Elija and Elisha

2 Kings 2:13  “He picked up the mantle that had fallen from Elijah”

And so we read this ancient story of the old and the young prophets.  According to the OT legend, Elijah did not die a physical death but was taken straight up into Heaven, a theme that we explored this morning at the end of our series on the Apostles’ Creed.  The young Elisha sees Elijah depart, and then symbolically picks up the cloak of his departing guide and mentor.

He does so in part as a tribute to him, but also as a token of his determination
to carry on where the other had left off – and of course the story has given us an addition to our language - “to take on someone’s mantle”  means precisely to continue with the work they started.

And at the end of an academic year it is worth reflecting on Elisha’s position.    In the morning he was just a disciple, a learner and a pupil accompanying old Elijah  to the muddy banks of the swirling Jordan,  watching on as the old man  works yet one more miracle and parts the Jordan like Joshua of old.    

But now at the end of the day we find Elisha suddenly alone.    He is no longer the disciple; his guide and mentor is gone, and suddenly now he must head back to the swirling muddy waters of Jordan  knowing that this time it is he, Elisha, “the new-fledged disciple, suddenly come of age” who must do the miracle with Elijah’s mantle in his hand.

And so today we might well look back where we have come from,  and give thanks for our mentors and guides and teachers – be they of the last year here at University or many years gone by at school.  

And then might we look forward to the new challenges, responsibilities and opportunities opening up in the future – as we too stand by our Jordan with the mantle of our forebears gripped tight in our hand.

Mozart’s Coronation  Mass written for the coronation of Francis II as Holy Roman Emperor in 1792, when the music was first played. At such an event, a newly crowned King or Queen is vested in all the fine regalia of office – and I wonder what sort of robes they placed on the Holy Roman Emperor Frances II as Mozart’s music played?    I guess it would have included a mantle, a robe richly woven with threads of silk and gold – such is the mantle of Kingship. So too for our Queen when 57 years ago in June last she was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

And maybe sometimes we too may take up such a mantle as this – and maybe some who study at University aspire precisely to such worldly greatness. But sometimes the mantle we are given is very different and very surprising.

Father Damian worked with the lepers of Hawaii for 25 yrs  before contracting leprosy himself. In the spring of 1889 Damian was on his death bed, dying of leprosy.    One of his followers asked for his coat -  that he might have the mantle of Fr Damien. Damien replied - you don’t want my coat - it is full of leprosy -  Yes said the follower I do -  for I commit myself to follow your work , even if it takes me to my grave before Easter.

This is the mantle we are sometimes given.  As the covenant service says,  we are called to many different tasks. Some of them we might think we have worked out in advance. In our anticipated career projection.  In all the money we hope to make. In the relationships we hope will come to fruition. But if we are called to pick up the mantle of sufferings , you will be taking up the mantle of the King of Kings  whose work will always take us ultimately to the ‘cross, the grave, the skies!’ as Charles Wesley reminds us.

And it is the mantle of God’s servant which we should seek –  not the robes of earthly glory. As we approach the anniversary of her death,  think of Princess Diana –  and those scenes of her visiting hospices and hugging AIDS patients, someone who (for all her tortured complexity) could perhaps remind us of Fr Damien  in her care for the marginalized and the lost.

Here was someone who had taken up the mantle – indeed the Versace gown – of royalty – but who could choose in those moments to take up rather the garments of compassion. We can all remember watching TV around the time of  Diana’s funeral and seeing the scenes of people late into the night milling around by the gates of her family home, bringing flowers, lighting candles in the cold night air.    And as one candle reached the end of its life with a guttering flame - someone came with a new candle and lit it from the expiring one.

·        As one life ends  - we are called to pick up the mantle which falls.

·        As one candle dies -we are called to light our own candle from it.

You remember Elton John at Diana’s Funeral (who I guess cut as unlikely a figure
as did Mozart in his day as a court musician) – Elton John singing “Candle in the Wind” - and perhaps we feel like that – a candle in the wind - frail and flawed and tentative  in the midst of the gusts of the world and the uncertainties of the global financial markets with their effect on our own economic wellbeing.  But God is with us as we step out in faith with him. 

This is what it means to be part of God’s people, across the ages. We may not always feel worthy or capable to be a part of such an apostolic succession, of belonging to a Methsoc which has a long and proud tradition with many women and men who have made significant contributions to the life of church and society, but it is our destiny. For you have belonged to this group and you continue to be part of it even though some of you may be leaving Cambridge.

Never forget - Young Elisha was given a mantle – but much much more – “He saw a great vision of the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof – and realised that he was compassed about by a fiery and celestial cloud of witnesses”. And he received double the power of the spirit -without which he could have done nothing.  

Our candle may flicker; but the wind is not just the chill north wind of the world’s ills - It is the wind of the Spirit fanning the flame.

So today as each of us in our own way looks to what the future may hold,

·        let us continue to give honour to the saints and witnesses who have gone before us – and recognise that their work will only continue if we take it forward.

 

·        let us pick up a candle and light it,  and trust God to fan the flames with the wind his Spirit

·        let us pick up their mantle of the prophets, and stride on to Jordan with Elijah’s mantle in our hands.

So may we do God’s will in this world and –  when finally God vouchsafes us that final passage over Jordan to the land above - may we in our turn leave God’s mantle on the shore that in the power of the Spirit it may be taken up by others - some yet unborn- that God’s great work may yet go on.