Rachel provided the message this Sunday drawn from the story of Elijah in 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14.
It is a strange irony that Elijah, who lived in the shadow of the forces of death for the entirety of his ministry, narrowly avoiding dying of starvation, thirst, violence, depression, should meet the end of his own earthly life, in the way that he did.
We can’t learn from him how to suffer patiently, or how to stubbornly stare down death in the face and tell it that it does not have the last word. Yet we can learn from him how to let go, how to trust that our gifts will multiply after we are gone. How to trust that others will keep watering the seeds that we have planted. We can learn from him how to receive the gift of the presence of others even when our own feelings are too much to bear. We can learn from him how to let go of our idol of control.
Rachel closed out the message with the congregation listening to the Mountain Goats singing their song, Elijah.
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