Prayers of Preparation: the Favorable God
Midweek in Advent 2
December 10, 2008
Psalm 85:1-13
Why dos our Lord look upon us favorably? Is it because there's
something about us that is favorable? Well, as a matter of fact, there
is. What it is is that we have been created by Him. He created us
because He loves to share the wealth. He owns everything and wants to
spread around His abundance to us. He wants us to delight in His joy
and glory.
So what it is about us that makes Him favorable toward us is not
something of ourselves but of who we are. We are the crown of His
creation. He looks upon us with favor even though we have not lived as
who we are. He loves us even though we have spurned His love. That is
the essence of His favor toward us, it is because of His grace and
mercy, not because we deserve it. The fact is, we don't deserve it.
His favor toward us is in view of Jesus Christ. When God created
humans He loved them. Of course He did. When people have children,
they love them. When God created us, He loved us. It came naturally to
Him. So what was His reaction when Adam and Eve sinned against Him?
Did He stop loving them? Did He give up on them? No, His reaction was
the same. Love. Compassion. Favor.
But how can this be when He promised them they would die? How was it
that He loved them when because of their sin they were separated from
Him? The way it is is that His love moved Him to tell them that they
were now separated from Him. If He would have ignored their sin they
would have been lost forever. To truly love them, to truly help them,
He had to confront them and their sin. This is favor. It is compassion
which moves you to do those things that are hard, that seem unloving.
But this favor is in view of Jesus Christ, right? So what did that
have to do with how God looked with favor upon Adam and Eve? It has to
do with who God is. He is the Creator. As the Creator, He is the one
who naturally loves us. His love for us moves Him to do all within His
eternal power to care for us. In the case of our sin against Him, what
that means is action similar to His first action of creating us. We
could call it His act of re-creation. That action of God is done in
His Son Jesus Christ.
It's not something that only those during His life on earth and since
then receive. God's act of re-creation in Jesus Christ is for all
people of all time. His favor is upon all because of the once for all
sacrifice of Jesus. The prayer of the psalmist, and it is the prayer
of all the people of God, that God be favorable to us, is a prayer
that He would look upon us because of the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. We pray He look favorably upon us because of the righteousness
of Christ.
Those who truly desire life, eternal or otherwise, apart from Jesus
Christ, desire life apart from God. He will always look with favor
upon them but will never force them into His eternal presence. God's
sending of His Son, even as He first promised to Adam and Eve to send
Him, is the sign that God is favorable toward all people. God didn't
explain away Adam and Eve's sin, even as He doesn't ours. But He did
deal with it. He convicted them of their sin to bring them to
repentance and the belief that Jesus is their only hope from sin and
separation from God. He does the same with us.
During Advent we take time out to ponder the faithfulness of our Lord.
In His favor He has blessed us beyond imagination. He promised to
bring about salvation and did. He promises that the Savior He sent at
Bethlehem will return once again—this time in glory. None of these
things are for a select few. They are for all. We can take comfort
that God does not favor some over others, that He loves all sinners
equally.
Our prayers, then, are always that of sinners pleading to God for
mercy because of Jesus Christ. Our prayers are always prayers of
forgiven children who look to God in gratitude for His favor in Jesus
Christ. The Psalm last week gave us comfort that when our prayers are
raised to God, He hears us. He is the Listening God. We are also given
comfort that He looks favorably upon us. He created us, He has made us
righteous in His Son Jesus Christ. This favor He extends to us in His
Word and Sacraments until that day when He will send His Son again to
take us home to heaven. Amen.
SDG
--
Pastor Paul L. Willweber
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS]
San Diego, California
princeofpeacesd.net
three-taverns.blogspot.com
It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything
except where the marks of the Church are concerned.
[Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian]
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