Third Tuesday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
2 Kings 2:9-22
9 When they came to the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away.” And Elisha replied, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit and become your successor.” 10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah replied. “If you see me when I am taken from you, then you will get your request. But if not, then you won’t.” 11 As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire. It drove between the two men, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven. 12 Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father! My father! I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel!” And as they disappeared from sight, Elisha tore his clothes in distress. 13 Elisha picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan River. 14 He struck the water with Elijah’s cloak and cried out, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Then the river divided, and Elisha went across. 15 When the group of prophets from Jericho saw from a distance what happened, they exclaimed, “Elijah’s spirit rests upon Elisha!” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. 16 “Sir,” they said, “just say the word and fifty of our strongest men will search the wilderness for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has left him on some mountain or in some valley.” “No,” Elisha said, “don’t send them.” 17 But they kept urging him until they shamed him into agreeing, and he finally said, “All right, send them.” So fifty men searched for three days but did not find Elijah. 18 Elisha was still at Jericho when they returned. “Didn’t I tell you not to go?” he asked. Elisha’s First Miracles 19 One day the leaders of the town of Jericho visited Elisha. “We have a problem, my lord,” they told him. “This town is located in pleasant surroundings, as you can see. But the water is bad, and the land is unproductive.” 20 Elisha said, “Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.” So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, “This is what the Lord says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility.” 22 And the water has remained pure ever since, just as Elisha said.
Psalm 125
A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.1 Those who trust in the Lord are as secure as Mount Zion; they will not be defeated but will endure forever. 2 Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, both now and forever. 3 The wicked will not rule the land of the godly, for then the godly might be tempted to do wrong. 4 O Lord, do good to those who are good, whose hearts are in tune with you. 5 But banish those who turn to crooked ways, O Lord. Take them away with those who do evil. May Israel have peace!
Acts 3:17-4:4
17 “Friends, I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance. 18 But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. 19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. 20 Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. 21 For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.’ 23 Then Moses said, ‘Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from God’s people.’ 24 “Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today. 25 You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants all the families on earth will be blessed.’ 26 When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways.” Peter and John before the Council 4 While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. 2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. 3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. 4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000.
NLT
Healing Water
by Amy Bratton
Amy Bratton is the Director of Operations & Publishing for the New Leaf Network and the project manager for the Canadian Multivocational Ministry Project. She lives in Saskatoon, SK with her husband, Tim, and their two sons, Oswald and Ira. She is a lay leader at Riversdale Neighbours church and an Adjunct Professor with Rocky Mountain College in the area of Spiritual Formation. She writes and speaks about the history of Christian spirituality, with a focus on the early Methodist understanding of Christian maturity known as “perfect love.” Read more from her in her book Witnesses of Perfect Love: Narratives of Christian Perfection in Early Methodism.
This year during Advent we are anticipating that Christmas will be very different. Change seems to be the thing that is universal in 2020. We look back at pictures with friends huddled close together for the camera and we miss that reality when we gathered in groups, when we stood that close to each other without a second thought. We miss the “before times.” It feels like everything has changed.
Yet, there are so many ways that change has always been with us. Life changed drastically for me with parenthood, many of the things we all have been experiencing during the pandemic transitioned for me in 2016 when my oldest son was born. I changed from going to a workplace all week to staying home. My social bubble closed in without those office relationships and the chance of running into people in the neighbourhood while I ran errands at my leisure. In many ways, previous changes in my life — moving cities, getting married, having kids — all prepared me for the changes that took place in 2020. Yet, there are also so many ways I was unprepared for anything that happened in 2020.
In the lectionary reading today we see another one of these life changes unfolding. We find the prophets Elijah and Elisha standing beside the Jordan river just before the prophet Elijah is taken to heaven. The prophetic mantle was about to be passed to a new prophet — in this case, it was a literal mantle. Elijah disappears in the fiery chariot and Elisha picks up Elijah’s cloak that had dropped and promptly tests out if he has received the Spirit of God by displaying the power of YHWH in the same way that Elijah had just demonstrated, parting the water of the Jordan river.
People looked on and they saw both the continuity and the disruption.
Elisha was still there, but Elijah was not.
A prophet of YHWH still stood before them able to perform the same miracle, but would Elisha be different in his prophetic role?
The needs of their community remained ever present, but the prophet that had given them a connection to YHWH was gone.
The first response of the onlookers is to do everything they can to ensure that everything stays the same. They come to Elisha; we have resources, they say, we have fifty people, we can find Elijah and return things to normal. Elisha, having seen the change unfold before his eyes, asks them not to go on that mission. When they insist, he relents and patiently waits for them to return empty-handed. I hear more than a little sarcasm in the words in verse 17, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”
Despite their best efforts, the change took place, the new prophet stood before them.
As we face the changes all around us, these are unprecedented times, but change itself is a familiar part of our human condition. What is our response to change? Will we be able to hear the prophetic voice among us pointing us back to God’s presence and away from our attempts to control the situation? Will we seek to restore the previous situation using all the resources we can muster?
On different days I find myself identifying with different people in this narrative.
In some of the changes in my life, I’ve been Elijah. Things ended and I was moving on. I didn’t stay connected to the context I left behind. I just left.
More often, I think I find myself with those onlookers. I didn’t see what was happening, I just see that things are different. And, I’m not so sure about this new reality, I’d rather spend my energy on a search party for the normal life that is now missing. I wouldn’t want to give up too easily on keeping the old normal in place. By my own effort, I can keep things going like they always have been. While I know that I have great skill at making things happen in most spheres of my life, high levels of anxiety often accompany this frenetic effort of the search party for my normal life.
But, sometimes, if I’m lucky, I find myself in Elisha’s shoes. He had the chance to hear from Elijah that the end was coming. He even saw the miraculous transition when Elijah was taken away in a fiery chariot. A change happens and then I am standing in the new reality, holding the mantle and feeling the Spirit of God., It is in those moments when I don’t have any doubt about the way forward, because I’ve seen God at work and I know something new has come.
In contrast to the anxiety that can accompany my human efforts to sort things out, when I am in Elisha’s shoes a calm settles in. That calm has nothing to do with whether the situation is safer or more predictable than the old normal. But, there is a clarity of purpose that is hard to put into words.
I find myself feeling like I am in Elisha’s shoes when I think about the church I call home. I’m not a church planter at heart — I like more structure, fewer unknowns. But, as I saw the religious landscape shifting around me and my friends, a new kind of church that makes more space for questions and doubts made sense. One that isn’t beholden to that’s how we’ve always done it. One that has room to lean into practices from the ancient church or newly minted prayers written by one of our own. That’s when I feel like I’m standing in Elisha’s shoes. And this year, this intimate community of faith has been a great blessing in the midst of many uncertainties, because none of those uncertainties undermined the fact that we are a community to each other even when we can’t gather in person.
Coming back to the story, as the people around him search for Elijah, Elisha waits. He is still there when the search party returns. And despite the sarcasm that I hear in his voice — which probably says more about me than Elisha — he is ready to welcome them into the new reality.
What happened next gave me goosebumps when I read this text. The search party returns, and then another group of people enter the story; the people of Jericho see Elisha’s new role as prophet and they approach him with their need. The water is bad and the land is unproductive. Then, with a few everyday objects and some faith Elisha heals the waters. And the city can prosper.
I long for that kind of healing and prosperity. Don’t you?
What are the new realities in your life right now?
Where do you find yourself?
Are you in the search party?
Are you waiting for the people around you to return from their fruitless search?
Are you bringing your need to the new prophet, who just might be able to help?
Where might God be calling you to witness the healing water?
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