At the center of a community of resistance is a common story that is reenacted so that people of today can be brought along and caught up in just such a journey - again, Walter Brueggemann. We do not know the actual "history" of the Passover festival. What we do know is that Passover emerged, is situated in the text, and is regarded in Israel as the occasion and script for the periodic, disciplined, intentional reenactment and replication of the exodus narrative. It is the cultic staging whereby in every circumstance, through every generation, this community sustains and makes visible and unavoidable a distinctive identity of emancipation and of resistance to the pressures of pharaonic culture. I'm not a fan of reenactments - but this is different. I don't like Christmas Pageants or "living" nativity scenes or Good Friday theater. In all of these cases it is nothing more than a show. The storytelling of Passover is an attempt to keep alive the liberated community through having them go through the events of the storytelling. The food and the words and the gathering around in households and remembering the story of the Exodus brings each household into the grasp of that promise and that liberation that took place so long ago. Through this liturgy of sorts, is taught the way to live - no matter who seems to be in control and power. This living is in the face of empire and actually sets people free from the power of empire. From this storytelling, people are to get up and go out into the world as the emancipated ones who no longer are held hostage and in bondage to the ways of empire. If this story does not raise up a liberating and new community, I would suggest they would be nothing more than the powers that oppress. Connection: Resisting the culture is not an easy way to go. And yet, it is the way into the promise of a new reality - a new creation. Come, O God of all Hopefulness. Come and whisper the story of your love and faithfulness to each of your children so that we have the strength and encouragement to live and walk in your Reign even when the reigning powers of the day attempt to own us. Amen. |
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