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Youth Group Lenten Journey

As part of our Lenten journey, we will be exploring our faith.  The only leader for our journey is Jesus.  The aim is to discover more about who God is and more about who we are.  Each week there will be a challenge. 

Week 8 – Our Passover Meal                

This week we are celebrating our own Passover Meal in church. In understanding the reasons why this meal is so symbolic to Jews and Christians we can draw nearer in our own faith.

The familiar signs and symbols of the Eucharist take on new depths of meaning when we share the uplifting experience of a Maundy Thursday Passover celebration. That Last Supper Jesus ate with his disciples is suddenly seen in the context of God's saving love stretching form creation over the whole course of human history. As Christians we share common roots with Jewish brother and sisters, and the festival of Passover is part of our shared faith heritage. So to celebrate the meal like this together is a wonderful opportunity to discover a fresh way of telling the story of God's love, and finding it to be our own story.

The traditional order or Seder, of this special evening takes place in the home, by candlelight, with family and friends around the table. It tells the profound story of the peoples slavery in Egypt and their God rescuing them. The story is told through tastes and textures, prayers, readings and songs, the drinking of  four cups of wine/grape juice, the breaking of bread, the eating of specially prepared food, and through questions asked by the children, about what the meal means. The occasion is full of thanks giving and praise as we remember God's love and care, but also full of empathy with the suffering of all who are oppressed and in great need. Rather than being simply a festive meal built on memories, the experience brings those saving events right into the present, binding the community together as children of God, reliving their escape in the presence of their God and Redeemer.

So both Jews and Christians meet with God in the simple act of sharing a cup of wine and a piece of bread together, full of thankfulness and praise the One who made us, provides for us, and rescues us. And of course during a Seder meal that Jesus spoke of his own life being broken and poured out to save us form the slavery of sin. The bittersweet tastes of the Passover are there too in our Eucharist, as we thank God for saving us, yet know it to be through Jesus' costly suffering. We rejoice in the way we have been set free, yet at the same time hunger for the whole world to know that freedom.

Challenges

Colour in the Family Passover Meal Colouring Sheet, print your copy here. Bring it into church for your display in the Foden Room.    (Click here to get your copy.)

As Easter is shortly upon us make sure you have a family meal together. You could say "The Grace" before you start your meal.

"The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holly Spirit, be with us all evermore amen."

As you eat your meal and enjoy the tastes that food brings to your palette spare a thought for the suffering that is still in our world today. Enjoy the freedom you have to make choices, and show your love for each other in a visible way. For example send an Easter Card or give friends and family a loving hug. Enjoy the holiday time, and be nice to your all your family members. Show them you are a Christian, and do something to that helps them to feel your love.

Jewish Prayer at the end of the meal.

Let us go in God's peace.

Peace for us and peace for all people in the world.

No more war. No more oppression.

Justice and peace for everyone.

Let it be so. Amen. Lets it be so.

This is the last of our Lenten Journey Sheets.

Easter will soon be with us, and the Glory of God's splendour will be upon us.