Religion in the City: Abba Father

One of the many jobs I held while going through school was that of a Church youth director.

For those of you who did not grow up in a Church community let me explain the job of Church youth director. The job could be best described as a Sunday afternoon getaway planner for parents with teens. Oh the job description would say that a youth director is about providing safe Christian activities, community and bible lessons to teens. But by providing outings, youth retreats, service projects and bible studies, the youth director also provides parents with a much needed vacation from their children.

As far as youth vacations go, one of the activities that most parents love most is the lock-in. Basically a church lock-in is an evening where teens are brought to church over night for a service project, art project, games and dinner; all set up around coercive bible teaching. Coercive might sound a little sneaky and under handed, but I was amazed at the ways I could teach bible lessons under the radar! It felt a little like sneaking vegetables into children’s cookies and cakes. “Oh Tommy, I love the way you’re chasing kids around with that hammer…you know, Jesus was once a carpenter!”

In all truthfulness one of my favorite parts of a church lock-in was the midnight service. Usually done in a dark chapel, circled around a candle with guitar songs like “Kumbaya.” The stories and relationship built in those late hours are ones that shape a child’s sense of community and personal spiritual growth.

One of my favorite parts of those late night services is the truth telling that goes on with the teens. One such child – we will call her Jen, I have no idea what her real name was – was actively participating in my service but would stop, pause and look away at certain places in the songs and prayers. At the end of the service as all the other kids were getting ready for bed, Jen mentioned to me that though she loved hanging out, singing and playing games with her friends, she did not understand why we had to keep praying and singing about a FATHER in heaven. After some quiet conversation about praise and worship, it turned out Jen had a terrible image of her own father. Her father had abandoned their family after being very abusive to her mother. For that reason the Father imagery we sang and prayed to during youth group and talked about in church made her feel angry and abandoned.

As a liberal Christian my gut response normally would be to talk to Jen about Creator language, feminist theology, which would free Jen to express her latent male bondage to patriarchal biblical interpretations. Yet, hearing Jen’s story, what she was truthfully in need of was a Abba Father relationship, a new God-the-Father interpretation she could identify with. I am a full believer in feminine images of a Creator and Mother images of God. Women voices in scripture have been blatantly dismissed and misinterpreted by the Church for far to long. However the spirit of Jen’s need at this point in her life was that of a Father God who was not going to abandon her, a Father God who loved her and her mother.

When Jesus spoke to his Father in heaven, he prayed using the Jewish name for father, Abba. Abba can be best translated in English as “daddy.” Abba Father removes the distant image of a God sitting on a mountain or in a cloud waiting to judge or catch his troubled, sinful children. Abba Father describes a relationship with a daddy. An Abba or daddy which will not give up, will not abandon his child, a Father who is bound unconditionally with His child.

I, just like I’m sure many of you reading this, am blessed with an amazing father and daddy. On this Fathers Day I remember fondly being rocked as a child in a chair with an earache or strep-throat as my father cared for his sick son. I have vivid memories of my dad who would pick me up at ungodly hours when my old Tempo would not start. I had a father who would wait up in an easy chair for his teens that needed, “just one more hour, that night, out with their friends!”

However, many children are not blessed with those types of mothers or fathers. So , just as I told Jen that lock-in night, there is a Father who will not abandon her. There is a Father who wants an Abba relationship with her. And whether her earthly face for a loving father comes from the strength of her mother, step-father, grandparents or neighbor, her Abba Father in heaven will love her no matter the name or face she gives Him/Her/It.

This Fathers Day as you remember your earthly father, also know there is a heavenly Abba that loves you as well.

Happy “Abba” Fathers Day