April 3, 2010
The Great Vigil of Easter (Year A, B, C)
Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Psalm 136:1-9, 23-26; Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18; 8:6-18; 9:8-13; Psalm 46; Genesis 22:1-18; Psalm 33:12-22; Exodus 14:10-31; 15:2021; Canticle 8; Isaiah 55:1-11; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 143; Ezekiel 36:24-28;
Mark 16:1-8
This week I had the privilege of attending not one but two Seders. As you all know the Seder (which means “order” I was instructed at one of the meals) is an ancient tradition of the Jewish people that tells the story of their escape from Egypt and how Moses led them through the Red Sea toward the land of promise.
The two meals could not have been more different, but the story was the same at both. The food was different, except for the requisite platter with bone, egg, parsley, and horseradish, and haroset on it. The Haggadah, the order of the meal from which we all read, told the same story, but very differently. One was geared to children and non-Jews; the other with much Hebrew and reading of Hebrew prayers was read by all but us few Gentiles present! I sometimes think that is like the Episcopal Church. We have the same order of worship, same prayer books, but we tell it our way! And each way was wonderful! I also think it reminds us to be kind to those who cannot follow our prayers and/or those who do not know the “church speak” we use in our prayers!
As we went through the meal, the blessings, the prayers, the plagues (always my favorite part), Moses in the bull rushes, and, of course, the cups of wine to be consumed four times during the night, I was comfortable with it all, delighted in it actually, and saw the roots of our Eucharist in the meal as I have many times before, from candles on the table to a certain special kind of bread, to those four cups of wine. We Christians and our faith, even the ritualistic way we tell our faith story, are well rooted in Jewish tradition!
As I thought about what we would do here tonight, I thought how important it is for us to really get that connection. The stories we have heard tonight, so far, are all from that same Jewish tradition. The people with whom I shared those meals would know these stories; their children could tell them by heart (which the children present at one of the Seders did.) I was struck with the notion that the gathering around a table for a family meal where even strangers are invited and fed and welcomed as though they were always part of the family is what we do every time we celebrate the Eucharist. That is the way we are at the holy meal we will share in a few minutes.
Jesus was a Jewish man, a religious Jewish man, who knew these stories we have just heard recounted as well as the children who study them in Hebrew school or church school know them today, maybe better, in fact probably better than we do. He didn’t know TV shows or movies that could clutter his mind. These stories were his cultural heritage! Indeed, in first century Palestine, secular reading of fiction didn’t even really exist for most people. It was the religious stories and their imaginations that were relied upon to tell faith stories or history stories. Telling each other, recounting and reliving those stories, provided not only education but became entertainment and camaraderie in the precious few hours they had between the end of work and bed. It was these stories that they passed on to their children, just as we pass on Tom Sawyer and Nancy Drew mysteries.
Year round we emphasize the gospel when we preach and when we celebrate the Eucharist. I think that is what we as Christians should do, for the story of the resurrection is our primary religious story. It is the truth that binds us to each other and to God.
But it is nice just this once a year to put the emphasis on the stories that came before the resurrection, before Jesus even, stories that formed and shaped him as they form and shape us. And it is especially nice that this year (as it often does) our celebration of Easter coincides with Passover in such a way that the stories and the roots show so clearly.
As we move forward into the celebration of communion, remembering Jesus’ words to eat and drink in remembrance of him, let us carry with us not only all those who have celebrated communion in Christ’s name since that last night he gathered with his friends in Passover so many hundreds of years ago, but also our forbears, the Jewish people and leaders who began their holy journey with rites and rituals that we have been able to carry on with new meaning and new life. We are putting new wine into old wineskins all the time, and it is good!
May this Easter be for us all a fulfillment of the promises Jesus made to us and the Jewish people long ago for each year.
Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd