Living in the Spirit

September 4, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Exodus 12:1-14
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 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. 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. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 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. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 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. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 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.

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.

I watch the Dark Winds series when it is available, based on Tony Hillerman’s books telling stories of the Navaho people woven into a storyline of combating crime. I have read all the books, and the series brings to life the Navaho culture, which is alive too in the books, but it is nice to see that it can be displayed well in video. I fear we are missing the importance of understanding our culture and how it can relate well to our faith or not. I might even ask if we have a culture. Is our world moving so fast that we no longer have time to understand how we are living and if how we are living is congruent with how Christ calls us to live? I do not know where I am going with this. I wonder if we need to consider what we have lost or gained from losing our connections with our faith’s history and traditions.

Prayer: Lord, guide us in our studies of both scriptures and the history of our faith since those scriptures were written. What do we need to keep what is it time to let some go.   Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.