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thank you everyone for being here, especially in the busy beginning of the semester, and I want to say a special welcome to melissa and Charles johnson who are missionaries, pc USa missionaries to Zambia. And

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just to F. Y. I. They will have a table uh and are happy to talk with you about work in the mission field. Yeah. Um recently during my sabbatical, which seems so far

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off now, uh I visited my family in California . Um some of you might know they live in this nexus of amusement parks and like all trips to family, it was good and it was a bit

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fraught relationships between parents and Children are quite complicated, and though I've been noticing it more and more so every year, um what I've realized a bit more potently is not that my parents are getting old,

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but that my parents are old. Um Of course that says some stuff about me and whether I'm old , but okay, you know, um and this became really obvious to me for the sort of first

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time when I suggest that we go look at this new sculpture park and some, you know, not too distant, but about an hour away in another part of southern California. And I remember my dad

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sort of looking at the phone I showed in the map and then I had to look at a paper map and this kind of look of fear for the first time went over his eyes and he said he

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didn't feel confident that he could navigate the California highway system. And that is a pretty harrowing system uh , to try to go to this new place for the first time. And that's when I realized,

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um, my dad's always been an extremely confident, maybe overconfident driver. Uh, but that's when I realized for the first time that the world actually, especially in California, were driving a so paramount.

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maybe this is why I'm not such a good driver . Uh, you know, has become much more limited for them. Okay. It's already kind of shrunken away, didn't recognize. Um, not just

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my father, I go to these national conferences and of course I try to have coffee with my teachers and, and you know, every passing year, there's less and less of them. They're staying home

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. I guess I would too. Um, but this past year I saw my doctoral advisor and when I saw him, I remember thinking he's a small man. He's so much smaller than I remember him

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, you know, and he's always, he's not a big man. He's maybe 54 So he's never been a large, a tall man, but I remember thinking he's just so much more frail than than

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, than I remember when he was scaring me, uh, during my program. So, and you know, and again, the same kind of recognition that you know, this person who it really is

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, the closest to a second parental figure. Um , I have that, I don't know how many more of these meetings or coffee breaks or whatever we have I have left. You know, they're not

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dead. I don't want to make you guys super sad, you know, they're not dead. It's just time passes. And, and as I was thinking about teachers and parents and changes and the passing

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of the flag and so forth. And of course , all of this in light of the topic for the semester, which I briefly summarized the stories about the holy spirit. My mind went to a similar

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kind of story in the hebrew bible, A generally well known story which you've just heard read aloud, usually known as Elijah's ascension into heaven. Okay. And then this story as you just heard Elijah,

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the great prophet of Yahweh instead of dying like a normal person is taken up in the world when most interpreters say to heaven and most translations say towards heaven , but there's actually a bit of dispute about where

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he went. You know, we get a letter from him later in Chronicle, so as if he's just merely relocated. Okay, we'll go into that , that maybe only interesting to bible scholars. But

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uh, before his dramatic departure, he goes around uh, saying goodbye to his prophetic colleagues, all of whom seem to have gotten the memo that today is his final day on the job. And so

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they all come out and they, you know, to say goodbye. And as Elijah is making his final rounds, he's trailed by his protege, his student, the similarly named profit Alicia. And to

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keep every day to keep the characters clear because it's a little confusing. I will try to call Alicia Alicia the students. Okay, So that will keep the Elijah Elisha distinctions. Um Lesia, the student

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seems to have very mixed feelings about his teachers, upcoming retirement or relocation. He, for example, refuses to talk about it when the other profits approached him to ask whether he's heard this is his teachers

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last day on the job. Okay, telling them essentially, and that's that translation is okay, but basically shut up, right? I don't want to hear about it, okay? Um instead of talking

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about it, Alicia, the student keeps following his his T shirt around even after his teacher asked him three times to stop doing so. Mhm. All right. Maybe he's bringing down a little bit.

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Um And finally, and this is where the spirit portion of the preaching topic. Holy Spirit comes in . Um, after finally, after both student and teacher across the river Jordan with Elijah striking the waters

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with his mantle and splitting the waters, He asked his student before his departure what final gift the student would like to receive? Okay, and to this , as you just heard and we should, the

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student asked for this mysterious double share of his teachers spirit something which, according to the teacher is rather difficult. That is, unless he happens to see Elijah, the teacher being taken away. And of

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course, in the midst of this last conversation, Elijah is indeed taken suddenly away by chariots and horses likely have likely heavenly ones of fire. Okay. And the strange story ends with a kind of confirmation

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that at least to the student has indeed received the spiritual gifts of his teacher as evidenced by his ability to do exactly what his teacher did, which was to split the river Jordan using his seizures mantle.

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Now, like all good stories, this one is a bit well name and for the sake of time , there's lots of lots of things that kind of focus on. And since the theme of the semester

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is stories of the spirit, we're going to focus on what we're going to focus on the spirit. Okay. Namely the double measure or literally the two portions. Okay, In the hebrew of the spirit

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of his teacher, Elijah, that Alicia, the student requests as a kind of final parting gift. What exactly is Alicia, the student asking for what does a double measure or portion of the spirit look

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like and how do I get some? Okay. Doesn't seem bad worthy of asking as the last request . And when you ask these questions, you run into some issues right away. The two parts of

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Alicia's, the students request Spirit and double portion. They don't fit together. Okay, because the spirit is not something quantifiable, it can't be measured. It's not like pieces of pie or a cake.

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Okay, you can't just give someone an extra slice of it. Okay. It's rather equality. The spirit, it is less like chocolate cake and more like sleeping sleepiness or board. Okay. Someone has

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more or less sleepy, more or less bored. Okay, so how can you get double of something that is unquantifiable? Unmeasurable. I'm of course not the first recognized this problem and be perplexed by it

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and I would be remiss if I don't tell you some of the kind of interpretations of this strange requests that have come before us. Um some interpreters. This is mostly fine. In the mid Russian apocrypha

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baba explain the leashes request is quite literal. They argue that Alicia, the student did indeed ask for and receive double that is two times the spirit of his teacher. Well how do you know because Alicia

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did double the miracles. Kind of a nifty clever argument. Um And in so doing as you see they replace something of quality with something of quantity. Now I like this answer. But the problem is

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that numbers are quite tricky in the my book. Okay? It depends how you divide things up. So for example I got up this morning and put tooth brushing my tooth toothpaste on my toothbrush and brush

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my teeth and my hair. Did I do one act, get ready that I do to acts get ready and brush stuff. Did I do three acts , Get up brush teeth, brush hair or that

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I do four things. Get up to paste on something, brush my teeth and brush my hair. See numbers. It depends how you separate the activities . Okay, now you might be saying to yourself

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, okay fine, it's not about quantity, maybe it's about quality. Okay Alicia, the student as asking and indeed received a gift whereby he becomes spiritually better or especially different. Somehow the problem is,

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again, you have to take into account the context of the narrative and when you read the rest of the stories in King's, what we find out is that leash to the student. Well, he doesn't

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seem to have changed that much and not only does it not seem to have changed that much, there's nothing that really points to the fact that he is better than Elijah. Actually, a lot of people

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argue that he's a little bit less proficient than his teacher. So for example, Elijah as you just saw, gets taken up at the end of his creator uh into heaven by chariots and horses of fighter

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Alicia. In contrast, this man who receives double the portion of his teachers gifts instead just dies, gets 2nd dots, okay, Which is not better . Okay, Certainly more banal. Okay. And

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there's a final way that interpreters explained this double portion of the spirit and they argue that leash to the students request is not really about a double portion as such, but about Alicia status as the air.

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So in the ancient theories for sons is always sons , the primary air will receive double the property when his father passed away. And therefore what Alicia the student requests, some receives is confirmation that he truly

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is the heir to Elijah, his T shirt. Okay, this is a nice explanation, may be the most persuasive, but again, there's a kind of problem which is this. Well, what's up

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with the ambiguity then? You know, why doesn't Alicia say to his speech, I wanna be your air. I want to be leader after you're gone . Okay. Um instead we get this weird request

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where this double nous or the two times something is emphasized and though I don't have a whole lot of time here, I will say the number two and doubles and you can hear it even in the reading

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abound in this tale. So I'm gonna give you a very quick rundown twice. The prophetic colleagues ask Alicia the student, whether he knows that today the Lord will take his master from over his head.

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And to this Alicia, the student tells him twice , shut up in the midst of a leash. Elijah and Alicia's last conversation, chariots and horses of fire separate the two of them, causing Alicia the

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student to tear his clothes into two. Twice the waters of the Jordan are parted in two. Uh And this last miracle, the parting of the waters itself is a doubling of another instance of parting of

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the waters, most famously, of course, moses parting of the waters. Okay, so this story is kind of like an episode of Sesame Street has been sponsored by the# two. Okay, right

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, so so why too many twos? Including of course the double portion of the Spirit in the request of Elijah? Alicia the student. Why all this double? And I think this is how I explain

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The story and the 2s. The emphasis on doubling , especially the emphasis on double the spirit. It's not about quantity, not about the exponential increase of something measurable. Not necessarily is it about quality per

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se, or at least not about like enhancements in that quality or getting better inequality or something. It's not about whether Alicia the student is better than or more religious than or even more spiritual than his T

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shirt. Rather, it is about how Alicia the student carries on and continues the ministry of his teacher , his mentor, his friend and his father and then doing so. How Alicia the student comes to

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act as a kind of duplicate or mimicry that has , comes to reflect, comes to double in essence , his teacher who has just been taken from him . To me, the story is about how one's

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life, one's ministry, one's career, one's calling is a result of a long series of elijah, all who influence and shape Alicia's until they to become a kind of elijah in this unbroken chain. In

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short, I take the doubling as not about doubling or two ng something per se, but duplication in a different sense of the word. And the sense of duplications that I'm talking about is the kind where

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I say you look just like your mother or your father or your grandparents or maybe a combo or when I sometimes say we sometimes say you sound just like your best friend or you have the same smile as

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your dog or maybe it's the other way your dog has the same smile as you. Okay, I'm not sure I looked this up. There's lots of dog cat. Okay, very popular. Um in

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other words, I take duplication to mean the ways in which you reflect that is the way that you have been influenced by and therefore have grown similar to even coming to mimic or duplicate in terms of expression

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and facial gestures, behavior, thought patterns, most of speech ways of being those who have loved you influenced you, who taught you whom you've grown close to and made you who you are. Those are

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your Elijah's and this reference to our Elijah is the understanding of the important role they play in our lives and also the bittersweet knowledge that they will not cannot and will not be with us forever, that they

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are in their temporary nous, that though they are fleeting, that we somehow are, there continuations are doubled their reflection. This is what I think the story with all its twos are playing with. Okay

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. The story therefore, as I read, it is about remembering those who have changes and those who we continue to reflect as we go forward. After all, the story takes place in the context of

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Elijah's last day on the job, on the day that his student will lose his teacher, whom he calls his father. This reason also explains why there's so many duplications in the tail, including the last

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strange request by Alicia, the student for a double portion of the spirit. The emphasis on the doubling is to make us realize that we to duplicate we to double that we to reflect and continue those who

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come before us. And indeed this is what exactly happens in the stories that follow. I have good biblical support for this. Okay. After the departure of his teacher, Alicia not only continues on his

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teachers ministry, but he's not better. Okay, as I explained, but he certainly does a whole lot of the same things his teacher that almost eerily so okay like this teacher, Alicia also multiplies meals

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, meal and oil during a famine for a poor widow. He also revives and resurrects the c son of a woman. He also proceeds to split water . Okay. And again, these acts should also

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sound familiar because they're found again in the new testament . Okay. Alicia, therefore at least by the biblical evidence does seem to become a double or reflection of his teacher, his mentor and his friends.

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And in so doing in becoming this kind of double reflection Alicia, the student transforms into a kind of second elijah while Elijah goes up to have it. Alicia, his reflection, his student, his double

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remains on earth. Therefore Elijah and the way is doubled. This is why I think there's this emphasis on double the spirit or to put it differently. I think that the double spirit, which I think

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Alicia the student does receive is not about being better than someone, they're getting more of something. Rather , I think it is about how we are all formed as part of a mysterious process in which we

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are influenced by a chain of Elijah's, a chain of teachers, mentors, friends, loved ones and how we come to reflect them and how we, through our participation in this chain, continue their work

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in their ministry. The story, as I read it is about people who helped us and trained us and raised us and showed us how to do things either through a negative or a positive example. It

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is about how were distinct from them and also a continuation of them. How we duplicate them and maybe at points choose not to duplicate them intentionally. It is about the continuation of the work of the spirit

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and the various people we need in our touch by , especially especially those whom we consider our spiritual mentors . It is also therefore at the end about how none of us are alone or ever, really alone

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. And as this is the beginning of the new school year. And as some of you begin your seminary career, it's worth remembering and recalling those who have been your elijah's, Whose spirit do you reflect

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, whose spirit do you duplicate? Who has led you here? Whose ministry do you continue? And are you a part of and whose mantle will you choose to take up? And what new Elijah's will

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you be needing new teachers and friends and loved ones who will influence you and change you be reflected in you? And finally, though you may be on the leash to now, we are always both who

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will later look to you as something someone that they find worthy of imitation, of reflection, of duplication and continuous from whom will you serve as an elijah in this ever expanding, ever duplicating work of the