Our Father.....

For professing Christians, the all embracing prayer as taught by our Lord places “Our Father which art in Heaven”, often termed “The Family Prayer”, at the heart of our faith, our sense of belonging and  associated values including love, care, forgiveness, correction and constancy. With so much for which to be thankful, every day is or should for us be “Father’s Day” with  remembrance of our many blessings.

 

This said, our secular calendars mark the third Sunday in June as “Father’s Day”. The origins seem uncertain, perhaps merely a commercial marketing wheeze, but in less cynical terms, an appropriate opportunity to remember and give thanks for our biological fathers. Deep in memory come  words of the Catechism, learned by rote in youth as preparation for Confirmation, After affirmation that God is the only God and the forbidding of graven images, we skip a few “Shall Nots” to the positive fifth commandment which seems apposite to the occasion… “Honour thy father and mother; that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” 

 

“Honour” can have many connotations but in context, qualities such as recognition, respect, acknowledgement, appreciation, affection and so on. From quite early times, we have had “Mothering Sunday, now more commonly “Mother’s Day”, with memories going back to designated services in church when children presented posies to their mothers. Even so, recognition and celebration of “Dad’s” place in the family setting is surely no bad thing? His original role as hunter gatherer onwards to the demands of employment as bread winner so easily made him a somewhat patriarchal figure, respected but sometimes even feared by children he seldom saw or related to, Thankfully, current expectations and practices in family life involve ‘hands on’ sharing of child care, domestic chores, and the like give a  more balanced picture.

 

As an aside and back in the 1950’s a ‘Manchester Guardian’ article claimed that pressures of ‘breadwinning’ limited time spent by fathers with their sons for development of mutual understanding and appreciation the one of the other. The article prompted the idea of “Father & Son” camps with opportunity for close group living and shared activities. Take up of an advertisement was immediate, with the majority of the hundred or so applications coming from “Mum” who felt the experience was just what “Dad” and off-spring needed! Participants came from varied walks of life The initiative which continued for several years, was voted an outstanding experience by fathers who confided relief that their son/s appeared to be ‘normal’ and son/s admitted that “Dad” exhibited previously unrecognised talents!  The impact of Lakeland’s natural beauty and observances of corporate worship under-pinned the shared experience,

 

Experience suggests that in human terms, established friendships and trusting relationships between fathers and sons (and of course daughters too!)  need not and probably  will not always be ‘plain sailing’ and need to be ‘worked at’  but in the process greatly enriching the lives of all parties involved. Similarly and even more so, our relationship with our Heavenly Father each and every day?

 

*O loving Father. from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, we commend to thy gracious keeping the homes and children of our people; beseeching thee so to dwell in our hearts that we may know in daily life, and show forth to all men, the power and depth of thy grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”