On Friday,
April 06, 2007 (18 Nisan, 5767) we celebrated our annual
Messianic Passover Seder. A lot of prayer and preparation went
into our festive time, and it seemed like the enemy tried a lot
of things to discourage us from the event, but we prevailed.
Below is a pictorial story of the event.
The tables were set up quite
nicely. The Seder Plate was in the center with all of the
accoutrements needed for the celebration.
As you can see, the turnout
was great and many joined in our festive Seder.
David blows the Shofar (ram's
horn) to welcome in the Passover celebration.
David starts reading the
Messianic Haggadah that was prepared for this year. The Haggadah
(Hebrew for telling) is the story of the Exodus of Israel from
the bondage of Egypt.
Our youth group facilitated
the event. Above, the participants touch the sacrifice lamb to
illustrate the intimacy the Israelites had with the lamb before
it was slain. Aaron performs the slaying of the lamb. He is
joined by Josh, Melissa, Glori, Crystal and Jessica.
A lady at each table lit a
candle as the blessing was said, welcoming in the Sabbath.
Pastor Tom plays
guitar and leads us in worship as we sang "At The Cross."
The Haggadah
reciting continued and everyone listened eagerly to the story.
Even the little ones
participated. Here, our little Amy look on with interest.
The Seder includes a hand
washing. We've added a foot washing in order to show our love
for each other. In this, we do like our Lord Jesus did on the
night of His last Passover.
Bitter herbs are dipped into a bowl of salt water and then
eaten. The bitter herbs symbolize the bitterness of slavery and
the salt water is representative of tears cried out of anguish.
Sister Glori
shows the broken middle matzo, called the Afikomen, which is a
symbol of Jesus, who was broken for us. Glori then hid the
Afikomen which symbolizes Jesus' time in the tomb. Later in the
ceremony the children will find the Afikomen.
Pastor Tom reads
the Maggid, a short Biblical message that is pertinent to the
service.
Sister Glori sings a song that
she has prepared for our Passover Seder time.
Before the Seder, the children
constructed images of false gods, each symbolizing an Egyptian
god that our God, Yahweh, put to shame during the ten plagues He
inflicted upon the Egyptians before the Exodus.
The false gods were taken by
each child and thrown into the fire pit, symbolizing that our
God, Yahweh, is an all consuming fire.
The young people were then
called to search the premises to find the hidden Afikomen. Seems
that our fellowship has some of the oldest young people on
earth.
Jessica found the Afikomen and
she returns it to David. David took it and distributed it
amongst the attendees. Those of us who are believers in Jesus
ate a morsel of the Afikomen after which we drank of the fourth
cup, the cup of salvation in a Communion ceremony.
It was at this point that the
batteries of my camera were drained so there are no more
pictures.
At the conclusion of the Seder
David sang the Aaronic Benediction in Hebrew and recited it in
English. We all ended the ceremony by shouting, "Next Year In
New Jerusalem." David blew the Shofar to close the Seder and all
were dismissed.
The Seder was followed by a
delicious meal and we all had a wonderful time of fellowship. If
you're reading this and you weren't able to attend, perhaps next
year you might join us.
Shalom
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