Sorry for being offline for a couple of weeks. I have been busy recovering from surgery related to a skiing injury. Now that I am back,
I'll be posting a little more frequently.
I have been thinking a lot about 1 Kings 17:8-24, one of the readings for June 6, and wondering about whether God is logical.
Logic, by its definition is a human construct. Logic means that there is some predictable order to an outcome; one that could be anticipated based on prior occurrences. Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th Ed) gives as one definition of logic: the "interrelation or sequence of facts or events when seen as inevitable or predictable."
If the story of Elijah and the widow is any example, God clearly doesn't use human logic. In this story God is trying to save Elijah from a drought and famine. Failing human logic, God does not send Elijah to a wealthy, well-provisioned household with food to spare. No way! God does not do what a logical human being would do.
Instead God sends Elijah to a starving widow, who is about to prepare the last morsel of bread for herself and her son before they curl up and die. Elijah appears and demands (in the way only a prophet can) to be fed. This seemingly rude and illogical demand ends up morphing into an intervention by God. After the widow caves into Elijah's command to be fed, God intervenes in the situation and provides oil and flour to feed the widow's household for the rest of the famine.
God not only doesn't use human logic, but bends a human situation to show God's own mercy and compassion for those who live at the margins. In this intervention, God shows us a "foretaste of the feast to come"--the table spread at the Reign of God, when all will have enough to eat.
Notice that in this story God does not save every starving widow who is affected by this famine, but God does save one starving widow and her son, and one of God's prophets in the process. God signals to us that this is what God wants the world to look like. When God's logic and not human logic prevails, then hunger, starvation and famine will be no more. God's logic means that God intervenes on behalf of one poor widow rather than singling out a wealthy family to host and feed a prophet.
As is promised in Revelation, when God has God's way, hunger and thirst will be no more and God will wipe every tear from every face.
Thanks be to God that God logic is not human logic
