Dear PLPC friends,

While in seminary, I served as an intern at a church in downtown Austin, Texas. I led an adult Sunday school class that studied the sermon text for the week. The class was filled with highly educated, thoughtful, and caring men and women.

One week we were studying John 17 in which Jesus prays to his Father in heaven on behalf of his disciples. The word Father is used over and over again, showing the intimacy of the Son and the Father. Naturally when I closed in prayer, I began, “O heavenly Father . . .”

A woman in the class approached me afterward with anger on her face and demanded, “What are they teaching you at that seminary? Aren’t they teaching you to use inclusive language to describe God? I am highly offended that you used the word Father in that prayer.”

I explained that we were taught to draw on the great diversity of biblical language used for God, which includes Father. I asked her why she was offended, and she responded that there are many people for whom father is not a good word. They have suffered abuse, neglect, and the absence of their fathers. She admitted that she had not experienced this because she had a good relationship with her father, but she knew others who did not.

We all have wounds. If we never address them, they will fester and consume us. If father means pain, fear, or absence, maybe, instead of dismissing father from our language and our lives, we might seek a new model. 

I do not pretend to know what it is like to not have a good earthly father because I have been greatly blessed by mine. But I do know what it is like to be enslaved by a spirit of fear, as Paul wrote in Romans 8:15. It keeps a person from healing, forgiveness, and new relationships for fear of rejection and further pain. It keeps us isolated and makes us cold and bitter.

I do not believe we ever outgrow our need for a parent. To call God “Abba, Father” in prayer is to recognize that we are his children and he loves and accepts each of us.

Perhaps the world has left you orphaned. I know a family that will be glad to adopt you: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is a big family but one that always has room for one more.

By Faith,

Pastor Paul