“A Charge to Keep We Have
God of the Prophets: God
of the prophets! Bless the prophets’ sons; Elijah’s mantle o’er Elisha cast…
A Charge to Keep I Have: To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill; O may
it all my [powers] engage to do my Master’s will!
[prayer]
The
words I shared prior to the sermon come from two hymns that have played major
roles in my life. I first sang “God of
the Prophets” at the graduation service for the Union Theological Seminary
Class of 1976. It was the hymn to which
that year’s graduates processed into the sanctuary. That hymn made a lasting impression on me,
especially the fifth verse: “Make them
apostles! Heralds of Thy cross; Forth may they go to tell all realms Thy grace;
Inspired by Thee, may they count all but loss, and stand at last with joy before
Thy face.”
I so hoped that when my class graduated the following year that we
would use it as our processional hymn.
Alas, it was not to be. Later I
hoped that it could be my ordination hymn, but the organist at the church where
I was ordained wasn’t familiar with it.
We’ll use it here some day, but we’ll have to get permission to do
so. It’s not in our hymnbook.
The
reason I quote it today is rather obvious – the words from its first verse that
I read earlier are a direct reference to this morning’s Old Testament lesson: “Elijah’s mantle o’er Elisha cast.”
I also quoted the second verse of what turned out to be my ordination
hymn “A Charge to Keep I Have.” I even
used a slightly adapted version of its title for my sermon title. Why use it at all? It makes no direct reference to this morning’s
text. It does, however, just like “God
of the Prophets!” deal with the issue of answering God’s call.
Elisha
answered that call, indeed. He even asked
for a double inheritance of Elijah’s spiritual power. He wanted to follow faithfully in Elijah’s
footsteps. Elijah was his mentor, his
father in the faith. Elijah was his
family, not by kinship, but by way of a common desire to serve their Lord. His home was wherever the Lord led Elijah and
him.
Jesus
deals with issues of home in family in today’s text from Luke. Discipleship means calling home wherever it is
that Jesus leads us. Our family is made
up of our fellow followers in the way of the cross. We are kindred not by way of blood, but through
the waters of baptism. Just as Elisha
picked up Elijah’s mantle we who follow Jesus take up our cross and follow him.
This
morning our two new elders and our new deacon are picking up some symbolic
mantles. They have answered a call to
serve the Lord by way of accepting an ordained office at Grace Presbyterian
Church. George and Edwin are picking up
the mantle of elder-ship for the first time.
Janice is once again picking up the mantle that comes with the office of
an ordained deacon.
The
roles they are taking on are not primarily prophetic. They will not ordinarily be called on to preach
the Gospel. They will, however, be required
to live out that Gospel as they fulfill the duties of their respective
offices. A charge to keep they do have!
There
are some other folks picking up mantles of a sort this morning. We are commissioning our Youth Mission Team
for 2007. They will be headed to
Just
like our newly ordained and installed officers they are charged with the task
of glorifying God in all that they say and do.
They are all charged with using their Spirit-given gifts in ways that
serve the mission of Christ. For either
a week or a year or for three years each of them has said yes to God’s call –
each of them has chosen to pick up Elijah’s mantle.
Although
much of today’s service will focus on them, the call to follow God is one that
each of us answered the day we professed our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord
and Savior. Maybe we’re ordained to a
church office; maybe we’re not. Maybe we
are serving actively on the Session, the Diaconate, or the Trustees; maybe we’re
not. Maybe we’re going on a mission
trip; maybe we’re not. But we’ve all
answered a call to follow Jesus in the way of the cross. A charge to keep we all have!
Not
all of us will be picking up a new mantle today. But all of us have done so at some point in
our walk with Christ. I seriously doubt
that any of us ever picked up our mantle in the aftermath of whirlwinds and
fiery chariots. Most prophets and most
disciples answer God’s call in less dramatic ways. That makes our calling no less real. A charge to keep we do have. We serve a God to whose name we must bring
glory. We follow a Savior who has
entrusted each of us with the task of spreading the Gospel. We are each of us a vital part of the family
of God. Amen.