Readings:
2 Kings 2:1-14;
Psalm 77;
Galatians 5:1, 13-25;
Luke 9:51-62

Collect:
Merciful God,
out of the depths we cry to you and you hear our prayer.
May we so be attentive to the voice of your Son
that we may rise from the death of sin
and take our place in the new creation.
This we pray through Jesus Christ, author of our new life,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Reflection
Elijah, “consistently mysterious and majestic”. No kidding. What a character, who is either in trouble or making trouble, always doing his absolute utmost to express what he calls his zeal for the LORD. You’ll notice that I reach easily for hyperbole, and then some.

Elijah is an enigmatic character, as his story is told. One who demands our attention. I suppose he comes across as one that we need to decide, either we like this fellow, or we’re going to be very cautious about him. The reading from 2 Kings today is about the handover of influence and power, such as Elijah holds, to Elisha. It’s unusual to start with the climax, to give away the ending right at the beginning, but that’s exactly what happens here. “Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, …” (2 Kg 2:1), and our thoughts are immediately taken back to last week’s reading about the prophet on the mountain of God, hiding in a cave as the LORD passes by (1 Kg 19:11). Up the mountain of God, a violent storm all about – surely, we’re being reminded also of Moses. All these images, filling our imaginations as we’re told Elijah is going to depart ... by a whirlwind.

Elijah. Such a challenge to all he would see not following the ways of God. He puts it down to his zeal or passion for the LORD – strong emotive words. He reminds me of that cartoon character Taz, the Tasmanian devil, who goes everywhere in a whirlwind, always in a hurry, always billowing and bounding in haste. And then he’s gone. Elijah, however, is more than a whirlwind. He is determined, not shifty. Certainly, steady of eye. Perhaps this is why we’re invited to read Elijah’s departure with Jesus setting his face to go to Jerusalem.

There is a change in pace in Luke’s gospel just here. Strangely, Luke uses the same device as the author of 2 Kings, telling us before anything has happened, that as “the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set his face to Jerusalem” (Lk 7:51). No chariot of fiery horses here, though. A cruel cross and suffering that most of us cannot even imagine.

The lectionary invites us to link Elijah’s actual departure with Jesus’ preparation to depart, and also into the mix is Moses. A curious mix, which we have again at the Transfiguration, when the three are in conversation with each other. We’re offered a trail of these three, together, which we sometimes summarise, inadequately, as the law and the prophets. The law (or teaching, or instruction or way of living together), and the prophets (the people who remind and declare God’s presence and word), these are occupying Paul in the epistle today, living together before God. Paul is clear, our life together is not doing what we’re told (following rules with no insight). It is following the way of recognizing God’s immediate presence, which is called living by the Spirit. Michael Boughen expresses this so well in his verse:

Spirit of the living God,
move among us all;
make us one in heart and mind,
make us one in love;
humble, caring, selfless, sharing.
Spirit of the living God,
fill our lives with love.

Barry Lotz
Quotation in the opening sentence from Everett Fox, The Early Prophets © 2014, published by Schocken Books p704