Exodus 24:3-8
Hebrews 9:11-15
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Today the Church lays before us a series of texts which tell us about an important part of our faith story. Each text tells us something about the love relationship of the covenant which bound our ancestors and the new covenant which binds us now. Each text mentions blood. This is not nearly as accessible a symbol for us in the 21st Century as bread. Bread is familiar and comforting, whereas blood, whilst life-giving, can also symbolise danger and death.
The ritual involving blood, described in the reading from Exodus, is not any easy idea for us to explore. But while the details of the sacrificial system might be alien to us, what the text describes is a time of intimacy. In the verses which precede today’s text God has spoken to Moses and been very specific about those he is to bring with him to Mt Sinai:
The Lord said to Moses, “You and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s leaders come up the mountain to me and worship at a distance. Moses may come near the Lord, but the others may not. The people must not come along with Moses.”
Moses is being called to a moment of encounter with the God who spoke to him from the Burning Bush. Every detail matters. Moses sprinkles the people with blood as a sign of the intimacy that God wants with the Israelites. It is a pledge that the God who brought them from slavery to freedom, desires to sustain them and bring them life. Our lectionary text stops here. But the verses which follow are some of my favourite verses in the Old Testament:
‘Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy elders of Israel then went up, and they saw the God of Israel beneath whose feet there was what looked like a sapphire pavement pure as the heavens themselves, but he did no harm to the Israelite notables; they actually gazed on God and then ate and drank.’
If we lay this story alongside today’s Gospel text from Mark we are again invited to a scene of intimacy. Jesus with his disciples brings a deeper meaning to a ritual that they have celebrated all of their lives. And here the disciples gaze on God and eat and drink. The meaning and memory of that meal will sustain them as they form a community and adjust to life after Jesus has ascended. Sharing one loaf and one cup are the signs of God’s covenant.
Today as we gather to celebrate the Eucharist we know ourselves bound in covenantal love. Though the style of our celebrations of the Eucharist may vary, we are each invited to gaze on God and to eat and drink.
Where have you experienced God’s covenantal love in your own life?