Passing the Mantle
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Passing the Mantle
September 4, 2011
by Rev. William “Buck” Day
Well we turn our sights to the Old Testament, in particular, the book of 2 Kings. So I invite you to follow along as we read the story of Elijah and Elisha, starting at the beginning of Chapter 2 of 2 Kings. (2 Kings 2:1-12)
2Now 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. 3The company of prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, ‘Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I know; keep silent.’
4 Elijah said to him, ‘Elisha, stay here; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.’ But he said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So they came to Jericho. 5The company of prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, ‘Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?’ And he answered, ‘Yes, I know; be silent.’
6 Then 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.
9 When 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.
May God bless the reading of his word this day! Would you join me in prayer?
Mighty and holy God we ask that today you would in fact be our vision, that you would guide us, and that you would direct us by the power of your Spirit that is fully present here right now, to allow us to hear what you want us to hear from these words today. So Lord we ask that you would grant that. We ask that because you, Lord Jesus, are Lord over all and it is in your name we ask it. Amen.
Well, I want to start with a couple of pictures for you. Notice the rippling muscles in the arms and the legs…that’s me in high school. I was a rail. I was pretty skinny. I was about as tall as I am now but about a hundred pounds less. Just so you can figure it out. O.K. This was taken in college. (laughter) Something happened! Hair sprouted all over… I don’t know what happened. And now today, you have this. (laughter) Something’s changed. Change always happens, doesn’t it? Something happens as we get older and nothing seems right. Things just happen; it never stays the same. Things continue to move on and that happens in the world, too, doesn’t it, whether we like it or not. I thought I looked pretty good in college.
Well, we have a hard time with change; it continually happens. There is an old saying that says: The only one that likes change is a wet baby. Yet, there is something wonderful about change if we can just get through it. Think with me for a moment. If an infant never learns to crawl, it never learns to stand; and eventually it never learns to walk; and that child never becomes the person that their parents and God imagined and dreams them to be. An infant needs to change in order to become a child, in order to become an adult. Our world around us is no different. Our world continues to accelerate. Imagine just thirty years ago personal computers, compact disks (they are going to be obsolete in a few years) and microwaves were practically unheard of. Now we have phones that have more computing power than what was in the space ships that went to the moon. Things are continuing to change. And seniors, you know it as much as anyone, you know how much you are tugged and pushed to kind of take on and be a part of this new technological revolution that is happening, because a lot more things that you need are only available in computer. Yet, many of you are saying, “I don’t want to go down the road,” and I understand that.
Change is a part of our landscape and it is, many times, difficult for us to embrace. It is no different for us in the Church, as well. In fact, studies have shown that the large majority of people in churches are resistant to change. And I understand that, as well. But it also saddens me. It saddens me because change is a part of God’s plan for the Church and for each of us, for God has been in the process of reclaiming lives since the Garden. Think about that. A nation leaves Egypt and heads out into the wilderness – a little bit of change there, huh; or being carried off by a conquering nation, in exile – that is a little bit of a change; or the whole Roman world that was the pinnacle of the world in that day, Jesus’ day, gets turned upside down by a small group of people who are following Jesus Christ. God brings about change. It is part of his nature, and part of what he desires for all of us. God loves us so much that he doesn’t leave us the same.
So today we want to look at this notion of change in a story that I think is very appropriate. It is the story of one prophet exiting and another prophet stepping into his place. Elijah has come to the end of his ministry and he has actually come to the day when he is going to be taken up into heaven. As you read from our text, everyone knows it: He knows it; Elisha knows it; the prophets all know it. It is a story of Elijah and Elisha taking this very circuitous route. If we were to put it on a map, it would look like this, of them treading through the wilderness crossing the river Jordan by parting the waters. And in that, Elijah asks his mentor, Elisha, “What do you want me to do?” Elisha said “I want to have the same powers, even double, what you have.” Elijah said, “It will come true if you see me taken up in a whirlwind.” We see that as the chariots of fire come and they separate the two prophets, Elijah’s taken up back in the whirlwind into heaven and Elisha watches the whole thing. So it is to be. It is a mighty display and maps of change happen just like that that has taken place for the nation.
Now Elijah was the one that went toe to toe with King Ahab and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. He was the one who rid the nation of Israel of its idol worship and he is now being replaced by Elisha. It is a story of change. It is a release of the past and a focusing on the future. So what can we learn from that? What can we learn from that?
Well one of the things that I think comes out of that is that Elijah has come to understand that he is not God’s plan, he is rather part of God’s plan. In the story that we read, did you notice that it seemed that Elijah was very detached from Elisha and all the other things that were going on around him? As they are talking he is just trying to put them off, it seems like. We see that as Elijah says, “Stay there. I have to go do something.” And Elisha says, “No way. I am sticking right with you, right to the very end.” We see that repeated a number of times. What is going on there? It is almost as if Elijah is not really concerned about his replacement, Elisha. He could care less. I think if we look at what is part of the larger picture that is going on here it will help us maybe to understand it a little better; and part of that is going back to 1 Kings 19. I think that will shed a little light for us here. After Elijah had triumphed over the prophets on Mount Carmel in Chapter 18 of 1 Kings, in the very next chapter his life is threatened by the wife of King Ahab, Jezebel, and he is frightened. So what he does he is afraid for his life so he runs to the wilderness to hang out and hide. In the process of doing that, he cries out the Lord, saying “I want to die. I want to die.” As he is in the wilderness he has forgotten who is on his side. He has forgotten what God has just done for him one chapter earlier in the story. So God reminds him. God reminds him in the wilderness and reveals himself to Elijah in those famous words “in a still small voice,” that’s where that comes from; and in that process, God is showing him that his work as a prophet is changing. He is no longer going to be fighting in spectacular ways, but now he is to begin to turn his attention towards preparing others to continue the work after he is gone.
Elijah does that. He goes about the business of anointing kings and anointing Elisha to be his replacement. As you look at the story of Elijah calling Elisha, it doesn’t say anything about him being anointed and yet just a little bit earlier God says “Go to Elisha and anoint him.” But rather, when Elijah gets to him he just calls him and says, “Come and be my servant. Follow me.”
So what’s going on? Could it be that Elijah is struggling with his role before God? You know, if you think about it, there is something kind of affirming about being able to call down fire from heaven, to have people kind of stand in awe of you, and go, “Whooooa. I am not going to mess with this guy.” But now in his new role, he is in a role of being a preparer for others to carry on that fight; and that is not quite as glamorous, that is not quite as affirming necessarily. But Elijah does carry out his role faithfully, even if it is not necessarily heartfelt; he does do that faithfully. So by the time that we get to our story, Elisha is ready to assume his new role and I am wondering if Elijah feels like he is the odd man out here. He is like, God can I just get this thing done? I want to get out of here. Maybe he is feeling a little sorry for himself, a little unhappy that he isn’t the center of attention any more. Yet, in the midst of that, we can also think about how that fits. Romans tells us that we “ought not think too highly of ourselves.” So when we think we have a corner on God and God’s will and what he is about, the truth is that we begin walking on very thin ice. Now that is not to say that we don’t have a role to play in God’s plan, but we are not necessarily the center of what God is doing in the cosmic sense. For God’s role revolves around how God has wired each of us up because we do have a role to play in God’s plan and for us it is to find our place, to find our role and that is determined on how we are wired up, how God has put us together, how he has gifted us. We have talked about spiritual gifts before. God gives each one of us spiritual gifts to use and that is part of what we are to use for God’s plan when we find our role. So our role is acknowledging that we have a part to play and then being faithful in executing that, in living it out. That can also include at times, not necessarily always understanding where we are going and what God’s bigger plan is, or even how we fit in it. For we are to remember the words of the prophet Isaiah where he says, “God’s ways are not our ways.” So we are not going to always understand but we need to execute our role in the midst of that.
So for us today, here at Faith, we have to acknowledge that God is working his plan here. He is not working my plan, he is not working your plan, he is working his plan here at Faith. As he works his plan, each one of us have a role to play in that plan, in the execution, moving that plan forward.
Last spring we began to talk about Renewing Faith, this movement and this planning session and this progress of moving Faith to a new place. That hasn’t gone away, folks. You are going to continue to hear about that and I want to talk about it probably the next couple weeks in more detail. But God is in the process of executing his plan in our midst here at Faith. The question for each of us is what is our role in that plan? What is our role? So the question is, what does God desire you to do in that role?
A couple of years ago, a few years ago now, I was asked to design an alternative worship service at another church. I was to be the catalyst that would put this team together that would be able to execute this service. As I put this team together, each person on that team had a role to fulfill to make sure that service happened. If one of them didn’t do their part or if I didn’t do my part, it wasn’t going to be what God desired. I think the same is true for each of us. Each of us have a role to play but it is going to look different for each one of us because every one of us is going to play a little different role in moving Faith forward. So we need to understand that we all have a role to play.
Secondly, I think beyond that we need to learn that there is a time and a place for our role to be executed, for us to do our role, our job. In our story, everyone knew that Elijah was going back to heaven that day. It is the closing of the Elijah chapter and the beginning of the Elisha chapter, if you want to think of it that way—one prophet stepping out; the next one stepping in. The same is true for each of us in our roles, as well. Each of us has a time and a place for us to serve. Just as there are seasons in the year, so are there seasons of service in a person’s life. The words of Ecclesiastes rings true, “For every thing there is a season, and a time for everything under heaven.” So not only do you need to be thinking about, what is my role as we renew Faith, but also lay over that, what is your season? How do you implement your role in the season in which you find yourself? Maybe for some of you it is to provide leadership as we move forward. For others maybe it is to stand back and to allow others to lead while you follow. Our seasons in our lives change. How we fulfill our roles in each of those seasons will change a little bit, as well. Think of Elijah. One minute he is calling down fire from heaven, the next minute he is preparing someone else to replace him.
In the midst of our seasons we also need to acknowledge that there is also what is called seasons of rest, where after we have fulfilled a role for a time in some fashion, we need to rest and recharge. Think about Jesus, Jesus did that when he went away and alone by himself to pray. That was his rest. That was his recharging season. We need that, as well. It is appropriate for us to take seasons of rest; but also understand that there will come a time again when we need to get involved, when we need to execute our role, no matter our age, no matter our circumstances. We need to do that. For all too often we fall into maybe what I call the “I’m done” kind of attitude. It kind of goes like this: You may talk to someone to ask them to consider beginning to do something or be a part of something in a church and how many times have you said or you heard “No. I’ve already done that and I don’t do that anymore.” The implication then is that I don’t need to serve. I’ve done my time and I’m off the hook. I’m done. So what happens then, we think we can just come and kind of consume the services that a church has to offer; but the reality is that God calls that slothfulness. He calls that being lazy. It is a misunderstanding of God’s call on each of our lives for God calls us to be diligent and persistent in doing his work and being about his business because I think our call in our lives is to work.
I think we have this misperception that when we die that when we get to heaven we are going to stand in line and we are going to get our cloud number and we are going to get our harp number and we are going to get the harp tuned, although it will probably already be in perfect tune because it will be heaven, and all we have to do is sit in heaven and play our harp on our cloud. I don’t think that is how heaven is going to be. I think we are going to have a job when we get heaven and I know some of you are going, Oh no! (laughter) I think we all have that reaction because the things that we have done here on earth have not been satisfying, have not been fulfilling. But when we get to heaven, the work that God is going to give us is going to be very fulfilling. It is going to satisfy us and fill us up in ways in that maybe we have never been filled up before. Because I think that part of our creative nature is to work.
Think about what Adam and Eve’s job was in the Garden before the fall. It was to tend the Garden. It was to take care of the Garden. Our nature is to work. So, what is your season? What season are you in right now?
There is a woman I know by the name of Lillian Carlson. She is at another church and she, for well over thirty-five years, served at the Marie Sandvik Center for children in the Phillips neighborhood in south Minneapolis. If anyone should have the chance to say I’m done it would be Lillian because she was faithful. But she no longer works at Marie Sandvik Center. She now works in an adult day care center. When you asked her about it, she said, “My back can’t handle working with children anymore, but I can play Bingo and I love it.” Lillian understands this notion of a season of a person’s life and how important it is.
So we have a role to fulfill. We need to understand the season in which we are in and I think our story also teaches us that we are to use our role to make a difference. Fulfilling our role in the season in which we find ourselves means that something needs to be completed, right? …Because work without any outcome is really nothing more than a waste of time. In our story Elijah has been training his replacement and God’s assignment for him was to complete that training before he would be taken up to heaven. He is laying the groundwork for God’s plan to move forward. And we see that happening because after Elijah is done, if you were to continue reading where we stopped in verse 12, you would see that Elisha picks up the mantle and he begins to execute his role as a prophet in powerful ways.
You know, Christ calls us to be about his business, as well. We are to take the kingdom of heaven and bring it from heaven down to earth. We are to expand his kingdom, his influence here on earth. That is the task of his people. That is the task of you; that is the task for me. How are you doing with that? That is what we are going to be talking about a lot this fall in lots of different ways, because God calls us to move the gospel forward in this world. So think about it. What difference are you making for the kingdom right now?
I read a statement that I think is appropriate. It says that everyone is good at something. Isn’t that a great statement? Everyone is good at something. So the question is, if people can’t exercise what they are good at in the church where are they going to exercise it? That is what we need to be thinking about—exercising whatever you are good at so it will make a difference for the kingdom of God. So, what are you good at? You know, I think that some of us think “Well, the things I am good at the church can’t use. I am really good at fixing cars. I just have a knack. I have a mechanical aptitude. I can put them together, I can look, I can figure out what is going on and get it on the road again. How can the church use that?” Well there are a lot of people that need their cars repaired and can’t afford it. Or maybe there are a lot of people that need inexpensive cars and maybe you could begin to kind of bring some junkers together and get them on the road and give them to people who don’t have a car but need a car so they can get to work and make a living. That is how you use what you are good at. Every one of you is good at something. I believe that with all my heart. The question is finding the place where you can exercise what you are good at. For by doing that, you can accomplish much for God. Perhaps you are good at praying because you have a hard time getting around. Lord, we need prayer warriors here. Maybe you are good at mentoring others, coming alongside somebody, putting your arm around them and encouraging them to take the next step. Maybe you are really good at welcoming people into the church. You are outgoing enough—that is a way for you to begin to use that gift to welcome people in. Maybe you are good at expressing what God is been doing in your life to others. Maybe that is something you could do.
I want you to begin to think about what that means, what that looks like for you; because, however you act on your role, you are going to move the kingdom forward. You are going to make a difference and that is what all of us need to do is to find that place, that sweet spot (we have used that term around here before) to find where we can serve, where we can make a difference in some way. I encourage you to do that, because we all know that change is in fact hard to swallow; but even in the midst of that God is the author of change. The good news is that in the midst of this change, God is executing his divine purpose. God is calling each one of us to be his change agents in the world, that we might bring the unchanging nature of Christ to a world that needs it. We do that by knowing our role, knowing the season that we are in, and knowing that we are about something much bigger than ourselves. We are about the work of God in our midst.
So as we head into this fall, I invite you to consider that and to ask yourself, am I ready? Am I ready to take up my mantle? Amen? Amen.