• The Double Portion  2 Kings 2:1-14         (see below)
  Randy L Quinn   
   

• A NEW THING, Isaiah 42:18-25 & Mark 2:1-12, by Rick Thompson

• Why Does He Talk Like That? Mark 2:1-12, by Rev. Thomas Hall

• Be a Care Taker, Mark 2:1-12, by Rev. Frank Schaefer

• Just dropping in, Mark 2:1-12, by Gary in New Bern
• Fetched by Friends, Mark 2:1-12, by Jonathan Evans

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The Double Portion
a sermon based on 2 Kings 2:1-14
Randy L Quinn

Can you imagine what it must have been like for Elisha[1] as he stood by the river’s edge?  He could see across the river to the small crowd of prophets on the other side.  He knew that if he went across and assumed the role of Elijah that he would be looked upon as a leader among them.  He also knew that if he claimed that role he would inherit a long list of enemies.

I’m sure there were doubts that flashed through his mind.  Am I up to the task?  Will God be with me the same way God had been with Elijah?  Maybe God doesn’t want me to carry on this work?  Maybe God has something else in mind for me or for Israel?  If that is the case, what is my role?

In that moment, as he looks across the river, the entire story of Elijah must have raced through his mind.  It’s the same story we all know.  The story of Elijah, the great prophet, who performed mighty miracles and who carried the word of God to the people – a word that wasn’t always welcome.

And as popular as he was with the people, there had been numerous attempts to silence him.  More than once, Elijah had been on the lam and could not be found.

Once, while he was hiding, he began his own little “pity party,” thinking he was the only faithful one left in all of Israel.  God corrected him by reminding him that there were no fewer than 7,000 others who had been faithful; and then God told him to go and anoint Elisha as his successor (1 Kgs. 19).

That’s how Elisha became his servant/follower/disciple.  On the banks of the river, he must have remembered that day, the day he gave up his livelihood and committed himself totally to his mentor.  You remember that story, don’t you?  Elisha had been working in a field with a team of oxen.  In response to Elijah’s invitation, Elisha used the yoke to build a fire and sacrificed the oxen right there in the field (1 Kgs. 19:21).  He was “burning the bridges of his past” as he chose to follow Elijah.

And he wanted to learn as much as he could before Elijah’s departure.  So he made his intentions clear as they made this final journey from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and finally to the far side of the Jordan.

(That day he was a lot like the students every teacher can remember who stay behind class and ask more questions; although in our text for today he is more like someone we might visit who so longs for companionship that they follow us to the car and are still talking to us as we pull out of the driveway!)

I’m one who may not read the front page of the paper every day, but I always make time for the comics.  Several years ago I came across one that featured a mother with a young child clinging to her – a common experience for many mothers.  Her verbal description is what I remember.  She said she was having a “Velcro day.”  [continue]