Elisha died and was buried. Moabite raiding parties invaded the land at the beginning of the year. One day some men were burying a man when they spotted a raiding party. So they threw the dead man into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man came to life and stood on his feet.

What?! So a dead guy touches Elisha’s bones and he comes back to life. No prayer. No special reason. Seems to me to give some credit to the Catholic idea of relics. We see a few examples in the Bible where one of God’s men brings someone back to life, but that person was alive. Here Elisha was dead. Come on! What was God’s plan there? Seriously, I have no idea. Maybe God just didn’t want any other dead guys to share the tomb with Elisha, so if you toss one in, he’s just going to walk out.

Anyway, I’m trying to stretch my paradigm a bit. So far I’ve concluded that basically God does what he wants, when he wants, how he wants. Good theology I think, but kinda scary. You gotta expect things to happen in unexpected ways with God. You never know when a dead guy is going to come back to life. My other thought is that I know nothing about the spiritual world. Though it seems to me that the spiritual world is intricately linked to the physical world. That means there really must be holy places and holy things. Sure God is everywhere and everything is His, but in some places and some things he may choose to put some of his power.

On the one hand, it feels like superstition to me. And I am cautious. We are so drawn to the supernatural, the miraculous, the spectacular that acknowledging it might lead people astray. On the other hand, to suppress it seems that we deny God to work in ways that he might choose. Hey, God knows best. If we can’t admit that, we have a long way to go.  I don’t know what to expect now, but my eyes will definitely be open at the next funeral I attend.

“First they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists but I was not one of them, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews but I was not Jewish so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.” -Martin Niemoeller

We must speak out against injustice against any group, even if we don’t identify with that group, even if we are opposed to that group. If gays or Muslims are being treated unfairly, Christians should be the first to speak up. This is how we show love to our neighbors. I am disappointed with Christians apathy towards injustice, even though I am just starting to be drawn out of it. Read your Bible, especially the Old Testament. Injustice was a major thing God wanted removed from his chosen people.

Maybe the problem is that Christians have a hard enough time identifying with other Christians. When injustice happens to a group that is more fundamentalist, charismatic, or traditional, it is too common for Christians to think they deserved it because they practice their “impure” faith how they do. This lets us be smug and self-righteous. (When did those become acceptable sins.)

Let’s do a better job of speaking up for justice. Like the quote above, there may come a time when we need someone to speak up for us. And, here in America, those willing to speak up for Christians is getting smaller.

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This brings up the question of Prayer and Time. Can/Should we pray for events that are completed? God is timeless, so this should be acceptable, maybe even encouraged. I know a lady who prayed for someone long after they had died because she had never heard of the death. Were all those prayers wasted? I think not. However, I think there are some important factors influencing our prayers for past events. 1) You must believe that your prayers are still effective and God in his foreknowledge, omniscience, omnipotence can bring about change, in the past, as a result of your present prayers. 2) Knowledge of those past events affects how you pray, to the extent that you can’t pray for something to change twhen you already know what did or did not happen.

[Other sins are so taken for granted that Hollywood doesn't even bother to make a case for them. Lying is standard, the norm even between people who are supposed to trust one another. Greed and covetousness are often motivating factors for plot lines.]