Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church
September 10, 2023
“Remembering Passover”
Rev. Hardy Kim
Join us this Wednesday for the
Modern Worship Collective Service at 6:30 pm!
Greetings!

I’m looking forward to being in worship with you on Sunday, as we kick-off another program year at Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church. There’s a lot going on and I hope you’ll be able to find your place in all of it!

Even as we dig into life in our faith community together, I know that there is a lot of conflict and division in the world around us. Rather than see our spiritual life as a place to retreat from all of that, I wonder if we could work to find resources to help equip us to deal with everything that’s happening?

Our upcoming lesson for Sunday is the story of the establishment of Passover for God’s people. It serves as a foundation for a lot of our thinking about the connection between God’s story in the Hebrew Scriptures and the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. However, there are some uncomfortable details about the original Passover story that we often simply leave out or ignore. Let’s take a look back at what happened as the Israelites tried to leave Egypt.

In Christ’s peace,
Hardy

Please join us immediately following the Sunday service for our Coffee Hour (in-person in Trinity Court or online via Zoom).
Theme for Sunday

“What is the meaning of that which is written in the passage describing the splitting of the Red Sea: ‘And the one came not near the other all the night’(Exodus 14:20)? At that time the ministering angels desired to recite a song before the Holy One, Blessed be He. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to them: My handiwork, i.e., the Egyptians, are drowning in the sea, and you are reciting a song before Me? Apparently, God is not gladdened by the downfall of the wicked.”

Rabbi Yonatan, Talmud Sanhedrin 39b
Questions for Reflection
  • What do you remember about the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt? Do you remember why Pharaoh decided to let them go?

  • What is your understanding of the Egyptians in the story? What is their relationship to God?
Exodus 12:1-14

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
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