From the Pulpit

Excerpts from messages being presented at area places of worship this weekend.

Rabbi Mordechai Levin, Beth El Synagogue

In a few days, the festival of Pesach (Passover) will begin. During this holiday, we remember that around 3,200 years ago, our ancestors freed themselves from Egyptian slavery and returned to the land of Israel.

One of Passover’s most important symbols is the matzah (unleavened bread), which we eat during the festival’s eight days. The commandment to eat this unleavened bread appears 10 times in the Pentateuch, and Pesach is also called “the festival of matzot” (plural of matzah). The Haggadah (the book we read to commemorate the exodus), reminds us that “this is the poor bread which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt.” Matzah, therefore, symbolizes both the remembrance and the re-enactment of the affliction of slavery.

In our time, too, there is slavery and poverty on earth. Eating matzah during the holiday of liberation heightens our appreciation for the flavor of freedom and reminds us to empathize with those in need. The remembrance of the past challenges us to take action in the present.

The Hebrew Bible instructs us (Leviticus 25:10), “You shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.” We have to make the world a better place so that we and future generations may enjoy more justice, compassion and peace. On this upcoming Pesach, let us commit ourselves again to this mission.

The Rev. Joe Laughlin, Victory Church

John 11:44

In the Gospel of John 11:25, Jesus reveals himself as “the resurrection and the life.” Jesus then contrasts two kinds of life, and two kinds of death: natural human life and death, and Spiritual life and death.

Jesus says, “He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Whoever believes in Jesus, though he may experience physical death, shall live eternally (have spiritual life). And whoever lives in this natural realm, yet believes in Jesus shall never die spiritually.

Then He asks the question that is still relevant to us today: “Do you believe?”

Faith in Jesus and in His sacrifice for our sins is necessary for us to have eternal life, and to live daily by His ability working in us.

Jesus then proceeds to demonstrate this life by raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus cried with a loud voice “Lazarus, come forth.” And Lazarus came out of the tomb, bound hand and foot with grave clothes. Jesus said “loose him and let him go.”

This illustrates a spiritual truth that Jesus accomplished by His death on the cross. We were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), yet He, Jesus, made us alive.

He calls all who are alive in Him to be loosed from our grave clothes (the trappings of our old life of sin) and to be freed from anything that binds us, so that we might serve the Living God.

The Rev. Jane Florence, First United Methodist Church, Omaha

Psalm 107: 1-13, 39-43

The biblical narrative was written in the midst of slavery, captivity and oppression. The Hebrews remember the Holy One who delivered them from bondage in the past, and they claim the promise of that delivery continuing as God continues. The deliverance found throughout the Hebrew narrative is a very concrete, material sense. People were in need of food; people were in need of home; people were in need of physical healing; people were in need of freedom from the socio-political enemies.

Liberation from bondage is the central meaning of salvation in both Old and New Testaments.

Who is in chains of bondage in the material sense in our world today? The poor, the sick without health care, those in exile from their homeland, the immigrants. The same population who were vulnerable to the powerful in ancient times and were vulnerable in the Palestine of Jesus are still vulnerable in our world and in our country today.

Those who experience release of oppression are to stand like a beacon of light on a hill. We are to form communities that transmit deliverance to others who are in need. However for the most part, children of European immigrants resist. Instead, we put up walls against children of Latin American, Mexican, Haitian, African, or Asian immigrants. We don’t see how we have contributed to their exile and oppression, and we fear instead of welcome.

Biblical history proclaims salvation as deliverance from oppression. We join in the holy work of salvation when we work for justice and welcome all people as sacred beings.

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