Advent 4
David Zelensky
According to William Shakespeare, It is a wise father that knows his own child.
Growing up in the 1950s, being taught the birds and the bees was hit and miss. For me, mainly miss. The closest
that I can recall to receiving instruction was from the Ed Sullivan show. I knew the comedian was funny, because
the audience was laughing. He proceeded to tell how he explained the birds and the bees to his children.
"One day, I sat in my favorite chair. The warmth of my body warmed up the chair. After I left, your mother sat down
in that chair. The warmth that I had left in that chair, then entered her. And sure enough, two years later..."
Truly that is no more ridiculous than what we are taught in school.
Oh, it is indeed a wise father who knows his own child.
Russell Peters is a Canadian East-Indian comedian that my youngest daughter introduced me to. He has the Bill
Cosby knack for depicting neighborhood characters of different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
In one riff, he is going on, complaining that East-Indian people know they talk funny. But they are not the only ones.
Russell is waiting in line, and pretends to not understand another man's accent. "Your accent interests me. Where
are you from?" "England." "England. Hmmm. Never heard of it." "England!? Never heard of it? You're speaking its
language you twit!" "Sorry. Never heard of it."
You probably have an image of what that Englishman looked like. It turns out that England has become ethnically
diverse. My wife, Connie was watching an English show called "The Midwife". A 40 plus year old woman is
pregnant for the first time, and quite anxious. Her much older husband is overwhelmed with joy, that they were
finally going to have a child, that he was finally a father. The day of birth comes, and out comes the newborn,
clearly of African heritage. Only then do we recall seeing the furtive African neighbor in the apartment building.
Barely missing a beat, the husband embraces his wife and embraces the baby. He is still overjoyed to have a
family.
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
Connie really wanted to have an exchange student as she had enjoyed the ones she had met when she was a
student at Berkeley High School. I was not ready for this, as I considered my family to be perfect, and I did not want
to take a chance on polluting it with an unknown quantity. Things fell apart for our oldest child, Charlotte, who had a
very difficult adolescence. One of the gifts of that suffering was it prepared me to take a chance, and raise other
peoples's children. We probably had over two dozen unrelated people, mostly exchange students, flow through our
home.
It turns out that fathers raising the children of others are favored in the Bible.
First, the story of a man who refuses to raise another man's child:
8 Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up
offspring for your brother." 9 But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he spilled his semen on the
ground whenever he went in to his brother's wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother. 10 What he did
was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death.
Perhaps my favorite father in the Bible is Eli, the priest who raised Samuel. Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are
worthless, juvenile delinquents who grow up to be adult delinquents. Eli does his best:
23 He said to them, "Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people. 24 No, my
sons; it is not a good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. 25 If one person sins against
another, someone can intercede for the sinner with the Lord; but if someone sins against the Lord, who can make
intercession?"
Do you remember in West Side Story when Officer Krupke would try to be a father figure to the Jets, a street gang,
and help them, and the deaf ears that his words fell on?
The Jets rebut any attempt at help. They reject all of the following strategies:
Job placement.
Therapy.
Incarceration.
Change in environment. Love and understanding. All will fail. The Jets declare:
We're no good, we're no good!
We're no earthly good,
Like the best of us is no damn good!
Eli had no more luck than Officer Krupke. These sons are so sinful that Eli and his household are eventually
destroyed on their account.
But is that really the end of Eli's line? Who is really Eli's son?
Samuel's mother, Hannah, hands Samuel off to Eli to be raised as soon as he is weaned. Eli never objects, and
seems to have been a good father to Samuel.
4 Then the Lord called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!" 5 and ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you
called me." But he said, "I did not call; lie down again." So he went and lay down. 6 The Lord called again,
"Samuel!" Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, my
son; lie down again." 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed
to him. 8 The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you
called me." Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and
if he calls you, you shall say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.' " So Samuel went and lay down in his
place. 10Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for
your servant is listening."
Basically, Eli and his bloodline are toast.
15 Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the
vision to Eli. 16 But Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son." He said, "Here I am." 17 Eli said, "What was it
that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all
that he told you." 18 So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, "It is the Lord; let him
do what seems good to him."
Part of what I like about Eli is his gentle comfort with God. Hey, Eli your bloodline is toast. It is the Lord; let him do
what seems good to him. I also like how he embodies the motto of the Order of Julian of Norwich: await, allow,
accept, attend. To await is to wait for what one is in store for. To allow is to permit. To accept is to receive
agreeably. To attend is to listen to and to respond to with obedience.
Eli accepts the gift of fostering Samuel. He accepts the news of the future demise of his blood line. Whatever. It is
only his shock and grief over the loss of the Ark of The Lord to the Philistines that causes his real downfall.
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
Which brings us to Joseph, a gentle and kind father. His betrothed, Mary, is pregnant. Rather than kill her, and also
killing the embryonic Jesus, he intends to quietly let her go. Then an angel appears to Joseph, and he really
attends to the word from God. He accepts her as his wife. He allows her and the baby to stay. He awaits through
the pregnancy, through the birth, to that life that will be the fulfillment of God's promise.
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
As Jesus says in Matthew 11 v.27 "all things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the
Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to
reveal Him."
It is indeed a wise Father who knows his Son.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of gentle fathers, who know to await, allow, accept and attend. We ask
for the gift of discernment, so that we can see that everyone is a child of God, that everyone partakes of the gift of
the Incarnation. Grant us the wisdom, Heavenly Father to know that everyone that we encounter is our child, just as
each one is Your child. We ask for this for the sake of that Incarnation that we no