title: I Will Not Leave You

II Kings 2:1-14

2Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Stay here; for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.’ But Elisha said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So they went down to Bethel. 3The company of prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, ‘Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I know; keep silent.’

4 Elijah said to him, ‘Elisha, stay here; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.’ But he said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So they came to Jericho. 5The company of prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, ‘Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?’ And he answered, ‘Yes, I know; be silent.’

6 Then Elijah said to him, ‘Stay here; for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.’ But he said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So the two of them went on. 7Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. 8Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.

9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.’ Elisha said, ‘Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.’ 10He responded, ‘You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not.’ 11As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. 12Elisha kept watching and crying out, ‘Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!’ But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

13 He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, ‘Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?’ When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.

It is remarkable how Elijah and Elisha were with one another!

Elijah told Elisha three times, Stay here. And three time Elisha replied to his traveling teacher, I will not leave you.

Elisha was just as abrupt with the companies of prophets. When they told Elisha what they knew was about to happen he told them, Keep silent.

Is there a mutuality, a way of being with one another, that does not meet the eye? Was the author portraying communications that just don’t translate to us. It sounds like, Here is a test. Are you able, worthy? Stay here, is somehow an invitation to keep up? Can you keep up?

No doubt this scripture was written from the context of a powerful social hierarchy, not only did one people and tribe oppress another but there was a strong paternalism. In that sort of social structure not only do men oppress women, but men oppress other men, that’s what hierarchy is. This connection between paternalism and racism is one we still struggle against. And it would be easy to focus on the shortcomings of the age from which we have received this word, but we are hear to listen to the word and to see if the spirit doesn’t still have something to say to us.

And what is remarkable to me is how Elijah and Elisha were with one another.

From the Christian scriptures we have a guide for how to treat each other, we all know the golden rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you. Lk. 6:31

Other formulations:

In the reading from Galatians Paul reminds us of the second great commandment,

Love your neighbor as yourself.

John, love one another. (not a feeling, behavior.)

At first it may not seem like this story has much to help us understand the golden rule, neighbor love, love of one another, mutuality. We don’t see that that is how we would want to be treated. We don’t see easy illustrations of loving our neighbor. Of course, not everything in the scriptures needs to exemplify everything else. This story is mostly about the transition of power from Elijah to his successor, Elisha.

But it does raise a question for us, How are were these heroic men with each other?

We do recognize that at the end they were, “walking and talking,” together. So, strange as some of their ways of relating to each other may seem to us, if we suppose that the exchanges between Elijah and Elisha signal some sort of mutuality, how is mutuality expressed today?

Conversation after church, cookies and coffee? How to get to know someone well enough to have a deep important conversation? How to signal to newcomers that it might be possible to develop that sort of relationship here? One neighborhood church (Lutherans), a place for trusted friendships.

Simple practices, if I want to be greeted then I had better greet others. If I want respect then I must respect others.

A question for us who have been doing church for years:

How to be with someone who is not used to doing church, who is constantly checking their phone for texts, or checking out facebook updates, updating their own facebook page, or checking out twitters? Who doesn’t watch any of the same TV shows and when they do watch TV at all, they do it while playing games on their laptop? (With a scowl of disapproval? Teach them some manners?)

We look back to the way Elijah and Elisha were with each other and we have to wonder, How strange is too strange? Instead we challenge ourselves. Can you receive this person as he or she is? Start where they are? Reach for that moment when the one hears something that captures their interest so that they put down their phone or look up from their netbook or e-reader and replies with sufficient intensity that the other focuses and responds from a depth of compassion, so for at least a moment it is the two or three people engaged with one another, deeply engaged in that moment, with all that is present in that moment, with no technological supports, just those spirits and a wiff of The spirit.

We are used to some stereotypes of how to be with one another? Men walking and talking, working and talking. Women, sewing and talking. Drinking and talking.

Need to go deeper.

Start with yourself, What does it take for someone really to be with you? What do you appreciate?

Practice, Learning to be with God. What an opportunity we have to grow and lean!

Sharing our explorations with others.

Does church give us an opportunity for that kind of sharing, or are we always gathering to get the preacher’s answers? And being polite, or political, or self-indulgent, just getting what we need?

Mutuality is something to work on.

We do this by staying in relationship, I will not leave you (not a common behavior). Do not neglect covenant of membership, walking and talking together.

Reflect, what do you want?

Share.

Continuing walking and talking with one another, until that sweet chariot swings low to take God’s dear one from us. And even then to know we are not alone, not without history, we live with God and the great cloud of witnesses who surround us. And we invite one another to be fully present to this every moment of God’s coming.

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Notes:

This sermon would get off to a lot better start if we were all enjoying hors d’oeuvres. I’m afraid that as host I was stumped by trying figure out what to serve you at this hour of the morning to get you in the mood. So I am going to have to rely on you to be forgiving guests and for now to just imagine that  it is already bunch time you have your favorite beverage or appetizer in hand. Now we can start.

Most Christians know that before Easter comes a season of preparation, the season of Lent, a 40 day period of getting ourselves ready for Easter, many people think of a time of repentance. But it is a little complicated. If you take your calendar and start on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent and start counting 40 days you only get to Palm Sunday, not Easter. So what’s up with that?

The reason is that when you are counting the days of Lent, you don’t count the Sundays. And the reason you don’t count the Sundays is because of what the father told the elder son in the reading from Luke this morning, “But we had to celebrate and rejoice.” Christian gatherings and especially Sunday worship have always been times to celebrate and rejoice. We don’t usually think of Christians as such party animals, but that is a big part of our heritage. What we learn from Paul’s letters to the church in Corinth is that it was sometimes taken too far, but they weren’t altogether on the wrong track, and let me tell you, those Corinthians knew how to party.

In the story Jesus told, the son who had turned his back on his family and squandered his half of their wealth was received back with joy and celebration. The father explained to the elder, respectful, dutiful son, But we had to celebrate and rejoice.

Well, the father said it, but you know the elder son was thinking, No we don’t! We don’t have to celebrate this irresponsible, ignorant low-life, just because he figured out he could come home and get a meal. There’s nothing to celebrate here.
But in this story Luke shows us Jesus teaching the church to find joy in the lost being found, in the dead coming alive. Jesus calls the church to celebrate God’s work in the world. That is a big part of our worship and that is the reason Sundays could never be counted as days of repentance. Sunday is the day we rejoice in what God has done. First, Sunday is the day we celebrate God raising Jesus from the dead. Then Sunday is the day we celebrate what God has been doing in our lives and in the world around us. Our liberating, creative God has been at work and we honor God by celebrating. We continue the ministry of Jesus by inviting people to celebrate with us.

Now, not everyone is on board with this. For sure there are people who want to put off any celebrating until there is a little more of a track record for this young man. Certainly some would want to see some data showing what impact any church outreach ministry might have had in bringing him to make such a positive decision. And in the story we haven’t heard how he is going to be accountable for how he lives from now on. We haven’t really even heard his testimony so that we know what we did right and who to congratulate. And shouldn’t this young man have to play by the rules we follow for a while to show that he has made a serious commitment? Shouldn’t he have to live a life that contributes to the church as we have conceived it and built it and practiced it and supported it and sacrificed for it before we throw him a party? As I said, not everyone is on board with this celebrate thing.

There are lots of church ministries and a wide variety of social service agencies which do commendable work building up the community as they help people in a wide variety of ways to be more whole and healthy. Lots of Christians find a calling in this work both as professionals and as volunteers. Christians respond to what God has done by being the best human being we can be, mourning with those who mourn and sharing one another’s burdens. It isn’t that we do this better than others, but we do make it our religious duty to be the best human beings we know how, we mourn with those who mourn and share one another’s burdens.

But Jesus invites his followers to the specific work of celebrating what God has done and is doing  The church is on the lookout for God raising the dead, finding the lost, healing, restoring, reconciling, redeeming. (We aren’t looking for the inexplicable, but the work that is God’s and God’s alone,  the impact of the whole on the part, the ultimate on the temporal.)  And we celebrate that wherever it appears. In this state the torture of young Black men by police under Jon Burge has resulted in an astounding number of instances when our community has welcomed back men who have spent years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. For the church this is an opportunity to celebrate God at work slowly healing our community. In a nation suffering from an irrationally high rate of incarceration  it is all too common for a young man to find himself in prison and have to work through the death of who he has been and find in God liberation and healing in the life he will have behind bars. The church’s job is to be there to celebrate life with him. In a society where violence toward women is far too common many women have to struggle for wholeness and health after being victimized. The church has the opportunity to be with them and to celebrate all the victories of re-establishing a sense of self and empowerment. When people who have died to the community because of drug use or any other addiction find that God has freed them from such their addicted behavior and they are alive again, and the church celebrates. When in the passing of a loved one, family, friends, and even the church itself finds an affirmation of the love that God gives us in life and death, then we throw a dinner celebration. When any of us finds that God gives us new freedom from the bonds and stresses that restrain us from loving freely, then the church celebrates. That’s a lot of parties.

We celebrate because the church is where we value the journey to God. We encourage one another in the journey. We value  and pay attention to God in our lives and at work in the world. No one else is going to do this. This is the church’s work, we value the God we know God in Jesus. We claim the reality of God. We make this who we are.

We are formed around taking the time to know joy. Setting aside the distractions and tasks of the day for a moment, to let joy in. Deciding to be shaped by the joy more that the problems.

We support the church because we want to celebrate what God is doing (we love a good party and this is the best kind). We support the church because we think it is important to be with people on their journey to God (not because we are better at fixing them. ) It is the church’s job to put together the party for the one who was dead and now is alive and a ring on their finger.

Enjoy, we just have to celebrate and rejoice.