Hebrew Scripture Reading—2 Kings 2: 1-12
I would like to begin this morning with a question: upon whom does the future of the church depend? I want to see a show of hands as I give you the possible answers. I am only going to give the answers once, and you can only raise your hands once, so as soon as you hear an answer you think sounds right raise your hands. How many would say that the future of the church depends upon our children and youth? How many would say our young adults? How about those in the 40 to 60 year range? What about all of those over the age of 60? Thank you.
Of course, those of you who wanted to raise your hands more than once know that another obvious answer is that the future depends upon all of us. If that is indeed the case, then perhaps the harder question is how do we live in a way that reflects this knowledge. How do we live in a way that reflects our sense that each of us must count on the other? We will certainly need to contend with the notable danger that the different generations do not always appreciate what the other generations have to contribute.
For example, the younger generation might appreciate some help paying for college but do they appreciate the other less tangible contributions of the older generations? In thinking of the less tangible contributions, I am reminded of a time when I was in graduate school and I reconnected with a friend that I had not seen much since high school. He is the oldest friend I have. At the age of two, we met at the University of Illinois pre-school. When we got together as graduate students in Berkeley, we started to reminisce about the past. I was amazed that he could remember vividly something about my father that I had long since forgotten. He remembered how my father used to coach our elementary school soccer teams, and one of the things my father did was reward us for doing things well by pulling out one of those brown prescription pill bottles, opening it up, and dispensing the coveted prize: M&M candies. My father would also take used pieces of paper that had math formulas written on one side from the classes he taught and then use magic markers on the other side to make certificates of achievement for us. At the beginning of every practice following a game, he would pass out awards for defense, offense, hustle, you name it. We used to yearn for those certificates. There is something to appreciate about a father who finds creative ways to acknowledge kids and make them feel special. I just needed a friend to remind me of what my father had done.
The past two weeks I have been learning a lot from members of our church about what it takes to live together in a way that recognizes how much each of us counts. My first lesson came when I recently visited the Hettmans. Gertie, Lori, and I were sitting with Bob, and I was listening to them talk about the Hettman family lifestyle. I later realized that what they were talking about probably goes a long way in explaining how it is that the Hettmans are often able to have three generations sitting in one row on a Sunday. One of the things that stuck out to me when they told me about their family life was how they have often spontaneously played games together. They have played games I have never heard of like Tri-Cinco. They have also played games I have heard of like the card game Golf, except Gertie told me she likes to call it “No Peekie” because you are not supposed to look at your top two cards. What most impressed me, however, were the homemade lawn games the Hettmans have played. Bob made one ring toss game with washers that are tossed toward a coffee can inside of a wooden box he constructed and painted. There are different ways you can score depending upon where the washer lands. Bob made another game called Cowboy Golf that involves tossing a pair of golf balls attached by rope. One tosses them so that they wrap around the rungs of a ladder made out of PBC pipe. Maybe we need to have a Hettman Olympics here at the church. As the Hettmans talked, what I realized is that they have been masters at bringing all the generations together to have fun. They never consciously had this goal. They just did it. I also realized that they brought everyone together in a way that required interaction even if it was all in the spirit of play. Although I love movies and I occasionally get addicted to a TV show, it is probably true that some families today have given a little too much weight to silver screen entertainment and not enough weight to good old fashion games.
After visiting the Hettmans, I was inspired me to conduct a scientific survey of our youth at the lock in last night. The survey consisted of one question: what are five things you enjoy doing with people from older generations? Here are some of the answers: baking apple pie with the apples outside my grandparents’ house, making cinnamon rolls and then stealing the frosting, deep water sole fishing with bacon as the bait, digging for worms and fishing for trout in creeks located up in the mountains, sudoku, playing railroad with special colored edition dominoes, discussing our favorite member of the Beatles, looking at pictures of them when they were younger, helping them rearrange furniture, giving them fashion advice, digging through old jewelry, and watching chick flicks with my dad. Perhaps, we need to let our youth decide upon an all-church event for us, although I am not sure about the mass appeal of chick flicks and rearranging furniture.
Another thing I learned about how we might live together with all our different generations I learned from our Parish Life Committee. What I learned from them is that sometimes it is good to be intentional about honoring people from different generations. That is part of why we honored Bob and Oral last year, and that is also part of why Parish Life has decided to induct another class into our hall of fame for outstanding church stewardship. If I could have a little drum roll please, this year I am delighted to announce that our Lenten Lunches will be devoted to honoring eight new Hall of Famers. Hold your applause until the end. They are our greeter queens of the Narthex: Irma Slocum and June Lasher. Our longtime leaders of music and church life: Agnes Alexander and Ruth Ann Green. Two of our stalwart members and noted church personalities: John Morse and Ernie Dunbar. Then, last but not least, our hall of fame inductees include two impeccable servant leaders of the church: Virginia Robinson and Charlotte Warren. Let’s give all of them a round of applause for their contributions to the life of the church. When we honor them, they might even get something more than M&Ms. In the next issue of the Link, you will find an article stating when we will honor each of these pairs over the course of the coming weeks. There are undoubtedly many others that could and should be honored, but they will have to wait until the next Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Looking to our scripture for today, I believe there are some points of connection for us in considering the reasons for why the Israelites passed along the story of Elijah and Elisha from one generation to the next until it was finally written down in 2 Kings. One reason is that it is a story that honors two prophets that they knew had done a lot for the people of Israel. Our scripture is thus a kind of Hall of Fame story. Another reason is that it might have given Elisha a bit more credibility as a prophet to be associated with someone as honored as Elijah. In the old days, they did not write letters of reference or recommendation. They told stories. Yet another reason they passed along the story for so many years might be that the people of Israel believed it was important to remember that the legacy of Elijah did not end with Elijah but continued with Elisha.
Ultimately, to maximize their contributions to history and to their people both Elisha and Elijah needed each other. Elisha needed Elijah if he wanted to make it as a major league prophet, and Elijah needed Elisha if he wanted his legacy to continue. None of that would have happened if Elisha and Elijah had not stuck together. Elisha could have said, “Oh no, I don’t want to go into the whirlwind that I know is coming and that every prophet knows is coming. I’ll just stay at home.” Elijah likewise could have said, “Oh no, I don’t want this young rascal hanging around me. He just wants my inheritance.” Luckily, Elisha did not want Elijah’s money. He wanted Elijah’s spiritual gifts. He wanted the qualities that enabled Elijah to be a great prophet.
Today, I think many of us want the spiritual gifts and qualities that have served our church well for so many years to be passed along to the coming generations. The good news for us is that along the way we can play some cowboy golf, go trout fishing, and maybe watch chick flicks. Amen.