Which Father, Whose Children?

Published on by D. G. Hart

(TMI alert) I am inclined to follow the pattern established by my father in the Hart home of listening to Christian radio on the Lord’s Day. Since I listen to the regular radio during the week, listening to the “other kind” of radio on Sundays is a way to set the day apart. My wife believes it is a way to drive her batty. (Truth be told, it depends on how we’re getting along.)

So far I have now been through two shows on June 19, 2011, and wouldn’t you know, the theme is fathers and their responsibilities. (Why do mothers receive piles of gratitude on their day, but fathers hear challenges to own up to their responsibilities. It’s as if Mothers Day is gospel, and Fathers Day is law.)

The irony of the evangelical liturgical calender used to be much sharper three decades ago before Advent or Lent had become attractive to low church Protestants thanks to the growth of publishing on “spiritual disciplines.” A Reformed speaker could make some hay with the observation that Protestants won’t observe Reformation Day but they will devote Sundays in May and June to mothers and fathers. Back then Reformed Protestants in the Dutch tradition would also refer sometimes to their pastor as “dominie,” adding yet another layer of uncertainty about devoting one Sunday to earthly fathers. Now, with the liturgical turn by many Protestants, even some Reformed, the church calendar and Hallmark moments are speed bumps of front-end alignment ruining proportions on the way to lectio continuo preaching. But despite the appeal of churchly observances — it’s really neat to have an Advent Wreath — evangelicals will not let an annual Lord’s Day devoted to motherhood or fatherhood go. (At least, the Baylys are about motherhood and fatherhood ALL THE TIME.)

(Make it three shows in a row. Now I’m hearing Charles Stanley talk about what fathers have to do to keep their children in the faith — and he even worked in a shot at smoking and drinking.)

Don’t get me wrong. God blessed me with a remarkable father whose memory I cherish. But as a godly man he knew that Sundays were not about him or other men with children. He knew that Sundays were the day of only one father, the first person of the Trinity.

So here is a father’s day thought to keep it all in perspective:

What is thy only comfort in life and death?

That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.(emphasis added for Hallmark customers)

22 thoughts on “Which Father, Whose Children?”

  1. “Why do mothers receive piles of gratitude on their day, but fathers hear challenges to own up to their responsibilities. It’s as if Mothers Day is gospel, and Fathers Day is law.”

    It’s a trend that is also evident in single sex events/conferences. Men are addressed as sinners who need to man up, and women as victims who need to accept unconditional love.

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  2. Dr. Hart,

    I hope the quote below will not elicit an old life beat-down but I found it interesting and wondered what you would think of it. Sharing it will likely get me categorized as an evangelical. Maybe I could be allowed to sit in on the “victims in recovery group”.

    It being fathers day, I was reflecting on my adoption as a son of God so I turned to a readily available devotional book that I knew had a chapter on the subject.

    In J.I. Packer’s book Knowing God (right after putting forth Westminster Confession 12.1 as a fine formal definition) he says,

    “Our first point about adoption is that it is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification…That justification—by which we mean God’s forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future—is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel is not in question. Justification is the primary blessing, becasue it meets our primary spiritual need…we need the forgiveness of our sins, and assurance of restored relationship with God, more than we need anything else in the world; and this the gospel offers us before it offers us anything else. But this is not to say that justification is the highest blessing of the gospel. Adoption is higher, because of the richer relationship with God that it involves…The two ideas are distinct, and adoption is the more exalted. Justification is a forensic idea, conceived in terms of law, and viewing God as judge. In justification, God declares of penitent believers that they are not, and never will be, liable to the death that their sins deserve, becasue Jesus Christ, their substitute and sacrifice, tasted death in their place on the cross…But contrast this now with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he established us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.” p.206-207

    He goes on to quote the Church of Scotland minister James Buchanan’s book The Doctrine of Justification to support this view. Would you agree with this? Is justification still primary if adoption is considered more exalted?

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  3. Mark, Beat it (kidding).

    I’m not sure what to say, though I have some thoughts about closeness and affection which will be forthcoming. What I don’t like about Packer’s quote is the way he isolates justification, as if it is a bare legal abstraction. If you look at justification (and all the benefits of redemption) from the vantage of the covenant of grace, then I don’t see how justification lacks a personal dimension — as in “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”

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  4. Forgive my dullness as I don’t have a confession w/ scripture quotes within reach at the moment but “I will be your God, and you will be my people” would seem to be a passage that is illustrative of adoption not justification. Right? Maybe not?

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  6. Dr. Hart,

    Thank you for the refreshing post on the second most difficult Lord’s Day of the year.

    In addition to causing a great distraction to the preaching of the Word and being borderline idolatrous, the flower pot in front of the pulpit yesterday decorated with a wheelbarrow, tape measure, and shovel, made me wonder what women would have thought if a flower pot decorated with laundry, dishes, and a diaper, had been displayed several weeks ago.

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  7. I must surely be missing something. Yesterday was Trinity Sunday in our church. No mention of father’s day. I would think that to be the case in most liturgically minded reformed churches.

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  8. Kane – “Yesterday was Trinity Sunday in our church. No mention of father’s day. I would think that to be the case in most liturgically minded reformed churches.”

    Which is nowhere close to the norm in churches in America today.

    Darryl – Speaking of Christian radio, you could always count on an old pastor of mine using the same passages heard on the radio leading up Mother’s day/Father’s day in his Sunday sermons. Surely Charles Stanley preaching on Deut 6:6-7 on father’s day week and my pastor doing the same is that Sunday was coincidental. No?

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  9. My daughter–4 years old and named after my father–is now enjoying her first cycle through catechism class at church. When we recite the answer to Q. 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism at bedtime (including tonight) she inserts the following each and every time and with impeccable comedic timing:

    “…without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head–except when I get a haircut.”

    Maybe its not that funny. But I still can’t decide whether to correct her or laugh with her. She thinks its hilarious.

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  13. A little off-topic, but I thought I’d point out Michael Horton’s recent review of the film, “The Tree of Life.”

    http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/2011/06/20/review-of-the-tree-of-life/

    HORTON: ” … this film is “about”: nature and grace. Besides the obvious reference to the “two ways,” the father—a strict disciplinarian—is “nature” and the mother—fountain of unconditional love and generosity—is “grace.” The last line in the movie (as I recall anyway) is the oldest son’s recognition, “Father, mother, always you wrestle inside me.”

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  14. Yeah yeah, I know, every Sunday for old schoolers is Trinity Sunday, Easter Sunday, Fruit of the Spirit Sunday, Ascension Sunday, Sacrament Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, etc. But a few of us feeble calendar types that take ’em one at a time have managed thus far to keep father’s day out of the order of service.

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  15. “Mark, my point was that justification is not an isolated doctrine but part of a larger understanding of the relationship between God and his people.”

    Darryl, next you’ll tell us that relationship is a relationship of being united to God – principally the Son – i.e. union with Christ!

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  16. “listening to Christian radio”

    Darryl, if your radio goes on the fritz do you call the “Christian radio repair man” to fix your “Christian radio?”

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  19. Good to hear you think “Christian radio” is a real thing. Little too transformationalist for my taste, but I bet you brought a tear to Doug Wilson’s eye.

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  20. Paul, your world view may be in overdrive here. Christian radio refers to content. Radios that radio repair persons fix are the machines that broadcast Christian radio stations, among others. But maybe you are aware of a radio that only broadcasts Christian radio.

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  22. Stan Hauerwas affirms the regulative principle in Hating Mothers As the Way to Peace

    Christians are required to love one another—even if they are married. That may be a cruel and even heartless demand, but it is nonetheless the way things are if you are a Christian. From Paul’s perspective marriage is not necessarily the context that determines the character of love or our ability to love and be loved by another. Rather, Paul seems to think we need to learn to be loved by God and so to love God, and then pos­sibly ourselves, and if we have gotten that far we may even discover we can love our neighbor, who may be our enemy, which often turns out to be the necessary condition for those who are married to love one another.

    http://jasongoroncy.com/2011/05/08/hauerwas-on-mother%E2%80%99s-day-and-other-idols/

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