“Free Access”
June 19, 2022
Dear brothers and sisters, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Those of you who follow me on Facebook know that I’ve been posting corny jokes for the past week. Well, there’s a reason for that: what better way to honor this special day, Father’s Day, than by telling dad jokes? And, since at least a couple of you asked me if any jokes were going to make their way into this morning’s sermon, I’m happy to say yes – I’m more than honored to oblige with one last one: This past week was really hot, wasn’t it? How hot was it? It was so hot I bought a frozen pizza at Kroger, and by the time I drove home, it was already baked and ready to eat! Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get to the real reason we’re celebrating this day.
Today, on this Father’s Day, we give thanks to God for His special gift of all the dads who are here with us today. We thank God, and your families thank you, for all the love and care you show; all the hard work you have put in to provide for your families and make sure they have everything they need; and all the ways that, especially for those of you are already grandpas and great-grandpas, that you continue to help younger and older members of your families, whether in small ways or larger ways. The wisdom, guidance, skills, and help you provide are truly blessings that you give, and you are blessings to your families, and to every one of us, in many ways. Everything you do, and everything you have done, is worth more than anything you can imagine, or can be expressed. You are of greater worth, to your families and to us, than you can possibly imagine. So we want to encourage you: keep doing what you’re doing and don’t give up. Even though many of you are probably facing challenges in your families right now, especially with things the way they are in the world at the moment, keep doing what you’re doing to love and support your families. We also want to acknowledge that there are those of you who may not consider yourselves “dads” in the traditional sense because you don’t have children of your own. However, you still are father figures: you still provide the same kind of guidance, care, and concern for others, especially children who, even though they may not be your own, have still chosen you to help them grow, and who look to you for all kinds of help. We thank God for you, and want you to know that everything you do, whether for children in your own families, or children in other families or your communities, makes a tremendous difference. We also remember and give thanks to God for all the dads who have gone before us into heaven, and we look forward to seeing them again. This means that today is a bittersweet day for many of us, since we are remembering dads who are no longer with us. We especially remember those dads who were taken from us too soon; and we are allowed to grieve for all the dads who are no longer here with us. We also recognize that there are some of us who either grew up or are growing up without a stable father or father figure; who suffered abuse at the hands of a father; who are having to deal with being shared between two parents; and so for whom today is probably a difficult one. We want you to know that we are here to support you, we accept you, we are here to help you with whatever you’re going through, and we accept and acknowledge your struggle as being real and valid.
Today, and perhaps even more importantly, we remember and honor our heavenly Father, God. And today’s Bible readings give us a picture of who God, as our heavenly Father, truly is.
1. God is almighty. All things are under God’s command and authority. In today’s First Reading from First Kings, King Solomon is praying to God at the dedication of the first Temple in Jerusalem, a place which is meant to be a place where God Himself dwells among His people. In verse 23, Solomon says “there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth below.” And this is true – there is no other God except God, and there is no one else who has complete and supreme control over the world as God does. No other ruler can honestly claim any ultimate authority, because all authority belongs to God. Even when things seem to be going out of control, ultimately, God’s authority prevails, and what He wants to have happen happens: all things ultimately submit to His authority. This is something that is comforting for us because, when anything else wants to insist that it has control, The Centurion in today’s Gospel reading recognizes this: he acknowledges that he is a man under authority, under his military superiors, but that he also has authority, to be able to command people to go and come and follow orders. However, he is also a man of humility: he recognizes that, when a situation comes up he has no control over and doesn’t know how to solve, in this case, having one of his servants be deathly ill, he does what, we can say, any man ought to do in this kind of situation: He asks for help. He recognizes that there is someone who can take charge, and he is willing to give up control to that person. When we are faced with a situation we can’t control or resolve, we can also recognize that there is someone who has greater authority: Jesus. Believe it or not, it is always okay to ask for help. This is especially good for us dads to hear: even though our families come to us for help all the time, we can ask for help when we don’t have the answers. We can seek out the help of another person, and we can ask God for help. We gain respect from our families when we ask for help. And, whenever we ask for help, we grow ourselves as we gain wisdom from others and from God, and so we are able to help our families grow. One of the many wonderful things about God is that, being almighty, He has always been willing to help. Which leads to the second point:
2. God is unchanging. God has remained the same since before the beginning of time. His nature, characteristics, and everything else about Him has remained unchanged. Also in 1 Kings 8:23, Solomon praises God for keeping His “covenant of love.” This is the same promise God made to everyone at the beginning of the world, throughout history, and which He still makes today: a promise to love everything He has made unconditionally. In this way, He truly is our Father, shows He is unchanged, because He loves each one of us unconditionally, and is willing to do whatever is necessary to show His love – even sending His Son to die and rise again for us. Paul says in today’s Second Reading from Galatians that there is only one Gospel. If we try to add any qualifications on to the Gospel, we are changing our message entirely. And here, especially given what is going on in the present, we have to be clear: if we try to insist that being a Christian means following certain rules, or adhering to a certain ideology or opinion, then we are preaching a false Gospel. Nothing could be farther from the truth, because it is Jesus, and Jesus alone, who saves, not opinion. What makes any one of us a Christian is that we believe and trust in Jesus as our Savior, and that is all that matters. There is only one Gospel: God’s love for all people shown in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Any way in which we attempt to put additional requirements on what it means to be a Christian is an attempt to limit God. Which is the third point:
3. God is unlimited. God cannot be limited in any way. Just as He is unchangeable in who He is, especially His character, He is also unlimited in who He is. He is even merciful and forgiving to people who we would think don’t deserve mercy or forgiveness. Because He is also almighty, He is King Solomon even acknowledges, in verse 27, that God cannot be contained in one particular building, but that He is everywhere. And now we come to the actual title of today’s sermon: we all have free access to God. God is available to us any time, anywhere. We don’t have to be in any one place for God to help us, nor do we always have to go somewhere special in order to meet God. The Centurion recognizes this, because He insists that Jesus doesn’t have to come to his home in order to heal his servant. He believes that Jesus, even from where he is, can bring healing – which He does. Jesus is also able to assist us wherever we are, because He is also everywhere. Solomon also asks God to hear the prayers of even non-Jews who reach out to God for help – which God does, because He is also not limited in whom He chooses to help. Even when people don’t pray, or if people don’t believe in Him, He still helps them. God also cannot be limited by our own imagination: God never sees anything as being impossible. Nothing can block us from Him, and nothing keeps Him away from us. Whatever we ask Him to overcome for us, He will overcome.
Today, we are also continuing to go over the various parts of our worship service, and the one we are looking at this week happens at the very end of our service. We will hear the encouragement, “Go in peace, serve the Lord,” and then we all will say, “Thanks be to God.” This is a reminder to us that, wherever we are this week, our heavenly Father is there with us. We can leave here with confidence and with the peace that comes from knowing that, whatever this week may bring, God will help us, and, by trusting Him, giving Him control, and asking Him for help, we serve Him. For this we thank God, and, as we celebrate the rest of this Father’s Day, we thank Him for being our wonderful heavenly Father. May we value Him as much as we value our dads today, and may we all say, for everything He does for us, and who He is, thanks be to God.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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