Remember To Whom You Belong

Exodus 12: 1-14

"The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.  Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.  If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.  The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.  Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.  Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.  Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.  This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.  The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

Something big is about to happen in the Israelite community. They’ve been enslaved for some time, a long time. And God is planning to set them free. I’m not sure they even know this, it can be hard to visualize true freedom when all you’ve known is the weight of your oppressors knee upon your chest. But God has big plans for those who trust him, and it begins with something in this day, called Passover. For the sake of time today, I’d like to highlight only two important parts of Passover.

• It was a call to be ready at a moment’s notice. God says, “You are people who move with the wind of the Spirit at your back.” Passover instructions included preparing the kind of bread that would travel well. It meant keeping your sandals on your feet. It involved living in the moment given you, trusting that tomorrow is God’s worry alone.
• It was a call to remember WHO YOU ARE & TO WHOM YOU BELONG. You are people set free by faith in a God who is the author of all that is good.Passover serves as a milestone for God’s people, “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord- a lasting ordinance.”

I don’t think its coincidence that Jesus shared his last supper with friends during the season of Passover. His too was a call to remember WHO YOU ARE & TO WHOM YOU BELONG. Because the world would have us believe we are alone. We are not enough. That love will not win. That the “eat or be eaten” mentality is stronger than “love your neighbor as yourself.” But Jesus collects his friends together, breaks bread, and says, “remember- none of that is true. Love will win, I will make sure of it.

And he does. So when we take this opportunity today, this moment of Holy Communion, we too remember that love will win. Faith will set us free. We are ready for whatever comes our way, because the winds of the Holy Spirit are at our back. Whatever salvation means to you in this moment, hear this call from Jesus: “Remember, I am yours and you are mine.”