09/10/2023 ~ Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost~ Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Proper 18 ~ Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 149; Ezekiel 33:7-11; Psalm 119:33-40; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/864386648

Pesach

“This is how you are to eat the animal: your loins girded, your belt buckled, your sandals on your feet, and a staff in your hand; you shall eat it hurriedly, in haste. It is the Passover of Yahweh.” — Exodus 12:11.

John Adams, a driving intellectual force in the struggle for freedom, signed the Declaration of Independence and was the second President of the United States. In a letter to his wife, Abigail, dated July the Third, 1776, Adams also proved to be a predictor of the future, a prognosticator, by writing the following.

(Quote:) “The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable… in the history of America.” Adams was not wrong about the date. The actual vote for independence happened on the second but the Declaration was ratified on the fourth, hence the discrepancy.

Adams continued, “I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as a great festival…. commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God, Almighty…. solemnized with pomp, parade, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other….” [1]

So it is solemnized in those ways but on the Fourth, not the Second. Also please note the other prediction contained in these words. “…from one end of the continent to the other.” When Adams wrote, the thirteen states were only on the east coast.

Independence is celebrated with many and various rituals as noted. But any celebration with ritual defines a challenge. How is the idea of independence actually tied to our rituals? Do these oft repeated rituals help us understand independence?

After all, I am sure we can all agree true independence, real independence, is not about ritual. So what is true independence, real independence? (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work known as Exodus: “This is how you are to eat the animal: your loins girded, your belt buckled, your sandals on your feet, and a staff in your hand; you shall eat it hurriedly, in haste. It is the Passover of Yahweh.” (Slight pause.)

We Congregationalists tend to think churches with a “high church” style of liturgy— Episcopalians, Lutherans— employ ritual. But the fact is we have ritual. Just the weekly ringing of the bell before the service and a coffee hour after it constitute ritual. A mentor once said to me a Congregational service is a hymn and sermon sandwich. But even that is still ritual.

And you may have noticed the sermon title with a peculiar word— Pesach. Pesach is a transliteration from Hebrew for the word “Passover”— a celebration riddled with ritual.

The reading concentrates on the procedures followed by the Israelites when the first Passover happened, the origin story of the rituals. At the end of today’s passage, we hear (quote:) “…all the following generations shall observe this forever as a feast day.”

And so year after year for 3,000 plus years Passover has been commemorated with ritual. If you have ever been to a Seder, the ritual of the Feast of Passover, you know the ceremony consists of a ritual meal. For those of you who have never been to a Seder, the ritual meal consists of a solemn retelling of the happenings recorded in Scripture concerning the Exodus event.

In the course of the ceremony an explanation of the events is recited. The illustrations in the ritual range from eating a bit of bitter herb such as horseradish which signifies the bitterness of the enslavement experienced by the Hebrew people to the repeating and a listing of the plagues endured by the Egyptians.

It is remembered the Israelites left in haste so there was no time for bread dough to rise. Hence, matzah, the unleavened flatbread is consumed. There is much more to this ritual but the point is that it’s ritual.

When done in an appropriate way, the Seder ceremony helps people examine the Exodus event. But this ritual can be rendered meaningless unless a participant in a Seder comes away with an understanding of the depth of meaning contained in the ritual.

Participants need to engage not just in the narrative of what happened but also to engage in what the ritual represents. Therefore, the ritual, itself, is not the point of the Seder. The meanings behind the ritual are the point. (Slight pause.)

Well, before we get to any of the meanings behind the ritual, let me raise another issue. Perhaps because of movies which dramatized the Exodus event, the Charlton Heston effect, we tend to think in terms of hundreds of thousands of Israelites fleeing captivity in Egypt.

But most Biblical scholars say multitudes are a figment of our collective imagination. If a real Exodus event happened— and there is some clear evidence an Exodus event did happen in some form— at most several thousand people participated.

Those numbers should push us to ask, since so few fled Egypt, why has this ritual been repeated for 3,000 years? Is the meaning of the ritual so significant it insists on being practiced? And if so, what does this Seder ritual really mean? (Slight pause.)

The ritual of the Seder, of Passover, remembers the liberation of Israelites by God from slavery. Hence, Passover is not about the Exodus event, itself. Rather, Passover is about liberation— liberation of all kinds— offered by God. And that the Exodus is about liberation is a message clearly conveyed by the Seder ritual.

Further, the Biblical scholars say the Exodus event is the most important episode of the Hebrew Scriptures because the Exodus is the singular, the central sign of the covenant of God. You see and as I just suggested, the Exodus event is about the liberation of all kinds— about freedom, deliverance, equity, the saving action, the redeeming, forgiving grace God offers. All that is what the covenant is about.

So, the ritual is not in place to remind people about what happened. We know what happened. The ritual is in place to remind people about liberation, freedom, deliverance, equity, the saving action, the redeeming, forgiving grace God offers.

Therefore, what does the covenant of God mean? The covenant of God means God offers us, us, liberation, freedom, deliverance, equity, saving action, redeeming, forgiving grace. That’s what the covenant of God is about. (Slight pause.)

This brings me back to one Mr. John Adams, July Fourth and the words of the Declaration of Independence. I have said this here before. Many see the words about being created equal and unalienable rights as the most important part of the Declaration.

But words toward the end of the document state the signers rely on the protection of Divine Providence and mutually pledge to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Pledging to each other their lives, fortunes and sacred honor— that, my friends, means these people understood covenant when it comes to the assembly.

The words do clearly say “Divine Providence.” Adams, good Congregationalist that he was, would have known and acknowledged that.

This brings me to us, to the church. We, the church, should not be simply about ritual, doing the same thing over and over without asking ‘why are we doing that?’

We, the church, need to be about being in covenant with God and each another. If we do that, remain in covenant with God and each other, we will be empowered to be mindful of God and fearless when it comes to the mission to which God calls is.

I might add the mission to which God calls us is something which constantly changes. Why? We are in covenant with one another and we change because we grow.

Indeed, in the passage from the Gospel reading Jesus says “where two or three are gathered….” The collectiveness of that, the mutual covenant, is the message we really need to hear in those words.

Why? Covenant with each other by definition demands both independence and interdependence. And to reiterate, we, ourselves, constantly change and yet we should strive, need to strive to remain within the covenant call to us from God. Amen.

09/10/2023
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “I think today when most folks consider covenant they say something like— ‘Covenant— well, that’s just between me and God.’ But that is not what Scripture says. Scripture says the covenant with God is worked out and acted out with each other. If our rituals do not remind us that we need to be in covenant with God and each other, something which demands change in us, then either we are doing it wrong or we need different rituals. And as I said, perhaps real independence is not just being independent but it also means being interdependent.”

BENEDICTION: Let us go forth in the Spirit of Christ. Let us seek the will of God. Let us put aside ambition and conceit for the greater good. Let us serve in joyous obedience. (Slight pause.) And hear this prayer of Melanesian Islanders: May Jesus be the canoe that holds us up in the sea of life. May Jesus be the rudder that keeps us on a straight course. May Jesus be the outrigger that supports us in times of trial. May the Spirit of Jesus be our sail that carries us through each day. Amen.

[1] Note: I’ve modernized the punctuation and spellings.
https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17760703jasecond