Today is Father’s Day in our country, where we are encouraged to celebrate the fathers in our lives. But depending on our circumstances, this day may be a day of celebration or it may be a day of pain and sorrow. Some people don’t know their father. Some don’t like their father. Some have been abused by their father. Some have a very toxic relationship with their father. And others have a good but not close relationship with their father. While still others have a very close connection to their father. We all have had different experiences with fathers in our lives. And that experience colors not only this day but all of our lives. This makes our question for this week challenging for many of us. The question is “Why do we call God ‘Father’?” Each of us will look at this question through the experiences we have with our earthly fathers, many of which have not been good.

Add to that the difference in how society views fathers today and how it viewed fathers in the times and societies in which the Bible was written and we begin to have some real confusion about what it means for us to call God ‘Father’. The Bible was written in a time and society where patriarchy ruled. Dictionary.com defines ‘patriarchy’ as “a form of social organization in which the father is the supreme authority in the family, clan, or tribe and descent is reckoned in the male line, with the children belonging to the father’s clan or tribe.” In other words, the father was the head of the household and the center of society. That is not true of our society today, though many remnants of patriarchy still exist in our communities and our nation. But we’ve come a long way from the society in Jesus’ day. So, the way we look at God as Father will undoubtedly be colored by the cultural norms regarding fathers today. That means that in order to look at this question of “Why do we call God ‘Father’?” we will need to take all of that into account. As I thought about the question and about the two Scripture passages set before us, I began discerning three possible answers.

First, we call God ‘Father’ because Jesus tells us to. This is by far the most simplistic answer. And for many would not be enough justification. Yet, as Christ followers, we cannot deny the validity of this reason. Jesus DOES tell us that God is our Father. When Jesus has risen from the dead and appears to Mary in the garden, he tells her, “Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father.’” When Jesus is asked by his disciples how they should pray, he tells them, “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” And Jesus, when talking to the crowds about the scribes and Pharisees says to them, “call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven.” In our passage for this morning from the gospel of John, Jesus is talking with some Jews who had recently chosen to follow him. And they said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.” And Jesus responded, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me.” Here the people say that God is their Father and Jesus doesn’t deny the possibility, but says that IF God were their father, then they would love him since he is from God.

One reason we call God Father is because Jesus tells us to. But a second reason is that God has claimed as his children. The passage we read from 1 John says, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” God has chosen to call us his children. God has brought us into his family. The Apostle Paul writes, in his letter to the Galatians, “In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.” And again Paul writes in Romans 8, “You have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” We have been adopted into the family of God. Calling God ‘Father’ acknowledges that connection, that familial relationship.

Yet because of our varying experiences of fathers with our earthly fathers, God as ‘Father’ may not be a helpful connection for us. If father is a word that triggers for us, not deep connection and love, but pain and anger and withdrawal, then it might be difficult to call God ‘Father.’ So some have asked, would a different way of addressing God work instead of ‘Father’? And various alternatives have been tried and continue to be used. One of those is using “God the Creator” instead of “God the Father.” This is a pretty popular one. And then the Trinity is addressed as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. The issue with that is that it removes the relational piece of our relationship with God. Calling God ‘Creator’ is good and tells us something important about God, but it doesn’t fully encapsulate our closeness with God.

There are others who use the term ‘Mother’ of God, which is not without support in Scripture. God says through Isaiah, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” And in the gospel of Matthew (and again in Luke), Jesus says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” And in Hosea, God says, “I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs.” These are motherly images of God. And yet we see no direct reference to God as ‘Mother’. Perhaps that is because of the patriarchal society in Israel at that time. The truth is that God is neither male nor female. But it is the familial connection between us and God that is most important. And that has been expressed by calling God ‘Father’. But perhaps there is also another reason why we call God ‘Father’.

We call God ‘Father’ because Jesus told us to. We call God ‘Father’ because God chose us as his children and that familial connection is important. And finally, we call God ‘Father’ because God has promised us an inheritance. In Israelite society, the first born son was promised the largest share of the inheritance…double that of the younger sons. Daughters typically received no inheritance. But the Bible tells us we are all heirs as children of God. Paul writes in Galatians, “You are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.” In Ephesians, he writes, “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will.” And in Romans, just after the part we read earlier about God as Abba Father, Paul writes, “We are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” God has given us an inheritance. It is not just for the firstborn (which is Jesus) but we share in the inheritance along with Jesus. We are joint heirs.

Distinguished professor and preacher Fred Craddock once encountered an elderly man who began visiting with him. And then he found out Fred was a teacher of preachers, he shared this story with him. “I’m Ben Hooper. I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn’t married when I was born so I had a hard time. When I started to school my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn’t a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and during lunch-time because the taunts of my playmates cut so deeply. What was worse was going downtown on Saturday afternoon and feeling every eye burning a hole through you. They were all wondering just who my real father was. When I was about 12 years old a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was looking right at me.

‘Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?’ I felt the old weight come on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down. But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. ‘Wait a minute,’ he said, ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance. You are a son of God.’ With that he slapped me across the rump and said, ‘Boy you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’”

We are God’s children and we have been given an inheritance. We share in that inheritance with Jesus, who is the Son of God and IS God. And through Jesus we have come to be called children of God. So, when we call God our ‘Father’, we are acknowledging, not that God is like our earthly fathers, but that God is our true father. And in that we mean that God cares for us, God loves us, and God welcomes us as his children and as his heirs to a glorious treasure in heaven that we cannot fathom. Calling God our ‘Father’ may not be a perfect description of who God is, for our human words could never describe God. But it is a reminder that we are part of God’s family. And that we are loved. If a different image of God helps you to remember those truths better, then by all means use that. But calling God ‘Father’ can also perhaps be a step toward redefining what father means for us. May God the Father bless you this day with love, grace, and an inheritance of everlasting hope! Amen!