Second Sunday after Trinity (2023)
Trinity • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Vocation of Fathers
Vocation of Fathers
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ today our focus is on one of the gifts that God gives to us in the life, the gift of fathers. For just as we would not exist without our mothers, we would not exist without our Father, for God used means to bring us to life, and to connect us with our neighbors. Now this vocation gets downplayed, but it is one that is important, but our society has largely abandoned and forgotten because it measures men by the worst of mankind instead of measuring them according to who God has called them to be.
God’s Design
God created men and women different.
This is something that has been largely accepted for generations, and it is a good thing. We know this when we are growing up, that there are things when we are growing up that we want to ask our mom, and there are things when we need our dad.
This wasn’t evolution, God had a plan.
When you look at men, God made them stronger, bigger, and physical tougher. This was because God did not want men and women equal, but rather we might learn to serve each other with the different gifts that God has given.
God used these differences to establish the family.
That you have two different people come together to support each other, to have children, to have a home, and to care for each. This is why we should understand what makes someone a father.
What Makes a Father?
God gave to men strength to care for their family.
You look at the physical differences and say that men are stronger than women. God built them different, and he did so for a reason.
They would work the field to provide food.
We are blessed in our country that we have created a fair amount of technology that enables us to feed our nation. Food is necessary and to create food, it is a physically demanding job. Even with all the advancements we have in tech, you still need raw strength to do it, and God gave that to men. So a Father’s duty is to provide for their family.
They would also defend their family.
If threats came be they animal or human, the father was to use his strength to protect not only his wife, but also his children. The same strength and toughness that God gave to provide is meant to keep them safe.
Proverbs begins with a father teaching his son.
It is a wonderful book, but we also learn from the Scriptures that a father is to be diligent in teaching his family what is right and wrong and to pass that knowledge down. As David did to Solomon, and Solomon to his sons.
A father is meant to lead his family.
To take up those responsibilities and bear them for their sake. They do it out of love for their family, because they want something better for those that God has entrusted to their care.
This included rebuking.
That is discipline and correction, so that the children might flee from what will cause them harm and instead be pointed to what is good. This is not an easy task, but one that reaps benefits years down the road.
A World Without Fathers
God intended there to be a father and mother.
You need both to be present and if you remove one from the equation it creates troubles. When you remove fathers from families it creates a fair amount of hardship, and we as the people of God should be able to speak about this issue because God designed men and women to work together for the family
When you remove fathers, it negatively affects children.
It is heart wrenching when you read the stats, 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes, 90% of homeless and runaways, 85% of children with behavior disorders, and 85% of youth in prison are from fatherless homes.
This is where our society is headed.
The number of fatherless households has increased incredibly, and without fathers it is turning into a right mess. Let us look at who God that we might understand the good that we can point people and what we ought to treasure.
Our Father in Heaven
God uses this earthly bond to reveal who He is.
This is to help teach us not only who God is, but also what makes for a good father. For our idea of fatherhood, comes from God first and foremost.
God welcomes us as His children.
Our opening hymn captures this wonderfully and allows to realize who God is, and what He has done for us. For even if we have an earthly father who has failed us, the reason we know he failed is because our Heavenly Father shows us what is Good.
What does God do as our Father?
This is all explained in the Small Catechism in the explanation to the first article of the Creed.
The Father maintains Creation that we might eat.
You are part of that Creation, He has given your body, your reason and senses, he gives food and drink, house and home. He has provided all of these things and still cares of them.
The Father is also our defender.
He defends us against the evils of this world. That being the forces of sin, satan, and death itself. That the Father does not abandon his children to these forces that would abuse them, but keeps them safe.
The Father teaches His children truth.
God has given us His Word, that we might learn not only who our Father is, but what is good right and proper. For God the Father desires that you live, and that be wise when the temptations of this world come your way.
The Father rebukes and disciplines us in our sin.
This one is hard, but if our earthly fathers do not teach us right from wrong and are diligent to discipline us, then we face a multitude of earthly consequences. Our heavenly Father rebukes and disciplines us for He does not want you to perish in hell. A father who does not rebuke or discipline is no true father, for he does not care about his children’s well being.
A World without Our Heavenly Father
It would be a miserable for the whole creation.
Everything would fall apart, for it is in him that we live and move and have our being. He is the one that sustains all of creation by his will.
Those who cried for help would have no one.
He is the defender of the widow and the fearless, and to all those who suffer injustice. We would see that evil would not be stopped but would go forth unchecked.
Everyone would do what is right in their own eyes.
This sounds nice, until you see the corruption of sinful mankind, and what exists inside of the human heart.
We would be enslaved to our sins.
For it was the Father who sent His Son Jesus into this World to save us from our Sins. Our Father in heaven saw His creation and those that he loved, and he did not abandon us, but sent Jesus into the world to redeem us, to save us, for his children were enslaved. That’s what our Father does for us.
So my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Children of the Heavenly Father, we ought to uphold the office of Fatherhood and give thanks to God for this precious gift. For even if we have earthly fathers that failed in this duty, we cannot deny how good and precious this gift is, for God the Father in heaven has revealed himself to us as our Father, who sent His Son to be our Savior. Let us give thanks to Him on this day for all that He has done for us, as we look forward to that day when we enter into our Father’s house forever. In Jesus name. Amen.