This is a Fathers’ Day Sermon preached at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on June 16, 2019.
Well, it’s Fathers’ Day weekend!
If we are honest, this day probably strikes us all a little differently. For some of us this will be very meaningful; for others of us, we’re ambivalent about it; for some of us it is a painful day.
No matter how we feel about the day, what does fatherhood mean to us? What are our thoughts about our father figures? What authority do we give them, and how do we grant them that power? What does childhood mean, and what does it look like?
Even with these questions, I’m sure our answers will be quite diverse. So, listen to this sermon to spend some time thinking of fatherhood and childhood in relation to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:11-17 and what Jesus says in Matthew 18:1-5.
Listen to the sermon here:
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This sermon was inspired by Scriptures such as:
1 Corinthians 4:11-17
11To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, 12and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.
14I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me.
17For this reason I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church. (NRSV)
Matthew 18:1-5
1At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2He called a child, whom he put among them, 3and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. (NRSV)
