Rituals for New Things September 07, 2008

Exodus 12:1-14
Matthew 18:15-20
Each of our readings this morning require an adaptation from us. Ours is a individualistic culture, where each of us claim as A Right to choose for ourselves what we desire to make us happy. You do what you want, I will follow my routine, and provided my desires and yours do not overlap, we can live happily ever after, separate and alone. NOT so in the Bible. Jesus recognized that when there is a problem between two, if unresolved, that problem will infect and corrupt the whole community. So as a church, as a community of faith, we have a responsibility to resolve conflict, to exercise church discipline, not on MORAL Grounds, but because there is brokenness within our body, the body of Christ, and if we are truly to be a communion, then we will wound and corrupt one another and God with our differences and pain. In the Old Testament, when Pharaoh denied Moses and the people of faith the opportunity to worship God, all Creation was plagued. Denying the people to worship God caused the River Nile, Source of Life and Health and Vitality, to be turned to Blood. Denying people's faith caused Gnats to become as common as dust and Flies as thick as clouds. Disgusting Frogs to be in our food, and in our beds, crawling upon our children as they sleep and underfoot as we walk. Denying people faith in God, made the crops wither, locusts to swarm and devour, made all our cattle die. Denying faith made boils and blisters erupt on the skin, like Leprosy. Then, Egypt was returned to the Darkness and Void of Chaos before God's Order, for three days and nights a blackness that sucked in and consumed all light. Finally, God declared that the firstborn of every household, those who were destined to inherit and to lead in every family, would die. AND, as we wait for the shoe to drop, as we await fulfillment of the final plague, instead we have insertion of this ritual of the first Passover.

Looking ahead to the Autumn calendar it is readily apparent we are a backwards people. Rather than boldly claiming who we are and what we need in life/entering into the future together, responding and adapting to new circumstances and opportunities as The Body of Christ; we each seek TRADITION. Rituals of the past that comfort us and give each of us security in knowing others did this before us, we cannot be wrong if we do what they did. Labor Day which marked the Struggle for Rights and Benefits of Union Workers in the 1920s and 1930s/ in our childhood marked the end of State Fair/ so the beginning of School, and though we graduated years ago, still on the night before the start of school our tummies are full of butterflies, we are anxious seeing trees change, our bodies feel Fall is beginning. We celebrate Labor Day, and Columbus Day and Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas, even our Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals, all as RITUAL REMINDERS of the way things have been, long ago. What would it be to create A RITUAL OF NEW THINGS to enter into that which is new with a community ritual?

The issue here is not between CHANGE and TRADITION, as the values of our Political Parties suggest, but that as we enter into life, we stop to listen and pay attention to what is going on, creating INTENTIONAL ACTS to dramatize what we live, and in those INTENTIONAL ACTS, DRAMATIZATIONS OF LIFE, we emphasize our Connection as opposed to our isolation.

We remember the Burning Bush and the Holy Ground. We remember the Plagues of Egypt and the Deaths of the Firstborn. We remember the parting of the Red Sea. BUT the point of all of these, was that GOD wanted the people to be free to celebrate, and the People wanted to be free to Celebrate their faith in God. If we remember the story only as historic events, if we go through rituals, without feeling, what is the point?

In the midst of the plagues, as all Creation was sceaming for Pharaoh to pay attention to his people, the story stops to describe creation of a RITUAL of a NEW THING, not as witnessed historically, why do we do this. But as a New Thing responding to the people.
What were the people of faith feeling?
The World is a very dangerous place.
We cannot sit down and be lax, we are not to take pleasure at the pains of the Egyptians, there is no time for bread to rise, no time to sit, so we eat standing up, lamb which is roasted, with nothing left over, no trace we were ever here.

When I was in Sudan the first time, up until 6 weeks before this had been a warzone. While there I had been extremely ill and the only things that had kept me alive were faith in God, the care of the people, some cookies and bottled water. The morning we prepared to leave, one of my companions asked “did you leave anything behind?” I mentioned leaving a few bottles of water and cookies for those who had cared for me. Instantly, he ran into the hut, and gathered up the leftovers, saying “No evidence can be left that you were here, only the memory of your presence and the words we have shared.”

In the midst of the danger, the COMMUNITY of FAITH know that they are marked, protected by God. Protected not because we are special, not because we knew the right words to right on the doorposts, or the right ritual to perform; but because they marked their homes with the sacrifice.As we mentioned last week, Sacrifice is not CHARITY, is not MISSION, Sacrifice is not choosing what is the least and simplest I have to give up, but rather Sacrifice is PERSONAL and COSTLY, giving as an act of love and commitment something which is innocent and pure.

What would weddings be like, if instead of being concerned with did we wear GreatGrandmother's Vail, did we say the words right, or light all the candles without dripping... IF the couple reflected upon who were important to them and why, their hopes and dreams for married life together. If the couple took responsibility, that the guests are friends and family at their first dinner as husband and wife, in an extension of their home, rather than party guests to be entertained. If instead of the couple having to kiss every time the glasses were clinked, their parents or their grandparents kissed.

What would the week before the first day of school be, if instead of trying to find our classroom and buy supplies, and parent and child adding to one another's anxiety about separation, IF we intentionally began spending time together, naming that we will not always be able to do so. Intentionally stopping to name our concern for others in our lives, who will also be present, who might need us and committing our energies to helping them.

Our lives are inextricably bound up with the lives of others, we cannot get away from them. As such, matthew names to his community a teaching of Jesus that is unique. If someone has wronged you, you have a responsibility to repair the relationship. What is important is not what was done, or not done, but the relationship.
If they will not, the role of others is to hold us accountable. Often we see things only from our perspective, and we need others to remind us, maybe we have said enough.
If still they have not come home to you, treat them as a Pharisee or Tax Collector, which is NOT to SHUN THEM, but rather as Jesus demonstrated, to go out of our way, making sacrifices to bring together those who believe they are serving oter purposes, to see our need for each other before God.