Not Always Easy, but Always Worth It

This week in Sunday Services, we heard readings from Psalm 77 and 2 Kings 2. As a general rule, the Psalm responds to the Old Testament reading. The first 14 verses of 2 Kings are the story of Elijah's assumption into heaven and Elisha's assumption of Elijah's role as God's prophet to Israel. Psalm 77 recalls the story of the Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea. How are these themes related to each other? I think that's a good question to ask any time we're reading two or more passages of Scripture in mutual context.

The RCL reading from 2 Kings skips an important piece of the story, so we actually miss just how doggedly Elisha follows Elijah on their last couple of days together on earth, and the human dynamics of it. The story begins in Gilgal. Elijah tells Elisha, "Stay here. God has sent me to Bethel." Elisha refuses and follows Elijah to Bethel. When they get to Bethel, the company of prophets there tells Elisha God is going to take Elijah that day. Elisha tells them he knows, so hush. Elijah says, "Stay here. God has sent me to Jericho."  Elisha refuses and goes with Elijah to Jericho. Elisha has the same conversation with the company of the prophets at Jericho as he had with those at Bethel: "Yes, I know. Be quiet." 

At Jericho, Elijah says, "Stay here. God has sent me to the Jordan." Once again, Elisha refuses and keeps Elijah company on his journey. When they reach the Jordan, another group of the company of the prophets is there, watching at a distance. They don't say anything. Elijah strikes the water, parts the Jordan, and crosses. On the far side of the Jordan, in the territory belonging the tribe of Gad, Elisha and Elijah are finally parted. Elisha watches Elijah until he can't see him any longer, then tears his robes. He takes up Elijah's mantle and goes back to the Jordan. He strikes the water and cries out "Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?" The waters part and Elisha crosses over. It seems like a triumphant ending as a new prophet embarks upon his ministry in power.

If we overlook or under-appreciate the cultural details of this story, we might miss the indications Elisha is having a really bad day. The first thing to notice is the geography. It might help to get a map of the Divided Kingdom here. When we look at where this story starts, where it ends, and where it goes in the middle, Elijah and Elisha seem to be going in circles. They start at Gilgal, which is close to the Jordan, travel some 20 miles to Bethel, then double back to Jericho, which is also close to the Jordan but a little further south than Gilgal. Then they cross the Jordan. Elisha has gotten a couple of clear warnings their time together is about to end and multiple invitations to stop and stay where he is. He tells the prophets to hush, tells Elijah he's not staying behind, and keeps going. They've spent the entire day walking. Even if we assume they're really good at walking long distances, because that's how most people in that time got anywhere, they've got to be tired. I daresay Elijah and Elisha are both also dealing with the emotional stress of the separation they both know is coming. They might have been experiencing some of what Paul had in mind when he wrote the Philippians: "For me, living is Christ and dying is gain." For Elisha, following Elijah knowing they were about to be parted, and then taking up his mantle afterward, was Christ. For Elijah, ascending into Heaven was gain.

Elisha cries out "Father, Father! The Chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" Perhaps that's equal parts grief and amazement, or grief and joy. He knows he is losing Elijah. He knows Elijah is going to God. That doesn't diminish the grief or tension for us, so I doubt it would have for him. The clearest evidence of Elisha's distress is the way he tears his own clothes after he loses sight of Elisha. We see this sort of response to grief or outrage time and again in Scripture. Folks who tear their clothes sometimes trade them for sackcloth and sit down in the dirt, or sprinkle their own heads with dust or ashes. 

Elisha didn't trade his torn robes for sackcloth, or sit down in the dirt and grieve, however. He takes up the fallen mantle and goes back to the Jordan and tries to cross as they had before. If you read this in the NRSVUE, the text indicates Elisha strikes the water, but it doesn't part. "Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? Where is he?" he asks. That's a demanding question. "Are you here with me, God?" is just the sort of question we ask in our grief. It's also almost a play on words. I'm not a Hebrew scholar, so all I can notice here is Elijah's name (Eli-Jah) means "My God is the LORD." Elisha asks, "Where is The LORD, the God of My-God-Is-The-LORD?" Is the God of Elijah also the God of Elisha, or is Elisha on his own?

He strikes the water again and crosses over. He's taken up the mantle of the prophet, but his own clothes are still in tatters. As he asked "Where is the Lord?" he might have been feeling the first few verses of Psalm 77: "I cried aloud to God, Aloud to God, that he might hear me. In my distress I sought the LORD, at night I stretched out my hands without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted." 

He too had seen the whirlwind, but instead of a great storm delivering God's people as at the Red Sea, the whirlwind had taken his mentor from him. He might have remembered, too, all the ways and times God had parted the waters for Israel. Elisha crossed on dry ground, as the Israelites had.

This comes back to something our Youth Director said about U.M. Army this Sunday. "It's not always easy, but it's always worth it."I think that applies to ministry in general - VBS, UM Army, Big House, choir tour, and so on. It's not easy to pick up and move from Richmond to Texarkana, or from Tyler to Richmond, or from Magnolia to Idaho. It's not easy to answer a call when it mostly feels like walking in circles, to borrow an image from my last candidacy summit, or stepping right off the edge of the map. The moment of vindication might come when we're torn up and broken down, so that it doesn't feel like our victory. That's probably for the best. It isn't our victory, ever. "We have this treasure in jars of clay so that the incomparable power is clearly from God, and not from us." It's not as if Elijah or Elisha parted the waters of the Jordan. God did that. In the same way, our victories are never our own. We don't deliver ourselves. We don't part the waters by sheer force of will. We can only rely on God.

In the Name 

of the Father, 

and of the Son, 

and of the Holy Spirit,

Amen 

 

  

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