The Fire of Love

In the name of the blessed Trinity, one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

After having heard masterfully told the compelling story of the prophet Elijah

last week, it seems right that we continue with him today.

Four chapters have intervened between last week's narrative from 1 Kings 19

to today's installment from 2 Kings.

Yet today's is the logical sequence to it all and even a precursor to the gospel.

Last week's narrative ended with verse 15 of chapter 19, and the very next verse,

chapter verse 16, says, And you, Elijah,

shall appoint Elisha, son of Japheth, as prophet in your place.

So Elijah sets out and finds Elisha And as he passes him by,

he threw his mantle over him And Elisha followed Elijah and became his servant.

The entire narrative has to do with prophecy Who is a prophet of God?

How do they become a prophet of God?

Lots of things happen between last week's passage and this week's passage.

Elijah does much work. judging, if you will,

the kings of Israel and either their devotion to or lack thereof to Israel's God.

Some of them are not so nice.

The great story of Naboth comes up in chapter 21.

You might remember it. Just as a recap, King Ahab decides he wants a vegetable garden.

We can relate to such a thing here at Trinity. We have wonderful gardens,

and many of you are great, great gardeners.

But the best plot of land is right outside the palace wall owned by Naboth.

So the king goes to Naboth and offers a really reasonable negotiation.

I'll give you even better land somewhere else, or I'll offer you cash for what it's worth.

Naboth, though, maybe the king doesn't realize this, got this land from his family.

It was his fathers and his grandfathers and his great-grandfathers.

And Naboth says, no, thanks, but no thanks.

And then the text tells us that the king took to the bed.

And his wife comes in, and guess what she says? What's wrong with you?

You're the king. I'll take care of this.

And she devises a whole plan to welcome Naboth to a banquet in his honor.

And in the middle of the banquet, she has people stand up to accuse him of disloyalty

both to God and to the king. the punishment of which is stoning to death.

And then, with Naboth gone, the king has his vegetable garden.

But Elijah, hearing of all of it, comes to the king and says, quite graphically,

The blood that the dogs licked up of Naboth in the field will come and lick yours up too.

So that's what Elijah's been doing.

And he does it for a few more chapters.

One of the pieces that we must see and hear is when Ahaziah becomes king,

probably Ahab's grandson.

Ahaziah becomes king, and we're told in the first verse that he's in his bedroom,

and he falls through a lattice, and he injures himself so badly that he might die.

So he tells his servants to go to the other guy's God And ask the other guy's

God if he's going to live or not.

Elijah hears this and intercepts the servants And says, oh no,

this is not good to be looking for the wisdom of another God,

and when they tell the king the king is upset and the king sends men out to

get elijah but elijah sends fire from heaven and kills them all three different times he does it,

and then the end of that section it says the king died.

Then we get to our story today from 2 Kings.

It starts with us being told that it's time for Elijah to give up his prophetic power.

It's time for him to be taken up, says the text.

Oh, but you know the challenges with power, don't you?

It's very hard to give up once you've got it.

So Elijah says to Elisha, You stay here. I'm going to go to Bethel for a while.

And Elisha figures out what's going on. And he says, oh, no,

with God as my witness, I'm not letting you out of my sight.

And this happens a couple of times before Elijah realizes, okay, I guess it's time.

I guess it's time for me to go. So as we heard in today's story,

he rolls up his mantle as a rod and he strikes the Jordan River and the waters

part. which reminds us of whom?

Another servant of God, right? And they go through on dry ground,

and they get to the other side, and Elijah says to Elisha, what can I do for you?

And as it is with power,

Elisha says, I don't want just your power. I want double your power.

They go through a fire ceremony, a covenant ceremony.

Elijah gets taken up into heaven. The mantle falls on Elisha,

and he does the same thing.

He rolls the mantle up in a stick, and he strikes the water.

Guess who has the power now?

And the water parts, and he crosses to the other side.

The power of the prophecy has been granted has moved from Elijah to Elisha.

And the compilers of the lectionary in their wisdom then have us all turn,

to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 9,

Luke 9 · chapter mention

where we are told that Jesus, when it came time for him to be taken up,

turns his face toward Jerusalem.

And right there, we see that these passages are meant to be mined together.

The disciples, James and John, are there with Jesus.

They journey through Samaria, enemy territory, and the Samaritans reject them.

Echoing the nations that the kings have been dealing with and that have rejected the God of Israel.

And what do James and John say?

Do you want us to send fire down upon the Samaritans and get rid of them?

They're trying to figure out what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

And their example of what it means to be a prophet of God is that which they

know, that which they have heard, that which they have learned.

Do you want us to send fire down upon the Samaritans and get rid of them?

The key of the passage comes next, because what does Jesus do?

He rebukes them. And thus begins another reversal story in the gospel of Jesus.

A few chapters before, we heard him say, You have heard it said, but I tell you.

You have heard it said, but I tell you.

And here, we hear the similar echo.

You have heard it, that followers of God behave this way, but here, not so.

Indeed, one of the earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke contains a note

from a scribe at this verse,

that points the reader to another passage that says,

For he came into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

They go to another town and someone says, but I, I will follow you wherever you go.

And Jesus knows the follower has no idea what he's getting himself into. do.

Someone else turns to Jesus and says, I will follow you, but let me go and take

care of my own things first.

No, says Jesus, this is a new vision, a new way of following.

What does it mean to be a disciple of God in this kingdom?

If we had read the second lesson today from Galatians, it ends by saying, By contrast,

the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?

To those of us who are asking that question as we ought to all of the time and in our own day.

And here Jesus continues with the same theme of reversal that we hear throughout his life.

The last shall be first. The first shall be last.

Patience, generosity, self-control, humility.

How do we contemplate being disciples of Jesus in this age?

How to speak?

How to act?

How to name the wrongs that are done in our sight?

We learn from following the one who came as the Prince of Peace.

Love, humility, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control are the one

who came as the Prince of Peace.

Jesus has set his face to go to Jerusalem.

We know what happens in Jerusalem.

He gave his life.

He allowed his life to be given for the world. and in doing so, he changed it forever.

Amen. All good.

Thanks for listening to 60 Church

Street, a podcast of Trinity Episcopal Church in Ashe North Carolina.

Now, go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

The homily was offered by the Rev. Dr. R. Scott White.

Introductory and closing reflections were shared by the Rev. Amy Peterson.

Musical contributions were performed by Dr. Kevin Seal.

Sermon audio was prepared by Nanette Popa. Production was guided by Karin Marie Fredrickson.