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Passing the Mantle

Psalm77:1-2,11-20
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14

“The times, they are a changin’” w= as one of Bob Dylan’s best known folk-protest songs from the 1960’s, a= nd those of us who lived through that decade will remember the upheaval in American society of which he wrote and sang. The civil rights movement and = the war in Vietnam were provoking what seemed like dramatic changes in the soci= al contract which binds us together as a nation: the loss of popular trust in government; the expansion of voting rights; the burning of draft cards and bras; the ‘free speech’ movement and the ‘sexual revolution.’ A youthful president from that era observed that “change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or pr= esent are sure to miss the future.”

The inevitability of change struck close to home rec= ently relating to both of my most enjoyable secular passions: baseball and the gr= eat ocean liners that have plied the Atlantic over the past century. Because I’d crossed the sea several times to Europe on Queen Elizabeth2, I received a letter from the Cunard Line saying that the famous liner would be withdrawn from service next year and sold to a Middle Eastern emirate to be used as a floating hotel and casino. The ‘mantle’ of responsibi= lity for trans-Atlantic crossings has already been passed to the newer Queen Mar= y2 and other routes will be covered by the soon-to-be-launched Queen Victoria.= I was reminded that things, like people, have a life-span and no matter how w= ell they may have served a purpose or a generation, it seems inevitable that th= ey will someday be replaced by something better suited to a changing environme= nt.

I loved baseball as a boy. I kept track of batting statistics, collected bubblegum cards and stayed up late on many long hot summer evenings waiting for local radio stations to go off the air so that I could catch the play-by-play, however crackly, of games from Baltimore, Pittsburgh and St. Louis --- usually after listening to my hometown Phillie= s find yet another way to lose a game! (Sports fans among you may have recently se= en that the Phillies were approaching their 10,000th defeat, a record said to = be unequaled by any team in any sport in all of human history! And you CubR= 17;s fans think you have it bad . . .).

Perhaps to compensate for the anguish suffered as a National League Phillies fan, I adopted a team in the ‘other’ m= ajor league, as well --- a team that seemed to really know how the game of baseb= all should be played and, therefore, regularly appeared in the World Series. As= a kid with more affection for the game than talent, Mickey Mantle became my boyhood idol --- someone I could look up to, who could do all of those thin= gs that I could only dream of doing. On bad days when not even the dog was tal= king to me, I could soothe my soul by closing my eyes and imagining myself hitti= ng a towering home run or making a great catch in center field for the Yankees! =

My dad, who had played several years of minor league baseball before ‘the Good War’ ended his dreams, indulged my hero-worship by referring to me as “the Mick.” And to his dying= day he never called me by any other name. “Hey, Mick . . . .”

So when I saw last week an aerial photo of Yankee St= adium with the footprint of a new one being built next to it, a flood of memories came to me. Is nothing sacred? The ‘House that Ruth Built,’ the most famous sports arena in the world --- is about to be replaced by someth= ing new.

On the walls of my study at home are pictures of the Yankee greats who roamed that stadium and produced some of baseball’s most memorable moments. Sports writers, commenting on those who provided leadership in different eras of the Yankee dynasty, have often used the ima= ge of a ‘mantle’ being passed along from the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to Joe Dimaggio and then to the hero of my youth. Perhaps it cou= ld even be said that a young man from Kalamazoo has now inherited that mantle.= . . .

Nevertheless, “time, like an ever-flowing stre= am, soon bears us all away,” a well-known hymn reminds us, and the heroes= of yesterday and today are no exception. We can indulge our nostalgia and keep close to our hearts that which was special in an earlier time, but the mant= le of leadership and responsibility is always being passed along from one generation to another --- and needs to be. That’s the nature of thing= s in this time-bound world .

In today’s story from the Hebrew scriptures, E= lijah --- that great prophet of Jewish tradition whose return is still awaited --= - is on a journey to the river Jordan, a journey from which he and his followers know he will not return. By faith he has discerned that his work on earth is done. The time has come for the mantle of&= nbsp; prophetic responsibility with which God cloaked him to be passed alo= ng to the one designated as his successor. There is a whole ‘school of prophets,’ fifty strong (we’re told), who have been sitting at = the feet of Elijah, learning what he can teach them about the meaning and accountability of such a calling.

It is Elisha, however, whom God chooses to receive t= he mantle of authority as special care-taker of God’s prophetic message.= And so Elisha journeys with his mentor, refusing to abandon him, wanting to not= let him go. But they journey knowing that God is about to do a new thing and th= at a new spiritual reality within God’s time and eternity awaits them both= .

Elijah’s rolled-up mantle gets used to part the waters of the Jordan, an image suggesting that his prophetic vocation had a= lso been an inheritance --- from Moses, of course, whose rod had parted the Reed Sea waters permitting the Israelites their escape from bondage in Egypt.

Elijah questions whether his understudy has been sufficiently blessed with ‘second-sightedness,’ --- that gift peculiar to prophets which enables them to see the meaning, not just the appearance of things. It turns out he does, and that’s the key to Elisha’s being able to pick up the mantle of prophecy as the anointed mouthpiece of Divine promise and Divine judgment in a sinful and broken wor= ld.

Elisha asks for a double share of Elijah’s spi= rit, meaning the traditional inheritance of the oldest son and, therefore, confirmation that he is Elijah’s true heir. That would be a hard thing for you to handle, the old prophet tells him --- and in any event, a blessi= ng only God can grant. Then that mysterious ‘curtain’ which separates time and eternity parts --= - a ‘curtain’ occasionally transparent to those with eyes of faith = --- and Elisha sees the chariot coming forth to carry his mentor home to be with God.

The mantle that has been passed now replaces Elisha’s old garments, symbolizing the new person he will become, the= new role to which he has been called by God. That he, too, is empowered to part= the waters of the Jordan with that mantle confirms his succession. Henceforth, it is Elisha who will = embody those messages of judgment calling God’s people back to faithfulness = when they stray from God’s purposes; henceforth, it is Elisha who will emb= ody also those soothing messages of hope when, as today’s Psalm puts it, = they cry aloud to God . . . in the day of trouble.

In recent weeks, we have had several study groups re= ading and discussing a book entitled Leading Change in the Congregation. It’= ;s a publication of the Alban Institute, which is somewhat of a ‘think-tank’ for spiritual, sociological and organizational stu= dies of churches --- especially useful for churches in transition such as ours. = The book begins with the ‘bumper sticker wisdom’ observing that “change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.” It goes on to describe the breadth and depth of changes going on in the world around us and how they affect people= and programs of the church in ways which are beyond the church’s control.=

Only a few days ago we watched people, mostly young, waiting in long lines to purchase the latest technological gadget offering capabilities of human interaction undreamed of just a few years ago. The ad= vent of the iPhone should remind us once again that the Church is constantly bei= ng challenged to address a changing culture with creativity and relevance if we are to effectively pass the mantle of faith along to future generations. To this end, we have a Christian Education Task Force presently working on a n= ew church school model that celebrates diverse learning styles, and help from = many of you for short-term leadership will be needed to make it happen. We’= ;ll also have a new Sunday schedule for church school in the fall that will bet= ter accommodate the needs of our families with young children.

The author of the Alban Institute book mentioned abo= ve, says, on the basis of his research and interaction with churches in transit= ion, that:

Ministry is no longer a m= atter of doing what we know how to do best. Nor is it adequate for congregations to continue to do what they did last year. The time and the environment contin= ue to change at a pace that requires us constantly to evaluate, to learn anew = what our purpose of ministry is, and continually to re-invent the congregation to meet the needs that face us.

That’s a daunting challenge. But let us rememb= er that messages given to God= 217;s people in earlier times through the biblical prophets, there was hope and promise for the future as well as judgment of the past and present.

As with Elijah and Elisha in today’s scripture lesson, departure from the old, the known, the familiar, the established, the predictable, the comfortable, and= the experienced; and passing into the new, the unknown, the less familiar, the not-yet established, the unpredictable, the potentially uncomfortable and t= he less experienced is a journey. It is a journey during the course of which we who travel will become increasingly aware of what good things from our past have already disappeared, and what from our present is in the process of di= sappearing and needs to be replaced by --- God knows what!

There are programs, missions and ministries that may= have been good and faithful responses to God’s call in their time, but now= the time has come for the chariots of gratitude and thanksgiving to carry them forth to their resting places within the long history of this church’s ministry. The congregation an= d its leadership to whom the mantle of responsibility is being passed for becoming the church God wants us to be in this time and place need to be faithful to= the journey, the writer tells us, to the challenge, the experimentation, the trial and error of ministry in a culture of change. And he reminds us that in Matthew 4, all Jesus asked of = his future followers was simply “follow me” --- and they followed h= im. There were no questions asked and no clear promises given about where the t= rip would take them.

May we here be blessed with such faith and with cour= age enough for the challenging and promising journey ahead.