“ELIJAH’S
MANTLE”
[A sermon for the End of Term with Mozart’s
Coronation Mass]
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An end of term sermon preached at (a service including Readings: 2
Kings 2:1-2 & 6-14, Luke 9:57-62 |
II Kings 2:13
“He picked up the mantle that had fallen from Elijah”
And
so we read this ancient story
of the old and the young prophets.
According to the OT legend,
Elijah did not die a physical death
but was taken straight up into Heaven.
The
young Elisha sees him depart,
and then symbolically picks up the cloak
of his departing guide and mentor -
He
does so in part as a tribute to him,
but
also as a token of his determination
to carry on where the other had left off –
And
of course the story has given us an addition to our language -
“to take on someone’s mantle”
means precisely to continue with the work they started.
And at the end of an academic year
it is worth reflecting on Elisha’s position.
In
the morning he was just a disciple,
a learner and a pupil accompanying old Elijah
to the muddy banks of the swirling Jordan,
watching on as the old man
works yet one more miracle
and parts the Jordan like Joshua of old.
But now at the end of the day we find Elisha suddenly alone.
He is no longer the disciple,
his guide and mentor is gone,
and suddenly now he must head back
to the swirling muddy waters of Jordan
knowing that this time it is he, Elisha,
“the new-fledged disciple, suddenly come of age”
who must do the miracle with Elijah’s mantle in his hand,
And
so today might we well look back from whence we have come,
give thanks for our mentors and guides and teachers –
be they of the last year or many years gone.
And then might we look forward
to the new challenges, responsibilities and opportunities opening up in the
future –
as we too stand by our Jordan
with the mantle of our forebears gripped tight in our hand.
Our music today is from Mozart’s Coronation
Mass –
thus called following the coronation of Francis II
as Holy Roman Emperor in 1792, when the music was played.
A newly crowned King is vested in all the fine regalia of office –
and I wonder what sort of robes they placed
on the Holy Roman Emperor Frances II as Mozart’s music played?
I guess it would have been a mantle,
a robe richly woven with threads of silk and gold –
such is the mantle of Kingship.
And
maybe sometimes we too may take up such a mantle as this –
and maybe some who study at University
aspire precisely to such worldly greatness.
But
sometimes the mantle we are given is very different.
Fr
Damien, worked with the lepers of Hawaii for 25 yrs
before contracting leprosy himself.
In the spring of 1889 Damien was on his death bed,
dying of leprosy.
One of his followers asked for his coat -
that he might have the mantle of Fr Damien
Damien replied - you don’t want my coat - it is full
of leprosy -
Yes said the follower I do -
for I commit myself to follow your work
even if it takes me to my grave before Easter.
This
is the mantle we are sometimes given -
As
the covenant service says,
we are called to many different tasks.
But
if we are called to pick up the mantle of sufferings
you will be taking up the mantle of the King of Kings
whose work will always take us ultimately to the cross, the grave, the skies!
And
it is the mantle of God’s servant which we should seek –
not the robes of earthly glory.
I think of one of Francis’s 16th Century
forefathers
as Holy Roman Emperor Charles
V.
There are
several versions of the story – and of Charles’ motives.
I have lost the reference for this quotation, which I think may be from Gordon
Rupp:
I think of “that day in 1559 when Charles decided
that there were more important things to consider,
and that he should spend his remaining days
fitting himself to meet his maker.
And so to the great scene in Brussels Cathedral
when the Imperial Herald read a long list of his titles,
and one by one he renounced them all,
until he stood alone, a man humble before God.”
A coronation undone, or
perhaps a life fulfilled?
Laying
down one mantle that he might take up another
And
then I think of Princess Diana –
and those scenes of her visiting hospices
and hugging AIDS patients,
someone who (for all her tortured complexity)
could remind us of Fr Damien
in her care for the marginalized and the lost.
Here was someone who had taken up the mantle
– indeed the Versace gown – of royalty –
but who could choose in those moments
to take up rather the garments of compassion.
And
I remember watching TV on the evening after Diana’s funeral.
Still late into the night folk were milling around
by the gates of her family home,
bringing flowers, lighting candles in the cold night air.
And I watched as one candle reached
the end of its life with a guttering flame -
and someone came with anew candle and lit it from the expiring one.
As
one life ends
we are called to pick up the
mantle which falls
As
one candle dies
We are called to light our own candle from it.
This
is what it means to be part of God’s people,
across the ages.
We
may not feel worthy or capable to be
a part of such an apostolic succession,
but it is our destiny.
You
remember Elton John at Diana’s Funeral -
Elton John (who I guess cut as unlikely a figure
as did Mozart in his day as a court musician) –
Elton John singing “Candle in the Wind” -
and perhaps we feel like that – a candle in the wind -
frail and flawed and tentative
in the midst of the gusts of the world –
Indeed. we all know that one
day on this earth
for all of us
the candle will burn low and extinguish -
But
never forget -.
Young
Elisha was given a mantle –
but
much much more –
“He
saw a great vision of the
chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof –
and
realised that he was compassed about
by
a fiery and celestial cloud of witnesses”
And
he received double the power of the spirit -
without which he could have done nothing -
Our
candle may flicker
But
the wind is not just the Chill north wind of the world’s ills -
It
is the wind of the Spirit fanning the flame.
So
today
as each of us in our own way
look to what the future may hold,
·
let us continue to give honour to the saints who have gone before us –
And recognise that their work will
only continue
if we take it forward.
·
let us pick up a candle and light it,
and trust God
to fan the flames with the wind his Spirit
·
Let us pick up their mantle of the prophets,
& stride on to Jordan with Elijah’s mantle in
our hands,
So may we do God’s will in
this world.
And –
when finally God vouchsafes us
that final passage over Jordan to the land above,
may we in our turn leave God’s mantle on the shore
that in the power of the Spirit,
it may be taken up by others
- some yet unborn
that God’s great work may yet go on.