+Z’ev

Today’s assigned readings:
1 Kings 19:1-8, Ephesians 4:1-16, John 6:1-14

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:4-6

These verse show up often enough in quotes here and there. They are nearly, I think, a credo of the Early Christians. But ever since my youth I’ve noticed and wondered about the clear division between “the Lord” on one hand and “God” on the other. No divinity is credited to Jesus in these verses. Chrystostom doesn’t comment on this, but at least he doesn’t do his usual trick of turn all the words on their heads and saying it really means what it clearly doesn’t.

But what I’m interested in today is not what we call Jesus, but the term “Father”.

I’m not sure where I first go the idea, perhaps listening to a sermon on the whole “‘Abba’ is Hebrew for ‘Daddy’” thing. (Which is, itself, a mistake. Paul’s Greek is spot on if the “Abba” is question is Aramaic.) Or perhaps in a sermon on the Lord’s prayer. Not sure. Anyway, the general idea is that the level intimacy implied in “One God and Father of us all” as well as in “Our Father” is unheard of in Judaism. “They” had a God, awesome and majestic, but - through Jesus’ revelation - “We” have a Father, intimate and warm.

Fatherhood of God is what Jesus gives us.

Spurgeon goes so far as to say, “Jesus Christ taught it not to all men, but to his disciples, and it is a prayer adapted only to those who are the possessors of grace, and are truly converted.” And later, “Some say that the Fatherhood of God is universal, and that every man, from the fact of his being created by God, is necessarily God’s son, and that therefore every man has a right to approach the throne of God, and say, “Our Father which art in heaven.” To that I must demur. I believe that in this prayer we are to come before God, looking upon him not as our Father through creation, but as our Father through adoption and the new birth. I will very briefly state my reasons for this.”

Spurgeon is only carrying forward such thoughts as these of Gregory of Nyssa: It is impossible for God who is goodness in his very being to be father to someone of evil will. It is impossible for the Holy One to be father of a depraved person. It is impossible for the Giver of life to have as a child one whose sin has subjected him to death.

And if God is not the father of the unrighteous, then surely he is only the Father of Us Christians, yes?

As in this Roman sermon: Thus, God is not Father of those who have not received the grace of justification and redemption in the same way as those who have. Yet they remain potentially His children, since the Father wills the salvation of all (1 Tim 2:4) and makes sufficient grace necessary for salvation available to all.

Or this choice quote from the Dean of ECUSA’s Nashotah House (And the Canon Theologian of the ECUSA Diocese of Quincy): It is worth noting that no other religion calls God “Father.” Even in Old Testament Judaism, they never addressed God as Father. They might say metaphorically, that God is like a Father. But they never called God “Father” in the way that Jesus does.

No other religion calls God “Father”… in the way that Jesus does.

Does that not make you feel warm and fuzzy? Does that not make you feel special? “We” have a Father… the rest, not so much.

In Judaism (you knew I was going here, huh?) they have a prayer recited during the “Days of Awe” around Yom Kippur. It’s called “Avinu Malkenu” from the first line:

Our Father, Our King
Hear our voice, Lord our God,
pity and be compassionate to us, and accept - with compassion and favour - our prayer.

But, more important than that, three times a day, every day, God is addressed as Our Father (Avinu) in the central prayer of the Jewish Liturgy, the Amidah, asking Our Father for mercy and forgiveness and to direct us in his ways. Thus Jesus was simply picking up where the prayers of his own culture left him.

What I have noticed, over and over, when Paul is talking, is that, in writing to Gentiles, he’s telling *them* that God has brought them into the same relationship with God that the Jews already had. No need to be afraid or spooked or even superstitious about this. Relax: God is your father now.

Of course the ancients had very different ideas of what fathers could do do their children… I still fail to see why this was a comfort.

Much love,

Huw