000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

of my son!” (v. 18). Elijah does not respond but instead takes the boy to
his room, places him on his bed, and cries out to God: “Have you brought
calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her
son?” (v. 20). Then he lay upon the boy and prayed to God “let this child’s
life come into him again” (v. 21). The Lord heard; not only Israel is supposed
to “hear” (shema); YHWH also hears Israel. And because God
heard, life returned to the boy and Elijah presented him to his mother:
“See, your son is alive” (v. 23).
The woman’s bad theology—her son’s illness is caused by her sin—is
set aside as empty of significance and YHWH acts on behalf of life and
blessing. Like Moses (Exod. 33:12–23), Elijah prays to God with chutzpah,
using the imperative to demand (v. 21) the child’s life. The child’s life
is not restored without Elijah’s prayer or without the rite of healing that
he performs. Nor is it accomplished without God’s action; God and God’s
servant interact to bring about life and blessing.
This story is about the little people and things—a prophet hiding
from a powerful king, a starving widow and her ill son, carrion birds, complaints
born out of fear and doubt—through which God’s purposes are
accomplished.
1 Kings 17:17–24* (Paired)
For comments on this passage, please see the passage immediately above
(Proper 5/Year C).
Proper 6 [11]/Year C
Proper 6 [11]/Year C 241
1 Kings 21:1–10, (11–14), 15–21a+ (Semicontinuous)
Today’s reading is the story of Naboth’s vineyard and Ahab’s attempt to
buy it. Understanding the story requires seeing it in the light of the
Torah’s teachings on land (property). The concern of the Torah is for the
well-being of all people, particularly the vulnerable. In an agricultural
economy, land is the basis of all well-being. Being thrown off it for whatever
reason (poverty, unpayable taxes, greedy neighbors getting richer by
buying up the one source of economic productivity) brings homelessness
and destitution.
YHWH proclaims: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the
land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants” (Lev. 25:23). In the
jubilee year every family was to be restored to its property (Lev. 25:10,