Living in the Spirit

September 11, 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 have had the honor of attending Passover with Jewish friends. Escaping slavery and traveling to a totally new way of being was a major change in the Israelites’ lives. Understanding our histories in the world and our faith is important. Faith and worldview co-exist. Dealing with them side-by-side requires people of faith to discern the impact of worldview on how we relate to God and one another. William Wordsworth recognized the problem in his poem The World is Too Much with Me. We must guard against allowing the world to shape our faith rather than have our faith shape our world.  That requires us to dig deeply into the well of what is of God and what is not as the basis of our faith.

Prayer: Lord, we mourn again with those who lost loved ones due to 9/11 and otherwise had their lives forever changed. Let us dwell on the positive lessons we learned from that experience to help us shape our futures. 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.