Speaking of Life 5042 | Jesus Heals Relationships
This week we’re sharing a Speaking of Life message from our archive as a supplemental resource. We encourage you to use this for reflection and preparation, or small group discussion. For your worship gathering, consider how a call to worship from a local voice or contextualized introduction to the theme might serve your congregation well.
Watch video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHxZcRQVf2g
Program Transcript
Speaking of Life 5042 | Jesus Heals Relationships
Greg Williams
Human beings were created and designed for relationships. God made us not only with the capacity to relate to him and each other but with the need to connect to thrive. Despite these truths, human beings often do things that disrupt our relationships. Even when we have the best intentions, we can hurt each other. And we respond to that hurt in different ways. Some of those ways are healthy, and some of those ways can perpetuate a cycle of harm. It is no wonder that Jesus instructed his followers on how we are to respond when fellow believers cause harm. Let’s read from Matthew 18:
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.”
Matthew 18:15-20 (NRSV)
Jesus outlined a step-by-step process for how to deal with relational conflict that is very helpful from a practical standpoint. Additionally, Jesus’ teaching provides two spiritually important truths about God. First, person-to-person relationships are important to him. He is concerned about how we connect to each other. Second, God wants to see disrupted relationships restored and he takes an active role in healing our relational wounds. This does not mean that believers can expect every hurt to be healed and every broken relationship mended in this life. However, we can expect God to help us do our part to be at peace with all people.
This is good news for those of us who live in a world that often seems so divided. If we create room for him in our relationships, Jesus will show up in our squabbles, grudges, and estrangements and provide healing. He desires to be in our midst when we sit down to reconcile with a neighbor who has harmed us. In fact, when we prayerfully seek God’s help, the Holy Spirit will help us see our neighbor as Christ would see that person and treat that person as Jesus would treat them. This changes the dynamic of the relationship and puts the relational conflict in perspective. Jesus is the restorer of all things — even broken relationships.
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.
Program Transcript
Speaking of Life 5042 | Jesus Heals Relationships
Greg Williams
Human beings were created and designed for relationships. God made us not only with the capacity to relate to him and each other but with the need to connect to thrive. Despite these truths, human beings often do things that disrupt our relationships. Even when we have the best intentions, we can hurt each other. And we respond to that hurt in different ways. Some of those ways are healthy, and some of those ways can perpetuate a cycle of harm. It is no wonder that Jesus instructed his followers on how we are to respond when fellow believers cause harm. Let’s read from Matthew 18:
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.”
Matthew 18:15-20 (NRSV)
Jesus outlined a step-by-step process for how to deal with relational conflict that is very helpful from a practical standpoint. Additionally, Jesus’ teaching provides two spiritually important truths about God. First, person-to-person relationships are important to him. He is concerned about how we connect to each other. Second, God wants to see disrupted relationships restored and he takes an active role in healing our relational wounds. This does not mean that believers can expect every hurt to be healed and every broken relationship mended in this life. However, we can expect God to help us do our part to be at peace with all people.
This is good news for those of us who live in a world that often seems so divided. If we create room for him in our relationships, Jesus will show up in our squabbles, grudges, and estrangements and provide healing. He desires to be in our midst when we sit down to reconcile with a neighbor who has harmed us. In fact, when we prayerfully seek God’s help, the Holy Spirit will help us see our neighbor as Christ would see that person and treat that person as Jesus would treat them. This changes the dynamic of the relationship and puts the relational conflict in perspective. Jesus is the restorer of all things — even broken relationships.
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.
Psalm 149:1–9 • Exodus 12:1–14 • Romans 13:8–14 • Matthew 18:15–20
Today’s theme is God gave us a way to remember that he saves us. Our call to worship psalm reminds us to praise the Lord who takes pleasure in his people and executes judgement against their enemies. Our Old Testament reading from Exodus contains the instructions from the Lord to Moses on how to prepare and keep the Passover of the LORD, a day set apart as a day of remembrance of God saving Israel while executing judgement on Egypt. The epistolary reading from Romans speaks of the implications of salvation in terms of departing from works of darkness while putting on the armor of light. In the Gospel reading from Matthew Jesus speaks to seeking reconciliation with those who sin against you.
Reminder: This introductory paragraph is intended to show how the four RCL selections for this week are connected and to assist the preacher prepare the sermon. It is not intended to be included in the sermon.
How to use this sermon resource.
God Gave Us a Way to Remember That He Saves Us
Exodus 12:1–14 ESV
Over the last two Sundays, we’ve been watching God’s rescue story unfold in Exodus. First, we saw that even when God seemed absent, he was already at work. While Israel suffered under slavery and oppression, God was preserving life and preparing a deliverer through acts of courage and faithfulness. Then last week, we met Moses at the burning bush and discovered that the God who seemed silent had not forgotten his people. God saw their suffering, heard their cries, and came down to rescue them.
Together, these passages remind us that even when we cannot see him, God is at work to rescue us. God comes down. God does not abandon us. God keeps his promises.
Today we come to a turning point in the story of Exodus. So far, we have met Moses, the man God called to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt. We read of Moses’ birth and upbringing and his calling by God at the burning bush. That was chapter 3. Today we pick up the story in chapter 12. This week is a great time to read Exodus 4–11, the chapters in between.
If you do, you will meet Aaron, Moses’ brother. God gave Aaron to help Moses speak to Pharaoh and to the people of Israel. Together they deliver God’s message to Pharaoh again and again: “Let my people go.”
Pharaoh refuses. As a result, Egypt experiences a series of nine devastating plagues. Now the story reaches its most dramatic moment. One final judgment, one final plague is coming: the killing of all the firstborn in the land, humans and animals.
We’re on the edge of our seats; we want to know what will happen next.
Instead, God pauses the action and gives detailed instructions for a meal called Passover. At first, this may seem like an interruption. But we will see just how important this “pause” is.
As we listen to these ancient instructions, we are not simply studying an old religious ceremony. We are being reminded that we all need salvation, and it is God alone who saves. Salvation is God’s rescue from sin and death and their effects. Salvation is deliverance from evil and freedom to new life in him. God gave us a way to remember that he saves us.
Let’s read it.
1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
7 “Then 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. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord‘s Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Exodus 12:1–14 ESV
Here God gives Moses and Aaron detailed instructions for keeping the Passover. It is meant to be a memorial day so the Israelites will remember how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt. In short, Passover is God’s way of reminding his people of his salvation and calling them to pass that memory on to future generations. Future generations will need to know that their freedom came from God. God gave us a way to remember that he saves us.
Now here we are, not as Israelites, but as Christians. What do these instructions have to do with us? We may be tempted to pass over (pun intended) this section and resume the narrative to see how the story turns out. However, this section is actually packed with meaning for us today as well.
We are not living under slavery in Egypt, but we know what it is like to be trapped. We know what it’s like to feel enslaved to shame, guilt, selfishness, striving, self-hatred, and isolation.
We need that reminder too: God frees us.
The Passover points forward to Jesus Christ. What God began to reveal in Exodus would find its fulfillment in Jesus. We will see as we go on.
The Living Lord Speaks
God gives such detailed instructions for the Passover — down to the timing, the lamb, and how it is prepared and eaten. God speaks clearly and does not leave us guessing. The Living Lord reveals who he is and what he wants. He let the Israelites know exactly what he expected.
We are given a stark contrast between the Living God and the false gods of Egypt. The Living God speaks. He did not leave it up to Israel to figure out how to keep the Passover. This is a God of grace speaking in a land where people worshiped false, man-made gods. Of course, these unreal idols could not speak.
So, people were left in the dark, trying to please gods they did not understand, often through fear and harmful practices. It also gave an opening for evil rulers to control empires through deception and fear. And worshippers needed to trust false priests or magicians to tell them what the gods demanded.
Ultimately, this usually escalated to child sacrifice. Many believed giving a firstborn child would appease the gods. The firstborn is the first child in a family, often given a special status or importance.
The first nine plagues were a direct judgement on the many gods the Egyptians worshiped. Each plague was God’s announcement that he was the one true God. God is speaking and acting to reveal to Israel who he is and what he expects. He is moving them to trust him so they will be free to worship him. He is moving to save them from the slavery they and Pharaoh are in.
All other gods, one by one, were exposed as empty and powerless idols. There is only one God, and all other gods will be cast down. This gives us a partial picture of what salvation entails. It involves casting out all that is evil and all that enslaves.
We also need to be delivered from the false gods we are enslaved to, and we need to come to know the true God who speaks to us. God has chosen us for himself; God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. If we do not know this, then we will never be able to trust him or free to obey him. We will always be wondering if we have done enough or done it right. We will still be in slavery.
The Lord speaks instructions to Moses and Aaron, who will then go and speak God’s words to the people. This pattern gets repeated throughout the Book of Exodus. It’s a pattern carried out for us today as we go and share the good news of God’s salvation to others. We are merely passing on the message that was shared with us. God is not some detached ideal, value system, or projection of our imagination. God is real, he speaks to us, and he acts first to save us. Furthermore, God invites us to participate in sharing that good news with others.
A Communal Meal
What else do these instructions show us about God? Did you notice how the lamb was to be shared? It was to be consumed by a household. And if the household was too small to consume the whole lamb, then they were to join in with another household. The Passover was to be a communal memorial. Communal means something shared and experienced together as a group.
The God who was revealing himself to Israel is the triune God revealed in Jesus Christ. Triune means consisting of three; Father, Son, Spirit have existed for eternity as a relationship, sharing all things together. It shouldn’t be surprising then that this central ceremony for Israel would be observed as an exercise in sharing. It was to be a reminder that they were saved to be a community. Ultimately, this points to the fact that we are saved to share in the communion, the shared life and union, between the Father and Son in the Spirit. Salvation is to be free to belong to another and not enslaved to ourselves.
Blood of the Lamb
The Israelites are also instructed to put the blood of the lamb on the two doorposts and the beam over the door. Notice Israel is not exempt from the destruction coming, but they are given a way to be spared. The blood-soaked door is the way Israel is saved from the death angel.
Notice God provides a way for his people to be spared from judgment. And God provides the rescue. God gave us a way to remember that he saves us.
We see the double reference to Jesus in this picture. Jesus himself tells us he is the Door (John 10:9), and it is by his blood we are saved (Ephesians 1:7). There is no other provision made for salvation and that is true for us as well. However, Jesus is still the blood-soaked door open for all to enter. He is calling us to enter and to dine with him.
Passover Meal
More about this special meal: Israel was instructed to eat the meal of roasted lamb with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. They were told to eat the meal in haste. They didn’t have time to wait for the leavening in bread to rise and bitter herbs did not need preparation. They were told to eat with their belt fastened, shoes on, and staff in hand. They needed to be ready to leave Egypt without delay.
When salvation comes to us, we are not to delay. When the Lord provides a way of deliverance, we do not linger. We get moving in the direction of freedom. If you are only beginning to see who the Lord is, there is no reason to wait. The Lord provides for salvation, a deliverance from evil and a freedom to new life in him. The Lord is calling you to himself and the sooner the better. There are life and communion on the other side of that blood-soaked door.
If you have been walking with the Lord for a long time, you too may need the reminder to be in haste to receive the salvation given to us. Sometimes we may be tempted to loosen our belts and remove our shoes to recline back into slavery. But freedom is found in running to the Lord, day in and day out.
Firstborn
The instructions in our passage for today conclude with the theme of the “firstborn.” First, in ancient Egypt, people believed the firstborn child belonged to the gods, and the gods could take that child whenever they wanted. So, the evil practice of child sacrifice was common.
Second, Israel was chosen by God as his own firstborn (Exodus 4:22). And finally, in the New Testament, it is Jesus who bears the title of “Firstborn.” Under the rule of evil, like Pharaoh, being a firstborn lead to death. However, being claimed by God as his firstborn leads to life.
Jesus is the true Firstborn who belongs to the Father. When Jesus gives his life for the sake of the world, he is fulfilling the role of the firstborn by doing his Father’s will. His sacrifice on the blood-soaked wood of the cross provides salvation for all. He stands in for us all who are destined for death under the rulership of evil. And he shares his firstborn status with us, making us all sons of glory.
Now, as firstborns of our Father in heaven, we too are free to serve him, free to do his will, and free to worship him. Notice Israel was not freed from Pharaoh to roam the desert in an attempt to serve themselves. No, they now had a new ruler, the Lord God Almighty, the one who reached down in grace and saved them. These instructions and all the forward-looking signs pointing to Jesus serve for us the same as they did for Israel — God’s reminder of his salvation.
Passover Lamb
On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus shared a Passover meal with his disciples. During that meal, he took bread and wine and gave them new meaning. This was the occasion Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. He showed them that he himself is the Passover Lamb, what we also call the Pascal Lamb.
Jesus is the true Passover Lamb. He lived the faithful human life that we could never live. He entered our broken world. He carried our sin. He faced our death. On the cross he took upon himself everything that enslaves humanity. And through his resurrection he opened the way into new life.
Jesus does not merely show us the way to freedom. He becomes our freedom.
The blood on the doorposts pointed forward to him. The lamb pointed forward to him. The meal pointed forward to him. Everything in this story is directing our attention to Jesus. And the wine, bread, lamb, and blood in the Passover are reflected in the Lord’s Supper.
The Passover was given so that God’s people would never forget what he had done. The Lord’s Supper, also called Communion, serves the same purpose for us today.
God gave us a way to remember that he saves us.
The bread reminds us of Jesus’ body, given for us. The wine (or grape juice) reminds us of Jesus’ blood, poured out for us. Communion is a sacrament that reminds us that Jesus is the slain lamb who has delivered us from the slavery and tyranny of sin, evil, and death. He has saved us for new life in him.
On the night before the cross, listen to how Jesus connects it all to himself in Luke 22:
And [Jesus] took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Luke 22:19–20 ESV
Again and again, we come to the table in remembrance of Jesus. We remember that God saves. We remember that Jesus is our Passover Lamb. We remember that death does not have the final word.
We remember that we belong to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we remember that the God who rescued the Israelites from Egypt is still rescuing us now.
Thanks be to God that God gave us a way to remember that he saves us.
Cherith Fee Nordling—Year A Proper 18
Listen to audio: https://cloud.gci.org/dl/GReverb/GR079-Nordling-YearA-Proper18.mp3
Program Transcript
Cherith Fee Nordling—Year A Proper 18
Anthony: Let’s do this. Let’s move to the lectionary passages of the month. Our first text is going to be Exodus 12:1–14. I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 18 in Ordinary Time on September 6.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 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. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 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. 8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn with fire. 11 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. 12 I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 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. 14 “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.*
So Cherith, what does this text reveal about the God of Israel, and how could a preacher proclaim this text in a Christocentric way?
Cherith: I think one of the first things that we always have to be recalled to is that there is only one God, and that God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who looks exactly like his self-revealing Son and the Spirit of the Father and the Son, and that we look to him revealed in Jesus, incarnate forever.
And in that revelation, we not only see God, but we see what is true about what it means to be a human being in his resurrected image. Everything begins and ends with him. And so. when we read his scriptures, which ― these are his ― it’s to imagine, like our friend Bradley Jersak invites us to do, it’s to sit down and read them in the company of Jesus, as he would read them in the company of his disciples on the road to Emmaus, and let him tell us what it is that is true about God in these scriptures as that truth will finally be revealed in Jesus.
So, we ask him, “Where are you here?” And that would mean we have to look for him in the dying, and the suffering, and the promise, and the presence, and the humility, and the response to the crankiness, and look for how he will gather up everything that’s happening in these people that isn’t of God and will cleanse it.
And to watch for that through here, the consuming fire of his ascension. So, we just have to orient ourselves there, right? And then suddenly we go, oh, the God of Israel is the one who Jesus says you may call him Abba, because he is your Abba, and he is not just the God of Israel, he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But that covenant with them is the God who will bring every nation to himself and every tongue and tribe to proclaim. And so, it just stops us reading the othering that we do, and the retribution and vengeance as if these are God’s ways of being God instead of the ways that we want to construct an orientation.
So, that’s just my very big overview for reading all of these Old Testament texts. We just can never read them apart from the gospel. I guess that’s the simplest way to say it, is read them as on-ramps to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then ask your questions from there.
Anthony: Yeah, it’s like seeing the end of a movie, so once you know how it ends, then that reshapes, if you go back and watch it, everything.
Cherith: Yep.
Anthony: There are all the clues all along, like this is pointing toward an end, to tell us it’s going somewhere, and now we know.
Cherith: Yep.
Anthony: And that going somewhere is the person and work of Jesus.
I don’t know that this question’s really as much about the calendar, though I’m curious, God does establish a new calendar for Israel in connection with Passover. But really what I want to get to: tell us about redemption and how it reshapes Israel’s identity, history, and understanding of time. And I think in some ways you’ve already answered it, but help us to understand Israel’s redemption.
Cherith: Yeah. I think this passage, and certainly the section leading up to it and then the section that will lead up to the next one and the next one that we don’t get to read in the weeks. And so, hopefully people are reading through the week to catch them.
But I’m always amazed at how reluctant we are to be the people of God’s redemption. And then …
Anthony: Tell me more.
Cherith: When I think about, like almost every single passage where God is going to do something that actually really reveals the goodness of God in ways that cannot be mistaken for anybody or anything else, or just the ways that we would manage our own salvation and redemption and get ourselves out of our own trouble, because he knows we really can’t except to keep doing it in the ways that got us into the trouble in the first place, every time we resist and say, “God, it would’ve just been better to be back in Egypt,” with what we were familiar with. And we would control our lives or complain about our situation and put the blame where it goes and blah, blah, blah.
And so, I just think there’s something to be marked about the fact that God’s redemption is never based on our readiness. It’s never based on, or at least our awareness of our readiness, or our bringing ourselves or our doing something in order for God to respond with salvation. It is God from first to last. And to watch him in this, as your initial questions are even around time, is watch him, enter this time ― which is all his, because he is all and in all ― but to mark it as a way that reorients them and us as part of them, to see that it is God who makes time for us, and he makes the time that we need to work on us to help us become who we are in relationship.
And without that time, and the ways that he helps us remember it and mark it and see it, and get it into all of our senses so that we actually enact it, instead of coming to church and thinking it for 20 minutes, and then going about our lives and enacting completely different narratives all the time.
Anthony: Yeah, come on.
Cherith: When God says, like you can have something that enacts, which is what the liturgy is doing, or ways that we can create liturgies in the lives that may not be part of the formal tradition, that help us enact, because God knows we need our bodies will hold the memory, and keep the score and taste and see and smell, and remember that God is good, that we need this kind of liturgy, like do this, and I am doing this in this big overarching way, and I will be moving through all of these pieces.
And they don’t love it, but I do love that, like going through the text really quickly, is that the simple like obvious things, like it’s available to everybody, right? And equally you’re going to share it, and if somebody can’t afford it, then the neighbor next door, you get that sheep together. And it’s both for quickness and ease and necessity, but it’s also, man, it’s your next-door neighbor, and they might be the person who you really trust, and it might be the person who drives you nuts. But God’s like, this is who you’re going to be entrusted with so that it’s not just Egypt who is the other. Your neighbor doesn’t get to be your other. This, I am making up people for my name, like boom.
And then, oh, by the way, you don’t even get to just privatize this. Everybody’s offering is going to be consumed together so that you receive this as gift from me, right? This is a communal act. It’s not a privatized act. It’s not a privilege act. It’s not an earned act, and it leaves nobody out, right? They get, everybody gets marked by the blood of the lamb as a testimony, not to their obedience, but to God’s action, and it’s God’s prior …
Anthony: Wow.
Cherith: … and promised action. And suddenly they become witnesses to the presence of Jesus already, right? If you do this, it doesn’t just save you from this moment, but the Son of God will be recognized, because when he comes, he will tell this story with himself as the blood on that doorpost, and as the blood at this table and this Passover meal. And if you do this, it will mark the world, right? It will mark time for a new world.
And so, just seeing how many beautiful ways that he creates our Eucharistic Thanksgiving table of the Lord, communion, Lord’s supper, all the ways that he’s like, “I want you to remember,” reconnect as members of the body of Christ, not just memory looking back.
I don’t think this is a memory exercise. If in fact in time, all time is God’s time now, that he makes time for us to move through to grow. But for God, everything is already finished. He’s seen us finished, so he’s not stressed. And our becoming at the same time is the place where we learn how beloved we are, and we learn what trust looks like, and we learn how to be his witnesses in the world because we have seen him and know him, right?
And so, to say that God loves both to make our time and to remark our time is then to also go, oh man, he is going to execute judgment as the Passover lamb, but that means every Egyptian Hebrew among us, which is every one of us, as both every Egyptian heart and every Hebrew heart is our heart. And he will become the judgment that actually says, “I will burn up in that consuming fire as the lamb everything that is not of God, and make something new that is neither Egyptian nor Hebrew in you, but that is Christ in you.”
And to make these waters, the waters of our baptism, into his death, I’m like, okay, every single thing that is the redemptive story is going to be this story if we’re just paying attention. And he’s going to do it in the company of our Abba. So, lest we think God is against Egypt and for Israel, as if we aren’t both the grumblers and the oppressors …
Anthony: Right. Right.
Cherith: … he’s like, “No, I’m just for my beloved children, and I will redeem all of them,” because the one who is the first and the last holds the keys of Hades. And that means whatever has to die, his last word is life, right? So, we’re going to see that in the next section, so I shouldn’t go too far ahead. But it’s a big gospel, and we are very reluctant to let him have his way in it most of the time. But it’s his story, and he’s graciously let it be our own
Anthony: Wow. Have your way, Lord. That is brilliant what you just said. Ah, I want to package that up and share it with the world, that all in all, our Lord.
Program Transcript
Cherith Fee Nordling—Year A Proper 18
Anthony: Let’s do this. Let’s move to the lectionary passages of the month. Our first text is going to be Exodus 12:1–14. I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 18 in Ordinary Time on September 6.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 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. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 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. 8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn with fire. 11 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. 12 I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 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. 14 “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.*
So Cherith, what does this text reveal about the God of Israel, and how could a preacher proclaim this text in a Christocentric way?
Cherith: I think one of the first things that we always have to be recalled to is that there is only one God, and that God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who looks exactly like his self-revealing Son and the Spirit of the Father and the Son, and that we look to him revealed in Jesus, incarnate forever.
And in that revelation, we not only see God, but we see what is true about what it means to be a human being in his resurrected image. Everything begins and ends with him. And so. when we read his scriptures, which ― these are his ― it’s to imagine, like our friend Bradley Jersak invites us to do, it’s to sit down and read them in the company of Jesus, as he would read them in the company of his disciples on the road to Emmaus, and let him tell us what it is that is true about God in these scriptures as that truth will finally be revealed in Jesus.
So, we ask him, “Where are you here?” And that would mean we have to look for him in the dying, and the suffering, and the promise, and the presence, and the humility, and the response to the crankiness, and look for how he will gather up everything that’s happening in these people that isn’t of God and will cleanse it.
And to watch for that through here, the consuming fire of his ascension. So, we just have to orient ourselves there, right? And then suddenly we go, oh, the God of Israel is the one who Jesus says you may call him Abba, because he is your Abba, and he is not just the God of Israel, he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But that covenant with them is the God who will bring every nation to himself and every tongue and tribe to proclaim. And so, it just stops us reading the othering that we do, and the retribution and vengeance as if these are God’s ways of being God instead of the ways that we want to construct an orientation.
So, that’s just my very big overview for reading all of these Old Testament texts. We just can never read them apart from the gospel. I guess that’s the simplest way to say it, is read them as on-ramps to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then ask your questions from there.
Anthony: Yeah, it’s like seeing the end of a movie, so once you know how it ends, then that reshapes, if you go back and watch it, everything.
Cherith: Yep.
Anthony: There are all the clues all along, like this is pointing toward an end, to tell us it’s going somewhere, and now we know.
Cherith: Yep.
Anthony: And that going somewhere is the person and work of Jesus.
I don’t know that this question’s really as much about the calendar, though I’m curious, God does establish a new calendar for Israel in connection with Passover. But really what I want to get to: tell us about redemption and how it reshapes Israel’s identity, history, and understanding of time. And I think in some ways you’ve already answered it, but help us to understand Israel’s redemption.
Cherith: Yeah. I think this passage, and certainly the section leading up to it and then the section that will lead up to the next one and the next one that we don’t get to read in the weeks. And so, hopefully people are reading through the week to catch them.
But I’m always amazed at how reluctant we are to be the people of God’s redemption. And then …
Anthony: Tell me more.
Cherith: When I think about, like almost every single passage where God is going to do something that actually really reveals the goodness of God in ways that cannot be mistaken for anybody or anything else, or just the ways that we would manage our own salvation and redemption and get ourselves out of our own trouble, because he knows we really can’t except to keep doing it in the ways that got us into the trouble in the first place, every time we resist and say, “God, it would’ve just been better to be back in Egypt,” with what we were familiar with. And we would control our lives or complain about our situation and put the blame where it goes and blah, blah, blah.
And so, I just think there’s something to be marked about the fact that God’s redemption is never based on our readiness. It’s never based on, or at least our awareness of our readiness, or our bringing ourselves or our doing something in order for God to respond with salvation. It is God from first to last. And to watch him in this, as your initial questions are even around time, is watch him, enter this time ― which is all his, because he is all and in all ― but to mark it as a way that reorients them and us as part of them, to see that it is God who makes time for us, and he makes the time that we need to work on us to help us become who we are in relationship.
And without that time, and the ways that he helps us remember it and mark it and see it, and get it into all of our senses so that we actually enact it, instead of coming to church and thinking it for 20 minutes, and then going about our lives and enacting completely different narratives all the time.
Anthony: Yeah, come on.
Cherith: When God says, like you can have something that enacts, which is what the liturgy is doing, or ways that we can create liturgies in the lives that may not be part of the formal tradition, that help us enact, because God knows we need our bodies will hold the memory, and keep the score and taste and see and smell, and remember that God is good, that we need this kind of liturgy, like do this, and I am doing this in this big overarching way, and I will be moving through all of these pieces.
And they don’t love it, but I do love that, like going through the text really quickly, is that the simple like obvious things, like it’s available to everybody, right? And equally you’re going to share it, and if somebody can’t afford it, then the neighbor next door, you get that sheep together. And it’s both for quickness and ease and necessity, but it’s also, man, it’s your next-door neighbor, and they might be the person who you really trust, and it might be the person who drives you nuts. But God’s like, this is who you’re going to be entrusted with so that it’s not just Egypt who is the other. Your neighbor doesn’t get to be your other. This, I am making up people for my name, like boom.
And then, oh, by the way, you don’t even get to just privatize this. Everybody’s offering is going to be consumed together so that you receive this as gift from me, right? This is a communal act. It’s not a privatized act. It’s not a privilege act. It’s not an earned act, and it leaves nobody out, right? They get, everybody gets marked by the blood of the lamb as a testimony, not to their obedience, but to God’s action, and it’s God’s prior …
Anthony: Wow.
Cherith: … and promised action. And suddenly they become witnesses to the presence of Jesus already, right? If you do this, it doesn’t just save you from this moment, but the Son of God will be recognized, because when he comes, he will tell this story with himself as the blood on that doorpost, and as the blood at this table and this Passover meal. And if you do this, it will mark the world, right? It will mark time for a new world.
And so, just seeing how many beautiful ways that he creates our Eucharistic Thanksgiving table of the Lord, communion, Lord’s supper, all the ways that he’s like, “I want you to remember,” reconnect as members of the body of Christ, not just memory looking back.
I don’t think this is a memory exercise. If in fact in time, all time is God’s time now, that he makes time for us to move through to grow. But for God, everything is already finished. He’s seen us finished, so he’s not stressed. And our becoming at the same time is the place where we learn how beloved we are, and we learn what trust looks like, and we learn how to be his witnesses in the world because we have seen him and know him, right?
And so, to say that God loves both to make our time and to remark our time is then to also go, oh man, he is going to execute judgment as the Passover lamb, but that means every Egyptian Hebrew among us, which is every one of us, as both every Egyptian heart and every Hebrew heart is our heart. And he will become the judgment that actually says, “I will burn up in that consuming fire as the lamb everything that is not of God, and make something new that is neither Egyptian nor Hebrew in you, but that is Christ in you.”
And to make these waters, the waters of our baptism, into his death, I’m like, okay, every single thing that is the redemptive story is going to be this story if we’re just paying attention. And he’s going to do it in the company of our Abba. So, lest we think God is against Egypt and for Israel, as if we aren’t both the grumblers and the oppressors …
Anthony: Right. Right.
Cherith: … he’s like, “No, I’m just for my beloved children, and I will redeem all of them,” because the one who is the first and the last holds the keys of Hades. And that means whatever has to die, his last word is life, right? So, we’re going to see that in the next section, so I shouldn’t go too far ahead. But it’s a big gospel, and we are very reluctant to let him have his way in it most of the time. But it’s his story, and he’s graciously let it be our own
Anthony: Wow. Have your way, Lord. That is brilliant what you just said. Ah, I want to package that up and share it with the world, that all in all, our Lord.
Small Group Discussion Questions
- Why do you think God wanted his people to have a regular way (like Passover) to remember what he had done? What are some ways you currently remember what God has done for you?
- Where do you see “forms of slavery” in your own life or in the world where you long for God’s freedom?
- How does seeing Jesus as the true Passover Lamb change the way you understand his death and what it means for you?
- Why do you think God designed both Passover and Communion to be shared meals? What does that say about how we are meant to live as Christians?
Please note that comments are moderated. Your comment will not appear until it is reviewed.