Scripture: 2nd Kings 2:9-11
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “What do you want me to do for you before I’m taken away from you?” Elisha said, “Let me have twice your spirit.” Elijah said, “You’ve made a difficult request. If you can see me when I’m taken from you, then it will be yours. If you don’t see me, it won’t happen.” They were walking along, talking, when suddenly a fiery chariot and fiery horses appeared and separated the two of them. Then Elijah went to heaven in a windstorm.
Thought for the Day: Elijah was speaking to his prodigy when he was taken to heaven. Tomorrow is Ascension Sunday, and this is an ascension of sorts. The act of ascending was always understood as a return to God – it could be at death, in the sense of ascending to heaven, or simply the ascending of a mountain to be closer to God. The idea of ascending assumes that God is not found here, but there. God is up, and not down. Throughout scripture, but especially during the life of Jesus, we find glimpses of a faith that is less about dualism – up there or down here. The incarnation and Holy Spirit break a lot of the old models that place the divine at some distant place that is up. Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God, not in some faraway place beyond the sky, but as “coming close” or even “found within.” Is the description of Elijah going to heaven on a fiery chariot to be understand literally, or was it more of a poetic way of describing a restored relationship with God who was never far away in the first place.
Prayer: Let my life continually be an ascension toward you, God of heaven and earth, even when I never physically move one inch. Amen.
SEE YOU IN WORSHIP…
