One of the reasons I was attracted to the design for our Transfiguration Icon was that Sister Iréné chose to show the prophet Elijah as a young man.  Most other images of the Transfiguration that I have seen show him as venerable and rather formidable.  This is not surprising.  The Old Testament description of him gives us a man who was aloof from his fellows, somewhat despondent at times, a preacher of the hell-fire kind who refused to compromise his message even when it led him to flee for his life, chased by King Ahab whose wife, Jezebel was determined to do away with him.  He was of wild appearance , a hairy man with a hair mantle.  He dwelt in the margins of society, in the desert where he was fed by ravens.  He was a lonely figure whose only true companion was Elisha who is also part of our Old Testament reading today.  His description was not unlike that of the later John the Baptist who was himself compared to Elijah.  He was, and is, one of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets and he is referred to a number of times in the New Testament – not least the Gospels.  His position as one of the fore-runners of our Lord is shown in his place alongside Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Why I like Sister Iréné’s painting of him is that he is no longer the austere Old Testament figure of Sunday School books and Victorian engravings.  If anything he is a gentle, quite youthful figure who, along with Moses is shown looking towards Jesus and extending his hand towards him in a gesture both of deference and of presentation.  It is as if he is saying – this is he for whom I contended against God’s enemies.  Whatever I achieved, he will do more, far more, to proclaim God’s glory.  There is also the sense that his work well done was now rewarded by his place in God’s eternity.

In St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh there is a huge painting of the Ascent of Elijah. It is by an Austrian artist, Ernst Degasperi.  There is a swirling motion to the painting which depicts the whirlwind in which Elijah is caught up into heaven.  The painting moves from darkness to light as Elijah moves away from earth into the heavens.  He is transformed by light.  The sense of the painting is that Elijah has contended against darkness and has triumphed and he has now been taken to meet God whom he has served so faithfully.

Why I like Sister Iréné’s painting of him in our own Icon of Transfiguration is that she takes us beyond the earthly Elijah to the heavenly.  The austere figure becomes more gentle, more youthful, more glorious.

Glory links our two readings this morning because Elijah is present at the glorification of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, thus linking what happened to Jesus with what happened to Elijah in his final moments.  In both cases there is a sense that we are witnessing a transformation from death to eternal life.  The Transfiguration has been seen by biblical scholars as a foretaste of what will happen to Jesus at and after his Crucifixion.  It is placed at a particular point in the Gospel of Mark as a prelude to the final journey to Jerusalem and our Lord’s Passion.  The purpose is not only to reassure the disciples that our Lord’s death is part of the process which leads Jesus to his glory at the right hand of God his Father where he claims a place for us all, but also it is a strengthening of the disciples who witnessed it.  Dark things will happen to Jesus – and therefore by extension, to them but it will lead to glory.  What seems like a defeat will be transformed into a victory and this victory will confirm what they see on the Mount of Transfiguration – that Jesus is truly both man and God and - as his humanity is transformed by God’s in-dwelling presence and glorious love -  so, by implication, will ours be.

Both Elijah’s ascent into heaven and our Lord’s Transfiguration have something else in common.  They were enacted before a very limited audience.  Only Peter, James and John were present at the one and only Elisha at the other.  In both cases what was witnessed was initially for their benefit.  It confirms to both Elisha and the 3 disciples that they are chosen for a special purpose – to carry on the work of their master – Elijah in one case, Jesus in the other.  What we see is a kind of commissioning to future work.  Elisha had already been chosen by Elijah.

In the famous incident when Elijah was alone on Mount Horeb after he fled from the wrath of Queen Jezebel, he fasted for 40 days and nights, as Jesus was to fast in the wilderness.  Only then did God appear to him, not, you will recall in wind or earthquake or fire but as a still, small voice.  In both cases Elijah and Jesus have to know that they are doing God’s will.  On Mount Horeb, God tells Elijah that he is to anoint Elisha to continue his work and so Elijah immediately sought him out finding him hard at work as a farmer.  Like the disciples, Elisha leaves his former work behind and became a follower responding to God’s call.  He is seen, thereafter as Elijah’s servant but of course he was much more than that.  He was the chosen one through whom Elijah’s work of correcting God’s people would continue.

What our reading gives us this morning is the moment when that call is confirmed and whilst it is apparently about the end of Elijah’s ministry it is really about the start of Elisha’s. The mantle, symbol of Elijah’s prophetic work, passes to Elisha.  Before it happens, Elijah leads Elisha on a merry dance.  They travel to Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho and finally to the other side of the Jordan which Elijah miraculously parts with his cloak in much the same way as Moses parted the Red Sea.  There is therefore also an element of the ‘passing over’ of God’s people from one way of life to a new one.  Elements, of course, that are also part of the Easter story.  There is so much in this passage which links the journey of God’s people from slavery to freedom – it harks back to Moses and the flight from Egypt but it looks forward to the final deliverance which is spiritual as well as physical that we see in the Easter story. 

Elisha takes up the mantle as the disciples will take up theirs and it is symbolic of God’s calling of people to continue His work of salvation.  Which is were we come into the story.  The mantle  or the authority and commissioning is passed on to us too.  We stand with Elisha on the bank of the Jordan and with the disciples at the Mount of Transfiguration.  The glory we see is meant for our eyes and our hearts and is a reminder that this is what we contend for as Christians – in a dark world we are signs of God’s glory – of something which transcends our world with all its difficulties, struggles and pain and which is healed and re-directed by the saving and sacrificial love of God.

These two visions of glory are part of a bigger picture which we not only see but are part of.  God’s continuing work of bringing his cleansing and healing love to bear on a broken world requires from us an active proclamation of the Gospel which has been entrusted to us by Jesus. The mantle of authority passed to Elisha and to the disciples passes to us.

Now I know I’m always banging on about the part we are to play in evangelism and mission but the truth is that we are the chosen ones who have been called to faith not just for our own benefit but much more for the benefit of the world.  The Church is not some cosy club where we engage in a mutual fellowship to make us feel spiritually glowing.  The great Archbishop, William Temple was so right when he said that the Church was the only organization he knew which existed for the benefit of the non-members.  We are called to continue the work of Jesus.

When Bishop Frank Weston addressed a famous Church congress in 1923 he spoke of how the Church had got much of what it wanted – and he listed all the beautiful things of worship which the particular movement he represented had managed to gain but he went on to say something both thrilling and challenging.  You’ve got all the things which make for lovely worship and for building up our own experience of God but now, he said,

go out into the highways and hedges…go out and look for Jesus in the ragged, in the naked, in the oppressed and sweated, in those who have lost hope, in those who are struggling to make good. Look for Jesus. And when you see him, gird yourselves with his towel and try to wash their feet.

It seems to me that in our present age when people are really struggling against all odds and there is beginning to be a fundamental questioning about our way of life, we Christians on whom the mantle of Christ has fallen, have something very important to contribute.  Behind everything we hear about our present economic crisis is the question posed to Government and to bankers is – when will our former life with all its benefits, be restored to us?  When will we return to a way of life which made so many comfortable and even rich?  We Christians have to ask different questions – Is this what life is about – money, possessions, and all the trappings of consumerism?  Isn’t life bigger than this? Isn’t it time we placed different values on what life means?  Isn’t there an opportunity in our present crisis to re-dress the balance between those who have and those who have not?  Aren’t love, generosity, true sharing and the giving of hope in the form of God’s saving love more important?  Isn’t real community about everyone sharing not only what they have but also who they are?

There are some very serious questions to be asked and answered about the quality of life which are more than material ones including spiritual questions about the nature of being human and about being loved by God.  We are followers of Christ and as such he wants us to help people find a better way of living.  No one else can do this.  The mantle has been passed to us.  We have a big commission from God and we must not fail him.

Both Elisha and the beloved disciples had first to learn who God is. They served a kind of apprenticeship and their resolve was tested, tried and informed.  This Lent is a big opportunity to face these fundamental questions alongside the questions of what our faith really means to us.  Spending time with Jesus will help us not only to face the questions of what we are here for but also to bring new hope to all who in the highways and by-ways of this world are struggling.  We have a God-given duty to show people a better way.