2 Kings 2:1-15 “Passing
the Mantle”
There’s
an expression we use “passing the mantle” or “picking up the mantle.”
It has
to do with continuing the work or the legacy of some notable person, following
in their footsteps.
Sometimes
people are surprised to find out how many of our expressions come from the
Bible.
The
story we just heard about Elijah and Elisha is where “passing the mantle” comes
from.
A
mantle was an ancient piece of clothing w/o sleeves that basically served as a
cape or cloak.
Kind of
like a blanket that you wore.
This
idea of actually passing along a mantel is not as antiquated as you might
think.
As I
worked on this scripture this week, I immediately thought of Dave my husband,
who as
a professor at Georgia Tech is frequently invited to attend graduation
ceremonies where he is to “hood” those who have earned master’s or doctoral
degrees. I brought one along to show you.
A hood
in some way is representing this ancient mantel,
which
represents a body of knowledge passed from mentor to apprentice.
That’s
what was going on in today’s scripture reading about Elijah and Elisha.
Elijah
is the master, the teacher, God’s prophet, and over time he has trained Elisha
to carry on the work of prophecy. When
Elisha picks up the mantel, he also claims the gifts that Elijah has passed
on:
knowledge,
spirit, authority, trust in God.
There
are four major stories about Elijah in the first and 2nd book of
Kings,
and I
have to admit, it was difficult to choose just one of these four.
Because
they are all fantastic, vivid stories about this Israelite prophet who lived in
the 9th century B.C.
These
stories tell of miraculous feedings, fiery contests between 850 false prophets
and Elijah.
There
are stories of murder and justice, fear and cowardice, God speaking in power and in still small voices.
If
you’re interested in learning more about Elijah, these scripture references are
printed in your bulletin insert.
Today’s
story is the culminating story of the relationship between Elijah and
Elisha.
I
picked this story not because it has this inexplicable whirlwind ending,
but because this story has something to teach us about
how we pass along our faith.
If we narrow our focus and look at this story closely,
what we see is a model for our own discipleship -- how we learn to follow
Jesus.
By the
time Elisha asked Elijah for a double portion of his prophetic spirit,
he was
ready for that great gift because he had been hanging around Elijah,
learning
and growing, for a very long time. He had been mentored by Elijah. Elisha was a disciple.
This is
not just some ancient idea. We still
learn this way.
Plumbers
and carpenters and electricians are good example.
I was
out walking my dog yesterday and walked past an electrician’s van
parked
on the street, with the name of the company, phone number, and all the rest,
painted on the truck. But I also noticed
a bumper sticker that said “Have you hugged your apprentice today?”
No
matter what we do for a living - teacher, paralegal, nurse, computer wizard,
accountant, sales, landscaper -
you
know that to do your work well, you had to have some pretty intensive
training. Many times, the training
starts in school. But very often, it
continues as we work alongside others who help train us.
How
could we expect it to be any different when it comes to learning our Christian
faith? This Way of Jesus doesn’t come
naturally to us. How could loving your
enemies, doing good to those who hate you,
turning
away from temptation come naturally?
How
could the idea “it is more blessed to give than to receive” come
naturally?
There
has been some discussion of how we pass
along our faith
during
the past month right here at PCCC. A group
of us met on Tuesday evenings as a pray and think tank.
Our
purpose was to discern and decide directions for Christian education.
My
sense has told me that we need more learning opportunities here in this church;
but my
sensibilities told me that other people must be on board to make it
happen.
We
began our first session by exploring scripture and praying.
What
came from this was pretty amazing.
Ordinary folks - people who sit next to you in the pews -
saying
things like “our model for this is Jesus.
Jesus was a teacher.”
“Christian
education is our mission in the world.
It’s something we can’t NOT do. Tradition teaches us that future
generations depend on us passing along the faith.” Another member of the groups shared this
insight:
“We
must plant our roots in Jesus Christ.”
As a
result of our gathering and meeting and praying and thinking together,
we have
decided to go forward with an expanded Sunday School program this fall.
There
are highlights of that in your bulletin insert today. And there’s more to come. Part of our planning also means we need
your input. There is a survey which you heard about from Pat Padrick.
Please
take the time today to fill this out and return it in the red box in the
narthex.
But I
want for us to be clear about what we are doing.
This is
not just about programs, although there will be new programs.
It is about what we are doing as a church to form
disciples of Jesus.
To encourage commitment to the Christian life, which
can look so different from our worldly lives.
The
questions we must ask ourselves both as individuals and as a church are:
What is
shaping and forming us? Who are we being
formed and shaped to follow?
Not too
long ago, I talked to one of the ministers in a big church in this area.
She
shared with me her perception of what was happening in her church.
Many of
the participants and members were what she called “one-hour Christians” coming
to church on Sunday a.m. for a sort of fast food, in-and-out spiritual
experience. With this kind of experience
people don’t grow any deeper, don’t learn any more, Aren’t being shaped and
formed into followers of Jesus.
This
isn’t what discipleship is. If you look
at Elijah and Elisha as examples, if you look at the apostles and Jesus as
examples, you can see important features of discipleship: Commitment and relationship.
In this
story, Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.
They
have both been faithful and committed
servants of God,
and
both of them know that spirit must come from God.
This
commitment has been in the context of their own relationship, another feature of discipleship.
As
Elijah’s life comes to a close, Elisha refused to leave his mentor:
“I will
not leave you,” he says, 3 times.
Commitment and relationship are just as critical as we
pass along our faith today.
Today
we gathered for worship, but also had the privilege of gathering as the body of
Christ
to
witness the baptism of Grace. Baptism is
an ancient ritual, going way back to the early Christian church,
and
even before that. It was part of a way
of forming and shaping disciples of Jesus Christ.
Even
though baptism has changed over the centuries, there is a continued emphasis on
baptism as a commitment.
In the
first century of the church, a great deal of commitment was expected
before people
were baptized in to new life in Christ.
There
is an ancient book that was rediscovered in the 1850s called the Didache[1] -
that’s
a Greek word which means the systematic training
that a
mentor would give to an understudy.
The Didache is a book that prepared the gentiles, step-by-step,
for the
The
book begins like this: “There are two
ways: one of life and one of death!
And
there is a great difference between the two ways.
On the
one hand, then, the way of life is this:
first: you will love the God who made you; second: you will love your
neighbor as yourself.” The book offered
a 3- year, intensive mentoring program that culminated in baptism. Commitment
and relationships were emphasized. Although
we no longer have this sort of preparation for baptism, what hasn’t changed is that commitment and relationships help form
us as followers of Jesus Christ.
There
is a growing movement in youth ministry these days called Family Based Youth
Ministry.
What
church leaders have been realizing is that passing along the faith to youth
is more
than Sunday evening entertainment.
It has
to focus on developing caring, mentoring relationships
between
young people and caring adults.
If you
want faith to stick, that’s how it’s
done - through relationships.
The great strength about a church of our size
is that these kind of relationships almost develop
naturally.
This is
not a program - it’s an idea that is woven through everything we do.
The
idea is that if the church wants to make a life-long impact on the faith of its
youth, wants to shape young disciples of Jesus, it must focus on forming caring
relationships between youth and adults.
In this
story about Elisha and Elijah, after Elisha picks up the mantle from his
mentor,
he also
has picked up the prophetic powers of his mentor.
He has
been shaped into a prophet of God, and it is immediately apparent to all those
who see him.
The
question for us is: Are we being shaped and formed as disciples?
Can
anyone tell we are Christians, disciples of Jesus?
I read
a story recently of a middle-aged woman who went into an ice cream store.
She
happened to be wearing a cross on a necklace.
The
young man behind the counter commented on how beautiful her cross was.
After
admiring it for a few moments, he looked at her and asked, “Do you
practice?”
He
assumed there was a difference between wearing a cross and practicing the Christian
faith.
He
wanted to know if the cross signified something in this woman’s life.
He
didn’t ask “Do you go to church?” or “Are you a Christian?”
He
wanted to know “Do you practice?” [2]
If we
are to be true disciples of Christ -- not just dabblers in Christianity, there
is no lite version of our faith.
To be
disciples of Jesus Christ requires commitment.
To be
disciples of Jesus Christ takes place in relationship with each other.
We call
ourselves Disciples in this church. Do
we practice?