George A. Mason Transfiguration Sunday Wilshire Baptist Church 15 February 2015 Dallas, Texas Passing On 2 Kgs. 2:1-14; Mk. 9:1-7

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1 George A. Mason Transfiguration Sunday Wilshire Baptist Church 15 February 2015 Dallas, Texas Passing On 2 Kgs. 2:1-14; Mk. 9:1-7 There comes a time for each of us and all of us when we have a decision to make: will the focus of our life continue to be ourselves, or will it be on others? For some of us, that happens almost naturally at the point of having children. Here you are living your life, consumed with your own place in the world, your own career, your own relationships, your own hobbies and agenda, and then suddenly this little person comes into your life and you realize it s not all about you anymore. Or you re on the job and you ve climbed the hill you set out to climb. You re standing on the top of it, and it strikes you that you are either going to find another hill to climb, or you might turn around and see whether you can help others find their way up the mountain. This happened for me about the time my predecessor, Bruce McIver, was dying. I was 45 years old, standing at his bedside in the hospital, talking to him about the uniqueness of our relationship. When I was called to be the pastor of this church, I m told that all the other candidates expressed concern to the committee that they would be following a pastor who had served here for 30 years and would continue to be in the church. I was 32, and allow me to state the obvious I have never suffered from a lack of self-esteem! So it didn t bother me that Bruce was beloved. I don t think of the world as a zero-sum game which is where there s only so much of anything to go around. So if you gave Bruce 80 percent of the love, I would get only 20 percent. It always seems to me that love is not subject to measurable limits. I mean, do you love your children that way, carving up your love into equal shares? But anyway, the thing is, Bruce and I were friends, and he helped me more than he or you will ever know just by being his generous self to me in those early years. We got to talking about this informal mentor-mentee relationship we had. I told him that people thought we should write a book about it. He just said that it depended upon whether the two pastors liked each other more than what they did. I m not entirely sure about

2 that. I think he knew he didn t have another book in him. So we started wondering what it would be like to have young ministers coming through the staff on their way to becoming better pastors. It was a pivotal moment. The baton was being passed from Bruce to me, and it was time for me to take the mantle of leadership and do the same for those coming behind me. Our pastoral residency program is the beautiful result of that passing on process. And some of our residents were here this week to inspire us and remind us just how important this work of passing on wisdom and encouragement can be. Our story today is another one of those moments. Elijah has been Israel s prophet. When God needed the people to know something, he gave Elijah the word, and Elijah gave Israel the word. Religious communities need spiritual leadership, and the quality of that leadership makes all the difference in the life of the people. This also makes the role of prophet or pastor, then or now or anytime, there or here or anywhere, a fearsome thing. And that also probably explains the enigmatic request of Elisha when Elijah asks him what he wants from him. A double portion of your spirit, he says. Without understanding the customs of the day, people have puzzled over this phrase and thought that Elisha was asking to be twice as great as Elijah. Lots of chutzpah there, don t you know?! Some say he wanted to have a double portion of Elijah s charisma because he didn t start out with as much to begin with. No sense of that in the story. What s really back of this request is the inheritance law of the time. A father would pass on all his possessions to his sons equally, except for the firstborn, who would get a double share. (Sorry, daughters; that was then just saying.) In the context of the times, the oldest son would inherit a double portion because he was also charged with the larger responsibility of managing the estate and carrying on the father s legacy. So Elisha is really asking for the privilege of being Elijah s successor. He wants to accept the role of being Israel s prophet after Elijah, and he knows that he will need whatever spiritual giftedness his predecessor had if he would be recognized by Israel and be effective in leading. 2

3 Elijah responds in the only way he can. He says that Elisha is asking a hard thing. It isn t up to him to decide. He throws it back on God and says that if Elisha sees him taken into heaven, he ll know he had gotten his request. And, sure enough, he does. This is also the tie-in to our Gospel reading today of Jesus being transfigured on the mountaintop beside Peter, James and John. He s there praying, and suddenly the invisible world becomes visible. Moses and Elijah are there with him. He s talking to the saints as well as to God, or maybe they are talking to him. Who knows? The question is, how much of this experience was meant for Jesus benefit and how much for the disciples? I think the Elijah story suggests that it s more for those experiencing it indirectly than for those experiencing it directly. Elijah is taken up into heaven: he doesn t need Elisha to see it happen in order for it to be real. Jesus has prayed privately many times before. He has even heard the voice of God in his baptism saying, This is my beloved Son. What s important now is that the disciples hear it along with the coda, Listen to him. This points to some important points in the process of the passing on from one generation to another. The first is that you can t pass on what you don t have. For instance, if you don t have a work ethic, you can t pass it on. If you don t practice forgiveness, you can t pass it on. And if you don t have a life of faith, you can t pass it on. Let s pause here. Baptists like to say that God has no grandchildren. We each have to have our own experience of faith from one generation to the next. But while God has no grandchildren, we do. Grandparents as well as parents have an important role in passing on faith. And the most effective way to do so is to have faith yourself. You can t pass on what you don t have. If you want your kids and grandkids to know God, you have to practice your faith consistently in their presence. Let your kids and grandkids in on your experience of God. Bring them to church with you as a high priority of your life. Pray with them and for them. And this leads to the next thing: 3

4 don t just have your own faith experience or your own ministry; invite others into it. Elijah and Jesus practiced spiritual hospitality. They allowed their protégés to go along with them. Elijah knew that he was coming to the end of his life and like some people who are creeping up on death he wanted to go there by himself. But when Elisha kept persisting, he was allowed to come along. Same with Jesus. Peter, James and John would have to carry on the ministry of Jesus after him. Not all the disciples were there, but they were. Why? Who knows, but maybe because some of them were passionate about not missing out on anything. Jesus made his life accessible to his friends, and it would make all the difference. Elisha s experience of seeing the chariots of fire and the disciples experience of seeing Jesus transfigured would stay with them forever. In times of doubt they would be able to draw upon these experiences and remember that all of them were real and worth it. There are hospitals and there are teaching hospitals. It s not that you can t get good care in hospitals that simply serve the needs of patients; it s that in teaching hospitals there is a culture of learning. Doctors, nurses and administrators have a dual role of healing and teaching. They have to be good at their work, and they have to pass on the wisdom of their work by allowing students to come alongside them as they work and reflect. Churches like ours have taken this concept seriously. So many churches have worried that they won t last another generation, so they change their churches to appeal to the next generation. Everything is geared to the young. But there s another way a way we are taking. We make ourselves hospitable to those who will lead congregations in the future. One key to the church s survival to the next generation is to pass on what we have learned in our generation. You don t have to neglect older and middle-age people in order to do that. In fact, if you do neglect them, you are wasting a world of wisdom that can be passed on. The other side of this issue is something I have already alluded to. There are two sides to this process: the mentor has to be 4

5 hospitable, and the mentee has to be insatiable. One has to be willing to teach; the other has to be willing to learn. You know the phrase You can lead a horse to water, but you can t make him drink? It s the same with those who are following. Parents can want to pass on their faith, but unless children want to learn and stay close to them, this faith doesn t get passed on. Pastors can open their hearts and minds to wouldbe younger pastors, but unless the younger ones are willing to adopt the vocational habits of their mentors and take up the mantle for themselves, they will not succeed. I don t know Bart Marantz, but I think I know Bart Marantz. Cats like Bart, they don t get the credit for what they do, says Roy Hargrove, one of the most prolific jazz trumpeters of this generation. That s because Bart decided years ago that he would become a teacher at Booker T. Washington High School of the Performing Arts here in Dallas. Hargrove was his student, as were Norah Jones and Erykah Badu. It s not always true what they say: Those who can, do; and those who can t, teach. Sometimes those who can, teach. They care as much or more about what happens after them as what happens to them. Marantz: I ve come to the point in my life where I just want to see the music carry on and go forward. 1 There it is. It s not about you; it s about the music. It s about the gospel. It s about those who will carry on what you care about after you are dead and gone. If you are at least halfway through this journey of life, I have a question for you: Are you busy about the work of passing on what you can to others you love? Give up the mantle. And if you are in the first half of life still, I have a question for you: How badly do you want it? How badly do you want to take your place in the chain of being as someone who someone else might one day want to look to for a double portion of your spirit? Take up the mantle. We re all going to cross the river one day, one way or another. It s never too soon and never too late to think about what you are passing on before passing on. 1 /headlines/ booker-t-washington- High-School-4089.ece 5