The Father Almighty – Luke 15:11-24
For many, the description of God as the “Father Almighty” feels problematic. Paternal wounds color our emotions and create a conflict in us towards the God called “Father”. But Jesus invites us to know the God who exercises his power in self-giving love.
Summary of the Apostles’ Creed
The Apostle’s Creed is a summary of the Christian faith that depicts the full story of scripture. The Apostle’s Creed contains one of the most concise summaries of the Christian faith in straightforward scriptural language. It follows the narrative arch of scripture from creation to incarnation, crucifixion to resurrection, Pentecost to life everlasting.
The Apostle’s Creed reminds us that our story and church are rooted in an ancient faith. There is no singular author by which this creed can be traced, rather it is the work of the Western Catholic Church. Though, it seems to have grown out of Peter’s confession in Matthew 16:16. Its origin is as a baptismal confession, those that are laying down their life to join Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:4) confess this as their new reality and guiding story.
The Apostle’s Creed is not simply a routine repetition of doctrine but rather our pledge of allegiance to one God– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not a routine repetition of doctrine. It is a liturgical poem meant to move our heart as a pledge of allegiance to the triune God revealed in the person of Christ.
“THE FATHER ALMIGHTY”
The description of God as Father is hard for not all of us but for many, the word “father” feels problematic to our 21st-century ears.
Interestingly enough, the concept of God as father was just as difficult, if not more shocking, to Jesus’ first-century audience.
FATHER NOT GENDER
“Do you take it that our God is a male because of the masculine nouns ‘God’ and ‘Father’? Is the ‘Godhead’ a female because in Greek the word is feminine?” Such crude biological thinking would be pagan, not Christian.” – Gregory of Nazianzus
“For christians the word describes a relationship and nothing more- the father is the source- the origin- the wellspring of divine life and the son derives from that source. According to early christian teaching that was all we were meant to think of when we say the word father.” –Benjamin Myers
LORD’S PRAYER
In first-century Jewish culture, God was never referred to in an intimate way but always in a formal and reverent one. The disciples could have gotten on board with the almighty part of the Apostles’ Creed, but father- that was scandalous, even disrespectful.
GENESIS
The Genesis account depicts the original sin of humanity, the ruptured relationship between human and God, the breaking of trust between the creation and the creator.
It reminds us that the Bible is one big unified story.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” – Genesis 3:1
In Genesis 2, God is referred to as Yahweh Elohim or Lord God. But when the serpent comes onto the scene in Genesis 3:1 he refers to God by only using the word Elohim.
Scholars call this keeping the abstract but dropping the personal.
And unfortunately, as many of you know, humanity chooses to believe this lie and our relationship with God is ruptured. Our understanding of God as personal, as father is broken.
JESUS RESTORES
Jesus comes on the scene to confront these lies spoken by the enemy and believed by humanity. He comes to restore the original name of God. He says God is not simply Elohim. He is Yahweh Elohim, he is a present, intimate knowable father.
HARD TO BELIEVE
We have a hard time believing this for one of two reasons:
Some of us have never observed what a loving parent-child relationship looked like.
Some of us have such a low view of who we are that we find it hard to believe we are lovable.
PARABLE OF THE RUNNING FATHER
11 “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
–Luke 15:11-24
BACKWARDS
Your Kingdom is simple, as simple as love
You welcome the children, You stop for the one
We wanna see people the way Jesus does
Your Kingdom is simple; Lord, teach it to us
Your Kingdom is backwards, it flows in reverse
What You call a treasure this world calls a curse
The small become great and the last become first
Your Kingdom is backwards; Lord, teach us to serve
–Bryan Torwalt | Cody Carnes | Katie Torwalt | Paul Duncan
God is almighty and all powerful because he chooses to love us as the running, forgiving father loved his son. Our world tells us that power is derived from control, subjugation, distance, and imposed force.
Jesus tells us God’s power is backward from what we know. God’s power looks more like the breastfeeding mother than the lording ruler. God’s power comes from his ability to love us with an illogical, unfounded, undeserved type of love.
The story of the prodigal son or as scholars refer to it as the running father, reveals to us the true nature of our father God who continues to love us with a backwards type of love.
FATHER WOUNDS
Identify your parental wounds whether those be from your biological parents or spiritual parents. Then I would like you to identify attributes of God that exist in opposition to that.
