Eucharistic Gospel Reading for Sunday of Proper 7: Year A
“Jesus said to the twelve disciples, “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master.” (Matthew 10: 24 – 25)
Today is Father’s Day. To the disciple and teacher; and to the slave and master; I would add the child and the father. Jesus said, “It is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master.” And I would add, it is enough for the child to be like the father; the good father. It is enough for the child to grow up and become provider and protector.
Throughout the Gospel of John Jesus proclaims “that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Good fatherhood comes from the godliness of parenting, not the ruthlessness of parenting. I have talked with many teachers who tell me there is a significant, and positive difference, between children who have a father in the home and those who don’t.
Let me tell you about three fathers: Jesse, Joseph and Tom. Jesse was the proud father of eight sons. He proudly presented seven of them for anointing by Samuel but held back his youngest, David. Yet, David changed the world and was the apple of God’s eye. (1 Samuel 16)
Then there is Joseph. Of all the men of the world, God almighty chose the carpenter Joseph to be His earthly father as he joined us, to be one of us. Joseph was a good and moral man who would not even use the corrupt rules of his day to put Mary aside, being that she was already pregnant. Being a father is more than making a pregnancy or even being the biological father. It is about being a loving provider and protector.
Tom was an over-the- road truck driver. At the age of thirty-nine he married a woman eleven years his junior who already had a daughter. Tom was a loving man, and while he had disagreements with my mother, he was always gentle with her, and with us, his children. I did not realize the importance of his loving gentleness until much later in life, when I became part of a domestic violence rehabilitation team at Marine Corps New River Air Station, Family Advocacy Program. Real fathers make all the difference. While assisting in this rehabilitation program I saw the sad effect of having no fathers, or bad fathers.
Some governments or religious orders have rules in place that manipulate the family in order to free the father of parental responsibility, or make the mother and children wards of the state. The mothers of these children struggle to make ends meet and have no father role model for the children. This is sad in light of the fact that teachers can show the benefit of having a good father in the home. It is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master and the child like the good father.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray: Proper 7 The Sunday closest to June 22 (BCP p. 230)
O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
onewhoponders 