Next Year in Jerusalem?

During Holy Week we had the privilege to participate in a Seder meal led by our friend Casey Strine, who acted as rabbi for the night. It took place in Casey's college, Christ Church:

If you've never been to a seder meal, you should go some time. It is essentially a reenactment of the exodus from Egypt, told through participation in a communal meal. The liturgy is called a Passover Haggadah, seen here:

Among other delicacies, we had an amazing matza ball soup, made by Casey's wife Amanda.

The elements of the meal symbolize aspects of the experience of redemption: bitter herbs signify the bitterness of our slavery in Egypt; the unleavened bread is the bread we took from our homes in haste because we didn't have time to bake it; and so forth. Throughout the liturgy runs a 'presentification' of the exodus tradition, an actualization that brings the tradition into the present, or brings the participants to the past. In any event, it is a way of overcoming any sense of distance between the present and the past, and in this way is precisely the sort of way of reading the story that animated the early Christians when they identified the life and death of Jesus with a new exodus.

In Jewish circles, one leaves a chair for Elijah (the forerunner of the Messiah) and always says, 'next year in Jerusalem' - a statement of hope for the regathering of Israel in the presence of the Messiah. We, too, await our Messiah's return, and join in hoping to be gathered to our true country.