Golden threads

Pamela Kennedy July 20, 2024 4 3

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Exodus 12: 21-28 (NRSVA)

21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. 24 You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. 25 When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. 26 And when your children ask you, “What do you mean by this observance?” 27 you shall say, “It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.”’ And the people bowed down and worshipped.

28 The Israelites went and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

In our house, the turkey is always called Humphrey. Aeroplanes are affectionately known as airy-buzzers and when we arrive home after being away in the car someone will invariably say “Hogameeee!” There’s a wee story behind each of those, and they’re all to do with family. The first is a story to do with my own grandparents, the second my dad and the last one originates with something I believe I used to say as a little girl. I wonder whether your family has stories like these too. There’s something about them that keeps us anchored — anchored in who we are.

The Passover was to become one such anchor point for the people of God. To celebrate it would be to remember Israel’s identity as God’s chosen people, and to remember all that He had done. Re-membering – bringing what God has done into the now and using it to set our trajectory for the future. Past, present and future in the hands of the God who knows the end from the beginning.

As Christians, we remember the Last Supper as Jesus met with his disciples in the upper room and shared a meal with them – the celebration of Passover taking on new significance, that we might be grafted in to the story of the people of God.

There are some stories that are too precious, too essential, to allow to fade. Ours is new life in Jesus Christ, and even now God is doing a new thing, but He works it in and through what we have and who we are. As we Get Packing with God, what are the treasured stories that you carry with you — on into the new?

Prayer:

Thank You Lord for story. Thank You that as You lead us on You are weaving the most beautiful new story for us as individuals and as Your church. Thank You too that You delight to weave in and honour the precious golden threads that we bring with us.
Amen