6-20-16<\/p>\n
Father\u2019s Day. A bit of an ersatz holiday started, actually in fits and starts, about a century ago, mostly as an answer to the more successful, and sentimental, Mother\u2019s Day. Calvin Coolidge was one of several presidents and officials to resist any formalization \u2013 on grounds that would be antithetical to our contemporary standards: fearing it would become too commercialized. It was only President Johnson who issued the first proclamation, in the 1960s; and President Nixon a few years later signed the observance of Father\u2019s Day into law.<\/p>\n
We need a law to honor our fathers? Well, manufacturers of socks and ugly neckties did. Do we have stronger impulses to honor our distaff parental units? Perhaps so, instinctively, aided and abetted by Hallmark and florists.<\/p>\n
This weekend we can suspend the cynicism, however. I honor and miss my father. He has been gone more than 15 years yet I still reach for the phone, sometimes, to share something with him. When I finish writing a book, or discover a piece of classical music, my first impulse is to think what he would say about it.<\/p>\n
This is proper. The \u201cscarlet thread\u201d is not solely of Redemption in our lives: we are, or should consider ourselves, members of a continuum that is stronger than blood. Family traditions, the fabric of memories, shared experiences \u2013 these are truer resemblances than overbites or freckles.<\/p>\n
You will expect me to enlarge the topic to our Heavenly Father, and so I shall.<\/p>\n
It is a clich\u00e9, or a chestnut, to say that, regarding God Almighty, every day should be Father\u2019s Day. But like most clich\u00e9s it is true. The sheer magnificence of God can sometimes be overwhelming\u2026 similar to when we try to think of the size of the universe. How big, how far\u2026 and what is beyond the farthest reaches we can imagine? How old is the universe? Forget the Big Bang\u2026 what came before the Big Bang (or, to use the Bible\u2019s parlance, Creation)?<\/p>\n
The Lord is one God but present through the Trinity; manifested in one Incarnation but with uncountable attributes; the One True God, the \u201cI Am,\u201d yet with endless aspects; and so forth. The \u201cGod of the Old Testament\u201d is often an appellation for a God of Vengeance and Justice. The \u201cGod of the New Testament\u201d is described as a God of Love and Mercy. Yet, of course, these attributes \u2013 and more \u2013 are consistent, frequent, and immutable. Not changeable; just faceted.<\/p>\n
Then there is \u201cAbba.\u201d Don\u2019t worry. I am not going to discuss the Swedish pop group ABBA. Many Christians use \u201cAbba\u201d in addressing God, relying, whether consciously or not, upon three passages in the New Testament:<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd [Jesus] said, Abba, Father, all things (are) possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done\u201d (Mark 14:36).<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father\u201d (Galatians 4:6).<\/p>\n
\u201cFor all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, \u2018Abba! Father!\u2019 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs \u2013 heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him\u201d (Romans 8:15).<\/p>\n
A little etymology for a moment. These are the only times in the New Testament that \u201cAbba\u201d appears. It is an ancient Aramaic word for Father, adopted and adapted into Hebrew, probably through the Syriac or Chaldee tongues. The Greek texts use it, always follow by \u201cPater,\u201d father, emphasizing the respect implied in addressing a father, or Father God. In turn the Romans made the word \u201cPater\u201d their own \u2013 the Greek and Latin root giving us \u201cpaternal,\u201d paternity,\u201d and so forth. It exists, of course, in Arabic too, and survives in forms like \u201cAbu\u201d in kunya (honorific) names; for instance, the President of the Palestinian State Mahmoud Abbas has the honorific \u201cAbu\u201d Mazen \u2013 father of Mazen. \u201cAbba\u201d is possibly the root of Ab-raham, Ahab, Joab, et al. In English it lives in descendent words like \u201cAbbot.\u201d <\/p>\n
It is everywhere, once you start looking. Just like our Heavenly Father. <\/p>\n
In recent Christianity, \u201cAbba\u201d has been taught and urged upon worshipers as a form of \u201cFather\u201d that actually means something close to \u201cDaddy.\u201d Most recent scholarship debunks that interpretation, asserting that Abba \u2013 especially \u201cAbba, Father\u201d as Jesus prayed and Paul wrote \u2013 is, by doubling down, a term of heightened respect, not familiarity. <\/p>\n
To be formal one last moment, it appears that Abba, especially in prayer, is neither symbolic nor diminutive. Not baby-talk (like Mama, a common utterance in many cultures) as some Christians maintain \u2013 a primal vocative. \u201cFather\u201d is a translation; \u201cAbba\u201d is a transliteration. These scholars even tell us that \u201cAbba,\u201d when people in prayer cry it out, is irreverent. <\/p>\n
But. Words are tools. Most of us are not linguists or semanticists. And, frankly, if people intensely are praying, we can dispense with a nit-pick about a term being obscure, or irreverent, or deeply sincere. God reads our hearts, anyway.<\/p>\n
I have witnessed, and been in the place myself, where someone is under intense spiritual anguish. Conviction, guilt, helplessness, yearning, need. Or joy unspeakable, thanksgiving, praise. People with addictions. Challenges of health or finances. Wives distraught over their marriages; fathers worried about their children; teens fighting bondage.<\/p>\n
You pray. You remember biblical models. You seek the prayer-language of angels. And then you get to the point where you just want to say \u2013 to cry out! \u2013 \u201cAbba!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, \u201cDaddy.\u201d We want to run to Him, hug and be hugged, feel forgiven, and know that we are loved. That\u2019s what Daddys do.<\/p>\n
Happy Father\u2019s Day. And say hi to Dad for me when you pray.<\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n
This relevant song is not Christian, but very spiritual \u2013 those family threads I wrote about. Steve Goodman, who also wrote \u201cCity of New Orleans,\u201d sings about his father who died and inspired this emotional song. This is only for people who have had fathers; everyone else may pass it by.<\/p>\n