This Sunday is Father’s Day. So, happy Father’s Day to all dads and those serving in a paternal role. Thank you for being an important presence in other’s lives.
Liturgically it’s the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost also known as “Ordinary Time.” One church recently called it “Extraordinary Time.” While the assigned gospel text usually covers Jesus’ teaching ministry, others assigned scriptures often address a more limited theme for the day rather than fitting the season of Sundays after Pentecost as a whole. That so, with this week’s assigned texts from Psalms 42 & Galatians 3. These texts help us in observing Father’s Day in America and helping us in knowing God as a loving Father.
God is neither male nor female, so it’s helpful to use a balanced imagery of God when speaking of God in parental roles. This Sunday, however, since it is Father’s Day, we will pause to see God as a loving Father. We will read the familiar assigned text from Galatians 3 from the “Complete Jewish Bible,” so as to, perhaps listen to text with “fresh ears.” From it, verses 26 & 28 reads, “For in union with the Messiah, you are all children of God through this trusting faithfulness; … in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor ‘freeperson’, neither male nor female; (neither old or young, neither cisgender, LGBTIAQ or nonbinary) for in union with the Messiah Yeshua, you are all one.”
If you didn’t know anything else about God as a loving Father, or have heard messages otherwise, even from Christian pulpits, there is enough encouragement and love in those verses to keep you going for a long time.
So, join us this Sunday to celebrate this encouragement either IN-PERSON, by Zoom or Facebook Livestream and learn while Juneteenth, June 19, is our newest National Holiday. My sermon will be “Juneteenth on Father’s Day and Knowing God as Our Father” based on “Psalms 42:1&2a and Galatians 3:23-29.
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