05 April 2012
Takot ka ba sa ano?
What are you afraid of?
Scripture Text: Exodus 12:1-14
Photo: "destruction" by Drew Hopper
1. Maundy or Holy Thursday reminds me of the intensity of emotional propensity that get into the Last Supper services I officiated for twelve years. One of the services as Gloria and I planned was the re-enactment of the first Passover celebration at the time of preparation for the exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt as narrated in Exodus chapter 12.
2. We prepared a kind of unleavened bread and there were worshippers who acted the parts of Yahweh, Moses and a Hebrew family. It was very dramatic and the congregation felt the emotional stirrings of the worship experience, especially the painting of blood of the butchered lamb in the door posts. The wailing of the parents whose firstborn laid dead was heard. The panicky Hebrews were packing up their things for the journey to the Reed Sea and off to the land of promise via the Sinai wilderness.
3. For sure the Hebrews were really scared of the night escape from Egypt with the detailed instructions how to prepare for the Passover meal and pack their food for sustenance for several days and leaving behind the relative prosperity they've experienced as in the eating of "fleshpots in Egypt" even if they were slaves there. Much more scary was the insecurity they will have in journeying to an unknown promised land. The Passover was reenacted by Jesus through the last supper with his disciples.
4. In fact the Passover was the prelude to exodus or better articulated by Christians as the once and for all freedom from sin. The last supper was filled with bidding and remorse for the revealed betrayal, arrest, trial, judgement by the mob, crucifixion and death of Jesus.
5. Sino ba ang hindi natatakot na ma-aresto, makulong, ma-dedeport at mahatulan mabitay sa ibang bansa? Walang sinuman ang hindi malalinan ng takot sa maaring datnan ng ating buhay sa ating sariling bansa man o sa ibayong dagat. Who is among us not afraid of being arrested, imprisoned, deported or comdemn to death in a foreign land? Nobody can ever escape fear of whatever may befall us either in our own country or abroad.
6. But, we can learn from Jesus how he faced the impending shame and death on the cross. It is not because he is the son of God or himself God but rather as a human being who made the choice to die for the cause of a new social and if you like a heavenly dispensation. Maunday Thursday provides a measure of the great resolve to love humanity in spite of the insurmountable political, social and economic costs.
Sinong nangangalakal ng digmaan?
Who are the war mongers?
7. On this Maundy Thursday night when we commemorate the last supper, where the table is spread with bread and wine, and hearing Jesus say, "This is my body, take eat and remember me," and the cup, "This is the blood of the new covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins", we as well hear the rumors of wars or the bombings and shootings in war torn countries as the backdrop of this.
8. I've read in today's English daily in Seoul that the Philippine government will suspend and reroute flights from Korea and Japan from April 12-16. This is a dicision based on the perceived threats to security and peace at the launch of long range missile in North Korea. The US and the South Korean governments are insisting that it is not a sattelite North Korea will launch but a missile that would reach distant lands. To me the suspension of flights on specified dates by the Philippine government is an overreaction to the sattelite launch. Wait a minute, when South Korea launch a sattelite last year, the Philippines did not even notice that. The US did not say anything about it especially that it was a failure. I suspect that the US is manipulating the Aquino government to ride on the war mongering to increase the level of insecurity in Asia-Pacific as a premise to the re-basing of US military in the Philippines and justify the well opposed construction of the US naval base in Kangjeong village in Jeju island. I think the war mongers are instilling fear and anxiety among people especially the Filipinos. Time to stop spreading the rumors.
9. If Filipinos in Korea want to pack their bags and want to escape go ahead. Please don't get infected by bug of war mongerers. What the Korean peninsula needs is a permanent peace treaty to replace the Armistice of 1953. Many Koreans believe and support the reunification of the Korean nation.
10. The Passover meal and Maundy Thursday are essentially the same. God in Jesus Christ has given us peace and security. The ethical imperative for peace loving people is to live out the new covenant of life, love and peace.
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Exodus 12: 1-14
12The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. 12For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
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