Meeting ID: 619 327 455
More details available at:
Rabbi Arthur Waskow was a contributing editor to Ramparts magazine, which published his "Freedom Seder" in 1969. The "Freedom Seder" was the first widely published Passover Haggadah that intertwined the archetypal liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Ancient Egypt with more modern liberation struggles such as the Civil Rights Movement and the women's movement.
Rev. Dr. James Cone, the late distinguished professor of systematic theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York and the author in 1969 of Black Theology and Black Power, said that it was, “especially the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt [that] became a central theme in my theology because it’s been a central theme in black religion. Here you have salvation of an enslaved people being liberated. Actually, ‘salvation’ meant ‘to be delivered from bondage.’ That’s literally what salvation means in the Bible, to be set free. And I began to see a powerful thing. Now, I studied that in seminary, but they didn’t teach it like that. They taught it in a way as though it was unrelated to the struggle for justice in society today." The Freedom Seder was designed to help us all reconnect scripture and the struggle for justice today.
Mount Olive Lutheran Church
Rev. J. Todd Bruning, Pastor
Dolphene Davis, Minister of Music
3100 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Dallas, TX 75215
(church) 214-428-2892 (cell) 972-653-0316
We Serve as a Vehicle through which the Gospel of Jesus Christ is spread.
INTRODUCTION: A Sesame Street Seder Story (3:34)
We begin with a traditional African American Spiritual about the Exodus story, Way Down Moses, (2:02) by Ray Robeson.
1) Last Saturday night, the night before Palm Sunday, marked the beginning of Passover in 2021 for Jews all around the world, who re-experience the story of Exodus together every year during this season in much the same way. The Exodus story, with its radical message of freedom, has also resonated with African-Americans since the days of slavery, who have often re-experienced the story of Exodus together while singing traditional Spirituals
More than 40 years ago, these two Jewish American and African American communities wove their stories together for a new Passover ritual — the Freedom Seder. It’s a story that dates back to April 4, 1968, the day Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. A week later, as the U.S. military occupied Washington, D.C., the sun set on the first night of Passover.
2) For Arthur Waskow, who was working in the peace and civil rights movements back then, the day brought a revelation. "I walked home, to get ready for the Seder, and that meant walking past the army, with a machine gun pointed at the block I lived on," he says. "And my kishkes, my guts, began to say, this is Pharoah's army!" Waskow, who is now a rabbi, came up with a new ”Freedom Haggadah”, a guide to the Passover service, that spoke to this moment.
"I wove the story of the liberation of ancient Hebrews from Pharaoh with the liberation struggles of black America, of the Vietnamese people, passages from Dr. King, from Gandhi," he says.
3) Topper Carew, a civil rights leader back then remembers, "Both the Jewish community and the black community have suffered great atrocities. And so the fact that we were coming together was a very important and powerful idea."
In 1969, on the anniversary of King's death, 800 people gathered in the basement of Lincoln Temple, a black church in Washington, D.C. There, Jews and Christians, rabbis and ministers, black and white, used Waskow's Haggadah to hold a Freedom Seder. "In the church basement that night, the spirit was high," says Carew, who was one of the readers leading the service.
4) Carew is now a filmmaker and television producer, but in the late 1960s, he was an urban designer working in the civil rights movement. "I will tell you that this was the first Seder that I'd ever been to — I didn't even know what a Seder was," he says. "But religion has been a Northern Star for much of the movement activity that has gone on in the black community."
“Seder” is the Hebrew word for order, and the Passover Seder is so named because all Passover Seders go through similar steps in a similar order.
5) I will submit to you that there may be no more powerful ritual for Mt. Olive to practice every year, especially in our basement, especially remembering this Freedom Seder tradition started in a church basement at the very same time that our own churchbasement was being used for a similar kind of organizing and holy remembering.
6) Rather than following the text of the traditional Haggadah tonight, we will be proceeding through the steps but focus on three obligations that the traditional Haggadah gives for properly observing Passover: telling the Exodus story, experiencing the Exodus story, and eating matzah, the unleavened bread. Many believe this is the very same ritual that Jesus was practicing with his disciples in the Last Supper.
7) We hear again the traditional African American Spiritual about the Exodus story, Way Down Moses, this time by Louis Armstrong. Notice both the similarities and differences from the earlier version, how each addresses suffering and liberation in different ways. As you listen we invite you to ponder:
A moment of suffering you have experienced
A time of liberation you have experienced.
And the struggle involved between suffering and liberation.
After the song we will begin the standard Seder steps with the flavor of the cross-cultural Freedom Seder:
We continue with the traditional African American Spiritual about the Exodus story, Way Down Moses, (3:40) by Louis Armstrong.
1. KADESH (Prayer sanctifying the wine)
We begin by sanctifying the wine and giving thanks for this holiday, the festival of matzah. We will do this in the traditional form, first in Hebrew then in English:
· בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן
Barucḥ atah Adonai, eloheinu, melecḥ ha-olam,
borei p-ree hagafen.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe,
who creates the fruit of the vine
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה
Barucḥ atah Adonai, eloheinu, melecḥ ha-olam,
shehe cḥeyanu vekiyimanu vehigiyanu lazman hazeh.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe,
who has granted us life and sustenance and permitted us to reach this season.
You are invited to drink a sip of wine or juice or eat one grape. Savor the wine or the grape because unlike our ancestors in Egypt, we can now enjoy the liberty to do so.
2 URCHATZ (Ritural Washing of Hands)
As our Seder leader, Pastor Todd symbolically washes his hands, done without a blessing now to intentionally highlight our typical neglect of a holy remembering. All too often we come to worship and forget to follow the steps that allow us to remember with holy awe and wonder.
Bless us, Oh Lord, and help us tonight to REMEMBER. To remember your suffering for us so that we might all be set free from the bondage of sin and death. To remember the suffering others have also endured so that we might experience a bit more liberation in this life than we have. Amen.
This absence of holy remembering in our lives makes it almost impossible to endure the full weight of the suffering in our lives and find liberation. Holy remembering is essential to finding freedom, through God's grace, from the shackles of this world.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and not your own works, lest anyone should boast.
3 KARPAS (A Blessing over the Spring Vegetable & Tears)
We will now dip a piece of celery or parsley into salt water and eat it. The celery is to remind us of spring. The salt water is to remind us of the tears of our ancestors enslaved in Egypt. As you eat, we share the traditional Seder prayer:
· בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה.
Barucḥ atah Adonai, eloheinu, melecḥ ha-olam,
borei p-ree ha-adam
Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe,
who creates the fruit of the earth.
4 YACHATZ (A Blessing over the Breaking of the Bread)
· .הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִּי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל, כָּל דִצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח
Ha lacḥma anya di acḥalu avhatana b-ara demitzrayim
Kol dicḥfin yeitei veyecḥol. Kol ditzricḥ yeitei veyifsacḥ
This is the bread of destitution that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Anyone who is famished should come and eat, anyone who is in need should join us.
Pastor Todd is lifting up three pieces of matzah. He now breaks the middle piece into two. The larger piece is now the afikoman, our dessert, which he will wrap and put aside. The AFIKOMEN represents the SACRIFICAL LAMB in the Passover story, which we visit now and revisit at the end of the Seder.
5 MAGID (The Story)
First, let’s get the basics. The Haggadah begins the story with Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people (who lived long before Jews were known as ‘Jews,’ in Canaan). The point isn’t to read the story as it’s found in the Torah, but to retell it in a way that gives meaning to each of us here tonight, that allows us to participate in a holy remembering:
Jacob’s name was changed into “Israel” in a story in the book of Genesis, and his descendants are called Israelites, which is what you need to know to understand the start of the Exodus story.
All of his life, Jesus was a full participant in the retelling of this Passover story. And so we begin by remembering four parts of this story of suffering by seeing the HEBREW WORDS and making the SIGN OF THE CROSS together.
FOREHEAD
Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt
יַעֲקֹב וּבָנָיו יָרְדוּ מִצְרָיִם
NAVEL
Since the famine was heavy in the land of Canaan.
כִּי כָבֵד הָרָעָב בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן
LEFT SHOULDER
And he became a nation of people.
וַיְהִי שָׁם לְגוֹי.
RIGHT SHOULDER
And Egyptians enslaved the Israelites with breaking work.
יַּעֲבִדוּ מִצְרַיִם אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּפָרֶךְ
As you watch this video of the unfolding Exodus story, I invite you to imagine how Jesus might have shared this story with his parents growing up at their Passover Meal. Imagine how Jesus might have seen this unfolding Exodus story as an important story for the disciples to understand more fully:
God decides to free the Israelites by making life so hard for the Egyptians through ten plagues that they agree to let the Israelites leave. God instructed the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and mark their doors with its blood so that God would pass over those houses and spare them from the last plague. While the Egyptians were suffering, the Israelites escaped into the dessert and headed toward the land of Israel.
As we recite the name of each plague, in English and then in Hebrew, please dip a finger in your wine and then touch your plate to remove the drop. Some families, to help children better understand, eat a grape to remember each plague instead.
These are the ten plagues which God brought down on the Egyptians:
1) Blood dam דָּם
2) Frogs tzfardeiya צְפַרְדֵּֽעַ
3) Lice kinim כִּנִּים
4) Beasts arov עָרוֹב
5) Cattle disease dever דֶּֽבֶר
6) Boils sh’chin שְׁחִין
7) Hail barad בָּרָד
8) Locusts arbeh אַרְבֶּה
9) Darkness choshech חֹֽשֶׁךְ
10) Death of the Firstborn makat b’chorot מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת
The sacrifice of a lamb is what spared the Israelites from this last plague. We remember the sacrificed lamb tonight, not only as the afikomen, now hidden away for the end of our Seder, but also as the bone on the Seder plate.
The story is not complete without the FOUR QUESTIONS: The youngest child at the table has the responsibility of asking these questions, which, in a way are central to the holy remembering:
מַה־נִּשְׁתַּנָּה הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה מִכָּל־הַלֵּילוֹת?
Mah nishtanah halailah hazeh mikol haleilot?
How is this night different from all other nights?
שֶׁבְּכָל־הַלֵּילוֹת, אָֽנוּ אוֹכְלִין חָמֵץ וּמַצָּה; הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה, כֻּלּוֹ מַצָּה.
Sheb'chol haleilot anu ochlin chametz umatzah, halailah hazeh, kuloh matzah.
1) On all other nights, we eat chametz (leavened foods) and matzah. Why on this night, only matzah?
שֶׁבְּכָל־הַלֵּילוֹת, אָֽנוּ אוֹכְלִין שְׁאָר יְרָקוֹת; הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה, מָרוֹר.
Sheb'chol haleilot anu ochlin sh'ar y'rakot, halailah hazeh, maror.
2) On all other nights, we eat any vegetable. Why, on this night, only maror (bitter herbs)?
שֶׁבְּכָל־הַלֵּילוֹת, אֵין אָֽנוּ מַטְבִּילִין אֲפִֽלּוּ פַּעַם אֶחָת; הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה, שְׁתֵּי פְעָמִים.
Sheb'chol haleilot ein anu matbilin afilu pa'am echat; halailah hazeh, sh'tei f'amim.
3) On all other nights, we don't dip even once. Why on this night do we dip twice?
שֶׁבְּכָל־הַלֵּילוֹת, אָֽנוּ אוֹכְלִין בֵּין יוֹשְׁבִין וּבֵין מְסֻבִּין; הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה, כֻּלָּֽנוּ מְסֻבִּין.
Sheb'chol haleilot anu ochlin bein yoshvin uvein m'subin; halailah hazeh, kulanu m'subin.
4) On all other nights, we eat either sitting upright or reclining. Why on this night do we all recline?
As the story is told of the Passover from slavery to freedom, from suffering to liberation, these we four questions that captured the essence of the rush of the Seder Meal in the Israelites zeal to escape.
What might be a question that you would want our children to be able to ask and answer about the quest of our people for freedom and liberation?
Please share a few thoughts now:
With this in mind, please drink your second cup of wine or eat your second grape.
6 ROHTZAH (wash before matzah), MOTZI (blessings over the Matzah), and MATZAH
We now wash our hands before eating matzah for the first time tonight.
Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, and Renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and renew a right spirit within me. As our hands are cleansed, Lord, so let our hearts be cleansed. Amen.
When the Israelites left Egypt, they were in a hurry to get away from the Pharoah’s army. While on the run, they made matzah. Matzah is plain, rough, and fragile. It symbolizes the harsh journey of the Israelites out of Egypt, through the desert, to Israel. Keep thinking about that memory of suffering or oppression as you eat a piece of matzah, from either the top piece or the remaining part of the middle piece of matzah.
7 MAROR (bitter herbs) and KORECH (sandwich)
Hold onto your memory of suffering or oppression as you eat the foods symbolic of the hard times in Egypt, the maror — the bitter herbs, in our case HORSERADISH — and the Charoset — in our case, APPLESAUCE — which represents the mortar from the hard labor in Egypt when the Israelites were building the pyramids (perhaps!). Using matzah, eat it as a sandwich.
We rejoice in our suffering, because suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope ... and it is a hope that does not disappoint. Amen.
8 SHULCHAN ORECH (the meal)
We escaped from Egypt. We did it. During the meal we wash away that memory of suffering or oppression. We are a liberated people now. Please recall now a memory of liberation and hold that memory for a moment.
Then feel free to stand up, pour your neighbor a second glass of wine, or help serve the Seder meal.
We start our meal with a piece of egg — the last item on the Seder plate to be eaten. It is often said that the egg represents the celebrations of Passover at the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple was subsequently destroyed, twice, about 2,000 years ago, and following the destruction of the Temple the old Israelite traditions of animal sacrifice transformed into the symbolic traditions of Judaism that we have today, and in this case, animal sacrifice became a cooked egg.
Buildings have great importance for us. Sometimes more importance than they should have. But sometimes they help us remember in a holy way.
Imagine sharing a meal like this in our basement at Mount Olive, inviting our families, but also the neighborhood companions we have met giving out our blessing bags ... AND the companions who helped provide support for the food pantry. All of them eating together a meal that honors both suffering and liberation.
What might God do as we re-craft this service in 2022, like they did in 1969, to be a celebration of how God still works wonders in our midst?
9 MAUNDY THURSDAY and the washing of the Disciple's Feet
We continue with the traditional African American Spiritual about the Exodus story, Wade in the Water, (4:11) by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the first group to share this spiritual, sometime in the first two decades of the 1900's.
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The EVENING MEAL WAS IN PROGRESS, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” "No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
10 TZAFUN (eating of the afikoman) and BARECH (blessing over the wine)
If the Last Supper was something like the Seder Meal, Jesus made a few important adjustments. With the meal complete, the Seder ends with our last dessert. We now eat the afikoman. Remember that the afikoman represents the sacrificed lamb that helped God spare the firstborn of the Israelites, during the last of the plagues, and so it is fitting to be our last dessert. Isn't it interesting that at the Last Supper, this might have been precisely when our Lord Jesus ...
On the night in which he was betrayed, lifted up the BREAD, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying said, this is my BODY which was given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
And we now drink our third cup of wine or eat our third grape. Isn't it interesting that at the Last Supper, this might have been precisely when our Lord Jesus ...
In the same way also took the CUP, and when he had given thanks, he gave it for all to drink saying, this is the new covenant in my BLOOD, given for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.
11 HALLEL (praising God)
Why did God free the Israelites? Is it a message of hope for us all, in some way, at all times? This part of the Seder is traditionally for praise of God, in particular for God’s role in freeing the Israelites from oppression. But it is also a reminder to celebrate the gifts God has given us and to remain aware of those who are still suffering.
We can honor the tradition of praising God by reflecting now on our duty as a liberated people to help those who are not yet liberated. Let’s keep in mind that as a liberated people, we may now benefit from the oppression of others. We might even unwittingly be the hand of oppression ourselves. The work to liberate all people goes on.
We now drink our fourth and last cup of wine or eat our fourth and last grape.
12 NIRTZAH (completion)
We’ll now conclude the Seder:
.חֲסַל סִדּוּר פֶּסַח כְּהִלְכָתוֹ, כְּכָל מִשְׁפָּטוֹ וְחֻקָּתוֹ.
The Seder is completed according to its laws, judgments, and statutes.
.לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בִּירוּשָלָיִם הַבְּנוּיָה
Next year, in Jerusalem
Next year with freedom for all!
What is the mission of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church?
TO SERVE as a VEHICLE through which the Gospel is Spread!!!
Go in Peace and Serve the Lord!
Thanks be to God!! And WE WILL!!
What is the mission of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church?
about being a VEHICLE
that will deliver CONFIDENCE, COMPASSION, and COMPANIONSHIP
to a tremendously anxious COMMUNITY,
remembering that God is our REFUGE & STRENGTH.
I) THIS THURSDAY, April 1 is MAUNDY THURSDAY at 7 PM
When My Lament Becomes Praise
HERE I STAND/When Powers Assail Me
Being Treated As LESS THAN Another
has helped me remember how God's Grace is MORE THAN sufficient
HEBREW SEDER MEAL where Jesus Washed the Feet of the Disciples
Meeting ID: 619 327 455
OPENING BLESSING
1) FOOT Washing Scripture & Blessing
2) CANDLE Lighting Scripture & Blessing
3) HAND Washing Scripture & Blessing
4) Cup of WINE Scripture & Blessing
5) Matzah BREAD Scripture & Blessing
6) MOROR (Horseradish) Scripture & Blessing
7) CHAROSET (Apple Sauce or Apple Salad) Scripture & Blessing
8) BITTER TEARS (Salt Water & Parsley) Scripture & Blessing
9) 10 PLAGUES Scripture & Blessing
10) AFIKOMEN (Communion) Scripture & Blessing
CLOSING BLESSING
II) THIS FRIDAY, April 2 is GOOD FRIDAY, live at NOON at https://southdallasconcertchoir.org/
7 PM Post Worship Conversation & Prayer Vigil
Meeting ID: 619 327 455
Wednesday, February 17 was ASH WEDNESDAY
Today, March 28 is the FIRST DAY of HOLY WEEK
1) Wednesday, February 24 ... Like Stephen (Todd)
2) Wednesday, March 3 ... Like Tamar in Genesis (Lakeesha)
3) Wednesday, March 10 ... Like Rahab in Joshua (Holli)
4) Wednesday, March 17 ... Like Ruth (Yarlette)
5) Wednesday, March 24 ... Like Bathsheba in 2 Samuel (Tanya)
6) Maundy Thursday, April 1 ... Pastor Todd leads Seder Meal
Good Friday, April 2 ... Led by South Dallas Concert Choir on
https://southdallasconcertchoir.org/
Sunday, April 4 is EASTER Sunday ... Pastor Jermine Alberty preaching
COMPANIONSHIP is a ministry of PRESENCE, a relationship responding to isolation and suffering and supportive of healing and recovery.
COMPANIONSHIP welcomes the stranger, building a CIRCLE of CARE with individuals who are facing emotional and mental health challenges.
COMPANIONSHIP is rooted in our natural capacities as human beings to be sensitive, compassionate and concerned.
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