10th September 2023
Reflection (readings are below)
All change!
Many stories in the Bible are about change, often a radical change in direction. In the Book of Genesis, God’s relationship has been with individuals – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and their households. This changes in the Book of Exodus. God’s relationship is now with a whole people – a new nation in the making. God will lead not just individuals but the whole people of Israel out into the wilderness and there will shape them into a nation. The nature of the change was equally radical. One day they were people who had, over several generations, been sucked into a situation of enslavement; who had found their freedom of movement and action curtailed; who had become enmeshed into an unwilling dependency on the Egyptian authorities; who had become unwilling and possibly unwitting cogs in a system beyond their complex.
Overnight they were uprooted from their homes, their work, their daily routines. Overnight they were called to flee; to put their complete trust for survival in God; to face down the armed forces of their overlords. Then stripped from all that was familiar, they were to adopt a new nomadic lifestyles, learn new way of living, and accept their total dependency on God for the barest of essentials including food and water.
Today’s story from Exodus describes a carefully orchestrated meal that is more than just a meal. It is a domestic event that binds together the whole community. It is a ritual that defines the identity of a people. It is an act of worship in which everyone is a celebrant. It is a sacrament that establishes a new and particular relationship between God and the people.
The meal, both initially and annually thereafter, takes place in the home and not in a designated place of worship, sacred site or temple. The blood painted on the door frames identifies which households are part of God’s people and which are not. The killing of the lamb – one that is without blemish – is a sacrificial act carried out not by priests but by the householders. From now on, God will lead all the people – not just individuals who were noteworthy, but the whole community presumably including some who were good and some not so good.
Of all the stories in the Old Testament, this will become the defining one, the most significant. It encapsulates the recurring truth that God will save his people, will gather them and rescue them from evil forces and establish them ready for a new life. Every year celebrating the Passover will be central to those of Jewish faith. It is the key feast in the life of Jesus, causing him, as with his thousands of his contemporaries, to make the special journey to Jerusalem. The meal itself is transformed by Jesus. It is given a new layer of meaning in which Jesus himself is the sacrifice, and whose blood marks the beginning of a new covenant – a new relationship – between God and God’s people.
All change is also St Paul’s expense. In his letter to the Romans, he is writing about an equally radical change. God’s relationship with people which was once through the Jewish Law is now widen to an understanding that we are all sinners, we none of us of our own will and strength can be righteous, BUT that all can be made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ. The Law of the Jews, which St Paul calls the Law of sin, is now replaced with the law of God, the law of love.
As we celebrate and share in the Eucharist, let us be ready for change, embracing whole heartedly the law of love.
Exodus 12:1-14
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell 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. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 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. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 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.
Psalm 149
1 Hallelujah!
Sing to the Lord a new song; *
sing his praise in the congregation of the faithful.
2 Let Israel rejoice in his Maker; *
let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
3 Let them praise his Name in the dance; *
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
4 For the Lord takes pleasure in his people *
and adorns the poor with victory.
5 Let the faithful rejoice in triumph; *
let them be joyful on their beds.
6 Let the praises of God be in their throat *
and a two-edged sword in their hand;
7 To wreak vengeance on the nations *
and punishment on the peoples;
8 To bind their kings in chains *
and their nobles with links of iron;
9 To inflict on them the judgment decreed; *
this is glory for all his faithful people.
Hallelujah!
Romans 13:8-14
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Matthew 18:15-20
Jesus said, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
The Green Tau 