I feel a bit of a fraud
standing here before you as I am neither a father nor remember nor ever
experienced a father in the traditional sense. That notwithstanding I think I
can still stand here this morning and speak about fathers, and, more
importantly, family – something which has been in the news a lot and something
which Jesus had a lot to talk about, too.
Father’s Day unlike
Mothering Sunday, has no sacred origins, it is a purely secular celebration and
one that was imported within the last 40 years from the United States. It
originates with one Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, of Washington, who inspired by
hearing a Mother's Day sermon in 1909 wanted to honour her father, William
Smart.