6th Sunday after Pentecost
June 26, 2016
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20; Galatians
5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62
Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3mM_G3UmGk)
You’ll probably be glad to hear that this is the last of
our Elijah readings. After all, he’s taken up in a whirlwind to heaven in
today’s passage; there’s not much more he can do. Last Sunday we talked about
how after he grieved, God sent him back home and told him he had new work to
do. That new work was picking and training a successor, Elisha. Elijah anoints
Elisha and Elisha becomes his right-hand man, his helper, his apprentice.
Elijah and Elisha then go everywhere together as Elisha
learns from Elijah everything about being a prophet. We’d call it on-the-job
training today, and yet it’s also a Biblical model. The twelve disciples are
picked by Jesus and go everywhere with him over three years before Jesus
ascends and they continue his ministry because they learned directly from him.
They could continue his work because they knew exactly what his work was and
had spent all that time with him learning. It’s the same as Elijah and Elisha.
This is ministry where you take someone along with you. Moses took his brother,
Aaron. Paul took Timothy and Silas. Jesus took the twelve. It’s not just safety
in numbers, although that may be a factor depending on where you go. This is
training your successor, so that when you’re gone, someone else knows what to
do. That was Elijah’s new work to do, after he was done grieving the loss of
all of his fellow prophets. Elijah was the only one left, and now it’s his job
to teach someone else so that he is not the only prophet. You want another
person who can do your job? Prayerfully discern who to pick, and then train
them! (By the way, any of our chairs who may be considering stepping down at
the end of the year, this applies to you, too. First, please notify your
pastor, and then start prayerfully considering who can follow you so that they
can become a vice chair and learn from you before you step down!) The best way
to learn is hands-on experience, and that’s what Elijah provides for Elisha.
That’s the side of the trainer.
But
what about the trainee? The end of Elisha’s
learning comes with Elijah being taken up to heaven. And you can see, for some
reason, Elijah doesn’t want Elisha to be with him when this happens. Yet Elisha
keeps saying, “As the Lord lives, and as you live, I won’t leave you.”[1]
Elisha cares enough about his mentor to stay with him until the very end and
Elijah finally accepts that he’s not going to be left alone. He’s not going to
be by himself when he’s taken to heaven. Elijah asks Elisha, “What do you want
me to do for you before I’m taken away from you?” Elisha doesn’t miss a beat
and immediately answers, “Let me have twice your spirit. Let me inherit a
double portion of your spirit. Let me
receive the share of your power that will make me your successor.” Elisha’s
been trained, but Elisha still has to act to follow in Elijah’s footsteps. He
still has to receive the power and authority from God. This double portion
references the law from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy that the first
born son receives double the share of the other sons.[2] To
guarantee his place as Elijah’s successor, Elisha asked for the share that the
first-born son inherited by law from his father. He wanted to make sure this
was clear that he was inheriting his place as prophet in Israel directly from
Elijah.
Two
things about this inheritance. One is that Elisha was ready with his answer.
There was no pause, there was no hemming and hawing, there was no request to
come up with an answer later. Elisha knew what he wanted from Elijah before his
mentor left him. The other place in the
Bible where there’s a similar question and ready answer is in the Gospel of
Mark. Jesus asks a blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” and the
blind man immediately answers, “Teacher, I want to see.”[3]
This blind man on the side of the road hears that Jesus is about to pass by,
and he knows exactly what he wants from this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Elisha
knew his training was at an end, and he knew the one more thing he wanted from
Elijah. Do you have an answer ready, for when you’re asked?
The
second thing about Elisha’s request to inherit a double portion of Elijah’s
spirit is that it’s not any different than what we want to inherit from our
spiritual mentors and those who have trained us in the way of discipleship. If
you think of those who have trained you, those who have taught you what it
means to follow Jesus, those who have shown so brightly the fruits of the
Spirit that we read about in Galatians, isn’t that what we want, too? A double
portion of their spirit? The church lady who taught you about hospitality and
how it was important to always have enough for everyone and include everyone
and wouldn’t make a big deal about it, a double portion of her spirit. And the
prayer warrior whose faith could literally move mountains and wouldn’t let
anything stand in their way, a double portion of their spirit. And the
handyman, who did a million little things around the church and didn’t care
that they largely went unnoticed, a double portion of his spirit. This is how
we honor those who have trained us and those who have gone before us, paving
the way, showing us how to live so that we also produce the fruits of the
Spirit of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control.” We do what they taught us, we keep their values of never
letting someone go hungry or making sure we spend time in prayer every day. We
seek a double portion of their spirit, and not to hoard it for ourselves
selfishly, but to share it, just as our predecessors did. Paul wrote to the
Galatians, “You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let
this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each
other through love.” Don’t hide your gift, or your fruit, or your spirt, or
your inheritance under a basket, taking it out only to peek at it to make sure
you still have whatever keepsake it is. We are to serve each other, not be
selfish. We don’t do what only benefits us, but our aim is to love our brothers
and sisters, just as our mentors loved us. Or, more accurately, just as Jesus
loved them and loves us.
This
discipleship journey is not easy. Sometimes we lose loved ones. Sometimes we
really want to be selfish and keep what we have for ourselves or only share it
with people like us. Sometimes the pain is so great that we’re there with
today’s psalmist, who cried out, “I cry aloud to God… In the day of my trouble
I seek the Lord, in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my
soul refuses to be comforted.”[4] Sometimes
the night is dark. Sometimes Jesus says things we really don’t want to hear. I
don’t know if you caught it at the beginning of today’s Gospel reading, Jesus
goes into a Samaritan village and they refuse to welcome him. They don’t refuse
hospitality to him because they’re Samaritans and Jesus is a Jew. They refuse
to welcome him into their village because “it was clear that he was on his way
to Jerusalem.” On his way to Jerusalem meant that he was on his way to his
crucifixion, on his way to great suffering and rejection and death. Elijah was
on his way to his death, as well, yet Elisha insisted on staying with him.
Others would not welcome Jesus because of it, and the twelve stayed with him as
long as they could, before they, too, abandoned Jesus at the eleventh hour.
It’s hard to go with Jesus to the cross. It’s hard and it sucks and it’s
painful, and yet it’s necessary for life, because only through the cross, only
through the resurrection, is there the hope of eternal life on the other side.
It’s the hope we have for our loved ones who have gone before, our spiritual
mentors who have taught us how to produce the fruits of the Spirit, of whose
spirit we want a double portion. Lord, let it be so today! Amen.
