God's Strange Ideas

We went to church last Sunday at Poulsbo First Lutheran Church. For several Sundays, now, my wife and I have attended there. As mentioned in previous posts, since moving to this area a little more than a year and a half ago, we have had, for some reason, a difficult time finding a church a) where we felt that we fit in and b) where the teaching and form of worship accommodated where we are in our faith journeys. More on that in a forthcoming blog….

Preaching last Sunday morning was the Co-Associate Pastor, Alison Shane. She and her husband, Kent, share the Associate Pastor position. What a unique blessing – a wife and husband, both gifted in ministry, both fully prepared and ordained, and both sharing a common responsibility in a vocational position to which God has called them. This is truly a rare phenomenon.

Be that as it may, her sermon was what got me thinking. She gave me permission to quote part of it. The quote is in italics; read it carefully:

“We are confronted with another of God’s strange ideas in today’s gospel text. From Luke we heard the story of Gabriel coming to Mary and telling her what was to occur. This is what I find strange: Gabriel says to Mary, ‘You have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’

“Now, that sounds pretty great, right? What’s strange about that, you ask? Mary has found favor with God, and so God has chosen her to bear his son, and this son is going to be great.

“We tend to think this way, too. We think that when we are successful in our jobs or in life, somehow we have found favor with God. We think that if we have wealth or other prized things, we have found favor with God. We think that as long as death has not touched us closely, we have found favor with God.

“But Mary had found favor with God, God chose her, a virgin, to bear his child. God chose her to endure ostracism, disgrace, humiliation, and distress. God chose her to bear a son who would pointedly assert that his followers were his family. God chose her to bear a son who would so rile the status quo that those in power would have him killed brutally and publicly.

“I guess you have to be careful when you find favor with God. Because finding favor with God is not about God rewarding good behavior. Finding favor with God is not even about God rewarding faith. Finding favor with God is about God working out his will, his love for his people, even his justice through you.”

WOW, wow, wow. These are “strange ideas”! It’s NOT ABOUT US at all. It’s about what GOD WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH in and through us. Actually, I got several points from this small portion of her poignant sermon—

The first is that the lesson of Mary’s being chosen by God for this all-important mission, and her availability and willingness to carry it out, had everything to do with what God was going to accomplish and much less to do with Mary herself, though she was blessed above any other woman. This is a lesson we all need to recognize as it applies to us.

The second thing that hit me is the refutation of the idea that if we are doing well, or at least without significant travail, (especially here in affluent America) then God might be favoring us. Or, conversely, if we're not doing well, then we may not be in God's favor. Neither of these is likely the case, if we reflect carefully on what Pastor Shane said.

What I concluded from her comments in this regard is that God doesn’t necessarily favor us with “good” things or dis-favor us with "bad" things. In other words, if things are going well or badly, it doesn’t necessarily follow that one is in or out of God’s favor. Just think about Job, for instance.

In the “evangelical world” where I have spent many, many years, I have often observed the widely accepted belief that if we are materially well off, we must therefore be blessed by God. After all, isn’t there a very popular television preacher now peddling a book that tells me I can have “(My) Best Life Now”? (And by implication have that "good life" because I am in God's favor?)

Could this be a case of grossly misplaced focus? Unfortunately, hordes of evangelicals buy into this kind of thinking.

Isn’t it interesting that when we look at the scriptures and receive proper exegesis, it might be that quite the opposite is true! I am concluding that God is far less concerned with our "good life" than he is with working his will through us according to HIS good pleasure, no matter what that entails.

The third thing I realized is that if we want God to favor us, then we need to be readily available and totally willing to let him work his will through us. And of course I must admit that this is where I am an abject failure – along with most of you, probably.

Our challenge as Christ's followers is not to focus on ourselves by seeking the "good life" but to focus on God in seeking to live out his will. Lord knows there’re a lot of neighbors to love and much justice to be pursued in our chaotic world.

What a formidable task we, as followers of Christ, have before us, not only at this Christmas season, but also in our daily living. Thank you, Pastor Alison, for your insight.