Be a Dad, Honor the Father June 21 Father's Day

June 21 2015 Father’s Day Pastor Jacqueline Hines, Mark 4.35-41 “Be a Dad, Honor the Father”

Like Jesus, when our lives are crowded we want to get away – by plane [slide # plane] or train [slide #2 train]  or even boat [slide #3 boat]. Jesus and the disciples left a crowd behind and took a boat to the other side of the lake. It was evening; the sun was about to set, but they were well on their way to the other side – the quiet side.

There may be fathers here today who know what it is to have a day crowded with activity, crowded with the needs of others. And, you can so appreciate a little quiet like Jesus planned that day.

They wanted quiet but a storm broke out. They began to wonder if the Jesus they had so faithfully followed, would save them as he had on many occasions. The storm had them at the end of their rope and they woke Jesus up saying, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” [slide #4 Jesus sleeping in the boat] He did not answer them because they had already learned the lesson.

Don’t be surprised when God does not answer a question that has already been answered. One songwriter had the answer, [slide #5 cast your cares]

Does Jesus care when my heart is pained

Too deeply for mirth or song,

As the burdens press, and the cares distress,

And the way grows weary and long?

Refrain:

Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares,

His heart is touched with my grief;

When the days are weary, the long nights dreary,

I know my Savior cares.

Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm….  

Being a dad is being in the boat with Jesus. Being a dad means honoring the father, praying, serving, living like you know there is a God. Being a dad is having all the power you need to calm the sea and stop the wind according to God’s will.

Mother Theresa won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor whom she called ‘great people who have much to teach the world.’ When she was asked how we could have world peace, she said, “Go home, and love your families.”

Jesus spoke to the sea, saying “Peace! Be still!”   [slide #6 Jesus calming the storm from the boat]

How we need that peace in our boats, today. We need fathers who can bring the peace that Jesus brings to our hearts, our homes, on the job, at school, at play. A father in the boat with Jesus learns some lessons and can say to our restless seas, “Peace! Be still!”

A good father can also rebuke the wind like Jesus did. There is a classic dynamic in families wherein a mother might exclaim to her children whose behavior is out of control, “Just wait until your father gets home.”

There is something powerful about the boundary line that Jesus draws for the wayward winds in us. For when the children of God are out of bounds, the game of life is no longer fair, and precious celebrations are forfeited.

Jesus gives fathers the power to rebuke the winds like Jesus did and to bring order where there is disorder, to bring health where there is dis-ease, and to bring justice where there is injustice.

When fathers are in the boat with Jesus, they know what to do in every storm. [slide #7 Jesus standing tall in boat] They know to look to the one that cares, the one that even the wind and sea obeys. [slide #8 smile at the storm] Amen.