Henri Nouwen reminds us in our Lenten Meditation that the Christian community is not a result of human efforts. God has called us, he writes, “out of slavery into freedom, out of sin into salvation, out of captivity into liberation. By our common call we recognize each other as brothers and sisters.” The Jewish community retells the story of this call by observing the Seder meal, which marks the beginning of Passover. The Seder is a ritual retelling of the story of Israel’s liberation from slavery—a story told in the Book of Exodus. We will share a Seder meal on Maundy Thursday.
In 1969 Rabbi Arthur Waskow revised the traditional Seder and wrote the Freedom Seder, which was published in Ramparts Magazine. You can find the Freedom Seder on line. It includes elements of the traditional Seder and the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Thoreau, Gandhi, Emanuel Ringelblum of the Warsaw Ghetto, and Nat Turner. The first use of the Freedom Seder was on April 4, 1969, the first anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Rabbi Waskow explains that the bitterness of history lives in the bitter herbs of the Seder, but throughout the service there is a proclamation of freedom and a celebration of life.
The Seder meal, Rabbi Waskow tells us, is a time to think deeply about the question of freedom and our relationship with God and with each other. As we share this meal we remember that every generation must share in the struggle for freedom, and this struggle is not bloodless. And so we must ask God “to allow us to explore our inner ecstasies, and encourage and aid us to love one another and share in the human fraternity” fusing our liturgy, social action and the upwelling of a movement leading toward freedom, peace and justice. This is the journey of Holy Week.
Blessings, David