Unsettled Christianity

Rev. McCain points a question to the Lutherans, but really, to us all:

“Is it appropriate for a Lutheran congregation to celebrate a Passover Seder?  This is not an unimportant question since the practice has become rather widespread in our Synod.  In fact, it has even been promoted (complete with Eucharist!) by the Synod’s Board for Evangelism (A Passover Haggadah for Christians , ed. Bruce J. Lieske, no date).  But can it be historically or theologically sustained?

“The historical question is rather complex, as the history of liturgical forms generally are.  To begin with,  we have no manuscript of a Seder Haggadah  which is early than the tenth century A.D. (Siddur Rav Saadya Gaon ).  Nearly a millennium exists between the time of Jesus and the earliest extant text.   Passover Haggadoth  have never been standardized but have always been shaped and reshaped by circumstances and time.  The ritual has been extraordinarily versatile since the tenth century A.D. and in all likelihood was just as versatile in the preceding centuries.  The claim that any ritual now in existence is identical with that used by Jesus is both anachronistic and historically suspect.

Read the rest here:

CyberBrethren-A Lutheran Blog » Why Christian Congregations Should Not Celebrate a Passover Seder.

Various sects of Christianity are ‘discovering’ their ‘Jewish/Hebrew’ roots not realizing at sometimes, those very Jewish things originated long after the time of Christ. While we should, I believe, endeavor to not forget that Christianity was a sect of Judaism, we are very much Christian. While our Eucharist is connected to the Passover Seder of the 1st century, as are our other rites and doctrines (of perhaps should be) we cannot forget that the Church took a different route, namely to follow Christ.

Post By Joel (9,267 Posts)

Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).

Website: → Unsettled Christianity

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