Tag: passover

Fourth Sunday of Lent

30th March 2025

Reflection with readings below

The Israelites are at a transition point in the life of their community and their relationship with God. Until now they have been migrants travelling through the wilderness to their new home. Until now God had been meeting their daily needs, providing them with bread – manna – and meat – quails. God has kept them clothed and shod: in Nehemiah we read  “For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell!”

They eat their Passover meal – the event that marked their departure from Egypt – and that is the last time that they eat manna. From then on they live off food that they harvest from the new land where they are establishing their new homes.

Now they are both free and independent! The disgrace of their years of slavery when they were not in charge of their own destiny, is behind them. Now they can make a new beginning in their lives. 

How often do we wish we could begin again, make a fresh start? How often do we wish we could put our mistakes behind us, no longer have to live with the consequences of things we did wrong? The Exodus story is very much a story where the people could leave behind all that had oppressed and constrained them. Where they could learn anew how to live in accordance with God’s wisdom. Where they could begin a completely new chapter in the life of their community. However it does require them to be active participants in making their new life a success. They will, for example, have to ensure that they do all that is necessary to grow food to feed their community. To live according to God’s wisdom is to sit back and let God do everything; it is to be get and be active in doing that which God desires for our fellow neighbours and for the environment we share with all of creation. 

Jesus’s parable is about beginning over. Here the younger brother realises the failure of his behaviour and seeks as new beginning. But having reached this conclusion he doesn’t just wait for things to improve; he gets up, takes responsibility for his actions and begins the process of actively living a new life. The younger brother feels that this new life will not be lived on the same father-son footing as before. He does not expect that to ask for forgiveness will effect a complete restoration of his former relationship – but his father is there before him. Before the younger son can even finish his speech, his father has already forgiven him and is putting in place all that is needed for this new chapter of his life. The older son struggles to share in this reconciliation, this re-creation. The older son has never strayed from his father’s loving care, but cannot share that loving kindness with his younger brother. He is not willing to live according to the same wisdom that is demonstrated by his father.

 Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, is expounding for us how in Christ – through his death and resurrection – we have too have come to a transition point in our lives. Through his death and resurrection we have entered not just a new era, but, as it were, a whole new creation. We have become, through Jesus, a new people who are reconciled to God – and because of that reconciliation, are entrusted with the mission of sharing that reconciliation to encompass others with, it would seem, the aim of being part of the process by which Christ reconciles the whole world to God. Picking up on the other two readings, this requires our active participation in living our lives anew adhering to the wisdom of God.

Joshua 5:9-12

The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” And so that place is called Gilgal to this day.

While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho. On the day after the passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year. 

Psalm 32

1 Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, *
and whose sin is put away!

2 Happy are they to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, *
and in whose spirit there is no guile!

3 While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, *
because of my groaning all day long.

4 For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; *
my moisture was dried up as in the heat of summer.

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, *
and did not conceal my guilt.

6 I said,” I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” *
Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin.

7 Therefore all the faithful will make their prayers to you in time of trouble; *
when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach them.

8 You are my hiding-place;
you preserve me from trouble; *
you surround me with shouts of deliverance.

9 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; *
I will guide you with my eye.

10 Do not be like horse or mule, which have no understanding; *
who must be fitted with bit and bridle,
or else they will not stay near you.”

11 Great are the tribulations of the wicked; *
but mercy embraces those who trust in the Lord.

12 Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the Lord; *
shout for joy, all who are true of heart. 

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

From now on, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So Jesus told them this parable:

“There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”‘ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe–the best one–and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'”

Fifth Sunday of Easter

28th April 2024

Reflection with readings below.

From today’s psalm: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.” When all on earth recognise God – when all on earth understand the wisdom of living according to God’s will, according to the ways of God’s kingdom – then there will be peace for all, then salvation of the whole earth will be complete.

Earlier this week I took part in a Passover Seder. The words used had been produced by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. It spoke of our universal need to be rescued from a narrow place, a place of constriction: ‘Mitzyrayim’ – which is also the word used to mean Egypt – and of a desire for all to be free,  finishing with the words, ‘Next year in freedom!’ There was a strong emphasis on inclusivity, on this being a meal for any and all to share. One of the items included on the Seder plate was an orange representing the the fruitful contributions  made by women, queer and trans people. 

The story from Acts also tells of the importance of inclusivity. The Ethiopian – who may have been a Jew or a Gentile but we don’t know – would not have been allowed to go beyond the outer public court in the Temple. His status as a eunuch would have prohibited it even if he were Jewish. However much he desired to worship God, he would always have kept behind this barrier. But when Philip unpacks for him what Jesus the messiah has achieved, through his death and resurrection, in terms of a new relationship with God, he asks to be baptised, to become one in this new union. Tellingly, the Eunuch says to Philip, ‘What is to prevent me – what bars me –  from being baptised?’

This new chapter in the relationship between God and humanity that has been established by Jesus is one of inclusivity: it is about salavation for all. 

Jesus, when asked what one must do to be saved, said that there were two key commandments – that we should love God with all our being, and that we should love our neighbour as ourself. Love is the way of salvation, the way of God’s kingdom. The writer of John’s letter explores all the possibilities by which we can understand and be part of God’s love. To love is to love God. To love is to be like God. To love is to love one’s sisters and brothers – if we cannot love them all, then we cannot love God. God’s love is based on inclusivity. 

In John’s gospel Jesus chooses the image of a vine to describe what it is to be part of God’s kingdom. He chooses a plant that grows and adapts, that can regrow and evolve, that multiplies and bears fruit. He doesn’t choose – for example – a military unit or army, nor an industrial production line, nor a country with well guarded borders. He doesn’t even choose a fishing net! There is something organic about God’s kingdom, about it being fruitful and about its need for ongoing care and nurture. It is an image of inclusivity and interconnectedness, in which we and God are joined in a union that grows out of Jesus’s self-offering. We can see that just as sap  flows through a plant bringing life, so love flows through the vine bringing life to God’s kingdom. Just as plants have to allow the sap to flow through their cells, so we have to allow love to flow through us. And as the writer of John’s letter explains, that love cannot exist if it does not involve loving our sisters and brothers. That is the challenge we face. We need to love all our sisters and brothers, human and creaturely, those like us and those who are different. That love comes from God if we allow God to abide in us and we in God. 

Acts 8:26-40

An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.

In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptised?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptised him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Psalm 22:24-30

24 My praise is of him in the great assembly; *
I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.

25 The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: *
“May your heart live for ever!”

26 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, *
and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.

27 For kingship belongs to the Lord; *
he rules over the nations.

28 To him alone all who sleep in the earth bow down in worship; *
all who go down to the dust fall before him.

29 My soul shall live for him;
my descendants shall serve him; *
they shall be known as the Lord’s for ever.

30 They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *
the saving deeds that he has done.

1 John 4:7-21

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

John 15:1-8

Jesus said to his disciples, ”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Proper 18, 17th Sunday after Trinity

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.”