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Transfiguration Sunday
11 February 2018
Peter J.B. Carman
Emmanuel Friedens Church
Schenectady NY
2 Kings 2: 1-14; Mark 9: 2-15I.
I.
We have heard two ancient stories about our inheritance, as the children of God. First is the account of how Elijah, that mysterious prophet, was taken up into the sky in a chariot of fire. This is not just a description of the fiery end of one person’s life! It is also a story about how, despite the loss of one clear voice, God can equip people of faith to go on. It is about handing on a calling-- the calling to continue proclaiming justice and love out in the world, no matter how popular or unpopular that might be. The story of Elijah’s departure in a chariot of fire is also about handing on a different power; a power which comes not from human might; a power not borne of human hands, nor even born of human ingenuity. It is a power that comes from beyond human anything...a power that rests, nonetheless, on human shoulders. For Elisha had asked Elijah for a double portion of the Spirit that fills him. And the request is granted. We know because, after the fire is gone and the vision has dissipated, there is a cloak left on the ground. Elisha picks up the mantle that had been Elijah’s and he strikes the river Jordan, and the waters part….
The second tale we heard is equally strange and striking. Up on a mountain we meet Jesus, filled with shining light, in company with Moses and Elijah! Two who in earlier days gave God’s Law and Prophecy. And yet Elijah and Moses quickly fade away—we are left with Jesus alone, standing with his three most trusted followers. Jesus, with his disciples, about to descend into the valley of the shadow of death, just as Moses and Elijah did before him. The apostle Peter, ever one to trudge in where even angels might hesitate a bit, comes up with a brilliant suggestion: build boxes to honor the past and capture the experience, contain the uncontainable. The King James Version captures its spirit eloquently: ""Master, it is good for us to be here. And let us make three tabernacles [booths]; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid."
Elisha inherits the mantle of Elijah's office in the wilderness, and with it a double share of the living Spirit, which had moved so powerfully through Elijah. Similarly, through Jesus of Nazareth, the prophetic inheritance of Moses and Elijah turn in new and powerful and surprising directions.
But what about these three disciples, Peter, and the others? We who can see through to the cross, and to the empty tomb beyond it, we understand that those three disciples, those poor, sorry, frightened fools up on that mountain—they too are being called. They are being called, to inherit, to take up the mantle of faith, Like Abraham and Sarah, like Hagar and Ishmael, like Moses and Miriam, like Elijah and Elisha, like Jesus before them.
Just as Elisha was called, and Jesus was called, and those three disciples were called, so are we in our day offered the mantle of faith. God gives us power as needed, and bathes us in a mysterious light! With the tasks, with the promise of a challenge, comes the same living Spirit of God that has transfigured, turned and sometimes torn through the faithful from generation to generation, in the past.
II.
This morning I have brought to church the only real mantle of office I have ever had in my personal possession. A mantle, after all, is a cloak or blanket. This red blanket used to belong to my grandfather, Dr. Jack Carman, sent out from his western New York congregation in 1928 to be a missionary physician in India. With him went his wife Naomi, a strong and compassionate partner in ministry and a clear voice for what’s right.
The blanket has an interesting story. While my grandfather worked in India he was a physician. But on one occasion he was called to a very different kind of effort at healing. He was asked by hill people of Nagaland to come and take part in their ongoing peace negotiations with the Indian government. Nagaland, in the northern part of India, is mountainous, wild country. It has many tribal people, living in the way of their ancestors. However, many of them are now Baptists. As fiercely independent people, they wanted an outsider present who would be fair in listening both to them and the government. So, they and the Indian government settled on this quiet doctor with a reputation for bringing together different factions, and for integrity.
My grandfather was a modest man. I never got a good sense from him of how much of a role he played-- only a sense of awkwardness at undertaking something new, where he felt like an amateur.
As a sign of gratitude for his role, and for his friendship, the Naga hill people with whom he was staying gave Dr. Jack Carman a blanket to wear-- a "friendship blanket", he told me it was. The same kind of blanket his hosts wore in their chilly hills as coats and slept in at night. And this blanket, this Naga blanket, my grandfather gave to me as a Christmas gift, when I was a teenager-- as a sign of our friendship, he said. As he wrapped it around my shoulders, in front of the Christmas tree, he said “They gave it to me, now I give it to you.”
It was not so many years later that my grandpa Jack died. I struggled with his death. Yet the gift of his friendship, and of the blanket that symbolized his commitment to reconciliation in a warring world, did not die. It was now up to me to claim it more deeply, to pick up the blanket, as it were, and respond to God's calling.
When I first read the story of Elijah's mantle, and Elisha striking the water with it, I thought of this blanket-- this very real mantle. And I thought of the spirit of friendship, of peace and reconciliation, which give it meaning. And I began to sense something of the way in which the Spirit of God is transmitted from generation to generation. As I went on later to reflect on my grandfather's role as a healer of bodies, I remembered that as a little boy I wanted to be a physician too, "just like grandpa". But the mantle of God's calling, the mantle of the Spirit's power, does not call us to be just like grandpa, or grandma or just like any other hero or role model. To quote that famous hymn of James Russell Lowell’s:
New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth.
This Naga blanket from northern India has had to travel the full distance, a long and circuitous pilgrimage. The Spirit of the living God has a curious way of finding where it's needed!
III.
We who live in North America in the year 2018 are no less living in a world at war than my grandfather John Spencer Carman was in northern India in the 1960’s.
We live in a trigger-happy, solve-it-by-shooting time. The violence includes racial violence that enforces the legacy of White supremacy. Sexism and misogyny fuel the flames. Toxic fear and anger have penetrated the classrooms of rural and suburban as well as urban America, it seems they have found a strange lodging in the homes of the wealthiest Americans.
Some would take advantage of these feelings, to build power. Like you I learned this past week of plans to have an enormous military parade in the streets of Washington DC. A relative of mine spoke up about this online recently, questioning the use of all that money for a parade when human needs in the world are so great. I for one shared with some of you the remembered image of Yertle the turtle, at the very bottom layer under the massive stack of turtles his King had created so that he could be the ruler of all he surveyed. Did Yertle sneeze? Or did he need to stretch? I thought it was one of these. But Lynn, my beloved, knows her literature better than I: it seems Yertle burped. And Jack and Jill going down the hill had nothing on what happened to them turtles.
In such a time as this, in this city and in this nation, with the war drums thrumming, we who dare to call ourselves people of faith need a double share of Elijah’s mantle; we need to inherit the calling of Jesus, the prophet and embodiment of God’s peace deep rooted in justice.
We know, as Elisha knew, as Jesus and his friends knew, the Spirit that humankind needs, to address the world's suffering and violence, the world's injustice. That Spirit is not one which can be manipulated and played by humans. We need a double portion today of that prophetic spirit which identifies the truth clearly and speaks it boldly, in love.
In this 50th anniversary year of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it is tempting to bemoan the loss of our great leaders of the past, the moral voices we always counted on to do the hard work for us, who are with us no more. But it is not enough to mourn their passing. If we want the gift of genuine prophetic witness today, we must turn to the only one who can give it to us. God. God alone. If we want to pick up that mantle that can part the waters of human hostility and death...then it is time to ask God for it. And it is time to dare to take the responsibility, the risk of carrying it into the world, to the people.
To carry out the prophetic role of Moses, of Elijah, of Jesus of Nazareth, today would mean that we who are here, God’s Yertles, if you will, be willing to accept the responsibility of that Spirit which comes from beyond us. It would mean being willing to accept picking up the mantle of our teachers, our heroes, our ancestors in faith, and striking the dark waters of our times, even as Elisha struck the Jordan. It would mean crying out, at the violence and hardship; It would mean trusting in a genuine response from God, to our genuine heart-ache filled question: Where is the Lord, the God of Moses and Miriam, the God of Elijah and of Elizabeth, the God we know in Jesus Christ?
We stand like Elisha in the wilderness, still stinging and puzzled at the loss of our teachers, the loss of those to whom in former times we looked for guidance. Yet at our feet there lies a blood-red mantle. It is the mantle of Christ's prophetic witness to the reign of God's love. It is the mantle of Christ’s peace, Christ’s justice. Do we dare to pick it up?
11 February 2018
Peter J.B. Carman
Emmanuel Friedens Church
Schenectady NY
2 Kings 2: 1-14; Mark 9: 2-15I.
I.
We have heard two ancient stories about our inheritance, as the children of God. First is the account of how Elijah, that mysterious prophet, was taken up into the sky in a chariot of fire. This is not just a description of the fiery end of one person’s life! It is also a story about how, despite the loss of one clear voice, God can equip people of faith to go on. It is about handing on a calling-- the calling to continue proclaiming justice and love out in the world, no matter how popular or unpopular that might be. The story of Elijah’s departure in a chariot of fire is also about handing on a different power; a power which comes not from human might; a power not borne of human hands, nor even born of human ingenuity. It is a power that comes from beyond human anything...a power that rests, nonetheless, on human shoulders. For Elisha had asked Elijah for a double portion of the Spirit that fills him. And the request is granted. We know because, after the fire is gone and the vision has dissipated, there is a cloak left on the ground. Elisha picks up the mantle that had been Elijah’s and he strikes the river Jordan, and the waters part….
The second tale we heard is equally strange and striking. Up on a mountain we meet Jesus, filled with shining light, in company with Moses and Elijah! Two who in earlier days gave God’s Law and Prophecy. And yet Elijah and Moses quickly fade away—we are left with Jesus alone, standing with his three most trusted followers. Jesus, with his disciples, about to descend into the valley of the shadow of death, just as Moses and Elijah did before him. The apostle Peter, ever one to trudge in where even angels might hesitate a bit, comes up with a brilliant suggestion: build boxes to honor the past and capture the experience, contain the uncontainable. The King James Version captures its spirit eloquently: ""Master, it is good for us to be here. And let us make three tabernacles [booths]; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid."
Elisha inherits the mantle of Elijah's office in the wilderness, and with it a double share of the living Spirit, which had moved so powerfully through Elijah. Similarly, through Jesus of Nazareth, the prophetic inheritance of Moses and Elijah turn in new and powerful and surprising directions.
But what about these three disciples, Peter, and the others? We who can see through to the cross, and to the empty tomb beyond it, we understand that those three disciples, those poor, sorry, frightened fools up on that mountain—they too are being called. They are being called, to inherit, to take up the mantle of faith, Like Abraham and Sarah, like Hagar and Ishmael, like Moses and Miriam, like Elijah and Elisha, like Jesus before them.
Just as Elisha was called, and Jesus was called, and those three disciples were called, so are we in our day offered the mantle of faith. God gives us power as needed, and bathes us in a mysterious light! With the tasks, with the promise of a challenge, comes the same living Spirit of God that has transfigured, turned and sometimes torn through the faithful from generation to generation, in the past.
II.
This morning I have brought to church the only real mantle of office I have ever had in my personal possession. A mantle, after all, is a cloak or blanket. This red blanket used to belong to my grandfather, Dr. Jack Carman, sent out from his western New York congregation in 1928 to be a missionary physician in India. With him went his wife Naomi, a strong and compassionate partner in ministry and a clear voice for what’s right.
The blanket has an interesting story. While my grandfather worked in India he was a physician. But on one occasion he was called to a very different kind of effort at healing. He was asked by hill people of Nagaland to come and take part in their ongoing peace negotiations with the Indian government. Nagaland, in the northern part of India, is mountainous, wild country. It has many tribal people, living in the way of their ancestors. However, many of them are now Baptists. As fiercely independent people, they wanted an outsider present who would be fair in listening both to them and the government. So, they and the Indian government settled on this quiet doctor with a reputation for bringing together different factions, and for integrity.
My grandfather was a modest man. I never got a good sense from him of how much of a role he played-- only a sense of awkwardness at undertaking something new, where he felt like an amateur.
As a sign of gratitude for his role, and for his friendship, the Naga hill people with whom he was staying gave Dr. Jack Carman a blanket to wear-- a "friendship blanket", he told me it was. The same kind of blanket his hosts wore in their chilly hills as coats and slept in at night. And this blanket, this Naga blanket, my grandfather gave to me as a Christmas gift, when I was a teenager-- as a sign of our friendship, he said. As he wrapped it around my shoulders, in front of the Christmas tree, he said “They gave it to me, now I give it to you.”
It was not so many years later that my grandpa Jack died. I struggled with his death. Yet the gift of his friendship, and of the blanket that symbolized his commitment to reconciliation in a warring world, did not die. It was now up to me to claim it more deeply, to pick up the blanket, as it were, and respond to God's calling.
When I first read the story of Elijah's mantle, and Elisha striking the water with it, I thought of this blanket-- this very real mantle. And I thought of the spirit of friendship, of peace and reconciliation, which give it meaning. And I began to sense something of the way in which the Spirit of God is transmitted from generation to generation. As I went on later to reflect on my grandfather's role as a healer of bodies, I remembered that as a little boy I wanted to be a physician too, "just like grandpa". But the mantle of God's calling, the mantle of the Spirit's power, does not call us to be just like grandpa, or grandma or just like any other hero or role model. To quote that famous hymn of James Russell Lowell’s:
New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth.
This Naga blanket from northern India has had to travel the full distance, a long and circuitous pilgrimage. The Spirit of the living God has a curious way of finding where it's needed!
III.
We who live in North America in the year 2018 are no less living in a world at war than my grandfather John Spencer Carman was in northern India in the 1960’s.
We live in a trigger-happy, solve-it-by-shooting time. The violence includes racial violence that enforces the legacy of White supremacy. Sexism and misogyny fuel the flames. Toxic fear and anger have penetrated the classrooms of rural and suburban as well as urban America, it seems they have found a strange lodging in the homes of the wealthiest Americans.
Some would take advantage of these feelings, to build power. Like you I learned this past week of plans to have an enormous military parade in the streets of Washington DC. A relative of mine spoke up about this online recently, questioning the use of all that money for a parade when human needs in the world are so great. I for one shared with some of you the remembered image of Yertle the turtle, at the very bottom layer under the massive stack of turtles his King had created so that he could be the ruler of all he surveyed. Did Yertle sneeze? Or did he need to stretch? I thought it was one of these. But Lynn, my beloved, knows her literature better than I: it seems Yertle burped. And Jack and Jill going down the hill had nothing on what happened to them turtles.
In such a time as this, in this city and in this nation, with the war drums thrumming, we who dare to call ourselves people of faith need a double share of Elijah’s mantle; we need to inherit the calling of Jesus, the prophet and embodiment of God’s peace deep rooted in justice.
We know, as Elisha knew, as Jesus and his friends knew, the Spirit that humankind needs, to address the world's suffering and violence, the world's injustice. That Spirit is not one which can be manipulated and played by humans. We need a double portion today of that prophetic spirit which identifies the truth clearly and speaks it boldly, in love.
In this 50th anniversary year of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it is tempting to bemoan the loss of our great leaders of the past, the moral voices we always counted on to do the hard work for us, who are with us no more. But it is not enough to mourn their passing. If we want the gift of genuine prophetic witness today, we must turn to the only one who can give it to us. God. God alone. If we want to pick up that mantle that can part the waters of human hostility and death...then it is time to ask God for it. And it is time to dare to take the responsibility, the risk of carrying it into the world, to the people.
To carry out the prophetic role of Moses, of Elijah, of Jesus of Nazareth, today would mean that we who are here, God’s Yertles, if you will, be willing to accept the responsibility of that Spirit which comes from beyond us. It would mean being willing to accept picking up the mantle of our teachers, our heroes, our ancestors in faith, and striking the dark waters of our times, even as Elisha struck the Jordan. It would mean crying out, at the violence and hardship; It would mean trusting in a genuine response from God, to our genuine heart-ache filled question: Where is the Lord, the God of Moses and Miriam, the God of Elijah and of Elizabeth, the God we know in Jesus Christ?
We stand like Elisha in the wilderness, still stinging and puzzled at the loss of our teachers, the loss of those to whom in former times we looked for guidance. Yet at our feet there lies a blood-red mantle. It is the mantle of Christ's prophetic witness to the reign of God's love. It is the mantle of Christ’s peace, Christ’s justice. Do we dare to pick it up?