•Editor’s note: “Spiritual leaders answer” is a weekly column inviting Kaua‘i’s religious and spiritual leaders to share their doctrine’s perspective on a suggested subject. Every Friday, a topic is printed, inviting a response. Due to space limitations, submissions are edited.
•Editor’s note: “Spiritual leaders answer” is a weekly column inviting Kaua‘i’s religious and spiritual leaders to share their doctrine’s perspective on a suggested subject. Every Friday, a topic is printed, inviting a response. Due to space limitations, submissions are edited. Thoughts or suggestions for future topics are always welcome. Next week’s subject is on meditation. The topic at the end of the column is for the following week.
Kahu Dr. James Fung
Lihu‘e Christian Church
Charles Dickens called it the best short story ever written. It’s the story of the bereaved father that Jesus told (Luke 15 11-32) of how one of his two sons requested/demanded his share of the inheritance and then proceeded to waste it all in frivolous living, presumably forsaking all of the values with which he was raised. As you read the story in the Bible it’s hard not to feel the anguish of the father who could only imagine the soulful devastation that his son would experience as a result of his self-destructive choices of a wayward lifestyle.
When all the money has evaporated and his shame his only companion, the son returns home full of remorse and willing to work as a hired hand since he cannot expect the status that he once enjoyed as a member of the family.
Then a remarkable thing happens. The father exemplifies a spirit of joyful celebration because he gets to see his son again, whom, he had imagined dead. He orders the calf that is saved for a special occasion to be slaughtered and invites all his friends over for a party to celebrate the return of his son. Never mind the fact that the son had disgraced himself and his family by his shameful life of debauchery and drunken orgies. The father’s love transcended the negative scorecard that others might have kept of his son’s transgressions.
This is the essence of the Christian faith. God is not an umpire in the sky, not an authoritative magistrate poised to impose an eternal sentence upon us for mishandling the gift of life that we have been granted. God, like the once-grieving, but now the celebrative parent, is a God of extravagant grace and compassion. This does not mean that God is a permissive God or that responsible living is not important. What this story tells us is that, above all, God deeply understands the frailty of human beings and longs to rehabilitate not condemn those who have lost their way.
The image of the father in this “best short story ever written” is one that dramatically offers an alternative to the so-called values of harsh and rigid fairness.
God grieves when we go astray; but there is a sparkle in his eye, laughter in his soul, and unspeakable joy in his heart when we return — hopefully with some maturity, wisdom and gratitude.
Bahai’s of Kaua‘i
All religions and cultures enjoin children to honor their fathers; our country has even set aside a special day each year to celebrate fatherhood. So exalted is the station of fatherhood that one day is not sufficient to show our love and appreciation. But just as we honor our fathers, so must they fulfill their responsibilities to their children. A true father is one who provides his children with a role model of the highest moral standards and lovingly educates them through schooling while providing for their spiritual education and guidance. It can be said that a father shapes the very destinies of his children. Should a father neglect his children’s spiritual and moral training, it could be to their eternal detriment. If left untrained, children may exhibit behaviors, attitudes and choices which are unacceptable to a community, thereby causing them to be marginalized or punished, which may ultimately lead them away from the path of God. The role of a spiritual father is extremely important, as illustrated in this stern warning excerpted from the Baha’i Writings: “… the father also has the responsibility of educating his children, and this responsibility is so weighty that Baha’u’llah (the Prophet-founder of the Baha’i Faith) has stated that a father who fails to exercise it forfeits his rights of fatherhood.”
Topic for two
weeks from today
• Will you speak to us on
tithing?
• Spiritual leaders are invited to e-mail responses of three to five paragraphs to pwoolway@kauaipubco.com
• Deadline each week is
Tuesday, by 5 p.m.
