Third Tuesday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
Healing Water
by Amy Bratton
This year during Advent we are anticipating that Christmas will be very different. Change seems to be the thing that is universal in 2020. We look back at pictures with friends huddled close together for the camera and we miss that reality when we gathered in groups, when we stood that close to each other without a second thought. We miss the “before times.” It feels like everything has changed.
Yet, there are so many ways that change has always been with us. Life changed drastically for me with parenthood, many of the things we all have been experiencing during the pandemic transitioned for me in 2016 when my oldest son was born. I changed from going to a workplace all week to staying home. My social bubble closed in without those office relationships and the chance of running into people in the neighbourhood while I ran errands at my leisure. In many ways, previous changes in my life — moving cities, getting married, having kids — all prepared me for the changes that took place in 2020. Yet, there are also so many ways I was unprepared for anything that happened in 2020.
In the lectionary reading today we see another one of these life changes unfolding. We find the prophets Elijah and Elisha standing beside the Jordan river just before the prophet Elijah is taken to heaven. The prophetic mantle was about to be passed to a new prophet — in this case, it was a literal mantle. Elijah disappears in the fiery chariot and Elisha picks up Elijah’s cloak that had dropped and promptly tests out if he has received the Spirit of God by displaying the power of YHWH in the same way that Elijah had just demonstrated, parting the water of the Jordan river.
People looked on and they saw both the continuity and the disruption.
Elisha was still there, but Elijah was not.
A prophet of YHWH still stood before them able to perform the same miracle, but would Elisha be different in his prophetic role?
The needs of their community remained ever present, but the prophet that had given them a connection to YHWH was gone.
The first response of the onlookers is to do everything they can to ensure that everything stays the same. They come to Elisha; we have resources, they say, we have fifty people, we can find Elijah and return things to normal. Elisha, having seen the change unfold before his eyes, asks them not to go on that mission. When they insist, he relents and patiently waits for them to return empty-handed. I hear more than a little sarcasm in the words in verse 17, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”
Despite their best efforts, the change took place, the new prophet stood before them.
As we face the changes all around us, these are unprecedented times, but change itself is a familiar part of our human condition. What is our response to change? Will we be able to hear the prophetic voice among us pointing us back to God’s presence and away from our attempts to control the situation? Will we seek to restore the previous situation using all the resources we can muster?
On different days I find myself identifying with different people in this narrative.
In some of the changes in my life, I’ve been Elijah. Things ended and I was moving on. I didn’t stay connected to the context I left behind. I just left.
More often, I think I find myself with those onlookers. I didn’t see what was happening, I just see that things are different. And, I’m not so sure about this new reality, I’d rather spend my energy on a search party for the normal life that is now missing. I wouldn’t want to give up too easily on keeping the old normal in place. By my own effort, I can keep things going like they always have been. While I know that I have great skill at making things happen in most spheres of my life, high levels of anxiety often accompany this frenetic effort of the search party for my normal life.
But, sometimes, if I’m lucky, I find myself in Elisha’s shoes. He had the chance to hear from Elijah that the end was coming. He even saw the miraculous transition when Elijah was taken away in a fiery chariot. A change happens and then I am standing in the new reality, holding the mantle and feeling the Spirit of God., It is in those moments when I don’t have any doubt about the way forward, because I’ve seen God at work and I know something new has come.
In contrast to the anxiety that can accompany my human efforts to sort things out, when I am in Elisha’s shoes a calm settles in. That calm has nothing to do with whether the situation is safer or more predictable than the old normal. But, there is a clarity of purpose that is hard to put into words.
I find myself feeling like I am in Elisha’s shoes when I think about the church I call home. I’m not a church planter at heart — I like more structure, fewer unknowns. But, as I saw the religious landscape shifting around me and my friends, a new kind of church that makes more space for questions and doubts made sense. One that isn’t beholden to that’s how we’ve always done it. One that has room to lean into practices from the ancient church or newly minted prayers written by one of our own. That’s when I feel like I’m standing in Elisha’s shoes. And this year, this intimate community of faith has been a great blessing in the midst of many uncertainties, because none of those uncertainties undermined the fact that we are a community to each other even when we can’t gather in person.
Coming back to the story, as the people around him search for Elijah, Elisha waits. He is still there when the search party returns. And despite the sarcasm that I hear in his voice — which probably says more about me than Elisha — he is ready to welcome them into the new reality.
What happened next gave me goosebumps when I read this text. The search party returns, and then another group of people enter the story; the people of Jericho see Elisha’s new role as prophet and they approach him with their need. The water is bad and the land is unproductive. Then, with a few everyday objects and some faith Elisha heals the waters. And the city can prosper.
I long for that kind of healing and prosperity. Don’t you?
What are the new realities in your life right now?
Where do you find yourself?
Are you in the search party?
Are you waiting for the people around you to return from their fruitless search?
Are you bringing your need to the new prophet, who just might be able to help?
Where might God be calling you to witness the healing water?
Thank you for reading the New Leaf Advent Reader, a collection of reflections from writers across Canada. If you are enjoying the reader, sign up to receive the readings in your inbox each day here: SIGN UP
And please share this reflection with your friends and family who might also enjoy it.
One of the ways we have been connecting online since the pandemic pushed us online is through our Learning Centre, a weekly interactive Zoom call on a topic with a Canadian voice of wisdom. For the season of Advent, we will be featuring a few of our writers and making space to reflect together on the Advent Reader articles. Join us for the interactive sessions on Thursdays at 1:30 pm (Eastern time) or sign up and view the recordings of the sessions afterwards. SIGN UP for the Learning Centre Advent sessions.