Prophet Margin, Part 3

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, June 27, 2010.  The text for this week's passage is 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14.

Last week, we looked at the story of Elijah in the wilderness.  We were left with the piercing question that God asks Elijah, “What are you doing here?”  Certainly it is a question that we have to ask ourselves from time to time to make sure that we are staying on track in responding to the call of ministry that we all have. 

Following his experience in the wilderness, Elijah leaves and comes across a guy plowing in the fields.  Elijah casts his cloak (or mantle in some translations) upon him, and essentially calls Elisha to follow him.  Elisha then becomes Elijah’s assistant in his prophetic ministry.  From this point until we get to where we find ourselves in today’s Scripture there are a few other good stories to share, but you’re just going to have to read them for yourself.

At the beginning of today’s passage, we know right away what is going to happen.  It begins by saying, “When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind.”  That’s pretty self-explanatory, which tells me that Elijah being taken up in the whirlwind is not necessarily the most important thing that is going to happen in this passage, and the more time I spent thinking and praying over this passage, the more I realized that was indeed the case.  It’s not about the end of the story.  It’s about the journey and the transition.  What I’d like to do this morning is look at the journey that Elijah and Elisha take through this passage, and explore why those locations are important for us, even today.

As the chapter begins, Elijah and Elisha are traveling away from the town of Gilgal.  Gilgal was a pretty significant town in the history of the Israelites.  It was the first place where the Israelites camped after crossing the Jordan River and entering the Promised Land.  Gilgal is a place of new beginnings.  It is an appropriate place to start today because we are going to see a new beginning in just a few short verses.

Now, this may be an absolutely ridiculous question, but where do most of our journeys start?  Our journeys start at the beginning.  It sounds kind of obvious, but if we really stop to think about it, it’s more profound than we believe.  When we enter into a new phase in our lives, when we start a new journey, we have to start at the beginning.  What’s that mean, though?  It means that we aren’t necessarily tied down to the past.  It means that we have a clean slate with which to work.  We are never totally divorced from our past, but we don’t have to be held back by it either.

I think I’ve shared it before but, it’s good, so I’ll share it again.  When I was in seminary, our president said, “The Church that got us to where we are today is not the Church that is going to get us where we need to be in the future.”  Now, at the time, he was talking more specifically about the United Methodist Church as a denomination, but I think the same can be said for all churches – big, small, denominational, non-denominational, urban, and rural.  What got us to where we are today will not be able to get us to where we need to be in the future.  It was good enough to get us here, but now we want to go beyond here and move to there.

Now, before you hit the panic button, let me make something clear.  I’m not saying that we are going to change the way we do everything around here.  I’m not necessarily saying that we need to shift to a different style of worship or anything like that.  But we have to ask ourselves two questions: 1) “Where do we want to be in 10 years?” and 2) “What do we have to do to get there?”  These questions are not about changing the mechanics of what we do; they are about changing the mentalities and attitudes behind what we are doing.

Today’s Scripture is about journey and transition.  Do we have an attitude and a mentality that will lead us into the future that God has for us?  What are the transitions that we need to make in order to make God’s future for us a reality?  There is no better way to prepare for the future than to realize that we are in need of a new beginning.  That’s an attitude and mentality issue.  We need to have a place like Gilgal – a first stop in a new journey.  

We are told that the prophets are going from Gilgal to Bethel.  Bethel was another important place in the history of Israel.  It is mentioned several times in the book of Joshua, which details the conquering of the Promised Land, but more significantly, Bethel is the location of Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28.  In this dream, Jacob encounters God, who promises that the land all around him would belong to his offspring.  Bethel is a place of revelation and dreams.

Do we have dreamers here this morning?  I’m not talking about the kind of dreamer that just sits back and wonders what life would be like with a few million dollars.  I’m not talking about the kind of dreamer that fantasizes about telling off the boss or living the life of a rock star.  I’m talking about the dreamers that pray about and listen for God’s call in their lives.  I’m talking about the people who are open to God’s revelation in their life.

Do we reflect on the future?  Do we reflect on what can happen if we only submit ourselves entirely to God?  It sounds a little crazy when I put it like that, but we need people that can see an ideal future.  If people aren’t thinking and dreaming about what God has in store for us as a congregation, we will never get there.  We need people to be dreaming about an ideal future, and we need people willing to do what it takes to get there.  

I have been reading a book lately and one of the chapters is about how we need to slaughter some of the sacred cows in the local church because they can get in the way of what God is trying to do through us.  I want you to think about what some of those sacred cows may be in your own life, or in the life of this congregation.  What are the things that can potentially get in the way of what God is trying to do, but we hold on to them because “that’s the way it has always been”?  

If we are looking towards the ideal future, if we are really dreaming about what God has in store for us, then we need to realize that some things don’t really matter.  God’s revelation of where we could be has to surpass everything else that we think is important.  We need to have places like Bethel, places where it is okay to dream and to follow those dreams.

The next stop on the journey is Jericho.  Jericho is one of the better-known cities of the Old Testament.  It was the location where the Israelites claimed their first major victory as they began their conquest of the Promised Land.  Jericho stands for the victories and the promises of God that have been fulfilled.  The story of Jericho also helps remind us that our victories are not our victories; they are God’s victories.

When the people went to attack Jericho, they were given very odd orders.  They were going to march around the city… for six days.  But on the seventh day, they were going to lay siege to the city’s walls and attack, right?  No, that’s not what they did.  On the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times, then the priests would blast their trumpets, and the people would yell.  That was their battle plan. 

Anybody want to suggest that plan to a high ranking official in the United States Army?  No, of course not, it’s a ridiculous plan.  And I can imagine that when Joshua told the people his plan, they thought to themselves, “Who put this guy in charge?”  But that’s just the point, isn’t it?  Joshua wasn’t the one that was in charge.  The people weren’t the ones who were going to claim a great victory over Jericho.  It was God, and as ridiculous as that plan sounded, the walls around Jericho came down and the Israelites emerged victorious.

When you look back at the victories in your life, or when we look back at the victories in our church, who gets the credit?  Do we pat ourselves on the back and say, “Good job, self!”  Or do we realize that the victories we celebrate in our lives come not from our own hard work, but from the grace of God?  Jericho reminds us of our victories, but it is also a reminder of who gets the credit for our victories.

We can look back on our past and talk about the good times, but the thing we have to remember is that God was the one who led us there.  And sometimes, in order to gain a victory, we have to be willing to do something that is unconventional.  Comfort with where we have been can be devastating to where we need to go.  If we are willing to follow God into the future that He has promised us, we must be willing to do something from time to time that may seem a little crazy.  What does that mean?

It’s going to mean something different for each one of us.  For some, it might mean taking the time to read through the Bible this year.  For some, it may mean reaching out to that neighbor that you never really talk to, or talking about your faith with those people at work.  For some, it may mean helping “those people.”  It’s going to look different for each person.  But there are two things that are going to be constant: 1) the need to listen for God’s direction, and 2) the need to give Him the credit.  There certainly is victory, but it is not our victory, it is God’s.

The fourth and final stop on the journey of Elijah and Elisha is the Jordan River.  The Jordan River was another significant landmark in the journeys of the nation of Israel.  It was the place where the Israelites entered the Promised Land.  It marked the end of their wilderness wanderings, and the beginning of their new life.  It was a place of transition, and that is certainly the case here for the two prophets.

We are told that Elijah takes his cloak, or his mantle, his symbol of prophetic authority, rolls it up and smacks the water with it.  Again, it sounds like a crazy thing to do, but what happens?  The water stops flowing, and the two prophets cross over on dry ground.  Of course, this would evoke memory of the Israelites crossing the Jordan River on dry ground when they came into the Promised Land.  The priests went ahead of the nation carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and when they stood in the river, the waters stopped flowing, and all of Israel passed by them into the Promised Land.

This journey of the prophets has come full circle, literally.  Gilgal was near the Jordan River, and they made a circle right back to the Jordan River as they traveled.  In this story, the area of the Jordan River serves as both an ending and a beginning.  Physically, it is where the story began and where it ends, but more significantly, it is where the ministry of Elijah ends and the ministry of Elisha begins.  The Jordan River stands in this story as a point where the baton gets passed.  A transition takes place.  There are some very important lessons for us to take away from this portion of today’s passage as well.

First, there are seasons to ministry.  No matter what we think, or how hard we try, there are seasons when a particular aspect of our ministry needs to come to an end.  We see this all the time in the secular world, but for some reason, we fail to acknowledge it in our spiritual world.  

Just a few weeks ago, Ken Griffey Jr., one of the greatest players in my generation, retired from baseball, but many people were wondering why he was still around in the first place.  He was long past his effective years and wasn’t contributing very much to the team.  Simply put, he stayed for too long.  People recognized it.  It seems like the last person to realize that Ken Griffey Jr. should retire was Ken Griffey Jr.  This happens in ministry as well.  People stay past their effectiveness.

Now, let me make something clear here: people staying past their effectiveness has nothing to do with age.  I’ve said it before, and I stand by it – you are never too old to accomplish God’s will in your life.  It has nothing to do with age, and everything to do with it being time to move on in ministry.  We have to be willing to recognize when it is time to transition out of something.  And this isn’t always about people either.

The same is true for ministries.  Ministries have their seasons.  They may start out great, but, over time, lose their effectiveness.  This happens for all sorts of reasons, but it’s important to realize when a particular ministry is no longer effective and when it is time to move in a new direction.

Secondly, this passage is about journey and transition.  We have to be willing to travel alongside other people and we have to be willing to allow them to transition into their ministry.  How much could Elisha have done if Elijah were still around?  People wouldn’t come to Elisha; they would still be going to Elijah.  Elisha never would have had the opportunity to fulfill his ministry because Elijah would have still been doing all the work.

I’m a firm believer that we need to be training people to replace us.  When we do that, we recognize a couple of things.  First, training others helps us recognize that we aren’t going to be around forever.  In spite of what happens to Elijah here, the human mortality rate is still pretty much 100%.  We aren’t going to be around forever, and we need to be able to allow others to continue what we have started when the time comes.

Second, training others helps us recognize that there are seasons in our ministries.  There will be times when we have to step aside and allow somebody else to take over.  Sometimes, this is so that our ministries can go to the next level.  Sometimes it is so we can move on to something different that God has in store for us.  Even Jesus trained people to do ministry when he was gone.  If Jesus did it, how much more do we need to do it?

As we walk alongside Elijah and Elisha in this passage, we come across some significant locations in the history of Israel.  These locations would have served as a reminder of the history of the nation, and the original readers would have seen some significance in what is going on.  The fact that Elijah was taken into heaven in a whirlwind really isn’t the main part of the story.  Again, we know this from the very beginning.  It is not a surprise.  What we learn and where we go along the way is what is really important for us.

Perhaps we can say the same about life.  We all know how this life is going to end.  We may not know the details of how we get there, but that is kind of the point.  We aren’t called to know the end, we are called to be obedient and to learn from the journey.  There will always be a need for new beginnings; let’s recognize when it is time to start fresh.  There will always be a need for dreamers and those who listen for God’s revelation; let’s not block them with what we think is important in order to maintain our comfort.  There will be victories; let’s make sure we give God the credit.  There will be times for us to pass the torch; let us be prepared to leave a legacy.