what an incredible thing i just experienced. tonight i attended a passover seder. this is not the first time i have done this though. in fact, last year my community group shared a passover seder together. it was incredible. but tonight...oh tonight...it is hard to describe such an awesome event...you see i celebrated the passover seder and feast at green valley baptist church, my home church in hoover, alabama. that's right. green valley. for a good while i have associated the baptist churches of my upbringing to be synonymous with backward thinking and staunch southern baptist traditionalism. i can't do that anymore. green valley branched out tonight in a way i would have never expected in a million years. four hundred people came together to celebrate passover.
four hundred. they were expecting maybe half that. to me, one hundred would have been sufficient. dayenu - it would have been sufficient. how interesting. over the course of two hours tonight we worked through a twenty-seven page haggadah. I have never been more proud of green valley. i feel like i'll write a more substantial blog on this and passover in general later, but i just needed to get those initial feelings out.
How great is God's goodness to us! For wach of God's acts of mercy and kindness we declare dayenu - it would have been sufficient.
If the Lord had merely rescued us,
But had not judged the Egyptians,
dayenu!
If God had only destroyed their gods,
but had not parted the Red Sea,
dayenu!
If God had only drowned our enemies
but had not fed us with manna,
dayenu!
If God had only led us through the desert,
but had not given us the Sabbath,
dayenu!
If God had only given us the Torah,
but not the land of Israel,
dayenu!
But the Holy One, blessed be God, provided all of these blessings for our ancestors. And not only these, but so many more.
Blessed are you, O God, for you have, in mercy, supplied all our needs. you have given us Messiah, forgiveness for sin, life abundant and life everlasting. Hallelujah!
If the Lord had merely rescued us,
But had not judged the Egyptians,
dayenu!
If God had only destroyed their gods,
but had not parted the Red Sea,
dayenu!
If God had only drowned our enemies
but had not fed us with manna,
dayenu!
If God had only led us through the desert,
but had not given us the Sabbath,
dayenu!
If God had only given us the Torah,
but not the land of Israel,
dayenu!
But the Holy One, blessed be God, provided all of these blessings for our ancestors. And not only these, but so many more.
Blessed are you, O God, for you have, in mercy, supplied all our needs. you have given us Messiah, forgiveness for sin, life abundant and life everlasting. Hallelujah!
1 comment:
I passed Green Valley last night (on the way to my mom's house, which is in Bluff Park) anyhow I saw all the cars and thought, "woah what are all those people doing at green valley, that church doesn't really do anything special for Holy Week." glad to know you enjoyed the evening.
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