“At each table there is an empty chair, an extra cup of juice, and one remaining piece of matzoh. Jewish history tells of a beloved prophet by the name of Elijah, who appears in times of trouble to bring promise of relief, to lift downcast spirits, and to plant hope in the hearts of the downtrodden. The injustice of this world still brings to mind Elijah who, in defense of justice, challenged power.”

Friday in Oslo, Norway Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo was represented at the award ceremony by an empty chair.

Xiabo was unable to be in Oslo to collect his gold medal and his $1.4 million prize. He is just one year into an 11 year jail sentence for subversion because he penned an open letter calling for democratic reforms in China.

His wife has been under house arrest since her husband’s prize was announced. His brothers have been told they won’t be allowed out of the country.

Since nobody can collect the prize, the Nobel committee has decided to put an empty chair on the podium, with a portrait photograph of Liu Xiaobo behind it.

Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Peace Prize Committee said on Thursday,

“It is a signal to China that it would be very important for China’s future to combine economic development with political reforms and it is support for those people in China who are struggling for basic human rights. This prize conveys the understanding that these are universal rights and universal values.”

In Liu’s stead, Liv Ullmann, one of Norway’s most famous actresses, read a text from Liu’s final statement on Dec. 23, 2009, entitled “I Have No Enemies.” The essay expresses Liu’s compassion for his adversaries and his hopes that he will be the last one in China to be incriminated because of speech.

“Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.”

Liu helped to organize and disseminate a document called Charter 08, which called for sweeping political reforms in China, including the freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion. It reads in part.

“The Chinese people, who have endured human rights disasters and uncountable struggles across these same years, now include many who see clearly that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal values of humankind and that democracy and constitutional government are the fundamental framework for protecting these values.”

Elijah’s chair remains empty with graceful dignity and powerful, prophetic clarity.

The Seder liturgy draws to a dramatic close.

An elder opens the sanctuary door, and makes this bold pronouncement.

” The door is opened, reminding us to be open to the hope for a better world–to hold on to the dream that we may live in a world without hunger, slavery, or any kind of injustice. We invite Elijah to come to our Seder.”

The congregation responds.

“May the all merciful send us Elijah the prophet to comfort us with tidings of deliverance. Let us open the door for Elijah!”

This is an excerpt from President Bush’s remarks yesterday, where he personally handed the Dalai Lama the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal, our highest civilian honor.

After meeting privately Tuesday with President Bush, The Dalai Lama, brushed off China‘s furious reaction to the U.S. celebrations, “That always happens,” he mused, with his liberating laugh.

The president’s attendance at the ceremony marked the most public embrace ever of the Tibetan leader by an American leader. “I will continue to urge the leaders of China to welcome the Dalai Lama to China. They will find this good man to be a man of peace and reconciliation.” Bush pointedly chastised nations where there has been a “stubborn endurance of religious repression” and urged China to relax its policy on Tibet.

President Bush then waxed sappy and self congratulatory. “As a nation, we are humbled to know that a young boy in Tibet –, His Holiness kept a model of the Statue of Liberty at his bedside. Years later, on his first visit to America, he went to Battery Park in New York City so he could see the real thing up close. On his first trip to Washington, he walked through the Jefferson Memorial — a monument to the man whose words launched a revolution that still inspires men and women across the world. Jefferson counted as one of America‘s greatest blessings the freedom of worship. It was, he said, “a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government, and yet proved by our experience to be its best support.”

Today, I want to praise President Bush for a historic, weighty and risky use of his office. Other Presidents have played parlor games in offering the Dalai Lama the clout of our superpower.

At the same time I challenge Mr. Bush on his shallow caricature of the Dalai Lama as a quaint spiritual teacher seeking “freedom of worship.”

He is a religious leader in the most noble and integrated lineage of Moses, Gandhi, King, and Mandela; carrying himself with deep dignity, meekly yet firmly insisting, “Let my people go!”

In many ways the Dalai Lama has become to American’s and our government like the plastic Jesus on our collective car dashboard, a figure who is ultimately discounted into oblivion via excessive honor.

Rev. Clinton Lee Scott preached, “It is easier blindly to venerate the saints than to learn the human quality of their sainthood. To worship the wise is much easier than to profit by their wisdom. Grandchildren of those who stoned the prophet sometimes gather up the stones to build the prophet’s monument….It is easier to pay homage to prophets than to heed the direction of their vision.”

As His Holiness remarked, “that always happens.”

Scott offered this altar call. “Great leaders are honored, not by adulation, but by sharing their insights and values.

America, and President Bush, I’ll see you at the altar.