Does God Have Favorites?

16  Pentecost P.18  September 9, 2018

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23  Ps. 146: 4-9

James 1:17-27        Mark 7:31-37     

Lectionary Link

Does God have favorites?  How would we know if God had favorites?  Are you one of God's favorites?  If I believe that I am one of God's favorites, does that mean other people cannot be God's favorites?

The natural way for us to think about God having favorites is to assume that God shows preference by giving people, events of good fortune or good luck.  When we read the Bible, we might think that the Jewish people are God's favorites.  In fact we often hear the Jews called God's chosen people. 

Did some fortunate and wonderful things happen to the Jews?  Yes, indeed.  They were given the law and having the ancient writings of the Hebrew Scriptures have made them stand out in a special way among the peoples of the earth.  But the Bible also shows that the Jews probably had more bad luck than good luck.  They had their land taken away from them for the majority of their history.  Lots of bad things happened to Israel and the people of Israel.

Today, we can think that God favors people who are successful in their lives with wealth, knowledge and power.  And we might want to be associated with lucky and successful people.  And we might want to avoid people who are poor, uneducated and people without status and power in society. 

Our readings from the Scriptures today invite us to think about what it means to be God's favorites.  The writer of James tells us we're not supposed to treat people poorly because they aren't our favorites.  We're supposed to be impartial in our works and deeds toward others.  Why should we be impartial in how we treat other people?  Because everyone is equal in dignity of being people who can have faith.  Having faith, is what makes us equal in dignity.

The Gospels are the oracles of Christ in the early church.  In the oracles which came to writing, the early preachers used the life of Jesus as a way to teach the Gospel message.  What is the Gospel message that we have read today?  It is having faith in Christ which gives us the experience that we are God's chosen and favorite.

A Syrophoenician woman was not regarded to be a favorite person of God in the time of Jesus in Jewish society.  She was an outsider, a foreigner and how could she be one of God's favorites?  The words of Jesus to this woman seem cruel.  This woman had a child who was deeply troubled with an unclean spirit.  All this woman wanted was the health of her child.  She had heard about Jesus and she believed Jesus could heal her daughter.

The words of Jesus are a teaching event.  "Dear woman, do you want me to heal your daughter?  Don't you accept the prevailing belief that only God's favorite children, the Jews,  get to have the benefit of sitting at table for the family meal?  What makes you think that you can be a part of the family?"

The woman said, "Well, I don't have to be a favorite child sitting at the table; just let me be like one of the dogs under the table that can eat a crumb which falls from the table.  That crumb will be enough for me if you will heal my daughter."

And Jesus said, "Wow, your faith has saved your daughter."

What was the church trying to teach with this Gospel?  They were trying to say that God's favor could not be limited to the Jewish people; God's favor was upon the Gentiles and anyone who exercised their faith in Christ.

What is the message for you and me today?  Do you want to be God's favorite? Then exercise your faith toward Christ.  That is how you are God's favorite.  Having faith does not mean that you will always be lucky or successful or wealthy, but having faith is the gift we have to help us to live the very best we can through whatever might happen to us.

And if we have faith in Christ, then we are God's favorite.  And if we have faith in Christ, we know that everyone else can also have faith in Christ, and so we will treat everyone with equal dignity, because we know that they can have faith and be God's favorite too.  And we can know that faith and good works go together because having faith in Christ is the best work of our lives.  Amen.