Girding your loins. This is how you eat the Passover (Pics) Men and women. Maybe we should introduce this into our communion practice. But why did they have to gird their loins? Ready for what??? Our OT stories are reset God created us. Abraham, is the father of nations more numerous than the stars. Joseph the dreamer Abraham s great-grandson spares his brothers. But what we don t realize is Joseph is also to blame for slavery, payment for the food they were given. Slavery that lasted 430 years. Moses is born, raised in the house of Pharaoh, and now is called to save his people and get them out of Egypt. God has sent 9 plagues and every time Pharaoh has said - Nope! But now the plague of death to firstborn kids, including Pharaohs firstborn son, is in front of them. And I know the first question you may ask why? I don t have an answer for this plague. Why innocent babies are killed. Or really for any of the violence that often shows up in the Bible which has been a concern for people for centuries.
Except that I God also put Jesus on the cross to save humanity, so God know a little something about firstborn kids being killed. I believe God redeems these babies from death. That God responds to death, in order to create life. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observes, we can rejoice in the triumph of justice and the defeat of evil, while also identifying with the suffering of the victims. Moses is getting the people ready gird your loins, so you can run. Think about the prodigal son story, where the father picks up his robe to run to his son. Here, they know that after the meal, they need to be girded for running, for action, for battle, for confrontation. This is how you celebrate Passover. It is easy to connect our practice of communion, Jesus the lamb of the world, sacrificed body and blood, to give us life directly to the Passover practice in Exodus. But what I want to know is what do you think about during communion? What does communion mean to pastors? o I m not worthy o Thank you God, for being able share this meal in this community. o Privilege to offer this meal o Humbling, awesome, o Host a party, serving last.
But do you think of girding your loins? No one says that. It is ridiculous. Yet, it makes perfect sense for what communion means. Girding your loins figuratively, literally if you want to. For battle, to combat hate and injustice. To work for love and peace. To run to people in need, instead of the other direction. To find ways to eat together, to cultivate a community intentionally. If the Bible shows us anything, it is the promise of being communal people. Jewish brothers and sisters get communion right heritage, commonality thru meal not only the Passover once a year, but each and every Friday celebrating Sabbath, together. We gird our loins. We may kneel or stand at communion but we can t stay up here. We don t stay at the meal. We don t linger at the party. We are not meant to stick around here. To leave here and not change, or be changed impacts the whole reason why we gather for worship, why we take communion.
Jesus doesn t invite us here to feel good. But to be good and love, and active disciples to others people. God s core feature is to deliver people from oppression. Enacted once and for all through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But it is in this meal a reminder of God s salvation towards us that should spark us to go into this world, girded for action, to enact the message of deliverance to those being oppressed. Fed and nourished to serve others, because God has served us. To take God s story into our home, and our lives, and live this sacred story. To experience God s grace, and put that into action. God is changeless, but through prayer and action, we start to understand God s will, and we are changed. We change our community, we are God s hands and feet and voices. To partner with the police and the black community so that brutality does not happen anymore. - To educate our kids about guns, so school shootings are ended. - Refuse to accept homelessness and hunger. - To love and respect our neighbor, even if we don t agree with them. - To cultivate our community that can gather at a table of fellowship
Communion isn t a time for quiet reflection. It isn t a somber event because Jesus died. It is a raucous pep rally, hooting and hollering, where we celebrate that Jesus lives, and saves, and unifies us, and sends us to be messengers of grace. Communion is where we get excited about what God has done for us, and what God is commanding we do for our community. This is how we should eat the Passover meal. Gird your loins.