Inheriting the Cause

Inheriting the Cause
Kate Hanch, Children’s Ministry Associate
Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Missouri
June 27, 2010, Season After Pentecost, Proper 8
2 Kings 2:1-14


My dad just got back from his second mission trip yesterday. He was in the Dominican Republic assisting with various medical clinics. Although my dad is not in the medical field, he can do things such as count pills, some construction, and other grunt work. He had sent a couple of emails and has said the experience has changed his life. My mom and I both went on our first mission trip when I was 13. We went to New Orleans, and helped with backyard bible camps at HUD housing and served at homeless shelters, as well as sang for some nursing homes. I remember watching how she acted around the children and the people who came in to eat at the shelters. Despite New Orleans heat and humidity, she smiled at every person she met, talking with them as if with old friends. That memory continues to inspire me today.

There is a reason that two persons read the text today. The story today is about a mentoring relationship that gets broken apart when Elijah is taken up to heaven. Elisha is left with very big shoes to fill. At this time, his mentor, Elijah was pretty well known by the king for being a troublemaker. He had healed people, made a mockery of the prophets of Baal, and was fed by ravens. Elijah had done some cool stuff.

Carrie Mitchell divides this story today into several sections that help us see ourselves in this story.

The first section is inviting.
Elijah first calls Elisha in 1 Kings 19, right after he hears God’s still, small voice that Kathy had talked about last week. Elisha was a regular farmer, plowing when Elijah calls him. After saying goodbye to his parents, Elisha joins Elijah and becomes his sidekick.

Invitations are an important part of our ministry. In our church, we invite people to join us on this journey with our relationship with God. We may never know the gifts of another person until we invite them to participate. We may never know our spiritual gifts and callings until we are invited to express them. My parents were both asked to participate on these mission trips—they probably would have never gone otherwise.

As we look at our networks and friends, we should ask ourselves: who can we invite on this journey with us? What gifts do we see in others that they might not see in themselves? How have we been invited to participate in our current ministries?

Inviting people to participate with us is risky. It might require time, patience, and rejection. But the process of inviting is essential to our church, and the church as a whole. We invite because God’s love is too big for us alone. We invite because we believe that God’s grace extends to the whole world.

The second section Mitchell describes in this story is developing. The first time we hear Elisha speak after he is called by Elijah in 1 Kings 19 is in this story. What is happening between those times? During this in-between time, Elisha was probably listening and observing. He may have taken notes and mimicked Elijah’s actions and words. Who knows, he may have even messed up a few times. The journey in discipleship certainly encounters plenty of mistakes.


Being a disciple takes time and practice. Dietrich Bonhoeffer declares that “our struggle for today is costly grace. It is costly because it calls to discipleship, it is grace, because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs people their lives; it is grace because it makes them live.”

Our baptism symbolizes a beginning in our journey with God—it is not a total transformation in one easy step. Like Elisha, we continue on that journey, but not alone. We have friends and mentors who help us and guide us along the way. How has our church helped with mentoring others? How have you been mentored by people in our church? What sacrifices should we make to listen to the call of discipleship seriously in our culture?

Thirdly, we see ourselves in the testing. Three times Elisha is reminded that his beloved mentor, Elijah is leaving. Three times Elijah pleads for Elisha to stay instead of follow him. And three more times, Elisha, despite Elijah’s command, pledges to follow him wherever he goes. Does this remind you of any other bible story?

The Gospel of John has a similar story of threes. After Jesus is resurrected, he returns to his disciples. In Chapter 21, Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Peter responds with an emphatic yes each of those three times. Jesus instructs Peter, after each of his responses, to go and do what Jesus would do.

The testing of Elisha can be taken in two different ways. Is Elijah testing Elisha to see if he is truly ready, or is Elijah testing Elisha to see if he’s a faithful follower?

To be honest, I’m not sure. If Elijah is testing Elisha’s faithfulness, Elisha has passed with flying colors…maybe. Or maybe Elisha could have been more attached to Elijah than to Yahweh. Many times we can get attached to certain people or certain ministries as opposed to worshipping the one true God.

If Elijah was testing if Elisha was ready, Elisha acted like he wasn’t. Perhaps he was scared. Remember, he had big shoes to fill, and I’m not sure if Elisha wanted to fill them. But then, who can blame him? Elijah had proven Yahweh as the one true God against 450 prophets of Baal. He probably was not well liked, and maybe even had some death threats.

Plus, Elisha had been a silent figure before now. We don’t know how much he practiced, or if he just observed. Being a prophet is a big deal and Elisha knew that he would never be fully prepared.

The testing of Elisha involves risk. Do we have faith that God can give us the skills when we hear God’s call? We must risk moving beyond the status quo for reaching for something that may be better, even difficult. Or both.

Parting is the fourth section that Mitchell describes in this call story. Elisha knows Elijah is going away—everyone around him continues to remind him of this. Elisha still seems surprised when Elijah is carried away by the chariots in heaven, even though he knows this will happen.

Parting is a natural stage in life. Kids leave the home, we move, we change jobs, people come in and out of our circle. Parting is necessary, however, in order to grow. Each year in seminary, I always kind of dread graduation time. I have become close to many of the students, and I know I won’t get to see them around next year. However, I am thankful as I look at their various ministries, and how they are impacting the world. In church and in our lives, we sometimes need to part with practices or habits that keep us from worshiping God as fully as we could. What are some practices in our church that we might need to part with? What are some habits in our lives that keep us from seeing God as fully as we could?

Of course, with parting, there comes the grieving. Mitchell describes this story that “knowing Elijah would be taken from him did not minimize Elisha’s grief; rather, it made his own ministry more [meaningful].” Elisha tears his robe, expressing the depths of his grief in an open and public fashion. In Elisha, we know it is okay to grieve. We don’t have to like the change we are experiencing at first. It is okay to remember things as they were used to. In fact, there is much to learn and continue to learn from the past. Things we may have not understood in the past can become much clearer.

However, we cannot stay there. Elisha was confirmed in his ministry only after Elijah had gone into heaven. As Elisha takes his mentor’s cloak, he realizes his task at hand. While he follows in Elijah’s footsteps, he makes his ministry his own. He remembers Elijah, and at the same time knows his task is not finished. The ministry of the prophets does not stop at Elijah, it continues with Elisha. In our lives, while a certain ministry may have begun with someone, it continues through us. We can move forward to worship God fully and help others do likewise through our ministries in the church. How do we claim these ministries in our context today? How can we continue what the founders of the church have started? Ministry is worship to God, so we must figure out how we want to worship God in our everyday lives.

In this story of Elijah and Elisha, no one is left off the hook. Elisha, even though he has little experience, is called to take Elijah’s cloak and do the same types of miracles Elijah performed. In our church, we believe that everyone is called into ministry, since ministry is worship. How will you join?


Feasting on the Word, Year C: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary. Barbara Brown Taylor, and David L. Bartlett, ed. Year C, Volume 3, Season after Pentecost. Copyright 2010.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. Copyright SCM Press, LTD, 1959. 1st Touchstone edition, 1995.