Elijah,
Elisha and the Mentor’s Spirit
Sermon
preached at Midway Hills Christian Church
September
25, 2004
2
Kings 2:9-15; Luke 16:19-31
The
thing I cherish most about growing up Southern Baptist is a love and knowledge
of Scripture.
How
many of us are Vacation Bible School graduates? Besides making jewelry containers out of macaroni shells and
cigar boxes, my next favorite thing was Bible drills and Bible
memorization. We were given strips of
construction paper containing the names of each book of the Bible and there was
this wall with large envelopes attached to it representing the different
divisions of the Bible. Our task was to
put the appropriate books in the appropriate biblical category.
Two
of those categories were called: Former
Prophets and Later Prophets. The Former
Prophets were those books of the Bible that contained stories about
prophets like Elijah and Elisha—the books of 1st and 2nd
Kings. And the Later Prophets
were those books named after prophets like Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Scholars
(and Vacation Bible School Teachers) have attempted over the years to
categorize the Hebrew Prophets. Another
way to conceptualize the development of prophecy in the Old Testament is to
speak of the ‘pre-writing’ and ‘writing’ prophets. Pre-writing prophets are those prophets for whom we have
more stories about them than we do their actual words, or what they
prophesied. Writing prophets are
those prophets whose words have endured more than the stories of their lives.
Elijah
and Elisha are pre-writing prophets and we have story after story of their
prophetic adventures in the books of 1st and 2nd
Kings. Now, lest Bill think that I am
trying to cheat here and pick two prophets instead of one for today…what I
really want to focus on is the story in 2nd Kings of the transfer of
leadership from Elijah to Elisha.
The
first time Elisha shows up in scripture is in 1 Kings 19. Elijah has recently had his encounter with
the 400 prophets of Baal and the still small voice of God on Mt. Horeb. On his way from the mountain to the
wilderness of Damascus Elijah ‘finds’ Elisha plowing in a field. He passes by him and throws his mantle over
Elisha. And scripture says that Elisha
‘set out and followed Elijah and became his servant.’
Elisha
is not mentioned again until the end of Elijah’s ministry. I can’t help wondering what went on between
these two prophets. Unlike Jesus and
the disciples, we do not have any stories, or sermons, or parables that Elijah
told to Elisha to prepare him to carry on the prophetic legacy. All we have is this account in 2nd
Kings. A story that I believe is not
about the death of Elijah, but the continuance of a legacy.
There
were quite a few of us here at the church yesterday for an all day, all church
leadership planning retreat. And as we
set ministry goals for 2005 and reflected on our 50th year as a
congregation, my mind kept coming back to this story in 2nd
Kings. What does this story tell us
about being the church? What does it
tell us postmodern Christians about leadership and ministry?
Marsha
Sinetar has
written an important book for leadership and ministry in post-modern
times: The Mentor’s Spirit: Life
Lessons on Leadership and the Art of Encouragement. She claims:
We need mentors—wise and faithful guides, advisers,
or teachers—the wisdom keepers of an entire family, a sprawling corporation, or
community. Much more, we need the
mentor’s spirit: an unseen, affirming
influence and positive energy. The
mentor’s spirit is the heart’s posture pervading healthy relationships in every
family, classroom or organization….The mentor’s spirit animates our life. It moves us toward wholeness and
authenticity. It gives us the green
light to become distinctive contributors with the context of our life in
community….When the mentor’s spirit is absent, we find dependency, an erosion
of optimism and impaired problem solving.
Midway
Hills Christian Church is at crossroads in its history. We turn 50 next year. Charter members and long time members are in
our midst. Recent members and new
members have joined themselves to the legacy of this church. We are a congregation of Elijah’s and
Elisha’s and now more than ever we need the mentor’s spirit. We need the affirming influence and positive
energy that will animate our life together and move us toward wholeness and
authenticity.
What
is required for the mentor’s spirit to be present in a community of faith? What is needed to pass the mantle of
leadership? I believe this story from 2nd
Kings can give us some guidance on these questions.
Notice
that each prophet is aware of the need to continue the legacy. Elijah asks Elisha, ‘Tell me what I may do
for you.” To which Elisha responds,
“Please, let me inherit a double share of your spirit.”
Tell
me what I may do for you. For those of us who identify
with Elijah there must be a willingness to share our ministry. This sharing comes from a place of deep
satisfaction and peace about the work we have done over the years. The work hasn’t always been easy and there
may be a certain reticence to let go of hard won accomplishments. But the mentor’s spirit reminds us that it
is not so much a letting go as it is a passing on. And notice that it is not Elisha that speaks first. It is Elijah who takes the initiative to
pass on the legacy.
Elisha
asks for a double share of Elijah’s spirit.
Elisha requests of Elijah what an eldest son would expect of a father as
his inheritance. He asks for a double portion, not to be better than Elijah,
but to honor Elijah. He does not ask for a double portion of prophetic
powers, or a double portion of disciples, but a double portion of Elijah’s
spirit. Elijah’s spirit—the
mentor’s spirit—an unseen affirming influence, a positive energy that breathes
life into a ministry and an entire community.
In these words there is an understanding that somehow Elijah will always
be present in Elisha’s ministry.
I
am struck by what Elijah says next: “You have asked a hard thing.” Well at least Elijah was honest. And that’s what we need to be as we seek to
invoke the mentor’s spirit. It is
hard. It is hard because we are
afraid to ask, or afraid to share. It
is hard because we want to control the outcome. It is hard because there is no sure fire way to make it
happen. It is hard because ultimately
it is God’s doing, not our own.
I
think that is what Elijah means when he goes on to say “if you see me as I am
being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not.” And as they continued walking and talking a
chariot of fire and horses of fire took Elijah up into heaven in a
whirlwind. Both Elijah and Elisha
experienced the presence and the power of God in that moment.
Out
of that experience Elisha was left with Elijah’s mantle. The same mantle that had been wrapped around
him the day Elijah found him in the field.
We don’t know a whole lot about the mantle. Distinguishing dress often identified prophets who traveled in
groups or guilds. I like to think of
the mantle as representative of the mentor’s spirit. In the actions and attitudes of Elisha, the
distinguishing characteristics of Elijah could be seen and felt. And that is precisely what happens.
The
company of prophets—the larger group of Elijah’s disciples—saw Elisha at a
distance and they said to themselves:
“The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.”
Continuing
a legacy is hard, and it is ultimately God’s work, and it happens in the
context of community. That is
how Elisha knows and that is how we know that the mentor’s spirit rests on us
and is among us. We bear witness to the
work God is doing among us and in us.
And it is important to speak that witness.
Old
Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann calls the Hebrew Prophets ‘generative
personalities.’ They see what others do
not see and redescribe reality in powerful language. They leave behind them a powerful and enduring influence that
brings about the preservation of their words and a remembrance of their
acts. The residue of the remembered words
and acts became the core of many of the prophetic books of the Bible. These generative personalities left behind a
vision of reality shared by friends, allies and disciples. They created a living tradition that
prompted new prophetic speech that continued to be faithful to the original
vision.
Last
week I visited with Dene and Howard Broders and as I was leaving Dene gave me a
copy of the history of Midway Hills Christian Church that was written for our
40th anniversary. I was
particularly struck by these closing words:
The early members gave us direction and passed on
their hopes and dreams for Midway Hills.
New members have kept these dreams alive and have added to them with
their own. Those charter member who are
left charge the present members never to forget our church roots. Live your faith in God with responsibility, and
always work for peace, justice and wholeness.
That
was ten years ago. Look around
you. We are a congregation of Elijah’s
and Elisha’s. Some of us need to say,
“Tell me what I may do for you.” Some
of us need to say, “Please, let me inherit a double share of your spirit.”
May the mentor’s spirit and the Holy Spirit move us toward wholeness and authenticity in our next 50 years together. Amen.