Passover - memory and celebration

 Passover… why do we remember?

You might wonder what the release of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt has to do with us – why should we read it and think about it? But the reading itself not only tells the story of what is about to happen, but tells the people of God that they should always remember it. 

God declares what will happen, and tells his people what to do. 

They have to act in absolute faith that God is about to help them and they are told how to remember this act of God for generations to come. 

God will save his people. His people must never forget it.

This is a living story, lived through, recounted, re-enacted, remembered, re-lived for thousands of years – remember the story of Jesus getting lost at the age of 12 and being found in the temple? – it was the feast of Passover that the family were celebrating in Jerusalem. 

It is a vital story and for the Jewish people it is still alive to this day.

And we, too, have stories which we repeat and re-enact and make into rituals.

Communion is one obvious example – and it has many resonances with the Passover story  - freedom and salvation through blood and the death of the firstborn…

Christmas and Easter are full of enacted stories of celebration and new life.

Harvest is a time to pause and remember whose the earth is – that God is our creator and that we are to be grateful and ready to share the bounty of the earth.

So let’s look at what the people of Israel are told to do.

They are given planned rules & rituals for whole congregation of Israel – for all the people. Each family must do the same thing at the same time – they are not just individuals but together, they are the people of God. 

So everyone eats the same meal at the same time in each family.

A lamb without blemish – to honour God – is killed for each feast at twilight.

The animal is roasted whole over an open fire – as the quickest & tastiest way to cook – and eaten rapidly, ready to travel (with their sandals on, loins girded, staff in hand)(or as someone said at the Bible study on Tuesday with their boots and coats on and car keys in their hands..) They eat hurriedly and must be ready to go – God is about to act to bring them liberation.

The door posts and lintel are smeared with the lamb’s blood as an act of witness and faith – they believe God is about to act. God says “the blood shall be to you a token” and I will pass over you. 

And so God tells the people what he is about to do

In this Passover, God strikes Pharaoh’s people down with the 10th plague. Previously there have been 9 plagues (blood, frogs, gnats, flies, on livestock, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness). 

Each time Pharaoh has been asked to release God’s people, or else a plague will come. Each time, despite the plague, Pharaoh has refused. So now God will produce the tenth and most terrible plague – the death of the first -born (humans and animals), of the Egyptians, but not the Israelites.

The first-born most valued: fb son received double portion, lineage traced through fb, fb animal dedicated to God by the people of Israel. Every family with children will be affected by this.

God is about to do a terrible thing. There is no requirement for human action other than to be ready – God alone will take all these lives – human and animal.

It is a terrible and hard to think about: the God whom we know as love, taking revenge on the Egyptians for trying to crush his people, terrorising the Pharaoh into letting God’s people go, at a terrible, awful cost of lives.

If you read forward in the story you’ll find that the loss of life isn’t finished here, with the firstborns. After agreeing, finally, to release the people of God, Pharaoh changes his mind and pursues them, God parts the Red Sea for his people to cross to escape and.. the waters close over the heads of the pursuing Egyptian army.

There is a rabbinic story, which Susan reminded us of on Tuesday, that when the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea the angels all cheered and celebrated – but then they noticed God was weeping – for his Egyptian children who died.

I find it easier to worship a God whom I believe weeps for all his children, Israelite and Egyptian, and yet in the story of the Passover we are told that in order to rescue the one, the people of Israel, God exacts punishment on the other, the Egyptians, and there is no way to escape that. 

The story of Passover is a hard story, but the people of Israel are told to remember that they were rescued, and it was the beginning of the story of freedom for the people – it is the story of who they are, freed by God to be God’s own.

The people are told to remember

The marking of the year starts from here – Moses and Aaron are told this is the beginning of months – this is the start of the people of Israel, start of year.

They are told to re-enact this night  – it is to be a  feast “kept by an ordinance forever”.

God’s people must never forget what God has done.

Today, Jewish families will celebrate Passover in their homes with the youngest member of the family asking questions: “why is this night unlike any other nights?” “why do we eat bitter herbs?”, “why do we eat unleavened bread?” and so on. One generation passes on to the next the memory of this act of God.

And we have so much to remember in this act of communion.

If the Passover teaches the Jewish people who they are as God’s chosen; then the communion meal teaches us as Christians who we are as followers of Christ and God’s children.

We have not decided how to celebrate this communion meal – it is an enactment of what God has done for us. Jesus is God made flesh; he died for us on the cross; he is brought back from the grave by the power of God; and he is alive and with us as we eat & drink and remember.

[In the same way, our harvest thanksgivings remind us of God who has acted in creation – who makes the earth fruitful and gives human beings skill to farm and fish and grow and cook.]

Our task is to remember, to give thanks, and to recommit ourselves to living as the forgiven, saved, freed, loved people God has called us to be.

And we invite everyone to join us – for all are God’s children, and God’s love is for the whole world, with no exceptions. We are the living proof today of God’s saving acts and we need to share God’s love with the world.

In the name of Christ.     

Amen.