All Things?

The Readings 16th Friday after Pentecost (22 Sep 23)

• Ephesians 1:7-17
• Luke 4:22-30

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In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,

Ephesians 1:11

FRIDAY THE AIR May be better in San Francisco. While it’s not been anywhere near as bad as the Orange Day back in 2020, Tuesday and Wednesday were terrible and Thursday I was “coughing up a lung” as they say. Not sure if it was my East lung or my West one, though. Today it may be better, though, by God’s grace. We’ve managed to avoid a lot of the smoke. Although the Air Quality was in the mid-upper 150s, it wasn’t Orange Day II by any stretch. God save the people upstate and inland who have been living with much worse than this all summer! And those back east.

It’s in the midst of this dumpster fire that we are reminded God is working all things out according to the counsel of his will. The Greek word rendered “counsel” in the NKJV is βουλή boulE which means not just “advice” but “manifested plan”. In other words, in his divine providence everything is unfolding to the (returning to a word from the post on Thursday’s readings) fullness. God’s plan is not delayed – everything is proceeding according to the counsel of his will. It is fullfilling.

Even when that means Global Pandemics, Global Ecological Breakdown, and have you noticed? It seems like every country is electing media crackpots who are setting up judicial “reforms” designed to let them off the hook for corruption charges. All proceeding according to plan.

And in this, we’re supposed ot be thankful. Or, maybe a better way to say it would be, “and in this, we’re supposed to be thankful?”

Yes. In all things thanksgiving (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Mind you that Paul was writing as the Church was undergoing persecution, was a tiny minority within the Jewish Community, itself a tiny minority within the Roman world. The Church wasn’t quite yet being overtly persecuted by the other Jews, but the Romans didn’t like what was happening among the slaves. And, already, the nutty emperors were thinking this new movement needed to be stopped, if only because of the social disorder it engendered when it insisted that everyone (not just Caesar) was the very image of God.

In the midst of a dumpster fire, or a forest fire, or an automotive strike, or a bad hair day: all things are proceeding according to the counsel of his will.

What is his will?

“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4) We believe that because God gave us free will it’s possible that someone would desire (contrary to God’s will) to reject that salvation. How that will play out in eternity only God knows. But here, while I can still say no to him, literally everything is conspiring against my urge to say no, my will to run away, my secret plans to ditch God, move to another country, set up house and hide from him for ever. In fact, even that secret plan is part of his plan to bring me to his salvation! That’s how divine providence works. THere are no secrets from God.

So, as the smoke clears on Friday – or, even if it doesn’t – it’s God working things out. But not in the way we resolve a Rubic’s Cube. Every twist and turn is not God trying something new to see if it works: it is working. Don’t worry. The dance is not a moshpit, no matter what you think or feel. It’s a Virginia Reel. Even if you can’t see it. Or if it’s orange.