This is a significant time for Jews and Christians. For Jews, it marks the freedom of the Israelite people after 400 years of slavery in Egypt under the narcissistic, egotistical Pharaoh. Many Jews commemorate Passover with a voluminous meal—the Passover Seder, during which items representing parts of the Passover story—most notably Matzo—are eaten.
Christians worldwide were brokenhearted this week by scenes coming out of Paris—the burning of the Notre Dame Cathedral. What cheered me up was the way the French responded and the way the Church responded. Catholics showed extraordinary faith and their belief in reconciliation. With the fire still burning, people wrote on Twitter, “We are going to rebuild the Cathedral.” Today, Good Friday, is all about hope and rebuilding—no settling for dust and ashes.
One of the things that links Jews and Christians is that we are folks who look forward with hope. Hope for freedom from slavery under Pharaoh, which Passover remembers and celebrates, and hope as Christians seek to be free of the violence that is marked today—Good Friday—as they look to Easter, which is truly about peace, lasting reconciliation and justice among all people.
Often, I have heard it said that on Sunday, there will be more people in Church basements than in the Church Sanctuary. But will Easter Sunday 2019 show us something different? Millennials and GenX’s are yearning to find spirituality—they yearn to find something beyond the cheap, empty materialistic world that we live in.
In this day and age, we are spiritually ravenous and institutionally suspicious. Our institutions have become stoic and hierarchical and the millennial generation is not buying into it. They are, however, buying into the notion that we need depth, definition and purpose and there need to be spaces and places where they can connect to all of that.
Easter and Passover are about Hope—about looking ahead and looking forward. People with hope should also be living differently—living out our hope in our lives, in how we treat each other and how we labor for justice.
Spiritual seeking is so important that it has to be lived out, and I believe young folks in particular want to live out their faith in a way that gives them meaning and purpose. Peace and blessings.
Happy Easter & Happy Passover
Paula
