En el nombre de Dios, nuestro santificadora, libertador, redentor, y nuestra esperanza.
In the name of God, our sanctifier, deliverer, redeemer, and our hope. Amen.
The revelation that we are God’s people and that our salvation is from God, came to us through our Jewish forebears. This revelation was always meant to reach all nations and all peoples, as Isaiah and other prophets proclaimed. Just as parents can love more than one child, God loves all of the branches on God’s family tree.
These forebears of our faith created a ritual, the Passover seder, designed to help the generations that followed remember God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery to freedom. This ritual is intimately connected with our Holy Communion. Each Sunday, when we bless and share our holy food of Communion, we are lifting up the third of the four cups, just as Jesus did with his disciples at his last seder supper. Allow me to put this into context.
The seder meal, (seder meaning order) is the origin of the Agape supper we shared tonight. It begins the Passover celebration, held in the Spring, as a sign of rebirth and renewal. The meal begins with the telling of the story (the Haggadah). The children are asked, “What makes this night different from all other nights?” The question is meant to spark their curiosity and they are encouraged to ask their own questions. This is how Jewish children are taught about their faith and their identity as children of God.
The meal consists of symbolic foods: roasted lamb symbolizing sacrifice, Matza, known as poor persons' bread, and parsley and other bitter herbs, symbolizing the bitterness of being enslaved. The parsley is dipped into salted water, symbolizing the tears of the people enslaved by the powers of the world.
During the meal, the people pause to drink four cups of wine. Each of the cups stands for how God has acted to save - taken from the book of Exodus (6:6-7).
The first cup is the cup of SANCTIFICATION. God says: “I will bring you out.” This cup symbolizes the promise that God will bring them out from their slavery so that they can serve God, not a human master.
The second cup is the cup of DELIVERANCE. Only God can save, and freedom from whatever or whoever holds us bound on earth is always a gift from God.
The third cup is the cup of REDEMPTION. God says, “I will redeem.” This is where our Holy Communion is intimately connected to the ritual meal of our Jewish forebears. In the Jewish tradition, the word redemption refers to a family member who acts to set their kin free from slavery, paying a great price for that freedom. The traditional image is of a father sacrificing his firstborn son for the freedom of his entire family. Because Jesus is fully God and fully human, he is the Father who pays the price, the Son who is the price, and the family for whom that price is paid.
While Jesus was at dinner with his friends, he took this third cup, blessed it, and gave it to his friends saying, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood…" as often as you drink it, do this to remember me..
The fourth cup is the cup of HOPE. God says, “I will take you to me.” Since the Jewish people anticipated that the conclusion would be signaled by the return of Elijah, they kept an empty chair at the seder table. This cup also marked the end of the Seder supper.
The Christian narrative begins in the story of our Jewish forbears. For us, the fourth cup, our hope, has been fulfilled in Jesus, the Christ. Therefore, redemption is not something we await; it is our current reality, and Jesus made very clear how we should live this out - giving us a mandate at his last supper on earth: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
As hard as it may be for some of us to participate in the ritual footwashing, it really matters. As Jesus said to Peter, who wanted to refuse, you don’t understand what’s happening now, but you will… and, “unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Then he knelt down and washed their feet.
Just as Jesus prepared his disciples for what was about to happen, feeding them the holy food of his own body and blood, participation in this ritual as part of our Holy Communion prepares us for what is to come this Holy Week, beginning with the stripping of our altar at the end of this service.
As the body of Christ in the world today, it is our privilege and our purpose to live out Jesus’ mandate to love as he loved us. God grant us the will to put into action what we believe in our faith.
Let us pray...
Fill us, most merciful God, with the power of your Holy Spirit, and free us from any bonds that continue to restrict our freedom to fully love you, one another, and ourselves. Enter our dreams each night this Holy Week and show us your will for us as your church’s servant leaders in this time and place. Loosen our tongues to speak your truth. Strengthen our hearts to birth your love into reality no matter the cost; and make each of us to shine with the celestial light that is the mark of your saints in heaven and on earth; for the love of your Son, our savior, Jesus, the Christ. Amen. (written by The Rev. Dr. Valori Mulvey Sherer)
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