September 9, 2018 PROPER 18 (23) Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost Year B
There are 106 days until Christmas. One of my daughters loves to do these count-downs, but both of my daughters absolutely love Christmas, and I may be to blame, as might my own mother, as we make a pretty big deal of it and love to lavish others with delightful surprises.
I have actually begun my Christmas shopping already! As I order things online, or see things that I think my girls will like, I am very sure to keep what I purchase in equal amounts because what I get for one, I must get the same or similar for the other – because as all we parents know – we don’t have favourites.
Please don’t listen to my girls on this issue because they may disagree with this statement.
This concept of favouritism comes up in the scripture readings today.
Proverbs 22:1 tells us that “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favour is better than silver or gold.”
Looking up research about favouritism I found that there are conflicts about admitting to have a favourite in the family. ALL parents strive to treat children equally but every family can quickly tell you who the favourite is. This dynamic can lead to all kinds of issues in life both for the favourite and for the one who feels lesser. All children long to hear their parent tell them that they are loved to the moon and back….. and that they are more important to them than anyone else. This gives the child a sense of security and comfort that enables them to face the lesser friendly world outside.
This concept of being someone’s favourite is not just a childish thing. We all need to know that we are important to someone. To some extent we grow up and leave home but continue to seek favour in other places. When/ if we find favour we can then feel secure in our jobs, in our social groups, with our mate.
On the other side of the coin is the warning that we read about in the second reading, the epistle of James.
James 2:1- 4, “My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favouritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?”
As much as it might be a natural thing to be naturally more comfortable with some people over others, the scriptures tell us that we must be careful to treat all people without partiality. In fact it says that we sin and become law breakers if we treat people differently. …. this whole love your neighbour thing implies that we are to treat all as favourites.
In the Gospel readings Jesus was trying to go about quietly, without notice in the beginning, but the reading coincidentally ends with him using the word Ephphatha.
The Greek word used means more than just "to open." It means to open in order to make a connection. Much like we need our eyes miraculously opened to see the things of God.
But wait…. What is this in the Gospel that suddenly assaults our sensitivities? And perhaps it is only in the light of our minds being opened to understanding Christ’s motivation to connect with the heart of people that this makes any sense.
A Gentile lady of Syrophoenician origin comes to Jesus with a request to heal her daughter of a demon. Jesus reply is ridiculously harsh and well… very un-Jesus like.
Throughout this reading we see Jesus performing miracles, but trying hard to keep it quiet. Some have suggested that the way to get something known is to ask them not to say anything, but I believe Jesus had a deeper agenda than the physical healings and the hype that physical healings creates sometimes impedes that deeper thinking and connecting with God. This deeper agenda is, what I believe was happening in the Gentile lady.
In some of the research that I did about Jews and Gentiles, I found that there was a belief about the spirit of the Gentiles being the same as that of the animals. It is perhaps this common understanding that was floating around the woman’s mind as she pondered her actions before coming to Jesus.
The lady knew that as far as this society was concerned she was not among the favoured children.
Throughout the history of the Israelites, we read in the Old Testament that Israel was God’s favourite and chosen nation. When other nations came against the Israelites, even because of their disobedience to God, God always declared that he would take up Israel’s cause and punish the oppressing nation.
I imagine the Syrophoenician woman was in inner turmoil about coming to Jesus with her request. I imagine that she, like most of us when we come with a request to God, had thoughts about how she was unworthy of His time, let alone his favour to grant her this request.
The only explanation for Jesus harsh statement – which actually was slightly softened as he didn’t call her a Gentile dog like perhaps was the common term among Jews, but his actual word was more like, “puppy”.
It was as if he was reading the lady’s mind and dealing directly with her heart. She knew who she was to the Jews, but this picture that Jesus gave of the puppy immediately reminded her of how they would feed the dogs under the table. And a puppy in the household is usually the favourite centre of attention.
Sometime ago I was given a letter of encouragement. I can’t remember much about it except that it made me laugh because the person writing it seemed so very obviously to see himself as God’s favourite.
While his intentions were to encourage me, the way that he did it was to proclaim that through His special relationship with God, God had shown him that I was special too. That is nice.
I laughed because of the obvious lack of comprehension about my own relationship with God and because of a beautiful memory that came to mind which seemed to illustrate the situation perfectly.
When my sister was getting married in Brisbane we were reunited with friends from afar. One very special lady was Mrs Miller. Mrs Miller had previously lived in Mackay and used to run a dance supplies shop. She has a daughter, who is now a dance teacher, who learned dancing from Betty Meskel – as did my sister… Mrs Miller was a great friend to my Mum and my Mum stayed with her and worked with her for a while in Sydney when my sister was also down there.
Mrs Miller has a big personality! At the wedding Mrs Miller made a point of giving all Mum’s grandchildren a big hug and made a huge fuss of each of them…. Then she whispered in their ear… “your gran tells me that you’re the favourite”.
This is what God does to each of us. So to you and you and you and you…. God whispers… “You are my favourite”. Do you realize that YOU are God’s favourite?
But on the flip side…. See these people over here…. Even though we know we are God’s favourite, if we are dealing with these people over here, we mustn’t deal with them as if we are God’s favourite and they are not because, guess what? He has “done a Mrs. Miller” and whispered to them also that they are His favourite.
Some of God’s favourites are smart and some are not. Some are eccentric and some and some are plain weird. Some are old and some are very young. Some are simply awesome. Some we will be naturally drawn to and some we will not. But one thing I believe will make God smile, is that we should strive to always treat those we meet and greet as if they are God’s favourite – because in fact they just might be.
The miracle we need today is for Jesus to touch our eyes and say “Ephphatha”, so that our formerly blinded eyes can be opened to see the favour of God in those around us.
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