Favor

I’ve heard a lot of talk in Christian circles of earning the “favor” of God…this idea that if we’re good, if we tithe, if we ask for it in prayer (you have to ask confidently, though), we’ll earn cosmic points toward that raise or promotion at work, some random check in the mail, or be raised up relative to others in some way.  If I earn it, God will give me favor over others less deserving, those who don’t quite measure up, who don’t send in as much money as I do, or pray as forcefully as I do, or some other baloney.

In Luke 1, the angel Gabriel said to Mary, mother of Christ, “Mary, do not be afraid, you have won God’s favor,”   Perhaps she sent money to the historical equivalent of a televangelist.  No, I think this idea of favor is another thing altogether.   The rest of Mary’s story was one of great sacrifice and burden, hardly what today’s preachers promise.  What I hear today is if your heart is in the right place, God will make your life easy and give you money.  Contrast that with the life of Mary.  Despite her burdens, however, she is undoubtedly “blessed among women”.  Her favor was the grace of being Christ’s mother, and the Mother of humanity.  Our favor is also grace…and it’s not earned, it can’t be.  It’s not about us.  I like Richard Rohr’s take on this:

“The word favor doesn’t say anything about the recipient.  Favor says something about the one who is doing the favoring.  So it’s really not saying anything about Mary.  It’s saying something about God’s election of Mary.  She is one who is the absolutely perfect receiver, and refuses to play the “Lord, I am not worthy” card that had become normative in most biblical theophanies.  She just says, “Let it be done unto me” (Luke 1:38).  She lets God do all the giving.  Her job is just to receive such perfect giving.

God does not love you because you are good; God loves you because God is good. God does not love you because you are good; you are good because God loves you. ”

-  Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p 178

As a Protestant (though I’ve begun to question this label, as I have most others), I’ve tended to ignore Mary or trivialize her.  But, I recognize a maternal gap in my Christian experience.  I think as I’ve considered her pure response to God’s love and election, I’ve begun to recognize a call to listen.  I need a mother…I’m an angry Christian in an age of strange, narcissistic, even dangerous American Christianity.  Perhaps this mother, our Mother, is urging me to let go of my anger and really accept grace…to let life and the experience of it “be done unto me”.  I don’t know the implications of this, or what this should look like…thought I know deeply my call is to accept even those who have done hurt or harm in the name of Christ.

I am good because God loves me and calls me His son…I have His favor.  If I’m good, knowing too well the dark recesses of my own heart, then I must confess my own narcissism, for I’m quick to point out the faults of others.  Sometimes what we need to hear is heard best in the soft tones of a mother’s voice.

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December 8th, 2009 | Tags: , , | Category: Church and Life | Leave a comment
 
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