Power tools, golf, steak, and ESPN.   It’s Father’s Day weekend so I wanted our dads to feel good from the onset.  I realize these are stereotypical assumptions and that not all fathers or men enjoy these things but the statistics would suggest that many do, at least concerning ESPN.  100 million homes in the United States and 150 countries welcome ESPN into their homes on a daily basis with men accounting for the majority of the viewership.  The “world-wide leader in sports” as they call themselves is known for showing sports of all sorts twenty-four hours a day.  They have made a crossover to popular culture and many non-sports fans could even recognize those four little letters as having something to do with sports.  In 2001, a show was added to their line-up known as PTI (pardon the interruption).  The show is designed to be a loud bantering of sports commentators on current news in the sporting world and beyond. They spend a great deal of time interrupting one another as they share their point of view on each topic. Every time it is on in my house, my wife asks, “Who is fighting?”  They are loud and opinionated even though the co-hosts are the closest of friends.

 

The “pardon” portion of the show is really overlooked but is somehow in place to make it sound more polite.  A friend on our staff shared in Bible study this week that at a young age her daughter had an “interrupting” problem like most kids do.  After being taught to say excuse me when she had something to say, the little girl would interrupt by saying excuse me over and over, louder and louder, until she could no longer be ignored.

 

Interruptions are a part of life.  For even the most-focused planners among us today, life does not always go as planned.  It is full of surprises, headaches, and interruptions.  You are busy trying to fit your “life” in while the world keeps distracting you and interrupting your best laid plans.  Pardon the interruption, some of you are saying, but isn’t this Father’s Day?  Indeed it is… and we give thanks today for those fathers or father figures in our lives that have led us down faithful paths.   It is important to note that we all approach today differently.  Some are mourning their father who is gone and others are celebrating their first holiday as a dad.  Some want to be a dad more than anything, and others among us are perfectly content with being an uncle, a mentor, or a father figure in a non-biological sense.  Others admire their father as mentor and others would prefer to imitate nothing they saw in their father.  As heroic as some are, even well-intentioned father’s experience interruptions just like the rest of us.  Some fathers hone in on the need to be the provider to the point that they see baseball games, spelling bees, imaginary tea parties and parent-teacher conferences as interruptions to their money making duties.  Some lack consistency in their own life which can become an interruption to their “parenting with integrity” plan.  Others have a picture of the so-called “dead-beat dad” that is sitting in the recliner with drink in one hand and remote in the other, shooing the kids out of the way as they become the interruptions themselves.  Wherever you fit into today’s picture, you are here and you are a part of this family dynamic of faith in some way which makes today important.

 

We cross the globe this morning to a Jewish shoreline off the Sea of Galilee where we find a father in a panic, looking for Jesus.  Jesus has just spent time across the sea in Gentile country, healing, teaching, bringing in the Realm of God.  Mark is very clear (I’m really not talking in the third person here) about Jesus expanding the family of God into “outsider” country.  Many faithful Jews would have felt Jesus was wasting his time on “those people” and would have found them as an interruption to his task of healing their own people.  But Jesus has stepped foot on Jewish sand again and he is immediately surrounded by the crowds pressing in like paparazzi to get the latest photo of this man.  Among the crowds is a prominent man of the Jewish synagogue named Jairus.  He was a leader; a man of great influence; one who had powerful connections with the business and community leaders.  He was a man who knew how to get things done; one whom many turned to for advice and support when life was difficult.  He was a guy you cancelled plans for when he asked you to lunch.  He was also a father.  And in this moment on the shore, amidst the noise and chaos of the crowds, that was all that mattered.

 

There is something about children that make you forget your “status” or roles you play in the rest of your life.  Looking back on this week alone, I realized I sang lullabies and rocked a Cabbage Patch doll to sleep; all 230 pounds of me splashed and swam in one of those tiny plastic kiddy pools…there wasn’t much water left after Dad got in; I read Good Night Moon out loud, in one of those weird “I’m reading a children’s story” voices at least a hundred times.  Whether you have an office in the penthouse, lecture at the university, or bear the “cloth” in the pulpit, there is something about a child that makes you hope…that makes you believe in life again…that makes you feel like you come close to God just being with them.  You find yourself doing things you wouldn’t otherwise do.  And when your child is hurting, not status, pride, or even civility will keep you from relieving that pain. 

 

Jairus had all the connections of the community; he had the top physicians of the town in to see his daughter.  He had seen the specialists and done the online research.  No one knew why his 12 year old daughter would die so soon.  While we know illness interrupts our daily life, death is life’s ultimate interruption and it was coming to take this little girl.  That is, of course, unless her father had any say in the matter.  He had heard of this Jesus…maybe even seen him speak before.  He may have even invited Jesus to speak at his synagogue.  Jesus was his last hope.  And so he pushed through the crowds, maybe even using his clout in the community to make his way to the front.  He fell before Jesus.  Many would have seen this as a humiliating sign of desperation for a man of such status.  “Come lay your hands on my little girl,” Jairus pleads.  “Make her well again.”  Jesus sees this desperate love in his eyes and knows he has put his reputation on the line, all for love for his child.  Jesus honors his request and goes with him. 

 

All seems well but the story gets interrupted at this point.  The crowds were pushing in harder and harder.  I imagine Jairus was trying to serve as a fullback for Jesus…blocking the crowd, getting forceful if he had to in order to clear the path.  But it didn’t work…there were too many desperate souls.  Jesus presses on until he feels his healing power leave his body.  “Who touched me?” Jesus asks.  Jairus fumes… “Seriously?”  The disciples play their normal role here… “Everyone’s touching you, Jesus…duh!”  A woman with “the issue of blood” as some Bible headings title it is the culprit…she is the interruption.  For as many years as the daughter of the synagogue leader has been alive, this woman has had a terrible bleeding problem.  An interruption in her life that caused her to be rejected by her family, church, and community for 12 long years.  Why tell this story, Mark…why interrupt the story of the prominent man and his situation?  To be honest, I thought about skipping this part of the text today…it interrupted the heroic story of the father out to save his daughter’s life.  It’s Father’s Day, after all, and this part of the story was just getting in the way.  And then I realized something.  This is really a Divine interruption for me.  No one is an interruption to God.  This woman was as important as anyone else.  She was someone’s daughter too.  Her father likely abandoned her…disowned her when she became ritually unclean and an outcast.  But no matter how earthly fathers fair, God’s love is constant and strong and this woman is valued by Jesus and worthy of his time.  She is healed by her own faith. 

 

While Jesus understands that all are valued…that the death of an Iraqi solider is equally as tragic as the death of one from the US; that a hungry child is a hungry child no matter where they live; that the poor man’s woes and that of the rich man are troublesome in their own rights … not all are so understanding.  People came from the leader’s house and met Jairus and Jesus in the herd of humanity that was the crowd saying, “It’s too late.  Don’t bother.  She’s dead.”  This little interruption cost a twelve year old her life. 

 

The heart of this story comes in this interruption.  Jairus is devastated at the news as any father would be.  He’s mad at himself for not doing more.  He’s mad at that woman for getting in the way.  He’s mad at Jesus for not hurrying.  But Jesus is not done yet.  He looks at Jarius directly.  Amidst the noise of the crowds, the two men lock eyes and the roaring crowd suddenly is silent to them.  They’re still shouting…it is as loud as ever but Jairus and Jesus can’t hear them.  Jairus reads his lips, “Do not fear, only believe.”  Jesus says it aloud but he didn’t have to.  His look was enough…the story was not over yet… Jairus believed.  This interruption was a moment of faith for this man.  The interruptions we face in life are sometimes the very thing we need to get perspective on things. 

 

A friend of mine recently returned from a cruise he took with his family.  They sailed from Florida to Mexico and back again.  They enjoyed the shows, the endless buffets and the like.  All was well.  It was on the way home that something particularly unusual took place.  The large cruise ship slowed until it actually stopped.  They were on the way home, just a few hours from shore, near the end of the trip…many were irritated that there was a delay.  Off in the distance, passengers could begin to make out a smaller object in the water.  As the object got closer, my friend was able to make out what it was.  It was a small boat full of people…refugees from Cuba trying to make it to America it turned out.  An announcement was made over the loud speaker stating that they had stopped to pick up the people in this boat.  They were a family of twelve in a boat made for six.  There were eight adults and four children, one of which was a newborn baby.  A desperate father loaded his family five days earlier in an attempt to deliver them from persecution and hardship for the freedoms we enjoy.  They went without food and water for five rough days at sea but now this cruise ship was picking them up, waiting for the coast guard to arrive and return them to Cuba.  My friend heard many passengers disgusted about the whole interruption.   Some would miss flights; others would get home later than expected.  Looking around at those who were dining in luxury, eating to their hearts’ content, enjoying the benefits of their wealth, my friend couldn’t shake from his mind this father, his family, and their infant who would return to the life of oppression they tried so desperately to escape.  If my friend could have met this family face to face, I wonder if he would have said, “Don’t fear…only believe.”  God is in the resurrection business…of freeing the oppressed…of bringing hope to the desperate.  Some saw their presence as an interruption…they were like the bleeding woman…they messed up the plan.

 

But Jesus presses on with Jairus and they make it to his home where many are weeping and wailing because this little girl is dead.  Jairus, a powerful man, has had to let all control go…he has done all a father can do.  He has humbled himself before God and humanity, he has introduced Christ to his home without shame, he has loved without condition.  Now he can only believe.  Jesus does his God-thing and the lifeless child is up, about, and doing all of the things a pre-teen girl likes to do.  Jesus knows this father is shocked but he connects with his eyes again…this is legit.  Jarius knows he has had a personal encounter with God in the flesh.  He is a hero to his daughter because he knows he is not the hero…this Jesus is the hero.  But just so he doesn’t forget that his role as father continues, Jesus says to him, “now give her something to eat.” 

 

A father’s role is never done…it is an ongoing, continuous task, no…it is a gift that God entrusts to us.  It is interrupted with surprises, with heartache, with bad decisions, with boyfriends and girlfriends, homework, and cell phone bills.  And just when you’ve survived a major crisis of an interruption, Jesus says to keep feeding your child.  Feed them the faith.  Feed them the best of humanity.  Feed them with compassion so that they might also exhibit compassion to others.  Remind them that interruptions are a part of life; that an infant in Cuba is still waiting to be liberated; that no person is an interruption but someone worth loving.  Tell them that our character is best demonstrated amidst the interruptions of life…in the times when our best laid plans crumble.  Pardon the interruptions and look for Jesus in your midst…he might be looking across the crowds to catch your eyes and reassure you saying, “Do not fear…only believe.” 

 

Fathers…father figures…uncles…grandpas…men of faith.  We celebrate you today.  Enjoy your steak, your power tools, and your ESPN.  But also ponder a challenge.  Consider your life and how you pardon the interruptions.  Take it from me, sometimes the best perspective comes when you’re splashing in six inches of water in the kiddy pool.