Year C. Fourth Sunday after Pentecost July 1st, 2001, 1 Kings 19: 15-16, 19-21
Title: “The cost of discipleship.”
In chapter nineteen, Elijah has taken to the hills in flight from the wrath of Jezebel who has put out a contract on his life. She blamed him for killing her prophets of her god, Baal, on Mt Carmel. She wanted revenge. In a cave in the mountain Elijah has a religious experience. He heard the voice of the Lord not in the usual dramatic ways typical of theophany but in a gentle whisper. He was told to anoint, that is, to formally bestow divine approval and power on, three people- Hazael as king of Aram, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as prophet to succeed him. Actually, it will be Elisha who will anoint Hazael and Jehu in 2Kings 8-9, but Elijah immediately anoints Elisha. Strictly speaking, there is no record of an actual anointing.
This is the only example of a prophet indicating, be it anointing, appointing or naming, his successor. It is reminiscent, probably intentionally so, of Moses appointing Joshua as his successor. In the popular mind Moses and Elijah are linked as representing the law and prophets respectively. From this perspective they are sort of equals, preventing the isolation of the written law from the interpretation of the spoken word of the prophet.
In verse sixteen, You shall anoint Elisha: There is, in fact, no ceremony of anointing recorded, but the legitimacy of Elisha as prophet-successor is clearly meant to be emphasized. “Elisha” means “My God is, my, salvation.” His home is given as Abel-meholah which is variously identified with Tell Abu Sifri or Tell Abn Haraz in East Jordan. A Tell is a hill containing archaeological remains of ancient settlements now buried under the accumulation of ages of weathering. Tell is used as part of a place name- in the Near East- to indicate it once was a human environment.
In verse nineteen, Elisha, was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen: Elisha is called in the midst of his occupation, a practice foreshadowing Jesus’ call of his disciples while they worked at their trade. Add to the relatively large number of yokes the fact that Elisha was walking behind them in a supervisory position and this note may indicate that Elisha was from a well-to-do family.
In verse twenty, Elijah, threw his cloak over him: It was a common belief, born of, sympathetic, magic, that clothing which came into bodily contact with a powerful person possessed some of that power. Elijah was transferring his power to Elisha by this symbolic sacramental act. This may be the counterpart of anointing.
Let me kiss my father and my mother goodbye: Elisha recognized the import of what Elijah had done. He would accept the call., “take up the mantle,” but only after he did right by his parents, a sacred duty as well, as the keeping of the fourth commandment.
Have I done anything to you?: Elijah’s peculiar answer is puzzling. It may be a roundabout way of saying, “By all means, do so.” His answer could also be interpreted as Elijah’s being affronted by the “delaying tactic.” Jesus would so react in today’s gospel text. Or it may mean something more neutral like “Go ahead. Have I done anything to stop you. We must leave Elijah’s response as enigmatic. Certainly, Elisha’s request is perfectly normal and reasonable, even compassionate.
In verse twenty-one, Elisha left him: Whatever Elijah’s response might mean, Elisha took it as permission to go and he went.
Oxen, slaughtered them; he used the plowing equipment for fuel: Elisha destroyed the elements of his now former occupation as a sign of total commitment to a new way of life, never to look back.
Gave it to his people to eat: Of course, he put the oxen and the equipment, to good and productive use. He did not destroy them for destruction sake. In fact, this may well have been a thank offering for his new calling. It seems that family and neighbors were invited to join him in this thanksgiving and farewell meal.
Then he left and followed Elijah as his attendant: Moses, too, had a servant, Joshua. Moses trained him. Elijah will train Elisha. In the New Testament this very language will be used of the disciples of Jesus.
Few, if any, who reflect on this text will find themselves in the exact situation Elisha experienced. It is highly unlikely, though not impossible, that some known prophet will walk up to us while we are at work and ask us, challenge us, indeed, dare us, to take up the mantle of prophecy and leave family and job. However, the elements in this story are not as far-fetched as they might seem when we reflect on what happens to us when we are working at our daily jobs.
The relative routine of daily work allows us to think a lot more than we realize. Some tasks can be performed so perfunctorily that our minds can go elsewhere. We tend to think of life’s problems and, in the presence of tedium, even question the meaning of what we are doing. It is at such times that we are quite open to the inspiration of God. We start to daydream and a whole panoply of possibilities comes to the forefront of our consciousness. Elisha would have been no exception to this very human trait. No doubt the daily routine of plowing, even if he were only the supervisor, would have bored him and he would have dreamt of other ways to spend his life. Then Elijah came along, a man with a purpose and a mission. This is the part we usually miss. While we are up in the clouds, lost in our thoughts and dreams, God frequently sends a message through someone or some event that indicates a new direction our lives could take. If we do not miss it we feel we are being “called.” The ‘call” is only phase one. If we miss the call everything stops right there. Elisha did not miss the call. How could he? How many people put their mantle over you?
After the call comes the cost. There is a cost in changing one’s life direction. It might be a call to change jobs, even to move to a new location, involving moving away from family, friends, and a familiar environment. It may be a call to totally change the way one is presently living and the values one presently holds dear. It may be a call to give up the quest for more money or to detach from dependency upon family. Such “calls” require paying a price, what we Christians call “the cost of discipleship.” Even if we heard the call, we might feel the cost to be too high or even impossible.
After the call and the cost comes the commitment, the actual doing of it. Elisha heard the call, was willing to pay the price and did leave family, home and occupation and committed himself to the way of life and work of Elijah. Had he not done all three- heard the call, suffered the consequences and cost, and committed his life- the Sunammite widow’s only son would never have been brought back to life in 2 Kings 4: 18-37, Naaman’s leprosy would never have been cleansed in 2 Kings 5: 1-19, the starving widow’s oil supply would never have been increased in 2 Kings 4: 1-7, the grain would never have been multiplied to feed a hundred men in 2 Kings 4: 42-44 and the widow’s land would never have been restored in 2 Kings 8: 1-6. Elisha went on to complete the unfinished work of Elijah in 1 Kings 19: 15-16; 2 Kings 8: 7-15; 9: 1-190 and became constantly involved in the affairs of the nation. Had he not accepted the call, the inspiration from God, an entire army would have died of thirst, 2 Kings 3: 4-200, the Moabites would not have been routed, 2 Kings 3: 21-27, disasters would not have been averted, 2 Kings 6: 8-7: 23, Ben-hadad of Damascus or Jehu of Israel would not have been overthrown. The world and its history would have been deprived of many miracles. We might not want to call the difference we make in the world “miracles,” but that is what they are if they are done under the inspiration of God.
God is always calling us to change, to grow, to step out of the imposed conditions of our lives no matter how comfortable they might be or seem to be. He calls us to take risks without our being sure of their outcome. We might not be called to physically leave family, home and job, but we are all called to detach from them so that we can be free to be all that God calls us to be. The cost might seem high until we consider the consequences. The world, at least Elisha’s world, was better off because of the sacrifices he made. Can our world be any different? It is not enough to dream about being different. One must dare to be different by paying the price and staying the course.
In Scripture God typically calls people while they are at work.
Hesitating after hearing the call of God risks losing the inspiration and motivation to change.
Immediate and unconditional acceptance of God’s call to change involves a personal cost.
Accepting God’s call first changes the person, then changes the world and its history.
Call to Greatness: God calls everyone he creates to become like him, to be “in his image and likeness.” There are no exceptions. A person may not accept this call and may consider “greatness” to be something other than what God considers it to be. In such a case, that person might even be able to claim to be great by worldly definitions of the term, that is, because of fame or fortune or facial characteristics, bodily form, personality or accomplishments. Indeed, when we hear talk of being called to greatness we are inclined to say, “What, lil-ole-me?” or we might be disappointed at the particular “greatness” God has in mind for us. Yet, when we realize God’s definition of greatness involves being the unique image of himself that he created us to be, it makes perfect sense. We can fail to become who, whose, and what God created us to become. If we fail through no fault of our own we believe God will take care of it and see to it that we actually do become what he has in mind and had in mind when be brought us into being. However, if we fail because we refuse, because we balk at God’s dream for us, because we want to write our own play rather than star in his, then we must accept the eternal consequences of that rejection. If we abandon the God who will never abandon us we will still somehow live in his presence but on the very edges, the fringes of his presence where there is no chance of communicating with him. It was Elijah’s “path of life” and then Elisha’s to warn the people about the consequences of what they were doing. God’s people had a dream of their own making, a dream of greatness of their own defining, a dream that would turn into their worst nightmare unless they repented before it was too late. Every human being’s true greatness is to become the once-in-an-earthtime image, reflection, visible representation, of the God who made him or her and only him or her, never a clone, never a repeat, never an exact replica. We humans can fail to rise to the occasion(s) of the call to greatness as God defines it. Elisha heard the call, paid the cost, and committed himself to what would turn out to be in his own best interest and simultaneously in the best interest of others. Of course, there would be times when the pain that the price produces, the absence of familiar people, places and things, would cause him to pause and tempt him to renege. However, it was just a pause, just a temptation, not a cause to return to his former “path of life.” The diligence and disciple he learned by plowing would serve him well in the next phase of his life. He would “plow through” all the tough terrains and rough roads and remain faithful to that fateful decision to “leave all and follow me.” God’s dream of greatness for each one of us is not a full-blown scenario where we can look at it and dream of becoming it. It is a work or a play, in the making, in progress and its details are both undefined and unimportant. Each day reveals to us another piece of the puzzle, another tile of the mosaic that makes up our life. This dream is fueled by faith and this faith provides the horsepower or ox power, to get the job done. We do not need anything else- no props, no human supports, good as that is, no crutches or addictions or obsessions or compulsions or possessions.
Day By Day: Because God does not give us a pre-written script that we must slavishly conform to, because he allows us to add our own free will and our own, God-given, ingenuity to his overall will for us, we really discover, often through trial and error the same process that the scientific method depends upon, just what God wants us to do, how he wants it done, and, most importantly, the attitudes he wants us to bring to bear on any situation. It is a daily walk in his ways with our eyes sharp on discovering anything new about a situation, for we have learned that it is what is different about a situation that we discover and contact the Holy within it. Amen.
