passover... but not

Okay, bear with me.

I grew up celebrating Passover every year. At the passover seder, we all broke and ate the matzoh and drank the four cups of wine. Everyone at the table. When I was twelve, my immediate family went to a messianic seder hosted by my second cousin, who is a messianic jewish rabbi. We were unofficially banned from my extended family's jewish seders from then on. Everyone in my family, youngest to oldest, was banned – even though my father was the one who made the decision to attend the messianic seder. (I guess my relatives understood the concept of covenant headship.) So we went to a different table, a messianic table. We all went and ate and drank at that passover table, now commemorating the death of Christ.

This past Thursday was my first Maundy Thursday church service. Growing up (since I was twelve) we commemorated Maundy Thursday with an actual seder. Of course, we didn't call it Maundy Thursday. We called it Passover.

So at our church's Maundy Thursday, as opposed to every other Sunday ("Why is this night different from all others?"), it seemed we were really (and appropriately) hammering on the connection to passover and the seder. And it kept bringing me back to the seders I'd attended growing up. And I remembered feeding wine and bread to my cousin when he was no older than one, and could only just chew and swallow. This was the level of participation he offered at the seder despite that he had no concept of what was going on, he could not read and he could not speak the confessions or prayers recited during the meal. And yet we wouldn't have even thought of withholding the bread and wine from him (and the karpas, and the maror, and the korech). In fact, wherever the baby's faculties keep him from participating, we act for him. (For example, during the urchatz – the washing – we wash their hands for them.) Even more, the youngest child who can speak is given a special role at the seder; nevertheless, speaking and the ability to ask the Four Questions is not a requisite for admission to the table.

Again, on Maundy Thursday we as a congregation affirmed that what we celebrate is actually the last supper, the passover seder, freely offered to all members of the covenant community. And then I was made to withhold the bread and wine from my son, who was baptized into the covenant, just as my cousins and I were circumcized into the old and failed covenant. So what is it? Are we celebrating the seder or not? If so, how could it be so different than the seder I celebrated growing up? How could we do something in the Church of Christ that would be unthinkable to my un-believing relatives, who always celebrated with great relish the day that the youngest child at the table first took their matzoh and wine, i.e., the day a weaned baby celebrated his first seder.

So what am I to think? Are we celebrating the last supper, or are we celebrating the communion as distinct from the last supper? Did my Jewish relatives, who follow the same seder liturgy (though the true meaning is obscured by unbelief) every year in the same basic way as Christ did, have it all wrong? Or is there biblical reason to alter the fundamentals of the seder?

what would it mean?

what if this is true? would it mean that obama is out-of-touch? or lying?

so sad it's funny

hilarious. also, schumer's comment (half-way in) that the money could be better spent elsewhere; classic.

why not give it back to the taxpayers? because it belongs to the government, silly! like you and everything else you own! yeah, we could better use it to collect more taxes!

Rebate letters to cost $42 million

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 7, 1:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON - At a cost of nearly $42 million, the IRS wants you to know: Your check is almost in the mail.

The Internal Revenue Service is spending the money on letters to alert taxpayers to expect rebate checks as part of the economic stimulus plan.

The notices are going out this month to an estimated 130 million households who filed returns for the 2006 tax year, at a cost $41.8 million, IRS spokesman John Lipold confirmed.

That works out to about 32 cents to print, process and mail each letter. It doesn't include the tab for another round of mailings planned for those who didn't file tax returns last year but may still qualify for a rebate.

Democrats accused the Bush administration of wasting time and postage.

"There are countless better uses for $42 million than a self-congratulatory mailer that gives the president a pat on the back for an idea that wasn't even his," Sen. Charles Schumer said Friday, arguing the IRS could more effectively spend the money to catch tax cheats.

Keith Hennessey, director of the president's National Economic Council, said the letters are being sent to explain how the tax rebates will work.

"Any time you do something as a government tens of millions of times, there is ample room for people to get confused. And so if you're going to have tens of millions of taxpayers getting checks, you want to get the information out so that you have as few people as possible confused about what's happening, they understand what's coming, and it reduces the number of incoming requests that IRS and Treasury have to figure out how to deal with it," said Hennessey.

"Dear Taxpayer," the letters will begin, going on to say the IRS is pleased to inform the recipient that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law a plan that will provide payments of up to $600 for individuals who qualify or $1,200 for married couples filing jointly. The rebates are the centerpiece of a $168 billion economic stimulus package.

The actual rebate checks are scheduled to go out starting in May, after the IRS has finished separately mailing out routine refunds for the 2007 tax year.

The letters will be a reminder that people need to file a 2007 tax return so they will receive the rebate if they are eligible for it.

Similar notices will go out later to some Social Security recipients and those who receive veterans benefits — groups that often do not file tax returns.

For those people to get a rebate check, they will need to file a tax return if they received at least $3,000 from a combination of certain Social Security benefits, veterans benefits and earned income. The minimum payment for this group will be $300 for an individual and $600 for a couple filing jointly.

Not everyone will be eligible. Singles with income of more than $75,000 and couples with more than $150,000 get only partial rebates, if any.

People who earn less than $3,000, illegal immigrants and anyone who does not file a tax return will miss out. Singles with incomes exceeding $87,000 and couples with incomes exceeding $174,000 also won't qualify, although those caps rise by $6,000 per child.

___

Associated Press Writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.

why isn't there more outrage...

that we're paying an international cartel for our gas, a monopoly that actively restricts supply to keep prices artificially high?

"If we had increased our production given all these factors, you wouldn't have been able to miss the impact on prices," [Algerian Energy minister and OPEC president Chakib Khelil] said, suggesting prices would have slid.

oh, that's right, it's because our own government keeps pumping the economy full of worthless dollars to boost demand and keep prices on everything else artificially high.