Above: The Prophet Elisha
Image in the Public Domain
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The Collect:
Gracious God, you have placed within the hearts of all your children
a longing for your word and a hunger for your truth.
Grant that we may know your Son to be the true bread of heaven
and share this bread with all the world,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 43
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The Assigned Readings:
1 Kings 19:19-21 (Thursday)
2 Kings 3:4-20 (Friday)
2 Kings 4:38-41 (Saturday)
Psalm 145:10-18 (All Days)
Colossians 1:9-14 (Thursday)
Colossians 3:12-17 (Friday)
John 4:31-38 (Saturday)
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All you have made will confess you, LORD,
those devoted to you will give you thanks.
They will speak of your royal glory
and tell of your mighty deeds,
Making known to all mankind your mighty deeds,
your majestic royal glory.
–Psalm 145:10-12, Harry Mowvley, The Psalms Introduced and Newly Translated for Today’s Readers (1989)
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Certain stories of Elisha resemble those of his mentor, Elijah, as an observant reader of the Books of Kings knows. And, as an observant reader of the Gospels and the Books of Kings knows, some of the miracle stories of Jesus echo certain accounts of incidents from the lives of Elijah and Elisha. Examples of these include raising people from the dead and feeding a multitude with a small amount of food. Those stories indicate, among other things, that the heroes were close to God and were able to meet the needs of people.
The Elisha stories for these days have him leave home, participate in helping his kingdom win a war against Moab, and render dangerous food safe. They portray him as an agent of the will of God.
The “will of God” is a phrase many people use improperly, even callously. I, as a student of history, know that various individuals have utilized it to justify the murder of priests of Baal (by the order of Elijah, in 1 Kings 18:40), blame innocent victims of natural disasters exasperated by human shortsightedness (such as God allegedly sending Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans or a devastating earthquake to Haiti, supposedly to smite evildoers in those places), et cetera. These misuses of the concept of the will of God offend my morality and make God seem like a thug at best.
We ought to exercise great caution using the phrase “the will of God,” for we might speak or write falsely of God and drive or keep people away from a Christian pilgrimage. This is a topic to approach seriously, not lightly. Among the most thoughtful treatments is Leslie D. Weatherhead’s The Will of God (1944), which speaks of three wills of God: intentional, circumstantial, and ultimate. That is deeper than some professing Christians want to delve into the issue, however.
I do not pretend to be an expert on the will of God, but I do attempt to be an intellectually honest Christian. I, as a Christian, claim to follow Jesus. To ask what he would do or would not do, therefore, is a relevant question when pondering issues of morality and the will of God. The four canonical Gospels are useful for these and other purposes. I conclude, therefore, that Jesus would not have ordered the deaths of priests of Baal or resorted to homophobia to explain the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. And I cannot conceive of Jesus agreeing with George Zimmerman that the death of Trayvon Martin was part of God’s plan and that wishing that Martin were alive is almost blasphemous. Zimmerman is a bad theologian.
Living according to compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, and love, per Colossians 3:12-14, is the best way to proceed. Doing so increases the probability that one will live as an agent of the will of God, whose love we see epitomized in Jesus. It is better to live rightly than to seek to be right in one’s opinion of oneself.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 5, 2015 COMMON ERA
EASTER SUNDAY, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF MILNER BALL, PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, LAW PROFESSOR, WITNESS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, AND HUMANITARIAN
THE FEAST OF SAINT NOKTER BALBULUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK
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Adapted from this post:
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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