“Choose Your Inheritance”

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14

A Sermon by

The Rev. Rev. Karen Hill

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Inheritance can be a tricky thing, can it not?  We’ve seen it on the news and read the stories of families battling over an inheritance.  Remember Jacob and Esau fighting for Isaac’s blessing?  Well, here’s a small inheritance story –

A man named Morty died.  His lawyer met with the family to go over Morty’s last will and testament.  Which read,       

“To my dear wife, Sadie, I leave the house, 50 acres of land, and $1 million.

To my son, Sam, I leave the Lexus and the Jaguar.

To my daughter, Suzy, I leave my yacht and $250,000.

And to my brother-in-law, Barry, who always insisted that health is better than wealth,

I leave my treadmill.”

Poor Barry got what he asked for, didn’t he?  Hopefully, he still feels that health is better than wealth.

This morning is all about inheritance.  Elisha’s inheritance from Elijah, and our inheritance from Jesus. 

So to set the stage, let’s begin with the backstory, Elijah was a great prophet in Israel.  His name means “My God is the Lord,” and Elijah lived up to this name.  He spent his life protecting Israel’s relationship with God against unfaithful kings and queens, including the worst king, Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, who worshiped the false gods, Baal and Asherah. 

Elijah fought with Ahab & Jezebel, their priests, and their armies.  He survived drought and famine and war, and even, an encounter with the living God.  At the end of his career, God sent Elisha to serve as Elijah’s disciple and his replacement.  It must have been extremely intimidating to follow in Elijah’s footsteps, but that’s exactly what Elisha is preparing to do in today’s passage. 

It is the end of Elijah’s life, and he is ready to go with God.  Two times he tries to get Elisha to stay behind, maybe hoping to spare Elisha (and himself) the sorrow of a final good-bye.  But, Elisha will not leave Elijah – finally, Elijah asks Elisha “What may I do for you, before I am taken from you?” 

Elisha says, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.”

In that time, to inherit a double share was to inherit the firstborn son’s double portion of the father’s wealth.  The oldest son inherited 2/3 of the father’s estate; and that’s what Elisha wanted.  In all the ways that mattered, Elijah was a father to Elisha.  Elisha was acknowledging that and asking to be treated as such in Elijah’s death.  Elisha could have asked for anything, including whatever wealth Elijah might have possessed, but that’s not what happened.  Elisha asked for something more, something better.  He asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. 

Have you ever been in that position, asked to choose your inheritance? 

Two years ago, one of my dear friends from seminary, Catherine Price, was nearing the end of her battle with ovarian cancer.  Four of us had gathered at her home to spend time with her and, basically, to say good-bye. 

While we were there, Catherine, who was also a pastor, asked us if we would all go with her to her church office.  She wanted us to go through her library and make a list of the books we wanted; so that she could make sure they got to us after her death.  Now, I don’t know if you know the truth about pastors and books.  Most pastors that I know are secret book addicts.  We love our books.  So, this is embarrassing to admit, but when Catherine released the four of us in her office, it was like throwing chum before sharks. 

After a few minutes of this, it hit me really hard what we were doing.  The only reason that Catherine was giving away her precious library was because she was dying and dying soon.  I stopped right then and had to sit down.  I didn’t want my friend’s books; I wanted her.  I wanted her to live a long, long time and to enjoy a rich and full pastoral ministry, continuing to use that library every single day.

Well, of course, that’s not what happened.  Catherine died five months later, and I did inherit some of those books.  I can hardly bear to look at them, because they remind me too much of that day.  I am still coming to terms with Catherine’s true gifts to me, including her friendship.  My inheritance from Catherine is a lot more than a box full of her stuff.    

So, this story of Elijah and Elisha is dear to me.  Elisha made sure that the inheritance he chose really mattered.  Elisha loved Elijah like a father, his spiritual father.  He wanted more from Elijah than his stuff; he wanted to be like Elijah, and so he asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. 

Now, try putting that in a will.  “To my spiritual son, Elisha, I leave a double portion of my spirit, my ineffable, indefinable, unquantifiable, untouchable, and invisible spirit.”

That’s exactly what Elisha asked for and received, as the story goes on to show. 

Did you know that we’ve also received an inheritance of the spirit, Jesus’ Spirit?

While saying good-bye to his disciples in John 14, Jesus promised not to leave them alone, but to send the Spirit to be with them and with us.  He promised that the Spirit would be our Advocate, our comforter, our guide. 

That is our inheritance.  It’s something of which we need to be reminded, because sometimes we forget.

The Apostle Paul was doing exactly that for the Galatians in chapter 5 [from Galatians 5:1, 13, 14 & 22-15], the passage that Mike read.  The Galatians were a Christian community, founded by Paul himself.  At some point, another group of missionaries came in there, wanting the Galatians, not only to follow Christ, but also to follow all the old rules of Jewish life.  They were pushing the purity and dietary Laws as opposed to the freedom of the Holy Spirit.  The Galatians were confused and fighting, not sure whether to live by the Spirit or the law.  Paul wrote to the community, reminding them that they were freed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to follow the law of love and to live by the Spirit.   

It’s interesting to me that these passages are paired – Elisha asking for an inheritance of Elijah’s spirit, and the Galatians needing a reminder that they have already inherited Jesus’ spirit.    

As Paul wrote to the Galatians, the Holy Spirit gives us the freedom to live as followers of Christ, to abandon the ways of the world and to choose to live as servants of the world.  When we fully accept and realize our inheritance, everyone can see it.  They see it by the fruits of the Spirit.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – all of these and more are witnesses to our life in Christ.  All of this fruit speaks to the power of the Spirit in our lives.  That fruit is good, tree-ripened, organic fruit, free of any chemicals or additives.  It is pure, pure Holy Spirit.

Last week, I was at Ghost Ranch for Youth Week with nine of our mid-high and high school students.  In the end, it was a great week – spiritually, a very powerful week for our group.  But it was not without problems.  In the middle of the week, we had to send two students home – not from our church, you should know.   That was very painful for the adults – it’s the first time we’ve had to do that at Youth Week.  But we had two students who clearly didn’t want to be there – they brought their bad attitudes and their bad choices with them, and it was negatively affecting everyone.  In making this really painful decision, we, the adults, realized for the first time, how much freedom we have extended to the young people during this week.  There aren’t a lot of rules at Ghost Ranch.  Expectations are clear, and students show up ready to go and happy to be there.  It’s a gift, this gift of trust and respect between the young people and the adults.  It was only when our trust was abused that we could see how precious it was. 

I think this is what Paul was saying about the Holy Spirit, as well.  When you live in the love of the Holy Spirit there is great flexibility and freedom.  There is an openness to the unpredictable and liberating movement of God’s Spirit.  There is no room or need for a whole lot of rules, because the community is already living as God calls it to live.  They show that through the fruits of the Spirit.

That’s our inheritance.  There is always a choice with God – a choice to accept and to live in the Spirit’s love and freedom or to continue to be bound by the laws of fear.  Remember Elisha’s choice – he had the freedom to ask for anything, and he asked for the best thing – a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.

We can’t be afraid to ask for a double portion of God’s Spirit. 

What kind of freedom do you need?  Have you invited God’s Spirit into your places of worry or fear or sorrow?

Do you see the fruits of the Spirit in your own life and in our life together here at First Presbyterian?  Do we need to invite God’s Spirit in again?  If so, let’s do it, because this is an inheritance that is truly valuable, truly worth choosing and truly worth hanging on to – much better than a lot of stuff. 

Amen.