Undeserved Favor

One of the accusations kids in the classroom make to tease and rally against one of their own is to call that student “teacher’s pet.” The comedy schtick built around sibling rivalry in the shows of the folk duet, the Smothers Brothers, had a signature line. Tommy would turn to Dicky, any time he was frustrated and say, “Oh yeah? Well, Mom always liked you best!” However irrational this rejoinder, at least it always ended an inane argument. And however predictable it was in their routine, somehow it reliably got a laugh. I was one of five children, in my family, so I am familiar with suspicions of parental favoritism.

We all like to be shown favor. We all dislike favoritism being shown to others: it leaves us feeling overlooked. The Bible is filled with examples of how God shows favor to his creatures in need. We do well to look humbly to God for help. Sharing in the reading of Psalm 146 at the Eucharist this Sunday we will take verses seven and eight upon our lips:

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind; *
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;

The Lord loves the righteous;
the Lord cares for the stranger; *
he sustains the orphan and widow.

Just look at those key action words and phrases describing God: sets free, opens eyes, lifts, loves, cares, and sustains. These are actions shown not exclusively to beautiful people and the mighty, but to prisoners, the blind, the downcast, the humble righteous, strangers, orphans, and widows. It looks as though God is playing favorites here. In the end, however, we all need God’s favor, however undeserved.

In the fifth and sixth verses of the same Psalm, we declare the God of Jacob “made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them.” God’s promises are kept forever: it is God who “gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who hunger.” We may not feel any hunger or oppressive weight today, but in the end, death itself is our great oppressor, and we feel other forms of vulnerability in our mortality. We will all hunger for the life God can bring as we pass through the grave. In the meantime we all will have one reason or another to call out to God, not seeing any way to help ourselves.

If God’s favorites are the weak and needy, in the grand scheme, that is all of us.  We cannot legitimately turn to our brother or sister in Christ, or even to any in a human family, and say, God always liked you best. Conversely, no one can claim, “God loves me best.” When God comes, it is in strength and with salvation. All with a fearful heart must hear from Isaiah, (chapter 35, our lesson this Sunday) “Be strong, and do not fear!” All eyes and ears will be opened; the weak will be strengthened and made spry. Tongues will be loosed. The hot dry sands of our lives will be moistened and cooled:

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water.  (Isaiah 35 5-7a)

Could you use a favor from God? The news is better than you think: even better than being a teacher’s pet, my friend, you are a child of God. You are among the favorites if you are a creature. Turn to God. Listen, all in need or trouble, God holds you in favor.