Sermon: The Journey—Remembrance
Exodus 12: 1 – 14
How many of you have a birthday? Come on, you should all raise your hands. For each of us there is a day on which our lungs drew their first full breath of air! And most of us count our time from that day—saying things like, “We moved to Paola when I was 5;” or “I joined the Navy when I was 16;” or “We married when I was 23.” All of us mark time in relation to the significant events in our lives.
And we celebrate the anniversaries of these significant events—our births, the births of our children, our wedding anniversaries. When I celebrated my birthday, my dad and mom would recount the events surrounding my birth—my Daddy promising my mother that this baby would be a girl, the C-section delivery—planned on my maternal grandmother’s birthday, my Papa seeing me for the first time and exclaiming, “Dorisy, I thought Mae and me broke the mold after you were born, but she is just like you.” Recalling these memories informed who I am—an eagerly anticipated daughter, sharing a birthday with a beloved deceased grandmother, similar to my mother in many respects.
Our text today sets up a significant and formative event in the collective life of the Hebrew people.
So significant is this event that their calendar will start with it. 1 The Lord said to Moses . . . 2 This month shall . . . be the first month of the year for you. . .
So significant is this event that they will remember it, celebrating it for all time to come. 14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it . . . as a perpetual ordinance.
What is this significant event? What is it that is about to happen? It is the exodus, the great going out that is chronicled in this, the 2nd book of our Christian Bible, the 2nd book of the Jewish Torah. It is the exodus—the great going forth—that birthed this people’s religious identity. This exodus provides the theological underpinnings of the Jewish faith on which our Christian faith is founded. Liberation, formation, redemption.
Liberation: The Hebrew slaves’ freedom from bondage to the Egyptian Pharaoh.
Formation: The change from being a family clan—descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to becoming God’s treasured people—set apart to be a blessing to all peoples of the earth.
Redemption: During their wilderness sojourn—chronicled later in this book—God offers a new covenant to the Hebrew people, a covenant sealed with the 10 commandments. But, they break covenant with God before Moses even returns to them with this sacred law. For, in Moses’ absence, they worship a golden calf instead of the great I am who has led them out of Egypt. Redemption: God restores the people to God even in the aftermath of their apostasy.
The events in the book of Exodus are framed by the lens of God’s almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing presence. The physical liberation, the religious formation, and the spiritual redemption of the Hebrew peoples are due to God’s power, God’s design, and God’s deeply abiding love.
It is here—in this passage Richard just read —that the exodus, the great going forth is foreshadowed. Today’s text calls for remembrance and sets up the ritual through which the people will remember God’s presence on their journey.
The people are told to prepare a ceremonial meal. Sacrificing an unblemished lamb, the Hebrew slaves are passed over by the angel of death. They eat the lamb roasted—and I picture it on a spit, cooking over a campfire. Campfire—camping—trekking—journey. For me, the image of the lamb roasting on a spit over a campfire foreshadows a journey to come. They eat bitter herbs to remind them of the hardship of slavery. They eat together—as a family or group of families—because it is the entire group of Hebrew slaves whom God is calling out of Egypt. They eat dressed for travel—belt buckled, feet shod, staff in hand, standing up—ready to leave at a moment’s notice. And this meal will be celebrated from this time forward. It is a foreshadowing of all that will come to pass, it will be a re-enactment of what has happened . . . a remembrance celebration.
From Old Testament times, the Jewish people have celebrated Passover. Christ was celebrating this very Passover when, supping with his disciples on the night of his betrayal, he took bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to each of them saying “Take, eat, every time you do this, remember me.”
As we eat the bread and drink from the cup, we remember Jesus, who New Testament writers called the paschal lamb, the sacrificed one whose blood protects us—not from an angel of death—but from the specter of permanent separation from God.
As we eat the bread and drink from the cup, the Holy Spirit moves in and among us—not just reminding us who Jesus is and what he has done for us, but in some mysterious way, transporting us spiritually to the throne of grace where we encounter the living Christ.
We come to the table, sometimes confounded by the mystery that is this Holy Communion, and we find ourselves transformed—belt buckled, feet shod, staff in hand—prepared by the Holy Spirit to go forth.
Like the Passover, our Lord’s Supper is a meal of remembering—remembering as in recalling events and persons and re-membering as in bringing us—members of Christ’s body—back together—re-membering as in restoring us with Christ and with one another. It is a meal in which we are nourished for the journey to come—
the going out from our worship into the world where we live our lives—where we work & play, where we squabble & make up, where we serve ourselves & tend to the needs of others. It is a meal in which we are nourished for discipleship.
We, the congregation of 1st Presbyterian Church, Paola, KS, are being called on an exodus. We are called to go forth from this time and place. Like the Hebrew slaves in our text today, we do not know exactly what awaits us. But we do know this: We, too, will experience liberation, formation, and redemption.
God is ready to liberate us—to liberate us from bitterness towards those who sought to tear this church apart. God is ready to liberate us—to liberate us from anxiety about the future of our church. God is ready to liberate us—to liberate us from fear of failure—failure to respond to opportunities of service— God is ready to liberate us—to liberate us from all that binds us! Are you ready to be liberated? I am!
Just as he formed the mass of Hebrew slaves into a cohesive, faithful people, God will form us—form us for faithful discipleship, form us for closer relationships—with God and with each other, form us to be a blessing to our community. Are you ready to be formed? I am!
Because we are human, we will make mistakes in this journey. We will fail to do something God calls us to do or we will do something God does not want us to do. Intentionally or unintentionally, we will make mistakes along the way. Thankfully, God has already redeemed us—through the grace of his son, Jesus the Christ. Because God has already forgiven us, let us set out on this journey willing to forgive each other and willing to forgive ourselves when we mess up. For God will restore us when we fail. God will lift us up when we fall. God will extend a steady hand when we stumble. We will encounter redemption in our exodus. Are you ready to be redeemed? I am!
God will lead us; God will provide for us. So, let us mark time from this day—remembering back how God has used this church over the last 144 years to be a blessing to the community that has become Paola, KS. Let us also remember forward—forward to the journey God now calls us on. Nourished by Word and Sacrament, accompanying each other with energy and joy—belt buckled, feet shod, staff in hand—let us step out together—together in faith, with hope, and in love. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment