Sermon 2/26/06
Going Back for Seconds - 2 Kings 2:1-12, Mark 9:2-9
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Two weeks ago, while you had the pleasure of hearing our District Superintendent Carl Johnson preach, I had the pleasure of leading a group of senior high youth at one of our Conference Council on Youth Ministry gatherings, or CCYM. Any of you who’ve spent time working with youth know that one of the most important times of any youth gathering is mealtime. Aside from the fellowship of sharing a meal with friends, these young people literally need to refuel themselves to maintain this seemingly boundless energy level that keeps them up late and up early and ready to lead, study, pray, worship, and play all weekend long. Casowasco, one of our conference retreat centers where we hold our events, serves meals for us family style – a “hopper” gets bowls of food and brings them to a table. And Casowasco has some rules to make sure that food at meal times doesn’t get needlessly wasted, because once bowls come out to the tables with food, the food cannot be reused and saved for later. So if a table runs out of a certain item, Casowasco requests that the table check with nearby other tables first before coming back into the kitchen for seconds. With senior high youth, this usually results in another table asking for your leftovers before you’ve even started your meal. Tater-tots, for example, a favorite item, hardly make it around the table before the bowl is empty and the youth are clamoring for seconds. Or thirds.
This image – youth asking for seconds – came to mind when I was reading our Old Testament lesson for today – Transfiguration Sunday – the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent. We find a story of Elijah and Elisha – the tongue-twisting duo – a prophet, and a student of the prophet. Elijah is getting ready to pass his leadership to Elisha, and Elisha, before even receiving anything from his teacher, boldly and eagerly asks to inherit a “double share” of his teacher’s spirit. Elisha doesn’t even yet know how he’ll handle stepping into his teacher’s shoes. But he’s so excited, so ready, so eager, that he wants a double portion right from the very start. He’s already asking for seconds, and he hasn’t even yet started his meal, so to speak. Elijah claims this is a hard thing to pass on to his pupil – and won’t commit to granting the request straight out – but in the end, Elisha receives what he asks for, and continues in the footsteps of his teacher, healing, instructing, and calling the leaders of the day to accountability, as Elijah had done.
In our gospel lesson, Peter, James, and John are perhaps not so bold as Elisha, but they’re just as excited by what they’re experiencing. Jesus, after a time of teaching with the disciples, takes these three up the mountain with him, apart, away from the others. There, he is ‘transfigured’, with his clothes becoming a dazzling white, and Elijah and Moses appearing there with him, taking with Jesus. The disciples are afraid, not understanding what’s happening – with good reason. But Peter still seems to catch the excitement of what he’s witnessing. He wants to capture the moment, and offers to build tents for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses, so they can stay on the mountain. Mark suggests that Peter is rambling on excitedly out of his fear – not knowing what to do or say. But I think Peter also acts from a sense of knowing he is experiencing something holy, and in the excitement of the moment, he wants to capture the experience, prolong this intense scene on the mountain.
Both Elijah and Peter seem to want more of what they’ve been served by God – they want more responsibility, more holy time with God, more direct experience – more of all of it. I’m struck by their energy and enthusiasm. I have a passion for what I do – a love for the church, for all of you, and for God, that drives my work. But some days I doubt my energy levels – especially on a day like today when my body still reminds me of the busy week I just had in Mississippi. I think we often feel overwhelmed, and tired, and stressed, and like we can’t do or give anymore. I think most of us here feel that our faith is important. Most of us probably want to be better disciples, to be closer to God. I bet most of us would love to see this church full and growing and reaching out in new ways, reaching more people, serving more people. But when it comes down to it – when it becomes time to act to make these things happen – when it comes time to figure out how to connect visions with reality, we may find we lack some of the enthusiasm required to make things happen. We may not feel the Holy Spirit’s moving – at least not through us personally – and so we may let things go undone, or think it is too impossible, too out of our reach, to see our church become all the things we wish it could be. Peter and Elisha are witnesses to what can be with a little boldness, a little surge of energy, a lot of passion for doing God’s work. I think we are all called to be part of the community of faith with a dedication that matches that of Elisha’s – with a desire to be with God that parallels Peter’s, with a passion to serve that rivals Elisha’s.
But, if we can’t do it ourselves – if we can’t find the strength, if we don’t feel called by the Spirit, if we can’t do it on our own – we still have a responsibility to fill. We must share our dreams and visions with others, and share with them, or release to them, the care of these visions. We can also see this at work both of our passages today – the sharing of a vision. In both of our passages, we see persons who will have to trust their work to someone else – to trust their hopes and goals and plans with someone else. Elijah is still today considered one of the greatest prophets. But he was fatigued from his work as a prophet to the leaders of Israel. His message was not welcomed, and we can read in the scriptures of him being frequently discouraged. He had to decide if he could trust his message and ministry to Elisha – a young man who dared to ask for double Elijah’s spirit. And Jesus – Jesus, our Savior, God’s precious child, must trust his message of God’s kingdom to Peter and eleven others, a group that will betray him and deny him and abandon him and fight for power and fight for leadership. In fact, Jesus’ last words to Peter before he shares this intimate experience on the mountain with him were “Get behind me, Satan.” To this man, this Peter, Jesus will trust the leadership of the newborn church. Instead of tightly holding onto their own power, both Jesus and Elijah shared their gifts and visions with those who would serve when they could not – teaching, guiding, mentoring those who would embrace the mission that was the center of their lives and being.
Can we do the same in the church? Can we be filled with the Spirit, or nurture the Spirit when we see it at work in others? Can we let our own hopes and dreams be carried out by others? Are we willing to support and help those who are ready to get to work? At our conference youth events, we strive to let the youth lead – the youth plan the schedule, the youth pick the theme and the bible verses to study and they write the questions for small group time. They plan the fundraisers and the fun time events. They are guided in their work by adults, but they are in control and have a lot of responsibility at the events. This can sometimes cause a lot of stress for the adults. The youth sometimes don’t make the best choices. A fundraiser flops. We run out of time or have too much time for an event. They don’t count on the unexpected throwing off their plans. Or even in the process of sharing their faith, they make mistakes. They aren’t eloquent. They don’t think everything through. Their faith can be very immature. It might be simpler sometimes, if we just planned things for them. If we organized everything, things might go better. But the Conference Youth would soon begin to decline and eventually cease to exist as a vibrant, Spirit-filled group. So while I may no longer have the energy to sleep on hard sanctuary floors at meetings, and while I may wish youth would just go to sleep at lights out time, I will continue to facilitate CCYM, as long as the youth continue to amaze me with the passion and commitment to serving God.
I pray for all of us that we can open ourselves to God’s ever-moving Holy Spirit, a Spirit of wind and breath that will set us on fire for God, that will make us ask God to give us even more to do than we thought possible – a Spirit that will make us want to be always close to God, always in God’s presence. I think we can have that Holy Spirit dwelling within our hearts. I believe it is our surest hope of being a living, lively, loving community of faith. But I pray also that we can open our hearts to the Holy Spirit’s movements in others in our congregation and community – that we can recognize and endorse and encourage the Spirit when we see it moving through others in our midst. If we can be partners together in ministry and mission with each other – mentors and students, long-time members and newer members, older members and younger members, experienced leaders and inexperienced but excited new volunteers – if we can live and love and serve together, we can be sure God will continue to work in the congregation of St. Paul’s and the community and world we serve.
Amen.