June 30th, 2013 2 KINGS 2:1-2, 6-14

2 KINGS 2:1-2, 6-14  

¹Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. ²Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel." But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.

⁶Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on. ⁷Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. ⁸Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.

⁹When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you." Elisha said, "Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit." ¹⁰He responded, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not."

¹¹As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. ¹²Elisha kept watching and crying out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

¹³He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, "Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.

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            When we last encountered Elijah, he was telling the Lord that he was the only believer left. The Lord corrected Elijah, that instead, there were 7,000 believers left, and that Elijah was to anoint a new prophet Elisha.  Its easy sometimes to think that we are the only ones left to do the work of the Lord. This hubris is Elijah’s weakness throughout the scripture, and I get it.

            I will be gone for almost three weeks with vacation, continuing education, and service to the denomination, and there is a way in which I struggle to pass the torch even just briefly. Jim and Luke will preach sermons that aren’t the way I would preach them. A friend of mine said, “Katy, it would be funny to hear your sermons preached by a man.”  Jim and Luke will do faithful and relevant preaching, but it won’t sound like me, and therefore it takes a little bit of my loosening control. This control, or responsibility of being Minister of the Word and Sacrament means, I have preached all but one Sunday for the last seven months. We have followed Advent, and Epiphany, Lent and Eastertide, all the way to Pentecost and Ordinary Time. In this Ordinary Time we have dug into Kings for the last four weeks. Kings continues in the lectionary while I am gone, but we’re stopping now, because at least I had enough sense not to ask Jim and Luke to preach it. I like Elijah have thrown the mantle over the new prophets, yet even when you’ve named your successors, it can be hard to give up control.

            In our scripture today. Elijah and Elisha are walking together. Elijah feels called to go to three different places and prophesy, but he doesn’t yet feel called to let Elisha go in his place. Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel,” But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." Elisha knows that as long as the Lord is living, and as long as Elijah is alive, Elisha must be near to take over the prophets place when he dies. Elijah attempting to cast Elisha off happens twice more when Elijah goes to Jericho and Jordan.

            Likewise, I have tried to remain in the loop, even as I travel across the country.  I will not be here if someone dies, or gets very sick. Keith and Laura Hudson in LaGrande are on call for emergencies, yet as competent as they are, I have also asked that if someone goes to the hospital or dies, that folks call me, so I can phone them as the pastor. This is part of being a minister, that you are always on call for emergencies, as if the church was your own family. Yet more so, my prayers have been for you to be alright, and Keith and Laura not to be needed. It is always a good prayer, that folks stay healthy, but it might say more about my need to be needed. Elijah is at that stage. He could easily turn over the reigns, but he is not yet ready.

            In what reads like a final proof of power, echoing Moses, Elijah parts the Jordan River with his mantle, the same cloth that anointed Elisha. Elijah wanted to prove his power, before giving up his power. Do you know people like this, who are trying so desperately to prove their worth instead of letting go? It is usually the people who have been in the same role for years and years, perhaps decades. They have power because the system revolves around them, but nothing creative or new has evolved. Those outside, tip toe around if not stagnate, waiting for the powerful to die, because the assumption is they will never give up control in their lifetime. Elijah and Elisha are like this, and luckily for them the dynamic of waiting for the powerful to die is out in the open.

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you." I wonder if Elisha was sickened by Elijah’s hubris and unrelenting hold over power. Elijah assumes that Elisha wants something of his. As if, after Elijah is gone, Elisha will not have the power to do anything himself, that the whole system will fail without Elijah. There are churches like this, and ways every church is like this, ways we are like this. Sometimes, we hold on so closely to the way things have been that we are uncomfortable to giving up control to the Spirit in our midst.

When the Worship Committee and I offered intinction during the Holy Seasons some people were uncomfortable with the temporary change. I’ll admit it wasn’t an easy switch. We stumbled and bumbled along until months later we were finally able to flow through the ritual. Yet, for others, even in our stumbling and bumbling, intinction was the first time in our church that they felt the sacred during communion, that they experienced the holy, the ritual of coming together before the Lord. This is what is so wonderful and promising about the Spirit, it doesn’t stick to one way of doing things; it has infinite ways of reaching us. It doesn’t have the boundaries that we put on it. It is more often found when we unbind our view, and open ourselves to a boundless God beyond our imagination. As elders, and deacons, and ministers we vow to serve with imagination. It is a vow to be open and to look beyond our boundaries, and to find the Spirit in ways we don’t expect. A Spirit who looks different today but is just as much alive. I often hear so much worry about churches dying, and our nation no longer being a Christian Nation. Our churches will never look like they did in the 50’s, nor will our nation, but the Holy Spirit has not lessened. It is still active, but maybe we haven’t been open enough to see the places it is alive and thriving. The future isn’t about going back to the way things were, it’s about creating something new that never was before, something just as faithful, just as holy, but so very different. This is what Elisa knows when he asks for his one wish. He doesn’t wish for the same successes of Elijah, nor the same ministry, he asks for the same Spirit.

Elisha said, "Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit." Elisha wants not double the churches, not double the members, not double the size of the youth group, but double the Spirit. It is the most faithful thing he can ask for, yet Elijah is not ready to give up control. Elijah responded, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not." Elijah puts a stipulation on this inheritance of Spirit. Not only must Elijah die before Elisha can take control, but Elisha must also get his double share of Spirit from witnessing the Lord. At least this Elijah got this right, that the Spirit comes from witnessing what the Lord is doing right then. That is what it means to be a prophet.

As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" Elisha was naming the place the Spirit was alive in front of him. This is how he received a double amount of Spirit.

When Elisha could no longer see Elijah, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. It is okay to grieve what once was; it is okay to grieve churches dying; membership subsiding, and youth groups not providing the core of a youth’s raising. Elisha grieved Elijah too, it was the end of what was. But then Elisha moved on; he picked up the mantle, and went and sought the Lord. What we need to grieve in order to move on? What former things do we need to grieve in order to seek the Lord anew?

Elisha picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, "Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" The first thing Elisha did as Elijah’s successor was to ask, “Where is the Lord.” To be a prophet is to look for and witness to the Lord. Where have we seen the Lord? Where is the Spirit blowing through our life? Where is God right before us? Where is Jesus thriving the world today?

When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over. In this final sentence of our scripture, I want you to notice something. Elisha turned around from the way Elijah had been going and went back over the Jordan. He set off in a new direction.

If Elisha didn’t turn around, and the Spirit didn’t lead him a new direction, he would not have crowned a different king, altering the course of history. If our elders and deacons always remained elders we would not see the gifts of different people in different ministries, which I witnessed just this week. If Elisha had stayed the same as Elijah, and the Spirit stayed the same, Elisha would have remained a solitary prophet, instead of having other prophets join him, which I think he learned from Elijah trying so hard to hold on to power. If Elisha stayed the same, and if the Spirit stayed the same, then ministry would only come from me. You’d have me preaching Kings for the next month, instead of Jim preaching the Great Commission and Luke who was so inspired his sermon’s already done. If Elisha had stayed the same, and the Spirit stayed the same, his prophesy would only be for believers instead of to the secular world also. If Elisha stayed the same, and the Spirit stayed the same churches of the fifties would grow and grow but we’d never get to have a 1001 Worshiping Communities a PCUSA Ministry that seeks to create worship in coffee shops, and mountain sides, and biker bars, we would not have ministries like Open Door and Backpack which preach the gospel without even using words. Friends, Brothers, Sisters, let us have faith that the Spirit is in control, and let us seek to be open to the Spirit constantly creating anew.

So I wonder, of what do we as individuals resist giving up control? What do we each have to grieve that once was? Where is the Lord in each of our midsts? And how is the Spirit sending each of us in new direction? Over what do we as a church resist giving up control? What do we as a church have to grieve that once was? Where is the Lord in our midst? How is the Spirit sending us in a new direction? It makes sense that I leave us with enough questions to ponder until I come back. But I realize, that sometimes it takes an Elijah leaving, for Elisha to show us a new way. So while I am away, and perhaps out of the way, I invite us to experience the Spirit anew, and tell each other about it when I come home.