Forming Faith Blog

Present and Remember (Exodus 12, 13)

Posted on September 17 2024 by Gregory Rawn

Passover is a remembrance of God’s fulfilled promise of freedom for the people. Not only can we remember God’s great acts, we can be spiritually present in them.

Traditional Jewish matzo. Passover was given as a way to remember what God has done for Israel.
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com
Since Last Week

Our three previous readings in the Narrative Lectionary have been in the Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. We heard how humanity began and how God’s good creation became broken by disobedience. We heard how, out of all the families in the world, God chose an older, childless couple to be the parents of God’s chosen people. Then we heard the story of how the children of Israel came to be in Egypt, a story that began with violence and ended with forgiveness. All of this leads us to one of the defining stories of the Bible and the Israelite/Jewish people: the exodus from Egypt.

In our Living the Word (Narrative Lectionary) faith formation resources, we have gathered these first seven stories (through October 20) within the theme Promises Made, Promises Broken. In these stories—and throughout the Bible and our lives—God gives and fulfills promises while humanity breaks our own promises.

The Promise of Passover

The Festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread (originally two, now celebrated as one) are not promises themselves. They are celebrations of God fulfilling a promise God made to Moses and an enslaved people:

“I declare that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt.”

Exodus 3:17

God’s promise and its fulfillment become part of the core of God’s revealed identity to God’s people, and their identity in God. Our God is a God who brings freedom to the oppressed, and the Israelites (and us in a different way) are a people made free.

What the Lord Did for Me

Within these instructions on how to celebrate Passover (specifically the Festival of Unleavened Bread), God gives the first part of a liturgy, the core message of these festivals.

“You shall tell your child on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’”

Exodus 13:8

God commands these festivities to begin “when the Lord brings you into the land…” (Exodus 13:5). So, the Israelites are to begin celebrating Passover after they enter the Promised Land. Beyond answering the “why” of these celebrations, something struck me about this verse. In the most literal sense, only two people present at this time will be able to do this, as only Joshua and Caleb out of the whole people who left Egypt will be allowed to enter the Promised Land.

But I don’t think that’s the point. God is not just giving instructions to two people. God is giving instructions to the whole people of God who are to come. If we take this literally, the celebrants would actually say, “It is because of what the Lord did for our ancestors when they came out of Egypt.”

Another way to interpret these instructions is spiritually. Everyone who was, is, and will be a part of this story—the people of God—can say this as-is, that God did this “for me when I came out…” Through our relationship with God—through faith—we can truthfully claim that we also are a part of this story, that to us, God is still the God who frees the oppressed and we are a people freed.

A Sign of Respect

We should have a bit of caution on how we do this. The story of the exodus, and the Book of Exodus itself, is a part of our Scripture that we call the Old Testament. But this story was first part of the Hebrew Bible, the Scriptures of our Jewish siblings. While the story is also ours, the Festival of Passover no longer is. It is a specifically Jewish festival, and we need to be careful not to take that over. We can—and should—learn about the modern Jewish celebration of Passover, but it can be risky to celebrate the modern Jewish Passover in our Christian churches (as some do on Maundy Thursday). As with all things, we should approach this with respect and love for our neighbor.

Remember This Day

So, spiritually, we are present with the Israelites as they have fled Egypt and escaped their captors through the Red Sea. But the point of this festival is the same as with many other celebrations we have: to remember.

Moses said to the people, “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.”

Exodus 13:3

Festivals, especially religious festivals, are all about remembering. At Christmas, we remember the incarnation of God. On Good Friday, we remember Jesus’ crucifixion. On Easter, we remember Jesus’ resurrection. And, every time we celebrate Holy Communion, we “do this in remembrance of [Jesus].”

This focus on remembrance also explains some of the elements of the festivals. A young lamb or goat was to be ritually slaughtered to remember those animals whose blood marked the doorposts and lintels the night of the final plague.

The unleavened bread is eaten to remember the urgency with which the Israelites needed to flee their captors. There isn’t anything wrong with eating normal, leavened bread. And, since yeast packets had not been invented at the time of the exodus, bread would be made in a similar way as sourdough (as far as I understand). That means there would have been yeast in the bread that the Israelites brought with them, it just wouldn’t have been given time to rise. So, a prohibition of leaven (yeast) brings that original need into an annual ritual.

Faith Formation Connection

As with every other passage in Scripture that you are teaching, preaching, or otherwise engaging participants with, you should have two main goals for them: know the story and connect it with personal experience.

  1. Know the Story. This is a difficult passage to engage with since it’s not a story in itself. But, the entire point of these festivals is to remind the people of a story, you can engage your participants with the broad strokes of the entire exodus story (going into as much or as little detail as is appropriate).
  2. Connect with Personal Experience. These passages are about remembering significant past events, so work with participants to see their own remembrances of significant events, both in their own lives and in our faith histories.

As you live, teach, preach, or otherwise lead, remember to whom you belong.

In God’s unending love,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

Download a FREE activity for 9/29/2024
Free Resource

During the main Narrative Lectionary year (this year: September 8 to June 8), we provide a free resource download from one of our products to help you in your faith formation ministry. This week, download the interactive worship activity “Celebrate the Memory” from our Living the Word: Kids (PK-2nd, NL) curriculum, though this activity can be used in worship or other settings!

Order Faith Formation Resources

It’s not too late to order for the 2024-2025 program year! Narrative Lectionary, Revised Common Lectionary, Classic Sunday School, and more. Products are available for immediate download. If you don’t have much time for children’s Christian education, then check out our Kids Mini Lessons for the NL and RCL.

Are you still looking for shorter resources to launch the program year, family/intergenerational events, or Sunday school? Check out our Learning Together series, a set of five-lesson units on a variety of topics. You can read outside reviews on both our newest Do Justice and Created to Care units! Our faith formation resources are easy to use, theologically sound, and inclusive.

Introducing our newest Learning Together unit: Created to Care! Wonder at God’s creation and learn about what we can do to protect and heal it in these five lessons, intended for children and intergenerational groups, family or churchwide events, or Vacation Bible School. This curriculum is published in collaboration with BibleWorm, a weekly Narrative Lectionary podcast, to accompany their summer series on Creation Care.

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