Scripture: Isaiah 9:6
Video of the sermon here
Audio of the sermon here
I have no real memory of my father. He died quite suddenly, in tragic circumstances, when I was about 16 months old. In truth I didn’t really know what a father was until I went to school. I remember being taught to write and the teacher putting a sentence on the board for us to copy. I like to help my daddy, it said. She then said Andrew, you can write I like to help my uncle. I remember thinking it odd that I should have to write something different. What I actually wrote was I like to help my daddy uncle and I couldn’t understand why the teacher put a great big strike through the word daddy. Amazing the stuff that sticks with you.
When my father died, my mum was in her early-to-mid 30s, with 4 kids aged between 12 and 16 months. My father was the main breadwinner in our family. It definitely had an impact economically on us as I grew up. As the youngest I was probably less aware of that than some of the others.
But I do know that there was a verse in the Bible that my mum took to heart at the time. It’s found in Psalm 68:5
A father to the fatherless.
A defender of widows
Is God in his holy habitation.
A father to the fatherless. A defender of widows. And you know, as I look back, I do see God has been faithful to that promise, certainly in regard to my life. Some of the people he has chosen to look out for me have been rather surprising, but I truly believe they did that.
Did I always recognise it, or appreciate it? No. Just as I didn’t always recognise or appreciate what anyone who has cared for me was doing. Often I still don’t Often it is only as we look back we gain an understanding or appreciation of God’s workings in our lives.
Sometimes people have talked to me about how terrible it must be to have no real memory of my father. But equally I know others who have known their fathers and whose relationship with them has not been great.
The name Jesus used for God was Father and he encouraged his followers to do the same. But not everyone finds it easy to think of God in those terms.
But rather than dispense with it, I think let’s reclaim it. Even if our earthly fathers haven’t been good, we recognise the failing. If we think about it, we can probably identify things that ought to have been different. Why should we let the bad example define the term, rather than the good?
But even if you are, or were, blessed with a great earthly father, even the best are only on loan. I may have lost my father tragically young, and I know, sadly, it doesn’t always work out this way, but the natural order of things is that however good or bad our fathers are, we will normally, I emphasise normally, outlive them. There will come a time when they are not there.
Even the best are not everlasting.
That leads us into the third of the terms Isaiah uses to announce a coming king. One whom later early Christians recognised was fulfilled in Jesus.
I’ve suggested these terms build on one another to offer a fully rounded picture of what God wants to be for us…
He’s a wonderful counsellor. He has real wisdom which can guide us through life or make the right decisions.
But what good is wisdom if you don’t have the power or strength to carry it out? There are times we need not just wise counsel from God. We need him to be a Mighty God.
But power is not a good thing per se. It’s no good if the one wielding that power lacks compassion, simply does not care about us. And that is what this title is talking to us about.
Isaiah looks for one who will be a Wonderful Counsellor, a Mighty God and an Everlasting Father.
But what was Isaiah talking about?
Well, in some ways it is best to go back and look at the outcome of the absence of such a figure. If we turn back a few pages in the Bible, to Isaiah 1, we come across a verse of what God wants the people and their leaders to do…
Isaiah is sick of the hypocritical religion on his day. He even speaks of God hating their festivals, of not wanting to pay attention to them. Cos their worship and their lives don’t match. Then he says this…
Learn to do right
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
In fact in the Old Testament there are three groups of people who are often grouped together. A quick internet search told me they’re combined at least 18 times. The fatherless, the widow and the alien, or the foreigner. People are urged to look out and look after these groups. Not to take advantage of them or abuse them.
Why?
Because in this society they were the most vulnerable. They were the most likely to fall through the cracks. Foreigners didn’t even have the most basic of rights. Fatherless and widows had no-one to ensure they were looked after.
This was a very patriarchal society but the father was the central figure in the family. If something happened to him it could be disastrous. He was the source of income. Without him, families could be left destitute. Mothers could be forced into prostitution. Children could wind up enslaved or starve.
Kings or rulers liked to present themselves as Fathers of a nation. The title suggested their care for their people, the benevolence of their rule. That they cared for their people. That they would protect their people.
But the reality was very different. They wanted wise counsel, but if their kings knew the right path, they certainly didn’t follow it.
They needed a mighty God, but their kings were just powerless vassals, toys of whoever happened to the top dog in their region.
And they had been utterly uncaring.
Samuel had warned them what would happen when they asked for a king. He had said, Here’s what kings will expect from you. They will take your son and make them serve with his chariots and horses. Others will have to plow his fields and gather his crops. Still others will have to make weapons of war and parts for his chariots. They’ll take your daughters: Some to make perfume; others to cook and bake. They’ll take your best fields and vineyards and olive groves, a tenth of your grain and a tenth of your grapes and give it to their officials and attendants. They’ll take your servants, your best cattle and donkeys; a tenth of your sheep and goats. You yourselves will become his slaves. When that time comes, you will cry out for help because of the king you have chosen.
And you know, that’s what happened. Even Solomon, supposedly the architect of the golden age was a tyrant to live under. When he died the people sent a delegation to Rehoboam his son to ask him to ease up on them. Sadly he refused.
Years later Jesus would tell his disciples what kings were like. He said The kings of the Gentiles Lord it over their people, and like to call themselves benefactors.
But the same had been true of their own kings.Every now and then one would come along and break the mould, but they were the exception, not the rule. The notion of people using power to benefit themselves and their cronies… it’s not new.
The promise to be an Everlasting Father was an assurance that God would be the one who would watch out for them when they were vulnerable. God has a special place in his heart for the vulnerable.
In our own age we are aware of two ideas of fatherhood. One sense we might call the paternity test sense. The father was the one who provided the sperm which fertilised the egg. If in years to come a paternity test was taken it would link you back to that father, whether or not he ever played any part in your life, whether or not you met him.
Then there is a the sense in which they are actively involved in your life, they care for you, they provide for you, they protect you. None of these exclusive to fathers but you get the idea.
That’s the idea that Isaiah is speaking of. A God who is interested in you, loves you, cares for you.
We live in an age which is quite sceptical of power and authority, not without reason. But the truth is whoever we look to, to be there for us when we are at our weakest, at some point they will let us down.
Even the best of them.
Even with the best of intentions.
And even the best of them are passing. Our time is limited. We are not everlasting. Those we rely on to love us, care for us, protect us, they will go. In the end death will take them away. At this time of year we may feel their absence most keenly.
But not God. He has committed himself to us and he will never let us go.
In his life Jesus modelled God’s love and care for the vulnerable. Perhaps the thing he was most criticised for was that he was too much on their side. He was too friendly with those others looked down.
But in his death and resurrection it gains a whole new dimension. It’s a passage we have had cause to turn to before in this series. John 14. It was the night Jesus was arrested and he was talking to the disciples about how he was going to be leaving and they were upset.
And he had told them he would send another advocate, another Counsellor. But he also added I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. And he has promised I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
I will not leave you as orphans. Through the Holy Spirit, we are promised God will be with us as an Everlasting Father.
Jesus died and single man with no kids. Whatever the Da Vinci code says!
Yet he is the one whom they recognised as worthy of the title Everlasting Father. He is our answer to the question am I alone in this world?
And he has promised to be with us always.
Life can be tricky and complex to navigate, and in such times we need a Wonderful Counsellor. There are times when we reach out for help and we need one to be our Mighty God. And Jesus will guide us and strengthen us.
But he is also filled with compassion. His power and justice are balanced with love and mercy. He comes amongst us full of grace and truth. Not just truth, but with grace too.
It’s one of my favourite hymns… Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven and it has the lines
Fatherlike he tends and spare us
Well our feeble frame he knows.
He knows our weakness, our frailness, our vulnerability, because he has experienced it.
In a few days we will see that weakness and vulnerability manifest in a child in a manger. The mighty power behind the words and God said, will wail to let his mother know he needs fed and changed.
That is the depth of his commitment to us. A God who reaches us to us in compassion, because we are loved with an everlasting love.
But by his Spirit he is with us always. He can be our Wonderful Counsellor, guiding us through the maze of life. He can be our Mighty God, strengthening us to do more than we imagine.
But when we are at our lowest and most vulnerable, we are never alone. He won’t let us so. For he is our Everlasting Father.
paper dolls 