Rise & Shine - July 2

Call God 'Father,' Pope Tells Audience

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In the News

Earlier this month, at his weekly general audience, Pope Francis told a crowd of 15,000 gathered in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican that calling God "Father" rather than simply "God" can deepen their spirituality and nourish their Christian hope.

"The entire mystery of Christian prayer is summed up here, in this word: to have the courage to call God by the name of Father," the pontiff said.

"Calling God by the name 'Father' is not something that can be taken for granted," the pope said. "We are tempted to use the highest titles, which are respectful of his transcendence. But calling him 'Father' puts us in his confidence, like a child talking to his dad, knowing that he is loved and cared for by him."

Referencing the parable of the prodigal son, Francis said, "God is a Father in his own way: good, helpless before man's free will, only able to conjugate the verb to love. God is a father who does not apply human justice and is ready to forgive and embrace his long-lost son."

Pope Francis, whom many people, whether Roman Catholic or not view as an open-minded and understanding leader, concluded the audience by urging his listeners to think about their necessities, their problems, and to turn to God in confidence and hope, He then led them in praying the Lord's Prayer, which Catholics often refer to as "the Our Father."

As Episcopalians we can broaden what the Pope says to include thinking of God as a mother or any parental figure, the point being to see God as an intimate part of, and indeed the leader of, one’s family. What does it mean for us to make God a true part of our families?

More on this story can be found at these links:

What to Call God: Pray to 'The Father,' Pope Francis Urges Catholics. Newsweek
Pope Francis: Don't be Afraid to Call God 'Father.' Gospel Herald
Names of God. Bible.org

Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

Psalm 68:5
Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. (For context, read 68:5-6.)
Psalm 103:10-14
[God] does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far he removes our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion for his children,
so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him.
For he knows how we were made;
he remembers that we are dust.
(For context, read 103:1-14.)

We are so used to hearing God addressed as "Father" that it may come as a surprise to realize that as a title for God, "Father" is not used in the Old Testament. In fact, to the devout Jews of that time, even God's name Yahweh (usually rendered in English as LORD, in all caps, as it is in the passage above) was considered so holy that they would not speak it; thus, to address God by such an intimate term as Father would have been intolerably presumptuous. The usage of "father" in these verses instead compares God to a father, supporting what happens in the New Testament, where Jesus calls God Father.

Questions: How can thinking of times that parents protect or show compassion to their children aid in our understanding of our relationship to God? How can our relationship with God help us to better protect and show compassion for those around us?

Matthew 6:9
Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. (For context, read 6:7-15.)

Somewhere during the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments, references to God as Father were added to the liturgy of the Jewish synagogue, but even then it was applied to God as the Father of Israel. For much of that time, no individual Jew would have addressed God so personally on his or her own behalf.

By the time the New Testament begins, however, there were Jewish prayers in use that addressed God as "Our Father" in a more personal way.

For Jesus, Father was not a general term for the deity, but was Jesus' word for his own relationship with God. For Jesus, Father means the one who loves his children and knows how to give good gifts to them (see Matthew 7:11).

Question: What single term best describes your relationship with God? How can Jesus’ relationship with God inform us as to how we should view God in our lives?

Luke 15:20
So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. (For context, read 15:11-32.)

But look at what happens to this father in the parable of the prodigal son. This younger son of his treats him shabbily, demands his inheritance early (virtually unheard of in that time), then goes off to live a life that defies all the values that his family holds. The father waits to hear from his son each day with fear and worry in his heart.

However, when the son comes home in shame, the father runs to meet him, something no dignified Middle-Eastern father of that day would do. Knowing that the son will be humiliated by the taunts of his former friends and will be the object of village gossip, he spares him by humiliating himself, running out to him and welcoming him home.

In telling us this story, one of the things Jesus shows us about God is that God accepts the possibility that we, his children, will cause him pain. God accepts the fear factor inherent in parenthood, and that there will be things from which she cannot protect us because we remove ourselves from her care.

It has become so commonplace to address God as Father that we may not notice what that tells us about the nature of God.

Questions: How can the love, hope, and fear of parenthood teach us to be better Christians? How can parenthood help us to better understand God.

1 Peter 1:17
If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. (For context, read 1:13-25.)

The intimacy with God suggested by terms like Father and Abba was meaningful and helpful for the early Christians, and has been for believers ever since. But that very closeness sometimes leads to forgetting that God still calls us to live a holy life.

This verse reminds us that it is possible to take God too lightly. Peter is warning about the kind of thinking that excuses one's unholy behavior assuming that, as a loving father, God wants us only to be happy. Thus, says Peter, Christians should "live in reverent fear" of God, an expression meaning not terror, but deep respect.

Questions: The parent-child relationship experiences many phases, from early on when the child relies on the parent for existence, through late in life when the child turns to caregiver for the parent, sometimes including friendship. How do these phases aid in our understanding of our relationship with God.

Prayer for Families (BCP p.828-829)

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who sets the solitary in families: We commend to your continual care the homes in which your people dwell. Put far from them, we ask you, every root of bitterness, the desire of vainglory, and the pride of life. Fill them with faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness. Knit together in constant affection those who, in holy marriage, have been made one flesh. Turn the hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the children to the parents; and so enkindle fervent charity among us all, that we may evermore be kindly affectioned one to another; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.