There are some weird weather patterns where the Arabian desert and the Mediterranean sea come together. Hot, dusty wind blowing from the south, and moist wind from the north and east combine and form the sirocco, which can generate overwhelming dust storms or “dust devils.” A high speed storm like this moving suddenly across the landscape can look like the approach of an invading army, like something out of this world. It’s a phenomenon that’s both awesome and terrible.
The storm that breaks out and takes up Elijah in our reading this evening looks a little bit like this. It’s grounded in the earlier story of Exodus, where God appears in cloud and fire. Now, it’s a moment of transition in ancient Israel, as the baton is passed from one prophet to another. Elijah departs in a whirlwind, and Elisha takes up the mantle that has been laid aside. A transition like this is a crisis, a critical juncture, in the life of the People of God, in which the authority vested in one prophet is conveyed to another. It’s an awesome and terrible moment, like the sudden approach of the storm: as Elisha cries out when he sees Elijah caught up, “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” (2 Kgs. 2:12).
The prophets of Israel, like Elijah and Elisha, exercised leadership that sat alongside the authority of the kings and priests of Israel. Those authorities depended, more or less, on orderly succession, from father to son; but the prophets preserved a more “bottom to top” model of leadership that bubbled up from below. The prophets held the People accountable to the covenant God had made with them. We don’t really know where “the company of prophets” in our reading came from: who chose them or who commissioned them, or why they’re part of the story. What we do know about the prophets, including Elijah and Elisha, is that no search committee or HR department selected them. The prophets are chosen by God.
The whirlwind in our reading captures this truth. Even though there is an element of orderly succession in the mantle cast off by Elijah and then taken up by Elisha, in the “double portion” of the first born that guarantees that Elisha is Elijah’s heir; even so, on the whole, this looks less like an inaugural ceremony and more like the dropping of a bombshell. It’s the overwhelming storm that overtakes us and sends us in a new direction. The chariot and horses of fire present in the whirlwind are God’s own conveyance and entourage: bearing the true presence of the Lord who is in charge of the whole affair, and who takes us where he wills.
At the crisis moment of succession from one prophet to another, God’s power and presence are once again displayed. God is the one who chooses and charts a course for his People. Though the storm may make it hard to see and navigate, we know we are heading in the right direction. We who are brought into God’s encircling storm of fire are caught up like Elijah. We who are addressed by God’s word, as it was addressed to Elisha, are commissioned for a high calling, and receive a double portion of the Spirit. Leadership bubbles up from below, though the ultimate giver is God.
Those being confirmed and received this evening are a part of this same phenomenon. Our liturgy is marked by orderly succession, no doubt about it; our confirmands have been prepared for the vows and promises that they will make tonight, and the bishop is here to see that all things are done according to “the apostles’ teaching and fellowship.” Prayer and the laying on of hands are the guarantee of God’s grace: the power and presence of God.
But it’s also true that God is speaking once again from the cloud and the fire. God is once again catching all of us up in a fresh outpouring of God’s word and spirit. How will we respond to the message addressed to us? Will we take up the mantle of Elijah? Will we embrace the work of Jesus’ disciples, and follow in his footsteps through death to resurrection? God grant us today a double portion of the Spirit, for the tasks that are ahead, and the grace to follow through.