Weekly Pastoral Message prepared by Rev. Murray Adamthwaite
for Sunday 10th January 1999

From the Pastor: Holiday or Holy Day? II

"On the fourteenth day of the first month is the LORD's Passover." Leviticus 23:5 Anniversaries are familiar to us all: apart from what we call "birthdays", more general anniversaries commemorate specific historical events such as 50 years since the end of World War II back in 1995. Other similar occasions mark the fiftieth, the hundredth or some similar number such as the 500th year since the birth of Luther in 1983. It is well to observe these anniversaries, especially those which honour some part of our Christian heritage. More significantly, our Christian calendar commemorates the major events of Christ's redemption and constitutes a kind of chronological creed. In the Old Testament calendar the first of the three major festivals, viz. Passover, stood as a commemoration of Israel's salvation and exodus from Egypt: it pointed to an outstanding event, one which served as a dating referent for subsequent milestones in their history. Note here how the construction of Solomon's Temple is dated from the Exodus in 1 Kings 6:1. In this it marked a contrast with other ancient cultures for which that time of year (early April) meant the opening of Spring and was linked to the annual cycle of agriculture. Thus Passover replaced the "Spring festival" and pointed away from the nature deities associated with it, but pointed instead to the great redemption of the living God, a specific historical act. On the Christian calendar Easter replaces Passover, specifically because our Lord was crucified at Passover time (John 18:28), but also because of the significance of that appointed coincidence. However it is Church tradition which has enjoined the observance, not any specific Scripture, and the observance of Easter once a year should not detract from the appointed commemoration in the Lord's Supper, held of course much more frequently. There we both look to an event in the past and meet with the Lord in the present: an anniversary and a communion.