struggles to understand God because of an ungodly father would simply be replaced with another person who struggles to understand God because of an ungodly mother.
So, we are left with the name that Jesus used for God. The name with the early Christians most often referred to him-and that is Father- actually Abba, Aramaic for Daddy. Daddy-the one we call to at night when we are scared. Daddy-the one we call when we are hungry or hurt. Daddy-the one whose lap we crawl into and cuddle close to. Daddy-the one we can tell everything that is wrong in our lives, to whom we can confess our sins, and with whom we know we will always be accepted and always be loved. This is the kind of Father we proclaim to believe in.
To say, I believe in the Father is also to say that we believe in the one whom Jesus called Father. This is the God of the Hebrew people. The God who reached out with a mighty hand and rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and who-through his Son Jesus Christ-reached out with a mighty hand and saved us from slavery to sin and death. We believe in God, the father of Jesus Christ, who broke into history on our behalf and continues to break into history on behalf of his children whom he so loves.
I believe-we believe-in God the Father,
And this God is almighty. This God holds the whole world-the whole universe in his hands. This God holds each of us individually in his hands, but he also holds nations and empires in that same hand. And in the end, we believe that this God will triumph over evil, over unrighteousness, and even over death. He is almighty.
As a mother one of the scary and frustrating things for me is knowing that I can't protect my children from so many things. When they were learning to walk, they would fall and skin their knees. I wanted to protect them, but I had to let them learn to walk. Now that they are older, I have to let them make decisions for themselves-some of which will be wrong. I have to let them learn about relationships with the opposite sex and their hearts may get broken. The truth is that in order to love them best, I have to leave room for them to get hurt-and I hate that.
So it amazes me that often people get made at God and claim that God must be less than almighty because God allows pain and suffering in the world. God is all powerful and yet in order to make room for us to choose him, he limits himself and his power so we can have power-the power to say, "No!" and the power to say, 'Yes!" God had to know, given our human nature, that we would make wrong choices, that we would sometimes fall, that we would have our hearts broken and break the hearts of others, and even that we would rebel against his love. Yet, God chose to allow us choice and the result is that the world is not what God would have it be. God wants this no more than I want any of my children to skin their knees, their hearts or their souls. In fact, God wants this less, because as much as I love them, God loves them more!
Yet God is still almighty and that means that where my power falls short, his power does not. I can put a bandage on a skinned knee but I can't fix it-God can and does. I can hold my children while they cry, but I can't put a broken heart back together-God can and God does! I can listen and give advice and assure my kids of my love when they feel their lives are falling apart, but I can't bring meaning to suffering or healing to a broken spirit-God, however, can and does!
So we come today as Christ's body-as Christ's church-to proclaim our belief in God the Father Almighty. And to say that we believe in God the Father Almighty is to say that we believe in a God who is so powerful that nothing in this life-not even death-can thwart his purposes. To say we believe in God the Father Almighty is to say we believe in a God so powerful that he is free to limit his power in order to empower us to live fully. To say we believe in God the Father Almighty is to say that we believe in a God who is so powerful that he can bring meaning out of the most painful, broken places of my life. To say we believe in God the Father Almighty is to say we believe in the God who comes running to embrace us when we turn towards him.
Please join me as we confess our belief in this almighty Father God!
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