Read 2 Kings 2:1-12
Read Mark 9:2-9
In 1964 the Ed Sullivan
show hosted a little band from Liverpool called the Beatles for their first
performance in America, and from that day Beatlemania spread across the
country. Fans at the concert were
screaming as if they were witnessing the most important event in their lives,
girls were crying and fainting just at the sight of the Beatles. The Beatles
had become rock stars in America. This of course is not the first star that has
captured the hearts and the minds of the American people, just a decade or so
earlier the King, Elvis, caused the same reaction wherever he went. Famously, a
crowd was waiting for Elvis after a concert had to be official told that,
“Elvis has left the building.” In our culture, it is normal to get pretty giddy
when you are in the presence of stars.
This doesn’t just mean rock stars either, sadly I have to
admit that during my time at Duke me and many of my classmates also became star
struck by some of the world class theologians that taught there. In particular,
everyone seemed to get a little extra jump in their heart when they were in the
presence of Stanley Hauerwas. Hauerwas
is one of the most influential theologians of our day, in fact in the early
2000s Time magazine named him America’s best Theologian. In the future his
named will probably be listed among the great theologians like Bonhoeffer,
Niebuhr, or C.S. Lewis. He also has a pretty eccentric personality, Texan pacifist
theologian who curses like a sailor, walking around with his shirt and tie
tucked into a pair of blue jeans. By the time I was there, Hauerwas was really
only teaching the doctoral students, so when you ran into randomly in the hall
it was a sight to see. I sadly can remember poking my friends in the halls like
little children, look, look there’s Hauerwas. So imagine the joy when after
chapel one day Stanley Hauerwas started talking to Heather about her passion
for disability ministry and shared his own passion for it as well.
Hauerwas was not the only “star” that I encountered while
at Duke, many of our professors were at the top of the class in their fields,
and many had done extraordinary things in their ministry, maybe none more the
Peter Storey, a former bishop in South Africa. Storey was one of the leading
voices calling for the end of the brutal Apartheid in South Africa. He worked
side by side with Desmond Tutu, and even had the honor of being Nelson
Mandela’s chaplain while Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island. So imagine my
awe when I find myself at a dinner table in South Africa being asked about my
call and my experience in ministry by Peter Storey. I was star struck.
Now both of these great men would probably not be happy
as being viewed as stars, but I think it is human nature to grasp onto
individuals such as these. It is not that we worship them, or they become false
idols, but it is helpful, especially when it comes to faith to have figures in
which we can look up to, figures that have done wonderful things through their
ministry, figures who we aspire to learn from. Sometimes which just need that
star that points the way for us and makes us say to ourselves, “I want to be
like that.”
There are no shortages of stars of faith in our Bible.
Especially in the Old Testament there is Noah, and Jacob, David and Moses.
There is even Abraham who was told by God that his descendants would even be
like and as numerous as the stars in the night sky. But out of all the stars in
the Old Testament, none may have been as big as the prophet Elijah. This may
sound strange to us now, since we are probably more familiar with these other
legends of faith, but Elijah was highly revered by the Jewish people in the
time of the Bible. Elijah was the great prophet who foretold of a great famine,
and then miraculously provided water for a poor widow. Elijah later even
brought this poor widow’s son back from the dead. Elijah is the prophet who
taunted the prophets of Baal who couldn’t start a fire on their own altar, by
pour water on his own altar, and still lighting it by calling on the Name of
the Lord. Elijah is the prophet who witnessed that still small voice of the
Lord while hiding in a cave. But for all of the stories about Elijah, none are
more spectacular than our scripture for this morning.
Our scripture this morning tells of the last days of
Elijah on earth. Elijah has already built up quite a following, we read about
50 prophets who are keeping up with Elijah and following his movements; in fact
they too know that his time on Earth is ending. And then there is of course
Elisha. Elisha is the faithful sidekick to Elijah, he seems to look up to
Elijah and never wants to leave his side. Multiple times Elijah tells Elisha to
stay behind for the journey will be long, but Elisha refuses to leave his side.
Even after these 50 prophets tell Elisha that Elijah will soon be leaving them,
Elisha refuses to leave. And so there in the presence of Elisha, as the 50
prophets looked on from a distance, something amazing happened. A chariot of fire and horses came and
separated the two men, and as Elisha cried out in horror, Elijah was taken up
to heaven in a great whirlwind.
What a pretty
impressive way to go right? Rock stars at concerts are always looking for that
perfect way to end the show…. well I think Elijah nailed it. What can beat
chariots of fire and great whirlwinds taking you up to heaven? The Israelites
had never witnessed something quite like that before. All of the great leaders
in the past had simply died; Moses even
died before he crossed into the Promised Land. Elijah did not die, but was
simply taken away. The closest thing they had to this was Enoch, father of
Methuselah and great-grandfather of
Noah, who were are told was simply taken by God. Still this story does not
match the fiery chariots and whirlwind we see with Elijah. Because of this as I
have mentioned, Elijah became quite a star in many Jewish circles. Because he
departed in such a spectacular way, and because he never really died, The people
believed that Elijah would come again to restore justice for Israel. Jesus was even asked on multiple occasions if
he was Elijah returning. In fact, multiple gospels even allude to John the
Baptist being second coming of Elijah.
All of this goes to show that Elijah was a big deal. He
was the prophet of all prophets, rivaled in legend only by someone like Moses,
the giver of the Law. And so we fast
forward from our story of Elijah’s ascension to now a moment where Jesus and
three of his closest disciples venture up a high mountain, and it is here that
it is revealed who the greatest star truly is. For as they get to the top of
the mountain suddenly Jesus shines in a great white light, and there behind
Jesus is Moses and Elijah. And yet with
these two legends of faith standing in the presence of the disciples, it is
Jesus who steals the show. Jesus is the
one shining light a star, transfigured as we call it. This man that they have
been following, who has been teaching them, whose birth let’s not forget was
signaled through the shining of a star, now shines before them and reveals to
them the greatest revelation of all. This man, who is fully human, is also God.
Moses and Elijah in all of their greatness, in all of their lore, pale in
comparison to the glory of Christ.
In both stories we read today, those who witnessed the
great acts had no idea how to react. Elisha, witnessing the loss of his friend
and mentor tears his clothes in two, a sign of mourning in those times. Peter,
not knowing how to react to the great revelation, suggests building three
dwellings, one for each figure on the mountain. There is debate about what this
suggestion actually means, but we see from Jesus’s reaction that whatever it
means, it was the wrong suggestion. As the disciples hear the words from heaven
proclaiming the words heard at Jesus’s baptism, This is my Son the beloved,
listen to him” and as the Elijah and Moses disappear, I can imagine the
disciples didn’t know how to react. So as they are coming down the mountain, Jesus
tells them not to tell anyone what they saw until the Son of Man has risen from
the dead.
This last line is interesting because it once again links
the stories of Elijah and Jesus. Elijah is one of the figures on the mountain
during this transfiguration, but Jesus’s insistence on not telling anyone until he has risen from the dead, takes us to a story that is actually more similar
to the story of Elijah we read this morning, because in a way Jesus’s ascension
is very similar to that of Elijah’s. Fast forward to Acts chapter 1, and Jesus
now has already died and risen from the grave and now once again surrounded by
his closest disciples, when suddenly Jesus is taken up to heaven in a great
cloud.
If we consider this story and Elijah’s, then we find a
great many similarities, especially when we look at the followers of these
great men. Both Elisha and the followers of Jesus closely follow their leader,
they do not want to leave their side for the fear of losing them. In the
disciples case, it was the fear of losing Jesus again. So when the time came
for these leaders to ascend, their followers tried to hold on for dear life.
Jesus even has to tell Mary Magdalene, “Do not hold on
to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.” But then
something of note happens in both stories. Elijah asks Elisha what he wants
before he leaves, and Elisha replies, “Please let me
inherit a double share of your spirit.” In other words Elisha wants the
power to be like his role model Elijah. Likewise in Jesus’s ascension, Jesus
promises the disciples that he will leave them with the power of the Holy Spirit,
and that they will be Christ’s witnesses for the world through the power of the
Holy Spirit.
Sometimes it is easy for us to become star struck. We
bask in the glory and revelation of Jesus Christ that we read in our
scriptures. We look up to these great figures in our Bible such as Elijah and
wish that we could be like them. While it is proper to respect these great
figures of the Bible, and it is certainly right and expected that we should
give Jesus Christ all honor and glory and praise; we cannot afford to stay here
star struck.
For the good news is that through the Holy Spirit that is
with us, we are able to be like Elijah, and we are able to continue in Christ’s
mission for the world. Like a wick of a candle that has come in contact with the
true source of light, we now can be witnesses to the world of Christ’s glory
and power. We ourselves though this power of the Holy Spirit can become like
tiny stars ourselves, shining Christ light into areas where darkness has
reigned. And like the bumbling idiots we were in seminary, we can also look to
other stars who have shone the light of Christ in the ways in which they have
lived their lives in faith. We call these people saints, and they doesn’t have
to be someone extraordinary Mother Teresa, but can even be your own mother who
taught you the love of God through her life. Like Elisha, let us be bold to ask
for a double portion of God’s spirit, so that we too may grow closer to walking
in perfect love with Christ and so that through our lives, Christ light might
shine into the hearts of others as bright as it did on that mount of
Transfiguration.
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