Father's Day Sermon

Fathers Day Sermon

There are two stories of when the first Father’s Day was celebrated.

The earliest occurred in Fairmont, West Virginia on July 5, 1908. Grace Golden Clayton suggested to the minister of the local Methodist church that they hold services to celebrate fathers after a deadly mine explosion killed 361 men. That was a one-time event, and is thought to be the earliest celebration of its kind.

According to some accounts, the first of Fathers Days as we know them was celebrated in Washington state on June 19, 1910. A Spokane woman named Sonora Smart Dodd came up with the idea of honoring and celebrating her father while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at church in 1909. She felt as though mothers were getting all the recognition while fathers were equally deserving.

Sonora’s father, William Smart, was a veteran of the Civil War, widowed when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. He went on to raise the six children by himself on their small farm in Washington.

To show her appreciation for all the hard work and love her father gave to her and her siblings, Sonora thought there should be a day to pay homage to him and other dads like him.

She suggested June 5th, the anniversary of her father’s death to be the designated day to celebrate Father’s Day, but due to some a conflict, the celebration in Spokane, Washington was deferred to the third Sunday in June.

With Fathers Day celebrations locally in several communities across the country, unofficial support to make the celebration a national holiday began almost immediately.

William Jennings Bryan, a candidate for President of the United States in 1900, was one of its staunchest proponents.

In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge recommended that Father’s Day become a national holiday. But no official action was taken.

In 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson, designated the third Sunday in June as the official day to celebrate Father’s Day through an executive order. However, it wasn’t until 1972, during the Nixon administration, that Father’s Day was officially recognized as a national holiday.

Other countries picked up on the idea of Father’s Day.

Many followed suit by celebrating it on the third Sunday in June, and some decided to honored fathers on different dates.

Today Father’s Day is celebrated all over the world.

The main characteristic of a father is love.

The father – son relationship represents one of life’s greatest mysteries – the relationship between Jesus and his heavenly Father.

John mentions the love of the heavenly father for his son several times:

John 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

John 5:19-20a So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing.

John 10:15-17 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

Jesus most often referred to God as “My Father.”

In a similar way, it represents our relationship to the Father.

Rom 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Gal 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

“Abba” is the Chaldean word for “father.” Whenever it occurs (Mark 14:36; Gal 4:6; and here), it has the Greek word joined to it, which we see in English, or “Father.”

The two words mean the same in 2 languages.

The Chaldean “Abba,” frequent in prayer, gradually acquired the nature of a most sacred proper name, to which the Greek-speaking Jews added the Greek word pater (pay-tyr) or “Father” from their own tongue.

In the passages we read a moment ago, Paul followed the conventional practice of the Jews of his time.

The bible uses the love that fathers naturally have for their children to point to the even greater love of the heavenly Father for his children, making the heavenly Father the model for human fathers.

Luke 11:11-13 [Jesus asks] What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”