Passing the Mantle

2 Kings 2:1-12

This year is an election year. A year where the executive leadership of our country passes its mantle to another or, in our case, seeks reelection in order to pass that mantle on four years from now. “Passing the mantle” is a phrase that actually might have come from scripture!

In 2 Kings 2, we find Elijah and his protege, Elisha. Elijah is about to be swept up into heaven and everyone seems to be aware that things are about to change. Elijah had a mantle, and it played a role in the transition from Elijah’s prophetic leadership to Elisha’s.

Transitions are so incredibly important—they define our lives. They are times of joy and times of deep grief. They are also inevitable. Perhaps the most constant and unchanging truth about life is that everything, everything, is subject to change.

And we need them to be. Leadership should be subject to change. Our beliefs should be subject to change. Institutions like the church should be subject to change! I would argue that something that is seen as unchanging is worth suspicion.

In the story of leadership change where Elijah literally “passes his mantle” on to Elisha after using it like Moses’ staff to part the Jordan river, Elisha and Elijah had a few stops before they got to the river. At each stop, groups of prophets remarked to Elisha that Elijah was going to be taken away! This happened twice before they arrived at the Jordan.

Sometimes everything is signalling that change is coming, and it can be hard to accept that truth. It was hard for Elisha, who repeatedly said after Elijah asked him to stay, “I will not leave you.” The Christian Church can be so guilty of this—we can hear over and over that change is inevitable, and we still end up digging our heels into the ground and refusing to budge.

Imagine if the Church chose to be adaptive and open to change instead. Imagine a Church that listened to the voice of God asking the church to change. That would be a church full of life. A church full of the movement of what the spirit is doing today, and not a church full of stagnation as it tries to resurrect the dead thing the spirit did forty years ago.

In elections, in our own lives, and in the church, transition is inevitable. Most of us know what it is like to lose a family member or loved one that we cherished; we know the feeling of powerlessness to stop what is coming. Elisha witnessed his mentor and father figure Elijah “pass away” in a way. Instead of dying, Elijah was lifted magnificently up toward heaven on a divine chariot of flames.

No matter how the ones we love leave us, that doesn’t change how painful the loss is. Nor does it change how impactful the transitions could be.

Once Elisha received Elijah’s mantle, Elisha had the call that Elijah had. This is the beauty of change and transition. Nothing is stuck, and the next generation takes up the call. And when that generation claims it, the call transforms. When we lose someone, we are changed, but we also receive from them the baton to continue the story.

And for all the difficulty, pain and grief that transition can bring, knowing that the story continues brings me hope.