"Hail, O Favoured One!"

In yesterday's Paper in the book review section, which has a picture of Jesus on the front, the very first review is by Dominic Crossan, one of the notorious "Jesus Seminar" scholars. Crossan bitterly criticizes Thomas Cahill's new book on Jesus called "Desire of the Everlasting Hills", in which Cahill takes the Gospel narratives as much more historically accurate than Crossan.

That reminded me of something I've found to be so true: that when anyone, even the brightest scholar, has intellectual disagreements or arguments about the truth of the Gospel, behind those doubts is usually a deeper doubt about the goodness of God, about the grace of God, about whether that person thinks of himself or herself as a "favoured one", favoured by God (as Jesus' mother Mary was favoured by God).



This past week as I was waiting for Luke in the dentist's office, I picked up and read the fascinating cover story of Time magazine (December 6th edition), which I looked up later on the Internet, to read again. The magazine cover has a face of Jesus with the heading "Jesus at 2000". The article contained the usual debunking of the historicity of the Gospels (which is so fashionable nowadays), but it also contained some wonderful reconstructions of key events in Jesus' life. It's one writer's imagination of how some of these events might have taken place: for instance, the conversation between Gabriel and Miriam in today's Gospel Lesson was fleshed out, so that you almost felt as if you were there!

What was fascinating to me, was that after the usual debunking of the Gospel's historicity at the beginning of the article, this writer (Reynolds Price) at the end makes a kind of testimony to his faith, based on his coming to believe that HE is someone favoured by God.

At the end of the article, he warms to the idea that Jesus really is the Son of God and Saviour of the world; as he puts it: "a transnational Messiah who continues to care for individual humans and to save them from internal and external evil."

Price says: "I am one who believes himself a direct recipient of such care. Fifteen years ago, as I was about to undergo five weeks of withering radiation for a 10-in.-long cancer inside my spinal cord, I found myself- an outlaw Christian who had, and has, no active tie with a church- transported, thoroughly awake, to another entirely credible time and place. I was lying on the shore of the Lake of Galilee with Jesus' disciples asleep around me.

"Then Jesus came forward and silently indicated that I should follow him into the lake. Waist deep in the water, I felt him pour handfuls down the long fresh scar on my back- the relic of unsuccessful surgery a month before. Jesus suddenly told me, "Your sins are forgiven." Appalled by my dire physical outlook, I thought, ungratefully, "That's the last thing I need" so I asked him, "Am I also cured?" He said, "That too." Then, as though I'd forced his hand, he turned and climbed ashore, with me well behind him."

Reynolds Price continues: "Despite succeeding years of more successful but unavoidably devastating surgeries, permanent paralysis of my legs and a nonstop assault of spinal pain, [I believe that this experience was authentic.] "In any case, to the surprise of my doctors, I've survived without apparent return of the cancer, and my life is more rewarding and productive than before that washing in Galilee."

In spite of his faith, Price says he's not yet ready to accept Jesus' Great Commission FOR HIMSELF: that "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given" to Christ, and we should therefore "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." He's almost there, but not quite!

The point is, he sees himself as a FAVOURED ONE.

I wonder if that's how you think of your self- favoured by God.

I've been reading a book by priest and journalist Tom Harpur called "Life After Death," in which he kind of envies the many people who have written him letters about visions they've had, who have spoken to angels or relatives who have passed on, or had out-of-body experiences, for instance, when they were clinically dead, before they unexpectedly came back to life. Tom Harpur has never had such an experience himself, but he believes the stories of those who have. And I think that's because he sees himself as someone favoured by God, no less favoured than those people who have had those miraculous experiences.

Likewise, you may never have had an angel visit you, or an out-of-body experience like St. Paul who was carried up into the Third Heaven. The temptation is to envy those who do, as if they have been favoured by God, more than you.

It's tempting to look at certain people and think, "I don't have the skills that they have, or the good health that they have, or the money that they have." And you may be tempted to think, "Therefore, I'm not favoured by God. Maybe God has something against me. Maybe God is punishing me for something- my parents' sins perhaps, or the sins of my youth. Perhaps I'm getting my just deserts for my stupidity or my bad decisions."

In this regard, we need to learn from Mary in today's Gospel Lesson. Was there "Something About Mary" that caused God to favour her above all other women? NO! The Bible doesn't say there was anything about Mary that she should be chosen to be the vessel of Almighty God. It was God's whim, God's fancy, God's free gift, with no relation to who Mary was (in spite of what some Roman Catholics might say). Mary's only qualification for this blessing was that she was a member of the Covenant people, born a Jew). Well, you and I are members of the Covenant people! We are the New Israel, chosen by God through our Baptism into Christ. We belong to Christ and we are now the FAVOURED ONES. No matter what happens, God will never withdraw his gifts of forgiveness, love, and eternal life, which he has already given us by grace.

So, God's favouring of Mary was not based on who Mary was, or how she looked, or anything else except God's nature, God's love, God's free grace.

Neither was God's favouring of Mary because of what she had DONE. She was probably too young to have done ANYTHING particularly, and even her pedigree came from Joseph's line, not hers (HE was of the house and lineage of David). But God favoured her, because GOD LIKES TO FAVOUR people. THAT'S THE WAY GOD IS, toward you and toward me.

So don't become upset when other people don't favour you, don't treat you as the special person that you are. The important thing is that GOD does, and his favour is the one that counts.

Perhaps you and I will always be too... something... to be favoured by the world: too weird, too untalented, too unhealthy, to unsophisticated, too slow or too scatter-brained. We may be too honest to be favoured by many people, or too sinful. We may make so many mistakes that people are reluctant even to get close to us!

The Gospel is that God favours us anyway! That's really the Christmas message! God favours us by being born FOR US, by living a perfect life FOR US, by dying FOR US, by FORGIVING US, and HONOURING us with the name "Christian", and even granting us eternal life in heaven.

It's pure grace and favour, because God came into the world before we were born. God's favour therefore CAN'T have anything to do with who we are or what we've done, or even whether we've kept his holy law or not. How many times does the Scriptures say: "His mercy is over all that he has made, over the just and the unjust alike."

The sinner David wrote: "My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

So "Greetings, O favoured one." "Greetings, O favoured one." "Greetings, O favoured one." "Blessed art thou among women. Blessed art thou among men."

Amen.






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