Living As If God Exists (Because He Does)Sample

LIVING IN A NEW TIME

Passover marks the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, rooting Israel’s story in time by linking its calendar to God’s redemptive work. The exodus determined Israel’s calendar because it was through the exodus that God delivered Israel and formed a new nation.

Passover reinforced Israel’s solidarity, with the community coming together to feast in anticipation of God’s deliverance (12:12-13) and to prepare for a quick departure (12:11). Every household ate on the same night — no one was to eat apart from the community (12:3-4; 8-10) and no meat was to be left to eat later (12:6). They were to prepare the food over fire to avoid time-consuming activities like fetching and boiling water or cleaning up (12:8). Bitter herbs were easy to find and prepare. Unleavened bread eliminated the need to wait for bread to rise (12:8).

The feast brought the present generation together as well as serving as a memorial throughout Israel’s generations (12:14). The Passover, with the feast of unleavened bread (12:15-20), would allow Israel’s future generations to ground their lives in redemptive time. Like the exodus generation, Israel’s subsequent generations would locate their origins in God’s deliverance, allowing the traditional practices of the Passover feast to prompt questions from their children, who would continue the crucial work of sustaining memory (12:26-27).

As Christians, our origin is no longer grounded in exodus, but resurrection. When we come to Christ by grace through faith, we have a new beginning and are joined to a community composed of others who also have a new beginning. As we mark this new point in time together, we would be wise to set a cadence of life in which we walk together as a people freed from the harried, frantic pace of the world’s life.

We worship together weekly. We remember Christ’s coming, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension in the cycles of the church calendar. We come together for prayer and collective witness. In doing so, we proclaim our solidarity with one another and with Christ while grounding the next generation in redeemed time and its rhythms. We must continue to seek out opportunities for coordinated worship and service that underscores our solidarity with the past, present, and future community of faith. This coming together allows us to proclaim with one voice our shared salvation in Christ, our Passover lamb (1 Cor 5:6-8).