Exodus 12:17-31 page 1

Dave Faulkner

Exodus 12:17-31 page 1

Introduction
One Sunday, a group of thirty Royal Marines who were on a posting in Norway went to the local church. Their Norwegian was limited, and the Lutherans seemed to sit down and stand up at different times from those they were used to, so they followed the cue given by the locals. The pastor gave an address, and at the end asked a question. A man at the front stood up, so all the marines followed suit. Fellow worshippers laughed, and explained to them afterwards that what the pastor had asked was, 'Will the father of the child who is to be christened on Monday please stand up?'
[Source: Simon Coupland, 'A Dose Of Salts', Crowborough, Monarch, 1997, #222 p231, adapted from the Daily Telegraph, 26th October 1993.]

The Marines didn't understand the language and the ritual, so they made fools of themselves. It's not uncommon to hear people say that we should ditch ritual and liturgy from worship, because it's just going through the motions. Twenty years ago many of the 'house church movement' leaders were saying there was only one reason why certain denominations had written liturgies for worship, and that was so they could have a service even when the anointing of the Holy Spirit was absent.

Such a claim is not uncommon among ordinary Christians, but it rests on a mistake. They can be misused like that, but among the real reasons for using liturgies is that we re-tell the life changing events from history of our faith, and that repetition drives their meaning and significance deeper into our souls.

So we have two incidents in our readings today that were life-changing. Both have become wrapped in liturgy, because they are so significant for faith.

There is the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. It is the pivotal moment of the Old Testament. It formed the identity of Israel like nothing else. It was the great act of salvation. Later God would tell the Jewish people more precisely how to commemorate it. The prophets would measure later Israel and Judah against it.

Then there is the equivalent for the followers of Jesus Christ, namely the Lord's Supper, which started out (as we heard in the reading from Matthew) as a Passover meal, and that is no coincidence.

The Passover is full of symbolism about that deliverance from slavery in Egypt to freedom. There are the bitter herbs to remind people of the bitterness of slavery, the mixture of dates, honey, and nuts to represent the clay and straw with which the slaves made bricks for Pharaoh, and so on.

I propose to look at a couple of elements in the Passover that have Christian parallels. In doing so I hope we can see something of what God did for Israel, and by linking that to the Lord's Supper also see something of what God has done for all humankind in Jesus Christ.

next page

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ About Me ] [ Articles ] [ Kulcha ] [ Links ] [ Messenger ] [ Musings ] [ Search ]