Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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A man is more than his body, more than the six quarts of water and five dollars worth of chemicals that comprise him. More than his brain. More than his genes. More even than his upbringing. A man, or a woman, is spirit (just as God is Spirit), and it is our spirits which are the essence of us, our god-parts. Our spirits live on after our bodies (the water and the chemicals) have returned to the earth. Our bodies eat bread, our spirits feed on the Word of God. Our bodies come and go from the earth. Our spirits come and go from heaven. From the beginning, when God made man from mud and breathed into his nostrils the breath, the wind, the spirit of life.

When we say someone is spiritual we mean that the God’s breath, God’s spirit in him or her shows. Once in a great while someone’s spirituality is overwhelming, dazzling. Jesus, of course, on the Mount of Transfiguration. The great saints of the Church in their gracious lives and in their miracles. The prophets and holy men of the Old Testament. Elijah and his successor, Elisha, for example. (Incidentally, God made their names so similar to test our patience.) Elijah, the old man, had been God’s voice in Israel for decades. Sometimes, it seemed to him, that he was the only voice for God in Israel. (Others who worshipped the old God, Yahweh – and there were a few -- were hiding, afraid.) Elijah had defied King Ahab and Ahab’s evil wife, Jezebel. (You remember, of course, that Ahab had married outside the faith -- married a beautiful but ruthless pagan woman, who was now the pagan queen. And Jezebel had brought with her to Israel all her pagan gods, and all their prophets, and had tried to mix them into the pure, pristine “one-god” faith of the Jews.) Elijah’s courage against Jezebel, and his fear of her, was legendary. But now he was old, and dying. Who would take his place? Who would speak for the old God, Yahweh, and for his ways?

Elisha is God’s appointed successor. That had been clear for some time. Here, on the last day of Elijah’s life, Elisha follows the old prophet around from Bethel, to Jericho to the River Jordan, not letting him out of his sight. In clear view of the fifty prophets of Jericho, the two cross the Jordan miraculously on dry land (as Moses and the Hebrew children had crossed the Red Sea). Once on the other side, Elijah asks Elisha, “What can I do for you, before I go?” “Give me a double share of your spirit,” Elisha replies. (In ancient Israel, if a man had four sons, he would divide his estate five ways, and the oldest son, the heir, would get two parts, “a double share.” So, Elisha is not being greedy, not asking to be twice as good as Elijah. He’s simply saying, “Let me be your heir.”) “Only if you’re watching when I leave,” the old man replies. And they start to walk, and talk, and suddenly chariots and horses of fire come between them and Elijah is sucked up in a whirlwind. And he is gone.

When Elisha re-crosses the river, the prophets of Jericho hail him as “the new Elijah.” But they’re not so sure about the story he tells. So they send fifty men to the other side for three days to look for Elijah’s body, but they come back empty handed. And Elisha says, “What did I tell you?”

This story, and the New Testament’s account of Jesus’ transfiguration, are appointed to be read on the same Sunday because both proclaim a common theme: that even when a great religious leader has to go, or when our plans for ministry are disappointed in some other way, there is no reason to lose heart. God will provide for the continuation of his work Sometimes God will even give us a heart-stopping, almost blinding glimpse of his glory to strengthen us through our grief and fear. The most important fact about the transfiguration (when Jesus takes Peter and James and John up that towering mountain and they see what they saw) – the most important fact about the transfiguration is that it takes place just before Jesus goes to Jerusalem, to die. He knows what’s up…they don’t. He has begun to prepare them, to warn them, but they are refusing to hear. He will give them something – a vision of heaven’s glory – something they can remember, when the going gets tough. And the going will get tough. And they will remember. Years later, John isn’t half-way through the first chapter of his Gospel, when he says, “And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of God.” He never forgot the transfiguration, the mountaintop. It strengthened him and the other disciples for the awful trials they had to face. As I’m sure Elisha never forgot those horses and chariots of fire. The vision forged him into a man of steel.

Our spirits need strengthening, not just our bodies. And so, strengthened by what we have seen and experienced, we pass on the spirit of God…breathe it into the nostrils of the next man, the next disciple, the next prophet. In this Holy Communion the spirits of our faithful ancestors join our spirits. The disciples are here. The martyrs, who died such horrible deaths in the early years, are here. St. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Wesley join us at this table. Our parents and grandparents are here. Their faith and courage is passed on to us. We are inspired, inspirited, by them. God’s Spirit touching our spirits, and being passed along through the ages. None of us will last much longer, but (Fear not!) God’s word will never fail. “The body they may kill. God’s truth abideth still. His Kingdom is forever.”. That’s what Transfiguration is about.