Gleanings – Our Good but Inadequate Fathers, Matthew 3:1-12

GLEANINGS (from the Daily Office) – Our Good but Inadequate Fathers – Year One, Proper 18, Thursday, September 11, 2015, Matthew 3:1-12

“Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’;”

Like many, but certainly not all, I have been blessed to having a loving and devoted father. Harold Richardson has been a father for almost 59 years. His children have never lacked anything. We have never feared doing without though that fear may have served us well if not better on occasion. To the contrary, we have most often lived with abundance, always more than enough Levi’s, Izods, and Topsiders to fill the closet. This was due to my father’s (and to be sure my mom’s) commitment to work and to save that we might begin our adult lives educated and with some income producing capacity. I believe he sacrificed some desires of his youth to make it happen but none of us know that because he has never spoken any regrets.

My father was not to me some fount of theological and moral truth. He was not the Master to this rebellious Grasshopper (aka Caine of Kung Fu). But he steadily lived a principled life. This was a more tangible witness. While God still has His work cut out for Himself in me, He acted through my father to create a firm foundation upon which to stand when life is rocked and all else seems fleeting.

Indeed, I am blessed beyond measure. I love my dad and I am so grateful to him and the Father for the contribution he has made and continues to make to my life. But there is one way in which my dear father is inadequate. He cannot save me. This was John the Baptist’s word to the “all Judea.” Calling upon the name of Abraham is to strain your voice in vain.

There is no earthly thing that can save us. Not our fathers. Not even the waters of baptism have that power. To be rescued from myself and the evil times in which I live, I must repent and submit to the cleansing fire of the Father’s Holy Spirit. I must be reconciled to the God and Father of all.

–Frodo: “I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”–