Narrative Lectionary Program Year – “The Promise of Passover”
Exodus 12:1-13; 13:1-8
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Furthering the Power of God’s Story – Narrative Lectionary Commentary
by Daniel D. Maurer
In the northern hemisphere today, fall brings with it a promise. It’s the promise of chill evenings and quiet, reflective moments while sitting next to the living room fireplace. Fall also holds the holidays, however a person seeks to define them. For some, fall holds pleasant memories such as these—in spite of this image’s cliché, and altogether a somewhat tossed-together pastiche.
For me, I’ll remember Edith.
Fresh into my first call out in the parish in western North Dakota, I was presiding at a man’s funeral out in the “country” church. A two-point parish, one of churches sat twelve miles in the middle of nowhere. It was October and it was snowing. I was just about to enter the sanctuary when I heard screams come from the basement. Edith was walking in to the church, bringing a plate full of cookies for the dinner after the service. She slipped, fell and cracked her head open. There was blood everywhere. The man’s funeral hadn’t yet begun and Edith was soon to join him in the afterlife.
I led the service as best I could and drove to the hospital in Bismarck where I met with the family. The doctor told them that she had suffered a “massive, massive” head trauma and there was nothing he could do. Later that week, I spoke with one of the sons out at his father’s farm.
He said, “You know, pastor, people have been asking me all week ‘why her?’ Because mom was always so sweet and nice. But I keep thinking, why not her? It’s where we’re all at, isn’t it?
I’ve never forgotten the son’s simple realization that, it wasn’t so much that any of us are immortal (news flash: we’re not). It was more that at any time, we could be whisked away. Or, that we could be brought out of harm’s way.
Whatever the case, complacency irrespective of self-reflection never serves the common good, and rarely serves one’s own interests in the long-run.
Perhaps that’s one good realization the passover offers—not that this obscure, ancient blood-splattering means a whit to most moderns, but that the fragility of life and being a part of something greater than yourself requires sacrifice. And a willingness to slap on your shoes, eat up quickly, and be ready to head out the door so you can stick with your family.
I assume that, for most, ancient Semitic sacrifice rituals are neither interesting nor particularly relevant to our lives today. The need for family? The need to question the whys and hows of our existence? The bitterness and the sweetness—life’s melange of ugliness and beauty. Why her? Why us?
These are timeless.
And that’s your opportunity to connect front and center with your congregations today to proclaim good news, the anticipation for the journey to come.
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The following links and resources are not produced or maintained by Clergy Stuff. However, at the time of this posting, the links were active and considered to be good source material for proclamation for the text for this week. Please scroll down or click on the quick jump menu you find below. For more free worship resources & planning materials, please visit our links for RCL Worship Resources.
Historical Exegetical Resources
Navigating the Bible: Text/Rabbinic commentary.
Rashi's Commentary, c. 1075. chabad.org. (Midrash)
Contemporary Resources
Exegetical Links
Exodus and Work, Theology and Work Project, 2017.
Commentary, Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14, Mark S. Gignilliat, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.
"When Faith Is Hijacked," The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, Daniel B. Clendenin, Journey with Jesus Foundation, 2005.
"Institution of Passover," Larry Broding's Word-Sunday.Com: A Lectionary Resource for Catholics.
“The First Month of the Year” Prof. Dennis Olson commentary.
Other Links
“Shared Trauma During a Pandemic” Psychology Today
Passover as Participatory Drama Jewish Boston (2018)
Great Quotes
“It is obvious that the war which Hitler and his accomplices waged was a war not only against Jewish men, women, and children, but also against Jewish religion, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, therefore Jewish memory.”
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”
“The voice so filled with nostalgia that you could almost see the memories floating through the blue smoke, memories not only of music and joy and youth, but perhaps, of dreams. They listened to the music, each hearing it in his own way, feeling relaxed and a part of the music, a part of each other, and almost a part of the world.”
Daily Devotional Feed
Free Dramatic Reading For This Text (NRSV)
Readers: Narrator, Lord 1, Lord 2, Moses
Narrator: The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:
Lord 1: 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.
Lord 2: 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.
Lord 1: 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:
Lord 2: 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.
Narrator: The Lord said to Moses:
Lord 1: Consecrate to me all the firstborn; whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelites, of human beings and animals, is mine. Moses said to the people,
Moses: Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, because the Lord brought you out from there by strength of hand; no leavened bread shall be eaten. Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this observance in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen in your possession, and no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory. You shall tell your child on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’