PASSOVER GOES VIRAL

I went for a short walk Tuesday, and a lamb was walking down the middle of the street. Yep, a lamb – a little baby one. I live in Memphis. We don’t have sheep here. Some of my neighbors keep chickens, but no lambs. This one had no collar (do you put collars on lambs?), and no markings. Because there are lots of stray dogs in my neighborhood, I “shepherded” the lamb to the nearby schoolyard and called animal services. They came and got it and took it to safety.

I rescued a lamb two days before Passover. It must be a sign. 

My granddaughter and the lady from animal services, and the lamb that we rescued.

(I safely took the picture over 6’ away.)

Victoria and I are part of a group of house-churches, small groups of disciples who meet in homes as we try to walk out life in Christ together. For the past decade, our house-churches have celebrated Seder. I am not much on religious tradition, but we really enjoy Seder. It is a party with people we love. We enjoy a long dinner with good food and lots of wine, and we remember traditions that help us contemplate the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We read a long liturgy (12 pages single-spaced) that tries to be faithful to the Jewish tradition, and still highlight how Passover is fulfilled in Christ. It’s a joyful feast with lots of laughing as we get hung up on Hebrew words that are unfamiliar to us. (None of us come from a Jewish tradition. I am sure we butcher it badly, but we have fun.) We always end with a fire in the fire pit, where we burn what is left of the lamb (a Biblical requirement), and finish off the wine (not a Biblical requirement).  

But no Seder feasts this year. At least not together.

I have always looked at Passover as a remembrance. But that was not the way it was at the first Passover. Bits of the feast were intended to remind them of the hardship and brokenness they experienced in Egypt, hardship that most of them experienced earlier that day. It didn’t take much looking back. But a lot of the Passover instruction was mystery, and most of it was about the participants getting ready for something. 

Our house churche a few years ago. Some are on the mission field now, and some have gone on to be with the Lord.

Put yourself in their sandals. An order went out that everyone was to go home, isolate themselves and shut their doors. They were to thoroughly clean their homes.  If they were to go outside, they might die. If they stayed inside, they would live. Sound familiar? 

The first Passover meal was not a party. It was not to be shared in a large group. Each family had their own meal. They each had to butcher their own lamb, had to make their own preparations – preparations to move.  It was a time of examination - What is important? What can we leave behind? God said he is coming to deliver us, but what will that look like? They were to eat with staff in hand, with their traveling clothes on. The unleavened bread thing was about being ready, eating in haste. It was a far cry from our lengthy parties (which I still love and intend to enjoy in the near future). The first Passover was probably taken in an environment of fear and uncertainty. And faith. 

All that to say – and I am asking an honest question here – could this be a prophetic moment for us? Could this Passover/Easter be different than others? Could this season be one that will forever change our lives, that will bring us into new freedom and that gives us an opportunity to experience God and the fulfillment of his promise on a scale like never before?

Why not!

We are having a worldwide “Passover”. This is an historic moment. The pandemic has forced everyone to isolate, to shut ourselves in our homes, not unlike Moses’ instructions to the Israelites. And what we are doing behind our closed doors will determine the future. 

Perhaps this should be a time for self-examination, cleaning house, and getting ready to follow God. This weekend, as we reflect, maybe we should look forward as much as we focus on remembering. Maybe we should remind ourselves of the brokenness we see around us, and call broken what is broken. Maybe we should eat with staff in hand and sandals tied, with our traveling clothes on. Maybe this is a time to cry out to God in a deeper way than ever before. And maybe he will deliver us on a scale like never before. 

Are you a little afraid? I am; but it’s not the virus that has me nervous. I am filled with anticipation. God may lead us somewhere very different…different culturally, different in terms of priorities, into new depths of understanding of his ways and experiencing him. I have learned from 40+ years of following Jesus that every decision to follow is a decision to leave something dear. So, yes, I am afraid. Maybe we should be.

Maybe the church will look differently. Maybe our nation will change. I don’t know. I know that I have become far too comfortable with a status quo that is broken – I am referring as much to my own familiar, comfortable brokenness as I am to brokenness in this world. Maybe this will be the greatest Great Awakening in history…a worldwide Great Awakening! I have very little to do with that happening, but I can certainly prepare for a great awakening for me. How about you?

The first Great Awakening saw people turn to Christ in unprecedented numbers and changed paradigms for government and society (though not enough). John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield were key figures in the Awakening, all men in their 20s and early 30s.

A few weeks before Christmas, one man in China coughed, and the world fell apart. Economies crumbled. Science and medicine proved impotent. Politicians failed us. Institutions of academia ground to a halt. Commerce collapsed. The powerful military proved to be as vulnerable as the rest of us. That is not to say that there are not heroic individuals who have risen to this challenge. I know a lot of those heroes, and I am grateful for them. But the Institutions that we look to for security have proven to be sandy foundations. Coronavirus leveled us, rich and poor, red and blue, first world and third world, east and west. We are all in the same boat.

And yet we are surviving. It turns out that while everything is being shaken, the unshakable kingdom of God still holds strong. We are recognizing that our true leaders are servants, and we are grateful for them. Those who were invisible a month ago are our heroes now. I stand on my porch every Wednesday morning to thank the sanitation workers who take away our trash. We applaud those who work in hospitals and testing sites, and those who stock our grocery’s shelves.

Humility, obedience, simplicity, family, faith, prayer, and compassion are proving to be a foundation that doesn’t fail us. Righteousness and justice move us. We call out hoarders and profiteers, and share what little we have with those who are in need. Unemployment is through the roof, but so is generosity. Doing what Christ taught in his sermon on the mount and by the testimony of his life is the rock that keeps our lives from collapsing. To the degree we cling to that rock, we will be ok.

Normally at this time of year I end with “He is risen!”. He has risen indeed, and not for naught. I am unusually expectant. Aren’t you?

Happy Easter. Get Ready!

PS - Late Thursday afternoon we decided to do a ZOOM Seder with Christian friends who live in our community and who are part of the house churches. Thirty-two of us participated in a “virtual Seder”. It was fun and different, and we look forward to being together soon.