It has been a great Easter season this year. I kept myself very busy in preparation and involvement with other churches. I had a feeling Easter this year was going to be something more meaningful and beautiful than ever! Susan and I are celebrating our fourth Easter with the saints of Calvary. Our first Easter here was actually my first time preaching as their new Pastor. You can imagine how much of a struggle that was. I have to say, it was amazing to see over a hundred people turn out for that service in 2009. There was a great excitement and anticipation in the air. Everyone thought Calvary was really going to take off and grow.
There were a lot of things to take in. There were so many new faces and names to learn. It was overwhelming for me in a sense, but even then, I felt concern for the church. It was struggling with division and control. In the excitement of this new assignment, I could still feel that Calvary had lost the sense of a family church which made it so powerful in the past. There would be a healing process.
We had concerns for the building, concerns for the children, concerns for the finances, worship, and even the preaching. Taking the pastorate in 2009 meant searching for stability in these areas. We weren’t sure where things would settle out, but we knew a period of transition was imminent. However, I joyfully began the process of rebuilding.
The next couple of years placed a lot of stress on me. It quickly came to a breaking point about a year ago. Then Susan and I attended a leadership conference in Lansing, Michigan and I began to see the way through to victory. The attitude changed from tearing down to building again. Albeit, building is a much slower process than tearing down, but we are seeing progress. The Prayer Tower stands as a symbol of rebuilding.
The greatest progress I’ve seen lately is the growth of intimate relationships among our members. There is a growing atmosphere of compassion and understanding that is leading to closer relationships among us. Eyes are turning from acquiring position and power within the church to supporting and loving one another. Although we are still facing great struggles in our personal lives and families, we are caring for one another in greater ways, and the struggles seem easier to bear.
What I am actually saying is that Calvary has won my heart. They have endeared themselves to me. I now feel a part of this church and they are a part of my family. Some people might not understand, but when a Pastor comes to a church, it takes time for him to feel a part of its people. He too, has to build relationships like everyone else who joins a church. Sometimes it is harder for him and his family because of the position of leadership he holds.
People can threaten a Pastor and his family without even knowing it. Often some people want to be close to the Pastor as an extension of their influence and control. This is very dangerous to the health of a church, but we have seen this problem fade into history here at Calvary. A greater level of sincerity pervades our church than when I first came. I can now be freer in my relationships, and this benefits us all. No one wants a Pastor who has to guard himself against people using him or his family to their advantage.
This new freedom has led me to want greater times of communion among our people. Two years ago I instituted the once a month “Jesus And Me” day and began having testimonies of our experiences on the last Sunday night of the month. This turned into our monthly worship and communion nights last year. Everyone has enjoyed these times and all have responded that they would like to continue these nights this year as well.
As we started through 2013 with this same schedule of monthly worship and communion nights, I realized that the one for March fell on Easter of this year. At the same time I was studying the Old Testament in my daily devotions and I was in the area where Moses was laying out the requirements of the Passover meal. It struck me, “I wonder what Jewish people do today for the Passover?” I’ve seen demonstrations and examples of orthodox Passovers, but what do Jewish people really do now? I took to the web and found there are as many variations as you can imagine. Each way of doing it is backed up by a host of perceived reasons. It got a little confusing. Until I ran across a Jewish man who said on his site, “It is all about family.” That I believed. As I reread the passages in the Bible about the Passover meal, I could see what he is talking about. With God it is imperative that we pass on to our children the stories of the history of God’s people. From this truth I could see how the Passover meal becomes about the retelling of Israel’s history.
Basically the Seder (a ritual before the main meal) consists of the master of the feast asking, “Why is this night not like all other nights?” The children are supposed to be able to see the differences in this meal from all other meals and ask four questions about the meal. The Haggadah, or retelling, shows the history of Israel from the patriarchs to the crossing of the Red Sea. Actually from the time they entered Egypt to the time they left in freedom.
Its symbolism is rich with God’s redemption plan for us from the slavery of sin. This gave me the idea to examine how Jesus conducted this feast and the four cups of wine on the table. The amazing things I discovered compelled me to want to turn our Easter evening communion service into a Passover demonstration. Since time was short, and I didn’t know everything that involved in conducting a Seder, our meal consisted only of samples of modern day Passover meals. Susan and I handmade everything from scratch.
We had parsley dipped in salt water, fresh cut horseradish cut from a whole root (we made the teenagers demonstrate its bitterness). We had small portions of celery, onion, and potato. The center piece was the Charoset and roasted lamb. Charoset (or haroseth) consists of diced apples, walnuts, honey, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I thought is was delicious, but it is a lot of work. It tastes great on celery. It depicts the mortar the Jewish people used to build the monuments of Egypt.
As the demonstration progressed, I introduced the portion of the meal we know as communion. This is the “hidden bread” and the third cup on the table. We served 12 soft round matzah breads. Two of our men brushed them with olive oil and sprinkled kosher salt on them. They broke each in half and gave them to two other men, who gave them to the congregation to break in half and share. There was a holy hush that came over this portion of the meal.
We were having communion! We each held our bread up to the Lord, blessed it, and ate it. I explained the third cup and the fact that Jesus said he would no more taste of the “fruit of the vine” until the coming of the Kingdom. However, to end a Seder you must sing the Halleu and drink the forth cup. We sang Hallelujah and I demonstrated what Jesus did with the last cup. A careful study of the verses where Jesus performed this reveal that they sang the hymn, but Jesus never drank this final cup. The forth cup at the last supper was poured out on the ground. The real cup of the kingdom was given to him in the garden and he drank it on the cross.
“29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it,
put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.
30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
John 19:29, 30
What Jesus “finished” on the cross was the Passover Meal. He gave new meaning to the final cup. the Israelites know the meaning of the four cups. They are given names, and even letters — Y, H, W, H.
1. The Cup of Sanctification or Holiness – based on God’s statement, “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” This indicates that God has set us apart to be his own people. He has called us out of every nation, tribe, and tongue.
2. The Cup of Judgment or Deliverance - based on God’s statement, “I will deliver you from slavery to them.” We were once slaves to sin, but through the power of his blood, we have been cleansed from sin and freed from its power.
3. The Cup of Redemption or Grace – based on God’s statement, “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.” This is the cup that was shared among the disciples. This is the cup of grace whereby we stand forgiven before God. I know, all sorts of Scripture verses race through your mind as you see this cup within it’s proper setting.
4. The Cup of Praise or Restoration – based on God’s statement, “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.” This is the cup of the completion of God’s work. It conveys a sense of rest, of accomplishment, of finality. One version translates the final words of Jesus as, “All is now accomplished.”
I have had a great Easter! I feel more a part of my church family than ever. We are progressing in the right direction. The community is becoming more aware of our healing process. More doors of opportunity and ministry are opening up for us outside our walls. Prayer is becoming a central focus of our coming revival. Many things are happening that are bringing it all together. Sometimes the suffering can be great, but I want to partake in that final Cup of Praise, knowing we have accomplished what God has called us to do in this community. We are a force of life and healing.
This Easter I have established growing relationships with several other Pastors in the area. We once again held a Community Good Friday Service with our community Pastors, with over 100 people in attendance at the Trinity Lutheran Church on Hwy. 28. We’ve already received many good comments about the service.
We are seeing other Pastors want to be a part of our lunches we have each month. With Maundy Thursday Dinners, Good Friday Services and Easter Celebrations, I no longer feel we just rush through Easter, spend some time with family, and move on. I felt we really paused, reflected, and deepened our understanding of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, in the grave, and on that glorious morning of his resurrection.
Next year I want to build on what we have accomplished this year and refine our Easter Communion Service into something glorious, that honors God in a greater way than we ever have before. I thank God for a people here at Calvary who want to make more out of our monthly Worship and Communion Service. There is nothing wrong with setting the bar higher. We never want to “pass over” Passover as something trivial or ritual in our lives. We want to ever deepen our appreciation of our Savior and his sacrifice for us.
Sorry: I can't find a way to make this software display captions for the pictures. However, you can request this blog in print or PDF that does show the captions, until I figure this out.