Friends, last week, we focused on the life of Joseph, the great-grandson of Abraham and Sarah. Through many twists and turns, he became a powerful ruler in Egypt. During a serious drought, his entire family – the 12 sons of his father Israel, his sisters, his parents, and all their offspring – moved to Egypt.
Over the centuries, things soured for the huge extended family. They became a very large group with thousands of descendants – God promised Abraham and Sarah they would have numerous children, and God keeps God’s promises. The numbers made the native Egyptians nervous – they feared the immigrants in their midst. The Egyptians were afraid the Hebrew people would revolt against the Egyptians and replace them. So, they forced the Hebrews to be their slaves. Then, the Egyptians continued to fear the Hebrews, so they legislated that all male children born to the Hebrew people needed to be killed at birth. Things got very ugly in Egypt for the Hebrews.
Finally, God came to their rescue. God gave the Egyptian government 10 opportunities to free the Hebrew slaves and allow them to leave Egypt and settle elsewhere. But, the Egyptian economy needed the Hebrew slaves – their means of production were their slaves. So, the Egyptian government, led by their mighty Pharaoh, refused to free their slaves. Finally, God took the drastic step to kill the first-born son in every Egyptian family. And, God protected the firstborn child of the Hebrew slaves if they followed God’s instructions. The death of many Egyptian children was so shocking the government finally released the captives and allowed the Hebrew slaves to leave Egypt.
The first part of our reading today is God’s instructions to Moses and Aaron, God’s appointed leaders of the Hebrews, telling them the steps the Hebrews needed to follow in order to avoid the death of their firstborn sons. The second part of our reading begins to describe the meal and rituals the Hebrew people needed to follow to commemorate and remember how God worked to free them from slavery. Listen now to the word of God in Exodus chapters 12 and 13:
The Scripture Exodus 12:1-13; 13:1-8
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,
“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.
Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.
The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.
Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.
Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.
Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs.
Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.
This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.
“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.”
Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.
Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving.
When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites—the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ceremony in this month:
For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord.
Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders.
On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.
Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray....May the
The Message The Promise of Passover
The Jewish Celebration of Passover is named Passover because God passed over the houses of the Hebrew people who had adorned their doorframes with lamb blood. The Hebrew people were saved from the deadly effects of the 10th Plague – everyone else in Egypt lost their first-born sons in the plague. After God passed over the Hebrew people, God then rescued the Hebrew people from slavery, led them out of Egypt by crossing the Red Sea after miraculously parting its waters, led them through the wilderness (on a long trek), and finally led them into the Promised Land. This story reminds the Jewish people that God fulfilled God’s promise of freedom for the Hebrews.
This story is central for the Jewish people. Every year, on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, Jewish families gather to celebrate the Passover Seder meal. During the meal, it is customary to tell the story of the first Passover, drink 4 cups of wine as the story is told, and eat symbolic foods such as matzah, bitter herbs, lamb, and a hard-boiled egg. Families tell the story of the Passover and eat foods that represent specific events that occurred as the Hebrew people were leaving Egypt.
The rituals that accompany the Seder meal remind believers that we believe in a God who keeps God’s promises. When the Hebrew people were oppressed by slavery, God promised deliverance to them. The Passover is part of the defining story of the Jewish people – their Exodus from Egypt. God freed them from slavery and led the people to their ancestral homeland, to the Promised Land. God embraced the lowest status people in Egypt and led them to freedom and prosperity.
The Jewish Passover Seder is a festival focused on remembering that God kept God’s promise to the Jewish people by leading them out of slavery. Each Jewish family follows a very familiar ritual when they celebrate the Passover seder.... unlike most Christian holidays, the commercialization of Passover is limited to Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola and dessert items. In apartments and suburban houses, in tents and mansions, Jewish families gather around tables all over the world and recall the defining story of their faith as they eat the Passover meal.
Why are rituals like this important? When we practice religious rituals, we are doing something physical and sensory that connects us to the divine. For Jewish people, the taste of the bitter herbs and the lamb meat is a sensory experience that reminds them of God’s relationship with them and their ancestors. God helped them when they were downtrodden – God rescued them from captivity. God protected them from an evil despot and an evil system of Government stacked against them.
In Christianity, many of our festivals and holidays have been co-opted by commercialization. Even non-believers have Christmas trees and Easter baskets. But, our two most important rituals, baptism and communion, still are set aside as distinctly Christian and noncommercial.
Like the Passover seder, Christian sacraments are multi-sensory. When we celebrate a baptism, we don’t just repeat the words of our faith – we see the water splash when it is poured into the font, we hear it tinkle as it hits the bowl. The person being baptized feels the water on their forehead.... they may even taste it if they open their mouths.
Likewise, Holy Communion is a multi-sensory event. You watch the pastor break the bread – the crumbs often scatter on my robe and the carpet. We taste the bread and the sour juice or wine. We repeat aloud Jesus’ words reminding us of his sacrifice of his life for us – his body was broken; his blood was poured out. We touch the bread...we drink the juice....we smell the grape-y ness of the liquid. We see, taste, touch, smell and hear the communion words and elements.
Our most important rituals – our holist rituals – are not just seen, they are felt!
The Passover Seder is a reminder for all Jewish people of how God keeps God’s promises. For Christians, when we celebrate Holy Communion, we are reminded that God keeps God’s promises to us. A few weeks ago, we were reminded of God’s Covenant with Abraham and Sarah....God promised them they would be the ancestors of a people as vast as the stars in the sky. Christians believe the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, represents God’s Covenant with humanity. Through Jesus’ sacrificial love, we have been adopted into the family of God....we are all the children of Abraham and Sarah. God embraces us, and loves us, as God’s sons and daughters.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
God’s promise to us, to humanity, is that we are all God’s sons and daughters. God loves us and supports us and abides with us through the tumultuous periods of our lives. God also accepts us as we are and forgives us when we fail. God’s love for us extends from this life to the next – through our faith in God, we receive eternal life with God.
Next week, we will gather around our communion table and experience God’s Consecrated Meal together. And, as we will be celebrating World Communion Sunday, we will symbolically meet our brothers and sisters throughout the world at the table Jesus set for us. Let us taste and see and experience the love and goodness of God as we meet God at God's table. And, may we never forget God’s promise to us: God’s love, God’s forgiveness, and God’s eternal life. Amen.
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