As the global community on Sunday celebrated Father’s Day, a United Methodist Church pastor in Brooklyn has proclaimed that “Father Knows Best.”
“So, fathers, who know best, know that God has been gracious, merciful and always abounding in love toward you, when you’ve messed up and when you’ve got it right,” said the Rev. Roger Jackson, pastor of Fenimore Street United Methodist Church, in delivering the sermon on Father’s Day during the church’s Special Worship Service.
“We thank God for being our Heavenly Father, who shows men the Godly way of interacting with their child and/or children,” added Pastor Jackson, preaching on “Father Knows Best,” basing his sermon on Luke 15: 11-32, the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
“The best father that you can be is one who acts justly, loves mercy and walks humbly with our God,” continued Rev. Jackson during the service conducted by the church’s United Methodist Men. “This parable from the Gospel of Luke is a very familiar one to most, if not all, of us. Parables are simple stories used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson told by Jesus in the gospels.”
He said the story of the lost son is an example where Jesus is drawing our attention to the moral and spiritual failures of both sons, while the father exemplifies the manner in which Godly fathers respond to children who have lost their way.
Pastor Jackson said the son who left was “out of order in asking for that which he was not entitled to, while his father was still alive.
“And the son who remained harbored bitterness toward his brother because the bother left him holding the proverbial bag of having to have to handle their father’s business alone,” he said. “Moral failures that manifest themselves through foolish decisions and hurtful words are the result of one’s spirit being out of sync with the will and plan of God.”
But Rev. Jackson said, while Jesus is showing us in this parable that the boys had failed morally and spiritually, it was not the case “when it comes to their father.”
He said good fathers know what is best, adding: “That is why it breaks a father’s heart when what is best is not the choice made by their child or children.”
He said the father in the parable is “acting and interacting with his boys, as God does with us during our moral and spiritual failures in life.”
Pastor Jackson noted that the bible says that the younger son “comes and demands from the father his portion of the inheritance, and the father doesn’t ask any questions of the son, because, like God, he knows that the son had made up his mind about what he planned to do with his father’s money.
“So, this father, like our God, knows that there will be lessons learned in the end,” he said. “The father is displaying that which in theological parlance is called the permissive will of God.”
Rev. Jackson said fathers who know best “know that children must be given room to fail when they are young, so that they will learn from those failures and make better choices as they mature.”
He said, regardless of our biological age, or level of spiritual maturity, God’s permissive will allows us, sometimes, to make decisions that will not turn out good for us.
“But thank God that bad decisions are not the end of the story for us, just as it was not for the family in the parable,” he said. “Fathers who know best make sure that their child or children, who have turned their life around, are re-established, fully re-connected and celebrated, just as it is in the case with us who, after backsliding God, our Heavenly Father does this for us.
“Fathers who know best, don’t respond in anger, but, instead, do like this father did; he responded with words of encouragement and support,” Rev. Jackson added. “Fathers who know best are those who act as the stabilizing force between competing tensions in the home.
“Fathers, who know best, seek to celebrate those who have turned their life around and those who never strayed from the plan and purpose for their lives,” he continued. “This father declares that a tangible act of loving reconciliation had to be done for all to take part in.
“He tells his son, ‘But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found,’” Pastor Jackson said.
The fathers, at Fenimore Street United Methodist Church, on Sunday, among other things, read the announcements, offered the opening and intercessory prayers, conducted Praise and Worship, rendered special selections, and read the Scripture lessons. Bro. Edward Hyde, a member of the United Methodist Men at the church, rendered a solo to huge applause.
In paying tribute to father and father-figures in the church, the Sunday School children presented a snippet of a skit from skitguys.com, “Because You Said So,” by Tracy Wells.
The presentation started with Scripture verses from Proverbs 4:11-12: “I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in the right paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered; when you run, you will not stumble.”
The children then expressed gratitude for the lessons their fathers taught them.
Daen Blemur, Nicholas and Noelani Charles, Kaiden Goodman, and Angelica Nedd told fathers in the congregation and those watching online that they were listening to their advices and teachings.
The children culminated their presentation by saying “thank you”, with a song, “Happy Father’s Day to You.”
The church’s United Women of Faith honored the oldest and youngest fathers in the congregation with bouquets of flowers: Lester Jack, 95, a former lay speaker, who hails from St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and Sheldon Carty, 36, the son of Trinidadian immigrants.
“It was good; very good,” Jack told Caribbean Life afterwards, referring to the Father’s Day Special Service.
“I am the oldest member,” added Jack, laughing, who occasionally sings the church’s Chancel Choir.
Carty, whose son, Sheldon Carty, Jr., was baptized during the service, also told Caribbean Life: “I feel great. Nice to know I’m being acknowledged by my church family.
“It’s the only church that I’ve been a part of,” he added. “I’ve been a member since I can remember. It’s my first Father’s Day (since becoming a father).”
