Mark 4:26-34

I was surfing the net and I came a cross a "Father's Day Photo Album." It was a collection of photos of fathers and their children. These photos had been sent in by people who wanted to share them. In one picture a man was sitting with his son in a fishing boat. In another, two fathers were with their children on the shore. Each of the photos showed a father and his children smiling and happy.

At that same site there were surveys and discussions of the state of Fatherhood. As I read this discussion I realized that the photo album was not presenting the real life situation. The photos were the ideal of what fatherhood should look like. The discussions brought up the realities of absentee fathers. The reality of fathers who feel the need to work overtime or who are emotionally isolated from their children.

There were some bright spots. Many people thought that fathers were getting more involved in the raising of their children by choice. There was a lot of discussion about changing diapers. "I have changed hundreds of diapers but my father barely changed a dozen" one father proudly proclaimed. But even this points toward an ideal that is not yet reached. We want fathers to be involved in the lives of their children and grandfathers too. We want that picture perfect relationship of father to child for all children. We fathers wish we could be that way and our wives do too. We wish all children could have a relationship with their father that fits the photo album ideal.

Father's Day is a little different in the church than in the world. In the church all men are fathers. Each time a child is baptized in the church the whole church promises to "nurture one another in the Christian faith and include" the child being baptized in that nurturing. We also promise to "surround them with a community of love and forgiveness that they may grow in service and love to others" and to pray for them. Any Christian man who takes those vows takes the responsibility of raising and nurturing those children in the faith.

A good example of Christian fatherhood is Paul and Timothy. Paul was not Timothy's biological father. Timothy's biological father was an absentee father - at least he is absent from the Bible. All we know about him is that he was not a Christian. We don't even know his name but we know the names of Timothy's mother and grandmother which indicates that they had a deeper relationship with him than his father.

In many ways Paul filled this void. He became a father figure to Timothy. He took Timothy under his wing and "nurtured him in the Christian faith." He even called Timothy his "son."(1 Tim. 1:18, 2 Tim 2:1) And Timothy grew to be a dedicated servant of God in part because of the care of his father in the faith.

So if we were to create a photo album filled with pictures of the ideal of Christian fatherhood what would it look like? It would include men teaching children to pray. It would include pictures of men working beside children in serving others. It would show men and children laughing and playing at Church picnics, Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. It would show men listening to young people as they talk about their problems. It would have picture after picture of men passing on the faith.

That is what we want to see. We want to see the faith growing in the lives of our children. We want to see the same thing Jesus was talking about in Mark. He said, "The kingdom of God is like someone who scatters seeds and then they grow." The point is that all the farmer does is scatter the seed. The seed grows on its own. And finally it comes to fruit.

Jesus further emphasizes this point with his next parable. He said the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It is so small but it grows into a huge plant. Faith is like that: It starts with a small seed but it grew into something big. Faith may start with singing "Jesus Loves Me" but it grows into the faith of a Luther, or Susannah, or Wesley, or Theresa.

We want to see faith growing like a mustard seed in our children's lives. We want to see faith in God shoring up the lives of our children. We want to see youth who are standing on the solid rock of Christ. We want to see the love of God coming to full fruit as young people serve others in the name of Christ and devote themselves to Christ.

But in order to see all this we first have to plant it. And to plant it we first have to have it growing in our lives. The Kingdom of God is like a man who tried to get grass to grow in a dandelion patch. Year after year he yearned for grass to grow there but only more dandelions grew until one year he got rid of the dandelions and planted grass seed. Our children are catching the seeds falling from our lives. If we have faith and the fruits of the Spirit growing in our lives those are the seeds that will grow in our children's lives. But if we have the dandelions of the world growing, that is what will germinate and grow to fruition and its seeds will fall into our children's hearts.

Put simply: if we want our children to grow in faith we must be people of faith. We have to live the faith, to study the Word of God, to model the love of God. Then those things will fall in the soil of our children's hearts and minds and grow.

Fathers - when was the last time you prayed with your children? When was the last time your children saw you reading the Bible? When was the last time you told them that you love them and that God loves them? When was the last time you helped with children in the church?

To train our children to follow Christ we first have to be following Christ ourselves. To see faith growing in their lives it must first be growing in ours. To see them devoting their lives to Christ, we must first devote our lives to Christ. To see the fruits of the Spirit growing in the lives of our children they must first be growing in our lives.

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have sometimes wondered if the beholder needed glasses. Sometimes what one person sees as ugly, another thinks is beautiful. For instance, one young girl was ashamed by the appearance of her mother's arms. She thought they were ugly because they were badly scarred. Whenever a friend was coming over to visit she wanted her mother to wear a long sleeved blouse to cover the scars. Then one day the girl's grandmother told her how her mother had gotten those scars and her whole outlook on them changed. It seems that there was a fire in the house and her mother had been badly burned while rescuing her infant daughter. Suddenly those scarred arms became a beautiful symbol of her mother's love.

Too often we humans judge by the outward appearance of things. We go only by what we can see. One study done by psychologists found that appearance effected people's choices of candidates for office. Often times the outward appearance is insufficient evidence for making such choices. There is so much that cannot be seen with the eye.

But God, on the other hand, can see all. When God looks at a person, God sees not only their outward appearance but also their heart and soul. An outward appearance can hide a rotten heart and a dead soul. That is what Christ meant when he called the Pharisees whited sepulchers full of dead men's bones. The were well painted on the outside, But inside they were dead. In the same way an ugly exterior can hide inner beauty to you and me. The girl in the story I just told was fooled by her mothers scars. But in actuality there was a beautiful love under those scars. And God can see this. God can see the beauty that is hidden to us by the surface of a person. And God can also see the ugliness that our exteriors hide too.

Samuel made the mistake of being fooled by the exterior of Jesse's sons. Israel needed a new King because Saul had turned his back on God. So God told Samuel to go to Bethlehem and to anoint the son of Jesse that God chose. So Samuel did as he was told. When he got there the first of Jesse's sons to come out was Eliab. He was tall and hansom. Just put a crown on him and he would look like a king. Samuel thought, "Surely this is the one God has chosen." But God said, "Samuel, forget his good looks and his height. I don't see things the way people see them. They look at only the outward appearance but I look at the heart." So the next of Jesse's sons was presented and he was not the one. This went on until all the sons were presented and rejected.

Well almost all. There was one more. He was out keeping the sheep. So they brought him in. He was just a boy. He was a good looking boy, but he was just a boy. He looked like the shepherd he was, not the least bit like a king. God said, "He is the one, anoint him." The boy was David. Of "David and Goliath" fame. The great King, perhaps the greatest King of Israel.

You know most people would have chosen Eliab. He looked like a leader, like a King. And they would have rejected David, because he looked like a shepherd boy, and not the monarch of God's people. But Samuel had and advantage over most people. He was a follower of God. He listened to what God had to say, because he knew that God knew better than he did. So he listened and he anointed a shepherd boy to be the next King of Israel.

You know in this world people often judge by outward appearances. They judge by the beauty of their face, or their height, or the quality of their clothes. People often judge a person's ability to do a job based on the fact they they are in a wheelchair, or walk with a cane, not on the merit of their training and experience. Sometimes even by the color of their skin. People look and because someone is light or dark or yellow or red, They decided that person would be a good friend, a good co-worker, a good domestic servant. Or that person is a better athlete, or has better rhythm or is smarter, or is more ambitious. Sometimes we even let outward appearances influence our judgments of people's moral character. Some people would even refuse to eat with others because they are the wrong color, or their dress shows that they are too poor, or even too rich.

But God does not see as humans see. God sees the heart. God knows whether a person is righteous or unrighteous. The All Seeing One in heaven isn't influenced by the beauty of a face, or the height of ones stature, by one's disabilities, or even by the color of one's skin, or by the quality of one's clothes. God is influence only by the faith that lives in one's heart. It doesn't matter what you look like, you are welcome at Christ's table. Here all differences of nationality, ability, wealth and race are washed away by the cleansing blood of Christ.

Most people judge by outward appearance. But we are not most people. We are Christians. Like Samuel we are followers of the one true God who can see all. God sees through the outward appearances and sees the heart. We need to pray that the spirit would help us to do the same. Just as Christ invites all to his heavenly banquet, so all should be invited to this table.

2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17

Verily, Verily, I say unto you, the Kingdom of God is like a blind person who walks with confidence. Sometimes those who are blind walk tentatively and cautiously. They check each step to make sure they are not stepping on something. It is a way of walking that has been learned by experience. Through falling down stairways, tripping in holes or over curbs, and walking into walls most people who lose some eyesight learn to be careful.

But the Kingdom of God is like a blind person who walks with confidence. Like one who boldly strides and steps. One who is not fearful that the next step will tumble them down a flight of stairs, or land them in a ditch, or walk them into a wall. It is the walk of one who knows that they are going in the right direction. It is the walk of one who has learned to walk by a means other than by sight.

The meaning of this parable has nothing to do with how blind people should or shouldn't walk. It is about how people in Christ should face the uncertainties of life. You see the world walks by sight. It goes on what it can see. It looks for the cracks in the pavement and the potholes with the eyes. The problem is the road we are talking about is the invisible pathway of life. So trying to walk by sight will lead one into falling down flights of stairs, landing in ditches and walking into walls. So the world has learned to walk cautiously and haltingly. Those in the world stoop over and squint at the ground. They feel the ground with each step for fear that it will fall out from under them. But those in Christ walk with confidence. Heads held high. Oblivious to the fact that they cannot see what is ahead of them.

I believe this little parable expresses what Paul was saying Corinthians Ch. 5. The meaning of this letter is best understood in the context of what was happening in Paul's ministry. This letter was written shortly after Paul was faced with death. Most believe he wrote this letter after leaving Ephasis. While in Ephasis he was almost lynched by a mob. It seems that while Paul was there the artisans who made statues of the gods got angry. They were mad because Paul was convincing people that gods of stone and metal were not gods, so they incited the crowds to riot, and that group came close to lynching Paul and some of his co-workers because their preaching had blasphemed Artimis the patron god of Ephasis.

You would think that after an episode like that Paul would be a little unsteady. That he would cautiously pick his words and not speak rashly for fear of causing another riot. Or maybe he would avoid certain places. Make his travel plans to avoid places with strong pagan cults. Or places where the posses were a little too quick at shooting to kill. You would think Paul would learn his lesson from that little episode and that from now on he would walk a little more cautiously.

On the contrary he did just the opposite. He writes, "So we are always confident." After that episode I would be weak kneed myself. Yet after facing a murderous crowd who sought his blood, he says he is confident. But not merely confident, he is "ALWAYS" confident. Paul didn't let this episode or any other rattle him. Most people would have walked cautiously after such an incident. But not Paul he continued his confident stride through Macedonia proclaiming the good news.

How could Paul do this? How can someone face life so undauntedly. I stated earlier that we can't see the road we are walking on. We are blind to our futures. So shouldn't we be cautious and watch our step. I have to think of my wife and children, I can't just walk into life with the boldness that Paul did. If I go walking into a pit or a wall who will care for them. Doesn't it make more sense to be cautious?

This is a good objection, we do have others to think of. But I have to go back to the image of the Blind person walking confidently. Have you ever seen a blind person walking. I'm not talking about someone who has recently lost their eyesight. A person like that is still trying to see their way. The problem is that they can't. I'm talking about someone who has been blind from birth and has had all the special training. Often times they can walk with confidence. They aren't rattled by the fact that all they can see in front of their face is blackness. That is all they know and they accept that.

Such a person doesn't walk by sight but by faith. They walk by faith in their training. They confidently use their cane to tap the way before them or trust the guidance of their dog. They trust their ability to, by other means, find the pot holes. In the same situation most of us crawl on our hands and knees trying to find our way. But they can walk with confidence because they are walking by faith and not by sight.

We can't see what is ahead of us in life; we are blind to life's circumstances. Yet we Christians have reason to be always confident. We are confident because we walk by faith and not by sight. Faith in Christ. And we know that whatever happens he will be glorified. Whether we live of die we will be with him. So no matter what, we confidently walk with him.

You see we are not what we once were. As Paul said those who are in Christ are a new creation. At one time we were like the world walking by sight even though we could not see. But now we do not see life from a human's blind perspective. We see it from the eternal perspective of God. We have been made, and are being made, new creatures in Christ. We are eternal creatures who have the guidance of the spirit, and who know that pits and stairways and walls are not the end of the world.

This is one of the great gifts that the Holy Spirit gives the Christian. The gift of confidence in the face of our unknown future. It is part of human instinct to fear the unknown. But Christ knows the future. And we can trust in him to guide us through it.

I believe this lesson in Christian confidence has a special application for fathers. As Fathers we should model this truth in front of our children both young and old. We should face the future confidently. We can only do that if we walk by faith and not by sight. I am not counseling you fathers to be careless. Don't go bet the farm or the house or your career on some long shot. That is gambling. I'm talking about facing life with the faith that no matter what Christ will be with us.

I am not saying you will not fall into some pits or walk into some walls. Even Paul was eventually killed for the things he said. Their will be troubles. But Christ is with you through them. And, whether you are faced with death or not, remember that you are a new creature with eternal life.

Have you ever noticed that men don't talk much? Men are more action oriented. Men learn more by example than by words. Men also teach better by example. Your children are watching you. Just trust the Holy Spirit to guide you. Take one step at a time and as you learn it will get easier. And your faith will speak volumes to your children.