I love this Spirit of Life, for hearing my voice and my supplications
The Spirit protects the simple; I was saved when I was brought low.
Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the spirit has dealt bountifully
with you.
For you have delivered my soul from death,
my
eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I
walk with Spirit in the land of the living.
I kept my faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted;”
What shall I return for all this bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the names of the divine,
I will honor my spiritual vows in the presence of all people.
Spirit of Life, I am your servant;
the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice.
O Jerusalem, sing praises to the Spirit of Life.
You
shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled
congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.They
shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel
of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night;
they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter
herbs …
This
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.For 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.The
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.
He
sends two of his disciples and says to them, “Go into the city and someone
carrying a waterpot will meet you.Follow
him, and whatever place he enters say to the head of the house, “The Rabbi
asks, “Where is my guest room where I can celebrate Passover with my disciples?”And
he’ll show you a large upstairs room that has been arranged.That’s
the place you’re to get ready for us.”
And
the disciples left, went into the city, and found it exactly as he had
told them; and they got things ready for Passover…
And
as they were eating, he took a loaf, gave a blessing, broke it into pieces
and offered it to them.And he said,
“Have some, this is my body.”And
he took a cup, gave thanks and gave it to them, and they all drank from
it.And he said to them: “This is
my blood of the covenant, which has been poured out for many!So
help me, I certainly won’t drink any of the fruit of the vine again until
that day when I drink it for the first time in God’s domain.
And
they sang a hymn and left for the Mount of Olives.
The
Exodus story is full of marvel and mystery.A
little boy once returned home from Hebrew school looking a little confused.His
father asked, “What
did you learn today?"
He
answered, "The Rabbi told us how Moses led the children of Israel out of
Egypt."
"How?"
exclaimed his father glad to hear his son was paying attention in class.
The
boy explained, "Moses was a big strong man and he beat Pharoah up.Then
while he was down, he got all the people together and ran towards the sea.When
he got there, he has the Corps of Engineers build a huge pontoon bridge.Once
they got on the other side, they blew up the bridge while the Egyptians
were trying to cross."
The
father was shocked."Is that what
the Rabbi taught you?"
The
boy replied, "No.But you'd never
believe the story he DID tell us!"
A
fantastic story it is.Who would
believe it?A Jewish baby left in
the reeds by the river and discovered by the Pharaoh’s daughter, is raised
as an Egyptian prince.A burning
bush speaks to him and tells Moses to lead his people out of Egypt.Pharaoh
doesn’t think this is a good idea and refuses Moses request.The
Egyptians are punished nine times for Pharaoh’s refusal.After
each punishment Pharaoh weakens but then changes his mind as his heart
hardens.The tenth punishment was
particularly horrible, the death of first born, man and beast.Marks
were made on the doors by the Jews with blood to signify that the shadow
of death should pass over their household.With
the last plague of punishment, Pharaoh finally relents and allowed the
Jews to leave.Knowing that the
Pharaoh may have second thoughts again, the Jews had to leave quickly,
baking their bread without allowing it to rise.Sure
enough, Pharaoh has second thoughts and comes after them.The
sea parts, the Jews get across safely and the sea closes in again on Pharaoh’s
chariots.Moses and the Jews are
finally free but must endure the wilderness for forty years before finding
their promised land.
Who
could believe this amazing story?Every
first century Jew did.Every first
century Jew knew this story by heart as it was retold every year as part
of their Passover celebration as it is today.So
when the Gospel writer Matthew put pen to parchment, he knew the associations
to make to tell the story of Jesus’ life that would reach his audience.John
Shelby Spong, the retired Episcopal Bishop, in his book, This Hebrew
Lord, does a fine job of highlighting some of these associations to
frame Jesus as the new Moses.
Those
associations begin with the birth narratives, which today we recognize
as fictional constructions.Jesus
comes through the begetting lineage of David.Herod’s
order to kill the first-born sons parallels the Pharaoh’s order when Moses
was born.Mary and Joseph’s escape
to Egypt with Jesus establishes yet another parallel with Moses’ connection
to Egypt.
The
baptism of Jesus recapitulates the second section of the story, parting
the waters a little differently.Instead
of a burning bush, a bird communicates the heavenly blessing and mission
to Jesus.Instead of 40 years of
wandering, Jesus spends 40 days in the desert to be purified for his ministry.The
trials and tribulations of the Jewish people become the temptations Jesus
suffers and overcomes.
Feeding
people is important for both Moses and Jesus.The
people are hungry and thirsty and need to eat and drink.They
doubt Moses and God’s power.Then
water springs from a rock and manna appears from heaven.Jesus
takes a few fish and feeds thousands with more left over than he started
with!With each comparison, the
Gospel writer tries to one up Moses making Jesus do something even more
amazing.
The
two stories come together and meet during the Last Supper.Jesus
and his disciples have traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.In
Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus instructs his disciples to conduct that meal
on the first day of Passover, the day before he was put to death.The
gospel writers call the celebration a Seder but the actual description
of the event doesn’t include some of the commanded elements.Yes,
they reclined, ate unleavened bread and drank wine.But
this was common for other special meals.The
Gospel writers didn’t mention eating bitter herbs symbolizing the bitterness
of slavery or charoset, the mixture of apples, walnuts and cinnamon symbolizing
the mortar used between bricks, or other unique aspects commanded to be
part of a Seder meal.
Scholars
have long debated whether or not Jesus actually celebrated a Passover Seder
before he died.These elements may
not have been mentioned because they were assumed as part of the description
of a Passover meal.What we do read
is the variation Jesus makes as part of the meal having to do with bread
and wine.And those changes, too,
need to be put in context.
During
a Seder, these words are said:
"Barukh
attah Adonai Elohenu Melek ha-olam
ha-motzi lechem min ha-arets"
"Blessed
are you, O Lord our God, King of the ages, who brings forth bread from
the earth"
"Barukh
attah Adonai Elohenu Melek ha-olam borê' p'rîy haggâphen"
"Blessed
are you, O Lord our God, King of the ages, who creates the fruit of the
vine"
God
is blessed and the bread is broken.God
is blessed and the wine is drunk.Jesus
changes this ritual to a blessing of the substance which then becomes a
substitute for his presence.You
may remember my discussion, two weeks ago, of Jesus’ fondness for challenging
the assumptions of his disciples.Here
we have another example, perhaps the biggest reversal, the crescendo of
his teaching.
“Have
some, this is my body.”“This is
my blood of the covenant, which has been poured out for many!”
Because
this was so different from what was expected, it got Jesus’ disciple’s
attention and may be the reason this became the core ritual of the Christian
tradition.The disciples may not
have fully grasped at the time what this reversal meant, we may still not
comprehend what Jesus meant in all its aspects today, but his disciples
held on to this ritual tightly and preserved it faithfully.Jesus
leaves behind a koan for us to mull over.Sometimes
actions speak louder than words and ideas.The
ritual, like a great work of art, conveys a truth not to be captured in
words.
Jesus
sums up his teaching in his new method of blessing the bread and wine.Up
till now, the Jewish relationship with the law has been external.We
bless God, he gives us bread and wine.God
gives us the law and we follow it.We
break God’s law and we are punished.This
only requires obedience--not interpretation or critical thought.
Jesus’
teaching didn’t work that way.He
did things the Pharisees recognized immediately as breaking the rules.He
plucked grain and healed on the Sabbath thus breaking the law against working
on the Sabbath.He ate with the wrong
kind of people.He broke dietary
laws claiming what comes out of the mouth defiles you--not what goes into
it.He required his followers to
think about their actions rather than just following the rules.
During
that Last Supper, I interpret Jesus saying, “Take my presence, my teaching,
my actions inside you, chew on them, swallow them, digest them and then
transform them into your being.”Without
his leadership in the flesh, his disciples would need to internalize his
teaching to make sense of it.I can
imagine Jesus intending this message, “You have seen me and you have heard
me, from now on you will have to find me within.In
this reversal of conventional blessing, you will discover God in the bread
of the earth.You will discover
God in the fruit of the vine.”
Moses
led his people out of physical bondage to physical freedom.Many
misinterpreted Jesus as the new Moses who would free the Jews from Roman
domination.That wasn’t Jesus’ mission.He
was not a Maccabee ready to lead an army.
Jesus
took the Exodus story and transformed it into a journey from inner bondage
to inner freedom.To make that journey
one needs to internalize that which is true and allow it to become part
of you.Both Moses and Jesus are
essentially describing different levels of the same journey to freedom
that we all seek throughout our lives.
That
movement from bondage to freedom is the universal struggle of being human.We
are in bondage from the very beginning of our lives to the very end.We
must eat, drink, breathe and stay warm to survive another day.From
birth, we must learn to see, hear, talk, walk, to control our bowels, to
build up our muscles, and to educate our minds--or perish.The
journey from bondage to freedom is played out over and over again: from
slavery to freedom, from poverty to wealth, from weakness to power.
But
external liberation isn’t necessarily followed by internal liberation.Abundance
can degenerate into addiction.Power
can degenerate into domination.To
find inner freedom, ignorance must be transformed into wisdom, indecision
must be transformed into commitment, doubt must be transformed into confidence.That
transformation is accomplished through the power of love.That
power can be tapped by remembering Jesus’ love in the ritual of communion.It
can also be tapped through the ritual of Passover.
I’m
asked sometimes how Unitarian Universalists can celebrate Passover without
being Jews.I explain: for the same
reason we can celebrate communion without being Christians.The
symbolic messages in these acts transcend their traditions.We
must honor them and practice them in a respectful way that does not defile
them.And we can find new meaning
and inspiration in them that may go beyond the original form.These
rituals are not dead and frozen relics of the past.They
live and grow in the present moment.
Our
Passover celebration is a wonderful example of this continuing growth and
change.We are careful to observe
all 15 parts that a Seder should contain.But
we add things, too, like the orange on the Seder plate.There
were no oranges on Seder plates in Biblical times or even 50 years ago.The
tradition is only maybe 25 years old, the product of a sexist remark by
a rabbi saying that women belonged in the pulpit like oranges on a Seder
plate.Suddenly, oranges started
appearing on Seder plates.The story
of liberation adds a new symbol.
Rituals
and traditions are not static but live and breathe and find meaning in
us.I’ll be conducting a new ritual
of communion this Saturday at 3:30pm with origins that reach back over
400 years reframed in a new ritual by my UU minister in Oakland, California
about twenty years ago.Meg Bassinson
will help me reshape it again.My
hope is what we come up with together will communicate in action just want
Jesus wanted to convey as he broke bread and drank wine for the last time.
Do
you understand?It wasn’t the last
supper.Seders have continued.Last
Suppers recast as Holy Communion have continued.Who
knows what ritual is being invented right now will take life and continue
for many more generations to come.
May
we celebrate them all as continuous transmissions of the human journey
from bondage to freedom.
May
we penetrate their sectarian form and language to find the universal truths
they convey.
May
we have the courage to create new symbolic rituals to celebrate those great
truths and bring them to life.
To
the coming year in Jerusalem.
Unfortunately,
just to physically be in Jerusalem again will not solve all problems.Jerusalem
is still a place of hostility, hatred, death and injustice.The
inner journey must match the outer journey.
So
I’ll end with a larger vision of the harmony I’d like to see between Jews,
Christians and Muslims in the coming year, cast in words from a poem by
Judy Chicago:
And
then all that has divided us will merge
And then compassion will be wedded to power
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind
And then both men and women will be gentle
And then both women and men will be strong,
And then no person will be subject to another’s will
And then all will be rich and free and varied
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many
And then all will share equally in the Earth’s abundance
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old
And then all will nourish the young
And then all will cherish life’s creatures
And then all will live in harmony with each other and the earth
And then everywhere will be called Eden once again.
May
this be why we gather to bless bread, bless wine, bless each other and
ask for a blessing from all that we deem holy.
Copyright
© 2004 by Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore.All
rights reserved.