Reflections on Father’s Day by The Rev. Kaji Douša

I wanted to just note that we recognize that there are all kinds of complications in parenting – there are some people who would love to be a father, there are some people who would have loved to have had a father. That’s particularly pertinent actually, because of the text that we’re dealing with right now in Genesis, where the patriarchs and matriarchs of our faith show some of the complications of parenting. And we acknowledge that one of the very worst stories of parenting comes from the characters of this story, and that’s of course with Abraham and Isaac. I don’t know if you grew up in church camp, but you know that song “Father Abraham had many sons…” Many of those sons Father Abraham did not treat so well. There’s the story of the Sacrifice of Isaac, and also we see from the text last week that he sent his son Ishmael out into the desert with just a bag of food and his mother. So I think where I’m going to go with this because I’m not preaching on this this week is that much of this part of Genesis is about people making mistakes in family life and then God intervening. And I just want to say that when parenting doesn’t quite go the way it’s supposed to, God as mothering and fathering agent of love and grace always can step in. So there’s your sermon on Father’s Day, that’s all I’m going to say about that, really, and wherever you are on this, I just want you to watch for God’s intervention.