Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date -

Contributor - Cuyler Thayer

Title - Happy Father's Day

Topic - Meditation

It seems strange that the church lifts up the secular in the midst of the religious. That is exactly what she does when she includes Father's Day in the church calendar. Years ago when I was one of those young turks, I took offense to the secularizing of the church calendar, but now I take offense the other way around. Certainly Father's Day belongs in the church and so do fathers. Fatherhood is very important. Did not Jesus use the name Father when he spoke to God.

The truth is that for all our celebrating of Father's Day in and outside the church, Father has been practically ignored. Anti family critics ignore him. Sociologists and psychologists like a group of oedipal children tend to ignore him. Now reports are coming in that point to the importance of that almost forgotten figure in the family. About five years ago the Readers' Digest popularized the problem with the article, "Where have all the fathers gone". Not much has been said about the sorry plight of poor old Dad since then. But now we are reading that the family has reaped the whirlwind. Prophetic messages are appearing such as was printed in last month's issue of Psychology Today, "The family in trouble" ' Urie Bronfrenbrenner of Cornell University calls our attention to the fact that the family is falling apart. It seems that while father was going out in the world, mother tried to hold onto the family, but now she is following in father's footsteps and there is nobody at home. Dr. Bronfrenbrenner states that over one-sixth of our children are living in a single parent family headed by a working mother. One half of all women with children of school age are working. One third of all working mothers have children under three years of age. This means children are coming home to empty homes and there is little or no family life nobody is at home. Little wonder that problems of truancy, school dropouts, runaways, teenage pregnancies, drug addiction, teenage crime and suicide are sky rocketing.

When you consider the facts, this is not a very happy Father's Day. It seems that not only the secular world but also the religious world has closed its eyes and shut its ears to the words of the Apostle James, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction and keep oneself unstained from the world".

If we would despair, let us not forget that there is another world and that we keep time by another calendar, which reminds us of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. We who have received the Spirit, dream dreams and have visions of a better world. We hear the spirit's voice, "Blessed is he who ministers to the widow and the fatherless. The spirit speaks to the churches, "You are called to renew your families, then you shall renew the family of man".

Listen mothers, you who have been dominant and possessively indulgent. Listen fathers, you who have been aloof and absorbed in the world. Listen sons and daughters you who have been resentful and rebellious. Remember there are no perfect parents. Remember there are no perfect children.

The spirit says "Pray with me, Our Father, forgive us our sins". Every home needs pardon and healing. Can we judge mothers who have to work to make ends meet, except we judge ourselves. Can we blame fathers who are trapped in the economic structure of society, except we blame ourselves.

The Spirit speaks to the churches, "children need good child care". The church can be such a child care center for working mothers or it can see that good child care is provided. The church can supply big brothers and big sisters who go beyond their boundaries. The church can offer hope and help to parents through parent groups, whose members are sensitive to families in trouble and show them when and where they can find help.

Like good shepherds, we must leave the 99 and seek out that one lost sheep. That is a more urgent task than the beautification of church buildings and the oiling of church machinery by which we serve ourselves.

The church has the Spirit and the Word, the world needs the church and the church needs to respond. Let it not be said that the church was too afraid, too ashamed, or too busy, to answer the cry of the family in trouble. It is not enough to know the will of the Father. We must do it. Only when we do the Father's will can we say 'Happy Father's Day' once again.

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