"Bridging the Generation Gap" by The Rev. Donald L. Hamer
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Trinity Episcopal Church
Last Sunday of Epiphany
February 15, 2015
Today is the last Sunday after Epiphany – a season when we have been looking at the various ways Jesus was revealed to the world as the Messiah, starting with his birth in a manger in Bethlehem. This morning we have two of the more spectacular and amazing stories of the Judaeo-Christian scriptures: Chapter 2 of the 2nd book of Kings recounts the ascension of the prophet Elijah into the heavens – escorted by horses and chariots of fire. (Now that’s what I call a hot ride!) The Gospel of Mark recounts the mountaintop experience of the disciples Peter, James and John as they witness their friend Jesus transfigured before their very eyes and engaging in conversation with the same Elijah and Moses.
Both of these events are of enormous significance in our biblical faith. Both the passage from Kings and the passage from Mark remind us that God acts in the world but is not bound by it – that God acts IN time but is not time-bound – the events we read about this morning transcend both space and time. And when you think about it, that is one of the qualities that makes God God.
We, on the other hand, being both earth- and time-bound, live in a liminal time smack in the middle of a past which is closed to us and a future which is unknown. As St. Augustine notes in Chapter 11 of The Confessions, we are forced to act within a tiny window of time – the present – since the past is unrecoverable and the future is not yet available.
That is the situation Elisha finds himself in this morning. And I would like to suggest that despite all the pyrotechnics surrounding Elijah and Jesus in the passages we heard, the real story line this morning is around the changing of the guard -- passing the torch from one generation of leadership to the next. In the Second Book of Kings, we see the development of the young prophet Elisha – Elijah’s designated successor. He is facing the question, “How do I act in the present to remain faithful to an unfathomable God in the face of an unknowable future?” We see in Elisha this morning at least four qualities that give us some guidance here on picking up the mantel of leadership.
First, Elisha is assertive. Notice the term Assertive. I did not say pushy, rude, presumptuous, opinionated, self-righteous or overpowering. The word I used was assertive. You know, one of the first things our Stephen Minsters learned was how to be “assertive Christians.” The term means owning our faith, doing what we need to do to be spiritually fed and to be faithful to our Christian beliefs, seeking and obtaining the resources we need to do that consistent with the rest of the body of our Christian faith.
Elisha did that. Even though Elijah keeps telling him to stay put while he moves on, Elisha – in scenes that remind us of Ruth and Naomi in the Book of Ruth – Elisha firmly insists on accompanying his master. It also reminds us of Jacob wrestling with the angel in Genesis 32:26, where he says, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.” It cost him a broken hip but he got his blessing. Now this may seem a bit over the top for those among us are a little tentative about asking for “the hard thing” as Elisha does this morning when he asks Elijah for a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit. How many times do we as Christians avoid or walk away from situations that invite us – challenge us, perhaps, or demand us – to affirm our faith because we either don’t trust ourselves enough – or perhaps it is that we don’t trust God enough. Elisha knew he needed to be with his master in order to get what he needed to serve as his successor – and he did it.
Second, Elisha and companies of prophets asked the questions. You know, I think so many times in life when we are struggling to find answers to seemingly insoluble challenges, the real problem is that we haven’t asked the right questions. And if you have haven’t asked the right question, you’re going to have a heck of a time finding the right answers. Not once but twice, two different companies of prophets approach Elisha to ask, “Do you know that today the lord will take your master away from you?” Under the text, Elisha is surely asking, “How will I fill this guy’s sandals?” “How will I live up to the stature of the man who braved storm and monarchs in the name of the Lord?”
Perhaps a still deeper question for Elisha is, “What do you do when the person associated with something larger than life is gone?” Elijah was an undisputed man of God – Elisha’s problem is how you go from understudy to lead actor – from apprentice to journeyman? And we as Christians have a similar challenge, don’t we? Since Jesus’ ascension, his disciples have been discerning what it means to take up his cross and follow him. Just as Elijah left Elisha his mantel, so Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us into that uncertain future. So stopping for a moment and asking the important questions is a second important quality of Elisha.
Third, Elisha listens. Every time the prophets ask him if he knows his master is going to be taken from him, he replies, “I know – be quiet already.” He tells them to be silent. And just as Elijah strained to hear the sound of God not in the fire or the wind but in the silence, so Elisha seeks God’s voice in the silence. How many times do we tend to act more like Peter in the Transfiguration scene? Terrified by what he is witnessing, he doesn’t know what to say but, in classical Peter style, he says something anyway. . . Oops. And you notice the first thing Peter tries to do is to take the transcendent experience of being in the presence of the transfigured Jesus and Elijah and Moses and breaking it down to human size – he wants to build three houses for the three of them to stay in. But God brings Peter back on track by revisiting words heard at Jesus’ baptism: “This is my beloved son, LISTEN TO HIM.” We need to listen to and for that still small voice of God, especially in the big transition times of our lives.
Fourth and finally, Elisha ACTS – he follows the lead that his assertiveness, his questioning and his listening direct him to. Having taken the time to ask the right questions, and patiently listened to God’s words of guidance, Elisha himself was empowered to take his own turn at spiritual leadership of his people.
Elijah ascended into the heavens, but it was young Elisha who experiences his own transfiguration in this morning’s lesson from Second Kings. Whereas Jesus is transfigured in blinding light, revealing his divine nature and his spiritual connection to the great prophets of Israel, the “figure” of Elisha is transformed – transfigured, if you will – from boy/assistant to man/leader. He will claim Elijah’s mantel and go on to do great things in his own right, even though for today, as the passage ends this morning, Elisha is left in the “in between” space between Elijah's greatness of the past and his own greatness of the future. He is alone and tearing his garments in two as he grieves the loss of his spiritual father – but two verses later he will be picking up the mantel that fell from Elijah’s shoulders as he ascended into heaven.
Elisha’s life, his “transfiguration” – can serve as a parable of our own transfiguration as individuals and as worshipping community of faith. But to do so, we need to watch what is going on before us and behind us, and ask the right questions. We need to silently reflect on what we are hearing. Then we have to have the willingness to act – take up that cross and follow Jesus. Only then will we be ready to accept the mantel that both Elisha and Jesus offer to us. AMEN.