To Begin the Three Days: Eat Standing Up

Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday, the beginning of the Great Three Days leading to Easter.  As usual, I am not ready, despite forty days warning, although I will say that I'm doing better tonight than I was this morning.  I am preaching on Maundy Thursday, which will also be first communion for a few of our fifth graders this year.  I have my sermon all written, or, more precisely, mostly written, and Holy Communion is a theme:  bread and wine, body and blood, room at the table.

Despite this, I couldn't help taking some illicit glances over at the Exodus reading, the instructions for preparing the passover feast.  There is the year-old lamb, or goat, and there is the unleavened bread, and there are the instructions for spreading the blood on the doorposts.  And then there is the curious instruction to eat with your staff in hand, your sandals on your feet, your 'loins girded' -- as if you are about to take flight, according to Exodus.

Of course, this makes a certain sort of sense, in the context of the story.  They had to be ready to go as soon as the word came down that Pharaoh had given in to the demand:  "Let my people go."  They were on full alert, waiting and listening for the word that would set them free.

Of course, it is fascinating to me because in our day and time, we eat 'on the go' more often than is healthy for us.  We are urged to sit down and eat together more often, to take more time, to not be in such a hurry.

But this meal was meant to be eaten in a hurry, by a people who were setting out from slavery to freedom.  They were waiting for a word that would set them free, but also set them into a future they knew almost nothing about.

There is something profoundly disorienting about this.  This particular story of eating-in-a-hurry is not about meeting our own deadlines and setting our own agendas:  it is about waiting for a Word from outside ourselves to call us to action.

There is something profoundly disorienting about Lent, and the Three Days.  I never feel ready, even when I am prepared.  I never feel prepared for the bread, the body and blood, placed in my hand, the violence of the cross and all that it means.  I never feel ready for the empty tomb, the stone rolled away, the Word I have waited for, that calls me to action, to travel a way not my own.

Reading the Bible in 90 Days, Day 7: Exodus 29 - 40

The golden calf episode:  Not one of Israel's finest moments. 

When Moses is gone for so long, there is a leadership vacuum, and the people get anxious.  It seems to me that this still happens.  There are still times in a congregation's life that there is a leadership vacuum, and sometimes, the wrong person fills it, in the wrong way.

Also, can I just say:  the names Bezalel and Oholiab stuck out for me, for the first time.  Who are they, you ask?  They are two people specially designated and filled with the spirit, "with ability, intelligence, and knowledge in every kind of craft, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, in every kinds of craft."  (31:3-6).

Tomorrow:  We begin Leviticus.  Hold on to your seats. Chapters 1 - 14

Reading the Bible, Day 6: Exodus 16-28

Complaining.  Manna.  Water. 
Complaining. 
The Ten Commandments.
Many other commandments. 
The death penalty for cursing your parents! (did you notice?)
Instructions for the Tabernacle, for the ark of the covenant, for the priests and their garments.

As a pastor I was most interested in the scene where the lines are long every day with people who are looking for Moses, seeking his wisdom.  His father-in-law, Jethro, gives him some good advice:  Moses should find some leaders from every tribe to deal with the day to day issues that come up among the people.

Good leaders need to create more good leaders, then and now.

Note:  the version I am using for this reading project is The Message.  Sometimes I think it is helpful for the flow of the narrative, but today I was struck that I had to translate some of his language back into terms more familiar to me.  For example The Dwelling = the Tabernacle; the Chest of the Testimony = The Ark of the Covenant.

Tomorrow:  Exodus 29-40

How are you doing?

Reading the Bible, Day 5: Exodus 1 - 15

The Israelites started in Egypt as valued guests.  Suddenly, the ruling powers don't remember Joseph, and besides:  the Israelites are getting to be (ahem) a pretty large minority.  What if they aren't the minority any more? 

As I consider the story of the Israelites and Moses and Pharoah and their slavery and their escape, these things come to mind:

1.  Pharoah is stubborn and keeps changing his mind.  But it is God who makes his stubborn.
2.  Moses keeps mentioning that stammer of his. I for one am getting a little tired of it.
3.  The Israelites make it across the Sea, but they aren't exactly THERE yet.  There's a wilderness between slavery and freedom.
4.  Plagues, burning bushes, darknness, unleavened bread:  these are some of the images in Exodus.

But at the end of today, anyway, the Israelites are singing and dancing.  Tomorrow they may whine and complain, but today they are singing and dancing.  Sometimes I think I can almost hear the melody.