Passover

Tonight, Jews around the world celebrate the central act of remembrance of their faith—The Passover. The ritual meal recalls the meal eaten on the night before the Jews were brought out of Egypt by God, under Moses' leadership. On that night, the angel of death passed over the homes of the Jews.

The command to celebrate The Passover says that God commanded every person (the Bible specifies all people, rather than all Jews), in every generation, to feel as if he or she was personally redeemed from slavery in Egypt. The Passover then is both a commemoration of a momentous event in the history of a given people and a reminder that God is continually working to bring all people out of bondage into freedom. That bondage can be to drugs or to unhealthy realtionships and patterns of living—bondage to all sorts of things. In every event, God is working to redeem God's own people, which means everyone. God has redeemed you personally from slavery.

Our own communion service comes from The Last Supper, which was itself a Passover meal. Two sermons in the King of Peace archives which delve deeper into this connection are The Next to the Last Supper and The Passover Lamb.