Kings 2:2:1-2, 6-14 Luke 9:51-62 Galatians 5:1, 13-15
The word Mantle in the thesaurus on my computer offers the synonyms shroud,veil or cloak. The imagery of a mantle has been profoundly useful throughout my spiritual journeying.
I often envision the Holy Spirit as a cloak of protection. I don’t have to worry if I have the right words or actions in difficult situations, because I can rely on the mantle of God to surround and protect me.
A Mantle is often passed down through generations to so that the traditions and wisdom of one generation pass to another. A Maori friend of mine Richard told me when his mother died, she passed on the mantle of her cloak as wisdom to him. She literally handed the Maori feather cloak to him by placing it around his shoulders.
We can see how the Mantle protects the tradition of a community and provides the identity and belonging for the individual. I call upon Christs mantle in difficult times, because I am a Christian. I belong to the wider Christian community and belong to Christ.
But to fully receive the mantle of Christ we first have to let go. Our first reading from Kings, is a story about letting go. Elijah, the foremost prophet of the Hebrew Scriptures, passes his mantle to his successor Elisha. After granting Elisha’s wish for a double portion of his power he makes a grand exit in a whirlwind on a fiery chariot. Looks like a good day for Elisha. He is probably highly pleased at his newfound position and power. But he is to learn that God is not about power ,but is about love. God is about giving life, not taking it. God doesn’t reside any place, yet is found everywhere. The spirit of Elija rests on Elisha in the symbol of the mantle of the cloak reminding us that God is not in the past, but in the moment facing the future. We are to follow God’s loving spirit which will lead to God’s kingdom, by letting go of power, letting our old life die.
The theme of Pentecost is life in the Spirit as we heard in Galations. A life which brings us the freedom of not having to invent one ourselves. The question I ask is if we are given life and a mantle of wisdom, then why are we so busy building our own identity.
Rushing around fixing our life can have harmful outcomes - I often have fallen over trying to fix mine. We live in a world where we are told by the marketers that the product will make us better. We buy and create our own identity in todays marketing world – the car, the body …the list goes on. The way of Jesus on the other hand is a path from death to resurrection. From reliance on ourselves and our identity - to a life in the spirit of freedom. We are called then to leave behind the old identity and become born to a new way of being, a new identity, centered in Jesus, under the mantle of Jesus, to participate in the creation of the kingdom of God.
For us that means as disciples we are to act with commitment to challenge and share the pain by placing ourselves in the struggle – the struggle of the church and of the world we live in. By seeking Jesus in the present we look towards a mended creation, “a community of freedom” as feminist Theologian Letty Russell terms it. The Kingdom is already and not yet.
How are we to embrace this new way of being? We do this by challenging those in power, through our privileged position . This can be risky and painful needing confrontation or negotiation with those in power. It might mean challenging our councilors, sharing our views through talkback or the newspaper, or looking at our own relationships. We can glimpse the kingdom when we begin to draw on the mantle to make a difference. Letty Russell, says that as disciples we need to work on destroying the old house – our way of being, and build up a new way of being where God’s love is the authority, in “the Household of Freedom”. Begin where you are and make a stand. Power and authority don’t always need to be seen as domination and control. You can turn to your mantle and use the authority of knowledge given to you to make a difference.
As we are guided by the mantle we must hold in tension the kingdom metaphors that inform our faith. There is the Old Testament religion of promise, where God intervenes to save nations, speaks to prophets, and creates a covenant relationship with his chosen people. This sits alongside the Kingdom to come, the eternal kingdom that Jesus in the New Testament points towards. The Kingdom is also here now…yet still to come, and our part in that as disciples is to be ready to receive, to accept the gift of the mantle, to wait patiently and still in the presence of God and then to share that love to create a better world.
Some years back I discovered that following God and belonging to a Christian community, is something far greater than my family and my friends and my career, my invented life. I learnt a great deal about what it means to pick up the mantle.
I lived in San Francisco, on Nob Hill, just across from Grace Cathedral. The Dean was and is still Alan Jones. He is a big man with a big chasuble and he always stood with his clergy out on the forecourt encouraging all to come in.
His Cloak was the chasuble, his arms providing a veil or shroud of welcome and knowing. His cloak or mantle led me towards a far larger cloak, that which is Jesus. What times have you been passed a mantle that has led you in unexpected directions? In the safety of the mantle have you moved where you might not have gone before?
Under the mantle of Grace Cathedral I was able to begin to fully realize what belonging and identity meant in Christ. I look back and see the progression of my belonging to Grace Cathedral, first as an Episcopalian in America, then as an Anglican in NZ, then as part of the whole church, alongside all christians. We who are many are one body for we all share the one bread. We belong to Christ. This is our identity.
On the website at Grace they say this…”It is a community based in fellowship, witness, spiritual development and service within the context of a nurturing Christian community”. And it was that Christian community that nurtured my early years of getting to know Christ by providing a mantle for me, as I discovered that I needed a relationship with Christ to truly belong.
So how did I find the fellowship, witness and spiritual development that fed me, that led me forward under the mantle of Christ? I spent time on the edge, watching and listening as the seasons and colours affected the mood of the cathedral. Then I attended daily chapel before work, dressed in a big overcoat with my runners I loved stopping in at Grace on my way down Nob Hill to Market Street and work. The church was colourful, full of pageantry with it’s celebrations and the often theatrical gay community who found hope and inclusion here, having been expelled from the Catholic church in the late 70’s, early 80’s.
In amongst the fanfare, the theatre, the reflection, the stillness, and the rituals I felt the mantle of Christ protecting me, calling me on, to know more, to be closer in relationship with God. We are marked with the sign of the cross in Baptism and are given the gift of the mantle of God’s love and wisdom. God’s Cloak, veil and shroud. I was given this generous gift of God’s love and wisdom later in life again…at Grace Cathedral.
When have you felt the movement towards Christ, the call to know him more, to fully accept the gift of the mantle of God?
It came to me amid my chaotic life lacking in direction as I roamed overseas, following each latest whim. I was to learn that this generous gift challenged my murmuring, whining and complaining. It also showed me that we are “one body”, one community fed by God and that there was a strong sense of belonging under this mantel. Soon I understood that as ‘one body’ we are to be fed by God in order to feed each other.
As the mantle of Grace Cathedral has been powerful, showing me God amongst us, so too has the mantle of St John’s Campbells Bay. Here I found the love that sent me out in the world as a Deacon, the love that welcomed me back, the love that encouraged me to become a Priest and the love that is always present here in this special place…as the sign of the Kingdom of God.
The immense sense of belonging that I have felt here, is because the gift of life, is in the living out of the love of Christ, by each of you. This is the mantle I take with me. I have learnt from you that the gift of my identity is secure in God. There is no need to fret or fuss. I am sad to leave, yet secure as I move on with the mantle that has been handed to me from St John’s Cambpells Bay. Amen.
