Celebrating
the freeing, supportive presence of God. So your experience of God may
become your experience of life. It is wonderful what God can do!
"There’s Just a Glow
About Them"
February 26, 2006
I can never again think of Elijah nor Elisha without thinking of Oprah Winfrey. Oprah tells the story of when she was a little girl and the other children were always picking on her. Oprah did not like that; it made her feel jaded, and less than a worthy person.
One day as she recalled the lessons of her grandmother and of her weekly church attendance, she clearly recalled the prophets, Elijah and Elisa. When the children began needling her, she began to quote from Kings of a dialogue between the two prophets. As she continued, her talk became more animated, louder, and in essence more like an exuberant preaching.
She said that the children probably thought she had lost it—had gone nuts, but she did not care. The children had stopped tormenting her—and that was all that really mattered to her. This was one Bible story that I would have never guessed would have created such a end result. I will never forget the story as it relates to Oprah.
Elijah is the elder prophet who in this account is getting ready to be received into God’s heavenly presence. Elisha is the disciple prophet—the one who is learning the ropes, to take Elijah’s place.
When the time came, they both were walking and talking when a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind and was gone. Even though Elisa felt great sorrow at his loss, this miraculous event left Elisha with the assurance that his mentor had been taken into the heavenly presence of God.
This talk of chariots and horses of fire, combined with a whirlwind, is reminiscent of another powerfully miraculous event which took place while Peter, James and John were observing Jesus on the high mountain. In this account, these three disciples of Jesus watched as Jesus was transfigured before them and his clothes became more dazzling white than any known whitener on earth. Matthew’s account describes it further as “His face shone like the sun…” [Mt. 17:2] If this was not enough of a miraculous event, Elijah and Moses now appeared to be talking with Jesus! You guessed it … it was not over yet. A cloud overshadowed them and from the cloud a voice speaks: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”
Is this not amazing? Way back then God was answering the hundreds of millions of prayers that would be coming his way: “Give us a sign that you are alive, that Jesus is your Son, and that there is life after death.” In this passage alone, all three of these fundamental questions are answered in full animation. God speaks—therefore God is alive. God says “This is my beloved Son…!” And finally, God makes Elijah and Moses visible to Peter, James and John, thereby assuring us that he is the God of the living and not of the dead—for they are not dead at all. How blest we are to have a record of this!
Did you also notice the similarities between these two accounts? The Elijah-Elisha account refers to the brightness of fire and the addition of a whirlwind. The Jesus-and-disciples account refers to the whiteness and brightness of the transfiguration, and the addition of a cloud enveloping them.
Both accounts talk of brightness, and the reality of eternal life after death. We are left with a sense that there is a glow about the main characters in the story—if not as much about Elijah, then certainly about Jesus who, during his transfiguration, was enveloped in white and has his face shining as bright as the sun.
One might go as far as to say that those who know the living God, who have faith in Jesus as his son, and who have the assurance of eternal life, somehow seem to have a glow about them. They are happy people—people who know that nothing in this life can ever really get them down indefinitely. They know that there is a time and a place awaiting them where all their trials are over, their weeping is past, their pain is gone, and their loneliness is finished.
I am sure that you have heard it said before, at least within the context of a pregnancy, “she just seems to glowing.” We probably do not mean it literally, but there is an air or glow about a person who is fundamentally content in this life, and relatively secure about their future life.
The exact opposite might be said about the person who seems to exude an air of negativity, nastiness, or even cruelty. You can quite often see them coming at a distance, if not just by reputation.
Charlie Brown of cartoon fame has a friend named Pig Pen. Pig Pen moves around with a certain air about him—he always has dust particles floating all around his little cartoon body. If we remember no other aspect of Pig Pen’s personality, we remember the air or glowing of dust particles round about him.
Notice in this morning’s account of Jesus’ transfiguration, that when Peter, James, and John observed Jesus talking with Elijah and Moses, Peter’s first reaction was much like ours usually is to spiritual things—limited and inward. We often think that spiritual experiences are too personal to talk about, and so we pitch our tents, as the disciples wanted to do, and wind up going nowhere with such a valuable story. What makes us so hesitant about sharing a spiritually life-giving account with others?
Yesterday I was at the Don Krohn Memorial Service in Middleton with Doug and Nancy. Although it was crowded and smoky, I was quickly reminded that at the time of transition between mortal life and immortal life, people quite often begin talking about (and sharing) spiritual experiences, thoughts, and beliefs. It is at a time like this that worries about what others will think are pushed away or onto the back burner.
For most, in a time of transition, there is a need to put deeply internal thoughts and spiritual experiences out in the open where God can readily bless them, and equally important, bless the others who are hearing about them. Doug, Nancy and I were very much blessed by hearing some of the powerful ways that God was making himself real to people. This is part of the good news of Jesus Christ—spiritual assurance of life abundant here and now, and of life eternal in the hereafter.
Let’s face it, folks, if you can not talk about God and God’s actions with people in the church, just where would the right time and place be? Remember, it’s not a game of one-up-man-ship on who can tell the greater story. Just as we share in the holy meal of communion, we ought also to share in the holy meal of spirituality.
With Lent beginning this week on Ash Wednesday, let us be resolved to open ourselves to discussing spirituality. Let us be resolved to consider what it means to worship a living God who moves among us and through us with his Holy Spirit. What better growth opportunity? What better time, what better place … than in the house of God. Let us begin together this Wednesday evening, Ash Wednesday, at 7:30. Let us proclaim the marvelous works of God in our midst. Amen.
