| Rev. Russ Dean: Maundy Thursday and Passover |
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PASSOVER AND MUANDY THURDAY: Salvation, Sacrifice, and Story By: Rev. Dr. Russ Dean, Park Road Baptist Church April 9, 2009 Today, you will get the Baptist version of Passover! As today is the first day of Passover with many rituals, no rabbi was available today to speak with me (though they did talk to me to help me better understand it.) I want to begin by asking you here today: Is there anything you would like to share about a story that is important to you that you would like to share? One woman shared: The Odyssey by Homer is important to me. Why? Ulysses has one goal and that is to get home. Everything that could happen to thwart that happens – and yet he preservers. It is a story of hope. Chris Kite: my new granddaughter’s name is Ashira which means “I will sing” and it comes from the Passover. (Her very name is a story.) Anne VanNewkirk’s Mom (at 95 years old!) answered:: I went to college in the dark ages when you had to have 4 years of Latin to get in. We read comedies written 300- 400 years before Christ and I realized that people were the same then as they are now. People and plots have the same needs and have contemporary relevance for us. Russ: There is so much truth is packed into our stories. Today we are reading about 2 stories that are central to Jews and Christians. Our church (Park Road Baptist) has a relationship with small Cuban church. The first year I went on a trip there, we first spent a little time in Havana trying to get to know the culture. We went to the Museum of the Revolution. As I read their descriptions of history, I realized that their idea of history was not always the same as my idea of history. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was “history” or just Fidel’s propaganda to the Cuban people. Was this what really happened in the Cuban missile crisis or the Bay of Pigs? As I went through the museum, a light bulb went on in my head. I begin to wonder, how do British read American history? How do African Americans read Southern history? How do women read some of the scriptures? And I realized there is no objective history…..it is always written for some purpose, some reason. One of my mentors of faith used to love to say, “Everything that is true about Christianity is a myth.” I really had to think about that for a long time. Finally I began to realize that he is right. The truth is more than fact, more than history. And what we read is never unfiltered or unbiased. The people who wrote about Passover were writing not just to convey an event but to convey theology even more than biography.
Exodus 12: The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord. 12For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance… Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. 22Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. 23For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door… And when your children ask you, “What do you mean by this observance?” 27you shall say, “It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.”
“...the first month of the year…”
“…take a lamb… for each household…”
“…lamb… without blemish…”
“…fourteenth day of this month…”
“…take the blood and put it on the two doorposts…”
Passover is about liberation from bondage is key – freedom: no one serves her/his own wine… everyone chooses to serve, and everyone is served. Chronology of Passover practice is not quite clear in Hebrew scripture. There is a lot of oral tradition and change over the centuries. Same is true in the Gospel narratives the specific details of the “last supper” are equally confusing. (One of my PhD friends said, “You’ve entered one of those never ending debates… is the Last Supper… a Passover meal?”) Is the history what is important that we take from these stories or is it the theology? What the story symbolizes out of the story is what has meaning.
Gospel of Mark 14: On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city… [A man] will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal. .. While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the (new) covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’ When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Gospel of John 13: Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world… And during supper Jesus… got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him… So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. .. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. Passover Influence on Maundy Thursday Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) The “Last Supper” is the Passover Meal Gospel of John (Supper is preparatory meal) Emphasis is Jesus is the Passover, Jesus dies as the Paschal Lamb Obviously there were different traditions among the earliest Christians about how to understand Jesus’ life and death. (Is the record of the “passion” stylized to specifically conform to Passover details? Might the crucifixion have happened at a different time of year but by the time written down 30 years later it is written down in that timing to make a theological point?) Does it matter than different details and traditions or is the theology they are trying to convey what matters? John 19: (account of the crucifixion of Jesus)
Christian Scripture: Jesus as the Paschal Lamb 1 Corinthians 5: picks up metaphor of Passover meal for Christian life Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Peter 1: also picks up Passover imagery: You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. Revelation 5: again, picks up story of Passover and fully embraces itin the story of Jesus’ life and death Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12singing with full voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’
Jesus Celebrates the “Passover” with his disciples – not with his family. Passover was meant to be celebrated with your family. Innkeeper wonders why Jesus needed room to celebrate Passover with his disciples. Who was Jesus’ “family”? Jesus earlier said, “Who is my mother, my brother and my sisters? The one who does the will of my father.” Who is our family? Institution of the Eucharist (the Last Supper) “… he blessed [the bread] broke it, and said, ‘This is my body…’” How inclusive is our table….at home, at the office, at the club? How inclusive is our table that we would welcome those who would come. Washing the disciples feet: Theology of service “But the greatest among you shall be your servant…” (Matthew 23.11) A New Commandment – there was a time I would say Jesus gave a new commandment better than any other commandment. I can’t say that now because it is part of the Jewish commandments. But I do believe the disciples understood something new in Jesus, had a new experience in Jesus. I now believe there was nothing so new in Jesus’ tradition but the way he lived and taught it was certainly experienced as new and different and transforming. Love one another – as I have loved you. (in what way? In a self-denying, self-giving, “sacrificial” love) New Commandment = Maundatum novum (Latin) “New Mandate”… Maundy Thursday What I think is in common between both traditions. First, for those in different faith tradition outside Christianity or Judaism, think about what are your stories or traditions that speak of self-giving or freedom? Passover and Maundy Thursday Theology of Passover: “No one serves her/his own wine” It is a celebration of freedom: and we are free enough to serve one another. (To me, that sounds like the Baptists’ “priesthood of the believer” – we are priests to one another, wash one another’s feet, pour a glass of wine for each other!) Jesus’ towel/wash basin is the symbol of the “new” commandment: Love one another. As Russ closed his lecture, he invited all present to a few moments of experience- (not an experience of Christian communion or partial Seder.) On each table was a bottle of sparkling grape juice which Russ invited those present to serve one another and as they served, to offer a word of blessing to each other. People were still sitting at their tables and sharing meaningful religious stories, rituals and traditions for quite a while! Questions from Russ to reflect upon: Was the “last supper” actually a/the Passover meal? What is “new” about the “new covenant” or the “new commandment“? What does all the blood really say about God – or us? (Did God really kill all of the firstborn? Did God really send Jesus “to die”?) What/who is to be the sacrifice? “To obey is better than sacrifice…” 1 Samuel 15 “With what shall I come before the Lord? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression... God has shown you what is good… do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.” Micah 6.8 How does the Story of Passover function in the lives of Jews? How does the Story of Jesus’ death function in the lives of Christians? What Story holds the same kind of value for Muslims? Hindus? Unitarians? Etc… For Christians: Is the “Last Supper” for you more about death or life? Blood or abundance? Gloom or grace? How does your own table (kitchen, office, club) function as an ongoing ritual of abundance? May the stories of your faith come alive to you in this season |
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