If I asked you WHO has been most formative, most influential in your life, you’ve probably got a short list that surfaces pretty easily. A parent, relative or family friend, a teacher or an early work supervisor, maybe someone in your church or community.

These are people you learned a lot from. But maybe some or all of them have gone on from us.

More difficult might be if I asked you who it is TODAY who most steadily influences you? Who are you connected with that still shapes in some way your living?-- I hope you have an answer.
We all need formative figures in our lives. We all need the shaping or encouraging presence of people who even after they are gone from us can continue to speak into our lives.

The world remembers Sir Winston Churchill, the great leader through a critical time. But few stop to consider who helped to make him great. Many people point to a mentor whose voice stayed with Churchill through the toughest of times.

On 5 March 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill gave a signal address called, The Sinews of Peace, popularly known as the “Iron Curtain” speech. In that speech, he alluded to this influential figure with whom he was so connected—

“I have often used words”, he said, “which I learned fifty years ago from a great Irish-American orator, a friend of mine, Mr. Bourke Cockran: ‘There is enough for all. The earth is a generous mother; she will provide in plentiful abundance food for all her children if they will but cultivate her soil in justice and in peace.’”

You know If you walked into my office, it wouldn’t be the first thing that caught your eye.And even if it were, you wouldn’t have any reason to know the story behind the ceramic paten-and-chalice set. They sit on a bookcase just as you enter.

A role model for so many in our denomination, a minister named Jack retired and joined the church I served as my Atlanta years began and I was still relatively young. He was someone from whom I learned a lot through conversations, his writings and even in how he handled his own dying. I had the burden and the privilege of going with Jack and his wife Anita to choose his in-patient Hospice residence. A few years ago, his widow placed his ceramic paten-and-chalice set in a silent auction at a denominational meeting, and my wife and I were fortunate enough to get it, thanks to my Elizabeth’s diligence. This set was my birthday present that year.

It’s so meaningful to me. A paten or small plate serves the purpose in Christian tradition you might think it does. It holds bread for Communion.

The chalice or goblet obviously holds wine- or in our practice, grape juice. So, in my office these things perform dual purposes. Right? I could use them to serve Communion, and I have.

But they also serve as a lingering symbol and presence of a role model whom I– and so many others across the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship admired greatly. One who served ahead of me and completed his work faithfully.

In some way, I find those simple pieces powerful and oddly comforting. They visually accompany me in the work I do.

Likewise, we have the use of a mantle in today’s scripture. It will be featured more prominently in today’s story than any random piece of fabric you might imagine.

What was a mantle in biblical times?

A mantle, that you heard mentioned a few minutes ago in the scripture, was a cloak or outer garment for covering the body. It was an extra layer that could be wrapped across the shoulders and upper back, much in the same way that ladies may bring a large scarf or wrap to cover up (or accessorize with) today.

Far beyond its practicality, though, a mantle is also used symbolically in the Bible as an indicator especially of the righteous call upon kings or prophets or priests. And as a sign of God’s presence as they fulfilled that sense of calling.

The simple necessity that we all share for connection is on full-color display in our scripture story today. If you’ve ever heard someone refer to the transfer of a task or position from one person to another as the “passing of the mantle,” this is where that saying originates.

Biblically, it might have symbolized that all the authority and validity of one grand voice has now been handed off to their successor.

A mantle carried a blessing of sorts. Elijah was a native son of Gilead in the Northern Kingdom. That place name might ring a bell with you…. “There is A Balm In Gilead”?

As he aged, Elijah’s investment in Elisha– and the loyal partnership the latter demonstrated– made the succession we saw in today’s story a natural conclusion. This great prophet, Elijah, went on to be remembered as the first herald of the Messianic Age. The Day of the Lord.

Though Isaiah recorded great prophecy about the coming of a Suffering Servant, a people’s Messiah, it was Elijah who lived on in the ancient New Testament believers’ hearts as the One, when it came to pointing them toward this new day to come!

When Jesus asked his disciples in Mark 8 “Who do people say that I am?” One of their responses was, “Elijah, come back to life.”

Oh. There’s one more thing you might recall about Elijah. And if you didn’t already, this will probably ring a bell. He’s one of only 2 people who are portrayed in the Old Testament as not dying. Today’s story shows us that very thing.

Elisha was first in line to serve as Elijah had been. Biblically, he went on to his own strong record of service as God’s prophet.

But here today, their interaction as mentor and mentee is obvious. Their connection in this life is interrupted by Elijah’s death. Now, Elisha faces a future without his beloved mentor and friend.

Elisha’s language in our story makes obvious how he feels about Elijah.

As Elijah wants to know whether there is anything else he can do for his protege’, Elisha evokes the language of inheritance as he asks for a “double-portion” of Elijah’s spirit.

As great a prophet as he had been, what Elisha was asking of his mentor wasn’t just for his prophetic power. This was not so much a supernatural gift he was requesting.

The word “ruah” in Hebrew that Elisha asked for is actually more about what he sensed to be Elijah’s personal essence– his spirit- that seemed so powerful to his younger mentee.

In their patriarchal culture, if a father had wealth upon his death, the inheritance was divided up by one more than the number of descendants.

Each child received one portion. Except for the oldest son. He always got a double-portion. Here, Elisha requests a double-portion of Elijah’s spirit upon his death.

It’s a request of a son. Closer to the end, Elisha calls out twice to an ascending Elijah, Abba, Abba:“Father….father!”
Can you feel the connection between these two? To understate, this is no casual relationship. Not just a couple of buddies. These two were invested in one another. It shows.

The symbolism is powerful here. Because as Elijah disappears, Elisha goes over and picks his mentor’s mantle off the ground.

Now, it is his. No longer just a garment that Elijah has worn, it will appear around Elisha’s shoulders as a symbol of his ascendancy to be a prophet in Elijah’s tradition and place.

Actually, this is the second time we’ll see the mantle play a big symbolic role in this story. Far earlier, Elisha was chosen and validated to travel with his mentor, Elijah had signaled his welcome by placing the mantle around his new disciple’s neck.

Prophecy back then, and our faith now today, it’s all about relationships. Connection. There are no Lone Ranger Christians intended. Oh, you “can” be a person of faith on your own.

But these stories are laced with connection. Gathering. Presence and the things that can only happen when God has gathered people to bless and to work with.

Stephen Reid points something out– fascinating enough, we start out with these two in Gilgal. Then, on to Bethel and later Jericho. They are tracing much of Moses’ and Joshua’s route from the time when they partnered as Mentor and disciple. A pilgrimage. Such an amazing crucible within which to forge a relationship, as they were on the move and under the scrutiny and danger of the Jezebel opposition.

Here’s what I think: I think the Pandemic we had a few years ago forced the society and physical distancing, for all the understandable reasons, it had an unintended effect. It only sped up something that churches and all manner of other groups have noticed– our culture’s leaning toward greater isolation grew even worse. We were already headed there. Had been for over 20 years. But things really sped up.

And Introverts, I have more sympathy than you might think. But this story reminds us that we were wired for connection. All of us. The Bible is the story of a “Gathered” faith. This is only one of dozens upon dozens that demonstrate the irreplaceable value of God’s people building and fostering healthy, active relationships.

Though we can find each other and communicate in other ways, there is no substitute for the regular gathering of God’s people. It’s only in relationships that we can support and understand one another. All of this isolation from the last few years? When people finally did begin to emerge, we can look back and notice that we all kinda came out firing.

We emerged from our bunkers in a sometimes foul mood collectively as a world. From baseball umpires, to ministers and flight attendants– people are watching because all of the open conflict we’re seeing is greatly attributable to the fact that we forgot how to be together and are only now trying to figure it all out again.

Elijah and Elisha had a kinship that could only form by being together. At a time when God’s people so desperately needed a formative voice. Elisha was there to pick up the mantle.

He had been taught well and now he was ready because of the mentoring he got.

Elijah and then Elisha were such important leaders, upheld variously by each other as they traveled and ministered in response to God’s calling. Drawing mutually from each other. And this only happened because they were called to connection!