Easter and Passover are One and the Same

I love Stephen Prothero’s newest book, God is Not One. He discusses religious differences in terms of a mixed salad (in which all the various components come together while still retaining their distinct qualities), versus a melting pot (where everything blends together and no distinctions can be made). Prothero suggests that we must celebrate the differences of religions (mixed salad) as opposed to insisting they are all the same (melting pot). To this, I say, “Hurrah!”

With that in mind, I would like to suggest a case for the opposite — that Easter and Passover are one and the same.

Some of you might say, “No, Rabbi Brian — the two are very different stories with completely different main characters. They are not the same!”

While I agree, I also disagree. And I’m not the only one. John Shelby Spong has some unbelievably good books published on this subject. Liberating the Gospels: A Jewish Understanding of the New Testament made it really clear to me that Easter and the Passover are basically the same story. His point is that the Easter story is really just a re-telling of the Passover story.

Think about it — the Gospels were written by Jews! (John being a slight exception). Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul were all Jews, writing for a Jewish audience, explaining Jewish things. The writings of the New Testament were contemporaneous to the writing of the “Jewish” Midrash, Gemara, and Talmud.

Here are the main themes of Passover and Easter:

• They’re both about a journey, a traveling from slavery to freedom, from death to life. A movement from the confused and constricted, to liberation in a proverbial salvation or land of milk and honey.

• Each story brings up the same question: How do we go from being limited and small to experiencing the unlimited? The answer is that we must take a journey. We must progress towards freedom, to new life, to being with God however you understand God.

• The whole point is that we have to liberate ourselves, allow ourselves to let ourselves be liberated, allow ourselves to be free, and experience the divine — however that works in our lives. The point is to disregard groupthink and pay minimal attention to the external forces in our lives that we’ve internalized. These forces wind up confusing us.

If we get hung up on questions like, “Did the Exodus really happen? Did they really bake the bread? Did Jesus actually rise from the dead?” then we risk losing the point of both stories. Instead of getting caught up in the details, we should focus on the overall journey.

Now, let me give you my retelling of the story of Passover — the story that I’m more familiar with.

(After all, the point of the Passover Seder is a personal re-telling of the story of the Exodus. Jewish law says that at every Seder it is commanded upon us that we see this story as though we were there — that *I* was a slave in the land of Egypt. This is something we should take to heart.)

Here’s my retelling for this year...

I’m a slave in the land of Egypt. A man arrives with a very Egyptian-sounding name. He says, “I know I might appear to be an Egyptian, but I’m actually a Jew just like you, and I want you to experience freedom.”

Of course, I’ve been a slave my whole life, I’ve never seen anything other than what I’ve seen, so I have no idea what this man is talking about. I think he’s insane.

I go back to my bricks and mortar, doing what I have to do.

But the words of this crazy-liberation-kind-of-man stick with me. Some people in town say he performs miracles where he turns water into wine, or water into blood. But that’s not what draws me in. What he does — the thing that really catches my attention — is he stands up to the authorities in charge.

He says, “Everyone has the right to pray to God in their own way.” And that catches my ear.

So I follow him — a little hesitantly at first — but it becomes clear to me, and I see with my heart that I need to be free. So I follow him.

Following him isn’t easy. When I was captive, at least I knew where my meals were coming from. At least I had some sense of security in my slavery.

But I choose to follow this man, and continue following him, until the Egyptian army is chasing after us with chariots and weapons. We have nothing to defend ourselves with! It’s as if we’re on a pony ride, and here comes an Army military convoy right behind us, about to wipe us out. We can’t run much faster.

In front of us, there is water. I can’t swim. Now I know it’s death. Certain death. No hope. There is no way out of this predicament.

I can’t turn back to the Egyptians and say, “Hey, I made a mistake.” And I can’t go forward, because there’s water — and I can’t walk on water.

Then a miracle happens. Without me understanding how, I get through it safely. I don’t drown. I’m not slain. Oh, that’s a miracle.

I sure do hope you remember being there as well.

Spiritual-religious advice: Seek liberation!

LCK - Cultivating Good Manners

"Have a nice day!"

"Excuse me, please."

"Thank you, sir."

It is wonderful, Lord, to hear and to receive such gracious gestures of civilized speech. These are words, however, that seem increasingly to be the half-forgotten gestures from another time and world. But, how wonderfully pleasant these civilized words are to hear, dear God. They lubricate the sometimes abrasive connections we have with one another. They help to manage the hectic traffic of our human wills as we try to move in and out of one another's lives. They provide the respect that is so vital in risking the openness and trust we want to have with one another.

Dear God, help me to be more polite and courteous toward others. Keep me aware of how deeply wounded others can sometimes feel when they are treated without civility. Lord, I know it is not easy to always have the best manners or to use the right gestures that are needed for the difficult moments in our lives. Help me to find the most civil and gracious way to encounter the people I meet today. Please don't let any rudeness or brutishness on my part diminish another person's experience today.

Oh, and by the way, thank you very much for listening to me.

It Would Have Been Enough

Spring is a great spiritual-religious time of the year. In the past few years, Passover and Easter overlapped. (I loved that -- and it will happen again in 2011.) In 2009, on the 4^th night of the weeklong Jewish holiday, my darling Jane and I had a bunch of friends over to our house to celebrate the Passover. The next day, we went over to one of their houses for an Easter dinner.

I’m so taken by the fact that we can all love God — however we understand that term — in our own way, and really appreciate each other while we’re at it. It’s great to have open, religious freedom.

Onto today’s discussion. There’s a prayer in the Passover Seder called Dayenu, which is translated as:

It would have been enough for us

or:

For us, it would have been sufficient.

It is a gratitude prayer.

The basic story line in this section of the service is, “It would have been enough for us if only we had gotten this. But we got more — we also got that. And that would have been sufficient, but we got even more. We got this other thing too, and that other thing ought to have been enough for us, but we also got ____ ...and so forth.”

The traditional liturgy talks about things that aren’t super personal to everyone at the table, as not everyone at the table truly believes all of those words. So we adopted the prayer in a way that allows each person to create a personal version of Dayenu -- it would have been enough. Here is a bit of mine:

• If I’d only had a childhood where I’d gotten all the blessings I got, it would have been enough...

• But then I also got to meet Jane and fall in love with her. And that would have been enough.

• But then I also got Emmett. And that would have been enough.

• But then we also got Annie. And that would have been enough.

• But then we also have our health, our house, and relative peace. And that would have been enough.

• But we’re also surrounded by friends in a country where we can celebrate Passover and Easter on the same block. And that would have been enough...

Completing my list really put me in a deep sense of gratitude. I’m incredibly grateful for so much of what I have (including this wonderful ministry, which you’re a part of).

I’m afraid we’re all prone to falling into the rut of operating in a consumer mentality of thinking we need more, more, more. But this prayer really struck everyone at our service. It hit me hard, how grateful we should be for what we already have.

Right? We’ve already got so much.

I heard a quote (I can’t find the source of it), which goes something like this:

People with too much think that if one bad thing happens, their day is ruined; but people who live in gratitude think that if one good thing happens, it is a wonderful day.

I want you to make a list of things in your own life that could make up a Dayenu prayer. Start with your childhood (or whatever time in your life you want) and list out all the things where it would have been enough, if you had only gotten this, but you didn’t — you also got that.

It would have been enough if I had only gotten _____, but then I also got ____.

It would have been enough if I had only gotten _____, but then I also got ____.

It would have been enough if I had only gotten _____, but then I also got ____.

It would have been enough if I had only gotten _____, but then I also got ____.

It would have been enough if I had only gotten _____, but then I also got ____.

It would have been enough if I had only gotten _____, but then I also got ____.

Spiritual-religious advice: Count your blessings.