TEACHING

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SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 2022
10:30 AM (in-person + kids + communion)
Pentecost+3, Proper 8 - 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Luke 9:51-62
Bittersweet Learning Through Life's Transitions
Regardless of our desire to change or not, we can experience the Spirit of life in its midst. In following Jesus, we see life as dynamic and ever-changing through re-creation and resurrection, but change invites us to understand loss, letting go, and leaving behind.

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BIG IDEA: Transitions give us a renewed opportunity to see, renewing vision and discerning the work of God (through the fog of the world) in the present.
FIRST LOOK:
2 Kings 2:1-2 [3-6] Just before the Lord took Elijah up to heaven in a windstorm, Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal. 2Elijah told Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

Starting with Moses, Jesus teaches his disciples that all the Old Testament Scriptures are about the sufferings and Glory of Christ  (Luke 24.27). That hermeneutical rule is more obviously applicable to some passages than to others, but there is no problem applying it to 2 Kings 2. Elijah is a type of John the Baptist, and the transition from Elijah to Elisha foreshadows the succession from John to Jesus…But the topology also works in other ways as well: Elijah is a type of Jesus himself, and Elisha of the disciples who continued Jesus ministry after his ascension (P.J. Leithart, 171).

• Why does Elijah try to escape without a proper transition? Is Elijah reluctant to accept God's plans for the future?
  

It is certainly not his leadership that is the decisive factor in the way things work out in this chapter. It is, rather, Elisha's commitment to his calling (172, I. Provan).

2 Kings 2:7-14 [15] The 50 members of the prophetic guild went and stood opposite them at a distance, while Elijah and Elisha stood by the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, folded it up, and hit the water with it. The water divided, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “What can I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of the prophetic spirit that energizes you?” Elijah replied, “That’s a difficult request! If you see me taken from you, may it be so, but if you don’t, it will not happen.”

• There is a mirror of Moses at the Sea of Reeds,
  
• Elisha asks his spiritual father, what the oldest son would expect of a father - double portion of inheritance. BUT…
  
• Like Joshua was to Moses, so Elisha is to Elijah
  
  • John the Baptist to Jesus
    
  • Jesus to Us (as Spirit-filled Disciples)
    
  • Us back to the Trinity
    

STEPPING IN
Passing of prophetic mantle, Six Stages, (Dr. Carrie N. Mitchell 175-177)

1. Inviting
   
2. Developing 
   
3. Testing
   
4. Parting 
   
5. Grieving 
   
6. Confirming
   

TAKE WITH YOU

• God works in the in-between places
  
• We have opportunity for fresh/refreshed Vision of the Kingdom of God
  
• We acknowledge loss, but we carry our loss into a new future with new life
  
• There are only “to be continued and next year in Jerusalem” for Jesus people
  
• Embrace
  

Sources: Feasting on the Word commentary 172-177; NIBC 1 and 2 Kings, I.W. Provan; Brazos 1 &2 Kings, P.J.Leithart; I &II Kings, A. G. Auld;