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Newsletter March 10, 2010

From the Senior Associate Pastor. . .


My assignment was to write this week’s newsletter article about our upcoming Seder service on Thursday evening, April 1. I went back and found an article Pastor Caines had written on this service many years ago. It states what I’d like to say. So...even though Pastor Caines is in Uganda, he still speaks!
 
“Almost every Sunday, members of our extended family gather around our dinner table for a meal. Obviously we gather because we are hungry, but hunger is not the bottom line. We gather because we are family. As a family we share stories, observations, ideas and concerns. Together we laugh, reflect, weep and pray. We enjoy being with each other and thankfully acknowledge God’s blessings upon us as a family.
 
We are family not simply because of blood, but more importantly because of the Blood. God has graciously claimed us for Himself and chosen to bless us by giving us each other. Therefore, we attempt to find those means by which to glorify Him in all we do, say, think or feel. When we fall terribly short of that goal, we lovingly confront one another and wonderfully encourage each other to do what is pleasing in His sight. Such moments are not always immediately enjoyable or comfortable. But in the end, they have always helped to keep our eyes focussed on Him by whose blood we have been cleansed from every transgression.
 
 In I Corinthians 5:7, Paul tells us that “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Interestingly, Paul then calls upon us “to keep the Festival.” Now while it isn’t a direct command to do what we will do Thursday evening, April 1, it is a reminder of how important it is for us to remember what took place in Egypt, the significance of the events of that night, how they anticipated the events that would occur at Calvary, and the great salvation that is ours because of the Blood.
When John first saw Jesus, he called Him the Lamb of God.
In Egypt the Jews killed a lamb and then used its blood to paint the doorframes of their houses. When the death angel saw that blood he passed over that house, sparing the life of the firstborn of that particular household.
Thursday evening, April 1, we will gather as the family of God to eat a meal. We will celebrate a Seder (Sa-der) service, commemorating the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. This was the meal eaten together by Jewish families the first night of Passover. This wasn’t a meal they ate simply because they were hungry. They ate this meal to remember the blood by which they had been saved and safely delivered out of the land of slavery. Likewise, we will gather not simply because we are hungry -- though we do anticipate a delicious meal -- but because of the Blood.

It will be a family meal. Our focus will be on remembering what God has done. Hopefully God will use our time of celebration to encourage us in our faith and “to spur (us))…toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24).

 

Most of us who gather will not be related. But all those who gather, in love with Jesus, will be fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, members of the Family of God. And the reason we will all be members of the same family is because of the Blood -- that Blood symbolized by the blood shed in Egypt, the Blood that was poured out by Christ on Calvary’s cross, the Blood that paid the God-appointed penalty for our sins, the Blood that cleanses us from all unrighteousness, the Blood that makes us once and for all time members of the family of God.”

 

Because of the popularity of the Seder service and because we’ve invited East Ridge and Trinity churches to join us, we have switched the location from our fellowship hall to the Colonnade in Ringgold.  Registration is required. You may register by completing the form in this Sunday’s bulletin, by email to mwilson@covenantchattanooga.org or call the church office at 899-5377.

Pastor Mullinax