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September 29, 2024

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Exodus 12:1-13; 13:1-8
Luke 22:14-20

Sermon Text:

Grace to you and peace from God, our Creator, and from our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The faith traditions in our world that have written scriptures or documents about the history and formation of their beliefs each have a defining story. [1]For example, for us as Christians, that story is Easter.

That story, more than Christmas, is the one that tells us who God is as Jesus – and as the one who raised Jesus from the dead. As a church, Easter is where we find our life and that story is central to our faith.

For people who are Jewish, their foundational story of faith is the Exodus. It is the story that tells who God is as the creator and sustainer of all life, and as the redeemer of the oppressed. And the center of that story is Passover.

Passover is also part of our story. And the history leading up to it is important.

Last week, we heard part of Joseph’s story in the book of Genesis. [2]That book ends and Exodus begins with Joseph’s family living as immigrants in the land of Egypt. And everything was fine. They thrived there and their population grew.

[3]Eventually, a new Pharaoh came into power, and he didn’t know the history. He was afraid of all the foreigners, and so he enslaved them. When that didn’t have the desired effect, he ordered the deaths of all the male Hebrew babies that were born – which, had that been successful, would have resulted in genocide.

But the midwives didn’t cooperate, and eventually Moses was born. The people cried out to God to free them from slavery. God called Moses to be the one to lead them out of their bondage and he eventually said, “Yes.” God sent plague after plague upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians to persuade Pharaoh to set the Hebrew slaves free, but Pharaoh kept refusing.

Moses announces the tenth plague in ch11, but God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that Pharaoh wouldn’t listen to Moses. And he refused to free the slaves. And our reading picks up right after that.

[4]The Passover meal and event is a communal experience. Through it, God is working to change the ancient Israelites. They had been bonded together by tribal bloodlines and the shared suffering of slavery. But through Passover, God was forming them into a congregation brought together by something more promising.

On that night, God united them by the common experience of God’s protection, provision, and deliverance. God protected them and prepared them by filling them with food for the journey out of slavery and into freedom.

God gave them a new vision so that a new identity could be formed. One that they could hold onto as they journeyed into unknown territory. An identity that would form who they were for generations to come.

[5]And at the core of it was remembering that it was God who’d made a way out of bondage and commanded them to go. So, remembering the event was crucial. So much so that, even before they crossed the sea – when they were still decades away from entering the Promised Land, Moses taught them how to remember that night.

To tell their children that everything in their lives changed because of a miracle from God. That it’s a story to be told and retold in such a way that their descendants would be able to look back to those whose faith and courage made their lives possible – and also look to the future, trusting that God would be with them, and recognizing that God freed them from Pharaoh’s system in order that they would be free to live in service to God.

And they took that to heart. Because the story is still told every year in Jewish homes all over the world.

In Jesus, the Passover meal takes on new meaning for us. [6]His Last Supper became our Holy Communion. And every time we receive it, we tell the story of its origin and why we celebrate it. And in doing that, we are reminded of the common meal and shared story that shapes our identity as people of faith.

We are reminded that in the events of the meal, the cross, and Christ’s resurrection, God takes on and overturns evil and death – freeing us from being enslaved to sin and bringing new life so that we are free to live in service to God.

There’s a lot of violence in the Passover story. The violence is part of the story, so we can’t ignore it. As I was reading and preparing for today, I looked for an explanation for why God acted the way God did – because the God of judgment and jealousy and death isn’t one that a lot of people are comfortable with, including me.

In our reading, and in other parts of Exodus, God speaks of carrying out judgments on the gods of Egypt. Acting in a way that proves God is God and they are not.

And when we remember that these stories were written from memories and stories about events, and the formation of people’s faith and relationship with God that were passed down through the generations, it makes sense that that’s how the events were interpreted.

But it’s still difficult to reconcile.

[7]And we aren’t the first generation to wrestle with the violence in this story. But Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reminds us that it’s possible for us to rejoice in the triumph of justice and the defeat of evil in the world, while also identifying with the suffering of the victims.

[8]In other words, we can be grateful for the Hebrew slaves’ liberation and safe passage, while also mourning the deaths of the firstborn Egyptians and the people that served in the Egyptian armies.

And it’s important to note that the Hebrew slaves did not rejoice over the deaths of the firstborn Egyptians.

Violence isn’t the end of the story because God’s story doesn’t end in violence – or death. When the story of Passover is told today, it doesn’t end with death. It moves forward into the life and promise that God freed the people to live into.

Same with us when we tell the story of Holy Communion. The story doesn’t end with Jesus’ death. It moves forward into the life and promise that Jesus freed us to live into.

So when we gather together at our respective tables, we remember the violence and the death, but we also remember life. We remember the promises God has made and kept. We remember hope. And in that remembrance, we’re able to recognize those things in our world.

We’re able to recognize God at work saving and protecting the victims trapped in systems of violence and death, working through organizations like Lutheran World Relief, Global Refuge, Hopelink, PorchLight, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Immanuel Community Services.

We’re able to be grateful for our participation in supporting these organizations. Because we’re all in this together.

Every time we remember and tell the stories of our faith – of Passover, the Exodus, the Last Supper, Christ’s resurrection – we renew and nurture the community that we’re a part of. We encourage one another to pay attention to what’s going on in our world, to seek truthful answers that are often below the surface of situations – like the civil war that has led to famine in Sudan, and the war that is going on in Palestine, Lebanon, and Israel.

When we remember and tell the stories of our faith, we’re able to do so honestly, and recognize the places where despair and hope are intertwined. And we’re able to recognize the grace of God liberating people from that despair – liberating us from the temptation to just do nothing – so that we, meaning every person in the world, are freed to live into the promise of life God has made and kept.

[9]Telling these stories in every generation – that God delivers those who suffer from oppression, that God works for the flourishing of the world – is a central part of our faith as people who trust in God. Our experiences of God’s saving power are part of those stories.

As we tell these stories, as future generations tell them, God’s story continues. God’s work of liberation and freedom from death continues, and God’s promise of life continues to be kept. Thanks be to God! Amen.

[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/nl-podcast-419-the-promise-of-passover

[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/exodus-2/commentary-on-exodus-121-13-131-8-2

[3] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/exodus-2/commentary-on-exodus-121-13-131-8-2

[4] Feasting on the Word; Year B, Vol 2. Maundy Thursday.

[5] Feasting on the Word; Year B, Vol 2. Maundy Thursday.

[6] Feasting on the Word; Year B, Vol 2. Maundy Thursday.

[7] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/the-promise-of-passover/47474

[8] Feasting on the Word; Year B, Vol 2. Maundy Thursday.

[9] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/the-promise-of-passover/47474