Liturgy: Maunday Thursday - PASSOVER SEDER
MCC in Glasgow, Scotland, April 4 2007
“And if your young people ask you in the future, saying, What are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, that the L-RD our G-d commanded you? You will say to them, We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt; and the L-RD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. The L-RD gave signs and wonders, great and harmful, against Egypt, against Pharaoh, and against all his household, before our eyes: And he brought us out of there to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised our anscestors.”
Deuteronomy 6:20-23
“Kaddesh, Urechatz, Karpas, Yachatz, Maggid, Rachtzah, Motzi, Matzah, Maror, Korech, Shulchan Orech, Tzafun, Barech, Hallel, Nirtzah!”
Kaddesh:
A blessing over wine in honor of the holiday –
Attention, friends!
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.
ALL - Amen
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Sovereign of the universe,
Who chose us from all the nations, and elevated us above all tongues, and sanctified us with Your commandments.
And You gave us, Lord our God, with love, Passover festivals for happiness, holidays and times for joy, this day of remembrance
On Passover, the time of our freedom
with love, a holy convocation, a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt, and of your new promise to us all.
Because You chose us, and sanctified us from all the nations,
and Your holy festivals in love and in favor, in happiness and in joy
You have given us as a heritage.
Blessed are You, God, Who sanctifies this time, and all Your people
and this holy time of remembrance of that Last Passover Meal You shared with your disciples.
ALL - Amen
- Please drink with me your first glass of juice, as we remember freedom, because of that life, poured out, for us.
(A second cup of juice is poured.)
Urechatz:
A washing of the hands without a blessing
- Please join with me in washing your fingers, as we prepare for this communion meal.
Karpas:
A vegetable is dipped in salt water and eaten.
As we dip this herb, we remember the tears shed by the Hebrews in their times of slavery. We remember the tears of Jesus, as he accepted the ultimate consequence of standing in solidarity with the oppressed, with his own, chosen people, and all who stood on the outside of society. We remember the tears of our own, LGB and T people, through riots, marches, campaigns and HIV/AIDS. We remember the tears of all people, all across the world.
Yachatz:
The sweet bread on the table is broken. Part is returned to the pile, the other part is set aside, in a cloth.
- And we remember those bodies, broken by slavery. We remember that body to be broken for us, the very next day, as he shared that last fellowship with his closest friends. And we remember the bodies still being broken to day, by HIV/AIDS, by war, by famine and by all illness, violence and neglect. Part we return to its place, that we may not forget the work that still needs doing, and hold on also to some joy for later! And part we will pass around, to share in the celebration of broken bodies healed, broken bodies with the promise of resurrection, broken bodies reconciled by a God who creates us whole, and beautiful, and intentional.
Maggid:
Just as there were ten plagues in ancient Egypt, at the time of the Exodus, there are still plagues in our world today. If you feel comfortable, let’s go round this table of friends, in community, and share one modern day plague we especially want to remember to God tonight, whether it be personal, political, global, or in our communities.
[Leader starts, by naming…]
Let us be wise, and educate ourselves on these details.
Let us be wicked, and subvert the systems which allow these injustices and hurts to take place at all.
Let us be simple, and stay grounded in our own capacities, gifts and callings.
Let us be vulnerable, and be open to the questions we do not even know how to ask yet.
And let us pray then for God’s blessing over all these things, in the sure confidence that the power of our God, the humanity of our Lord, the practicality of the Spirit, are in and of all things. Amen
Rachtzah:
- As I offer the blessing of Netila Yadayim, please wash your fingers once more, as we prepare for this joyous meal.
Baruch atah Hashem
ALL - Blessed are You, Lord
Elokeinu Melech ha-olam
our God, King of the universe,
asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav
Who sanctified us with Your commandments,
v'tzivanu al Netilat Yadayim
and has commanded us to wash our hands.
Motzi:
Baruch ata Adonai elohaynu
ALL - Praised are you, Adonai our God,
melech ha'olam
Sovereign of the Universe,
hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz.
who brings forth bread from the earth.
(Leader breaks the remaining bread on the plate.)
Matzah:
At this time, the eucharist of holy communion will be remembered. Each person here tonight is invited to serve communion to the person next to them, on their right.
Maror:
- Let us take all the bitternesses of our hearts, and name them before our God. May their memory never cease to remind of where we have come from. But may the Christ who offered up his whole self for us take that bitterness and sweeten it, in love.
Korech:
- A sharing of the sign of the peace
Shulchan Orech:
- Now let us drink to deliverance!
And let’s eat!
Tzafun:
The piece of bread set aside earlier is eaten as "desert,"
Barech:
The third cup of wine is poured
- Let us drink to redemption!
Thanks be to God for the food with which we have been provided!
Thanks be to God for the deliverance we have had, to come into this holy community, in the name of our Messiah, Christ Jesus, our Lord. For the promise fulfilled, and for the Queer inheritance we have been blessed into.
Thanks be to God for our promised land, that Jerusalem towards which we build, that New Realm, where all live as one, exactly as they are, whole and beautiful in Your sight.
Thanks be to God for Your many acts of wonder, for the goodness which is in and of and through You, and known through love.
(Another cup of juice is poured)
- Let us drink to release!
(A fifth cup of wine is poured and placed on the Seder table.)
This is the Cup of Elijah, an offering for the Prophet. Let us open the doors of our hearts. Let us invite in the prophesy and leadership of Elijah.
(A sixth cup, this time of water, is poured.)
This is the Cup of Miriam. Miriam's Cup symbolises the miracle of Miriam's well, which sustained the Israelites during their long journey in the desert. Let us invite in the patience and wisdom, the miricle, of Miriam.
And let us invite in the healing presence of our Jesus, the kiss of the Holy Spirit of God.
Blessing after the Meal:
My friends, let us say the blessing.
ALL - May the name of the Lord be blessed from now and forever more.
May the name of the Lord be blessed from now and forever more. With the consent of our hosts and all present, let us bless our God, whose food we have eaten.
ALL - Blessed is our God, whose food we have eaten and through those goodness we live.
You are blessed, Lord our God, the sovereign of the world, who provides food for the entire world in Your goodness, with grace, kindness and mercy You supply bread for all living beings, for Your kindness is everlasting. Because of God’s great goodness, we need never lack food, on account of this great name - our God who feeds and provides for all and is good to all, and who supplies food for all the creatures which He brought into being. You are blessed, Lord, who provides food for all.
We thank You, Lord our God, for having given the heritage of a lovely, fine and spacious land to our ancestors, and for having brought us out, Lord our God, from our despair, and for rescuing us from the slavery of invisibility, and also for Your covenant which You sealed in our flesh, as well as for Your Torah which You taught us, and Your laws of which You told us, and for the life, grace and kindness You have granted us, and for the food which You supply and provide for us constantly, every day, all the time, and at every hour.
So for everything, Lord our God, we thank You and bless You-- may Your name be blessed in the speech of all living beings, constantly, for all time. For it is written: "And you shall eat, and be satisified, and bless the Lord your God for the good land He gave you." You are blessed, Lord, for the land and for the food.
Have mercy, Lord our God, on us Your people, on this, Your city, on Zion the home of your glory, on the kingdom of the house of all Your anointed ones, and on the great and holy house which is called by Your name.
Our God, our Father, and mother - look after us and feed us, give us a livelihood and support us, and provide a respite for us - a respite for us, Lord our God, soon, from all our troubles. And please, let us learn dependence, Lord our God, on Your full, open, holy and generous hand, so that we should never feel embarrassed or ashamed, but learn true stewardship of all with which you have blessed us.
And may You build up your people, and your new Realm rapidly in our lifetimes, You are blessed, Lord, who in Your mercy, builds us up.
You are blessed, Lord our God, the sovereign of the world - God who is our father, our mother, our king, our mighty one, our creator, our redeemer, our maker, our holy one - the holy one Jacob;
our shepherd - the shepherd of Israel; the king who is good and does good to all, who each and every day has been good, is good and will be good to us. You gave, give, and will always give us grace, kindness and mercy, and respite, deliverance and success, blessing and salvation, comfort, a livelihood and sustenance, and mercy and life and peace and everything that is good - and may You never let us lack anything that is good.
May You bless the women of this house - them, together with their household, their children and everything that is theirs
May You bless all who are seated here, us, together with all that is ours, just as our mothers and fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Dr King, Ghandi, Troy Perry, were blessed – totally - so may our God bless us, all of us together, with a complete blessing, and let us say, Amen.
May the Merciful One make us worthy of experiencing the days of the Messiah in which we now believe we live, and the life of the world to come.
ALL - May the Lord bless all people with peace.
Hallel:
Psalm 126 - A Pilgrim Song
It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when God returned Zion's exiles.
We laughed, we sang,
we couldn't believe our good fortune.
We were the talk of the nations—
"God was wonderful to them!"
God was wonderful to us;
we are one happy people.
And now, God, do it again—
bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
So those who planted their crops in despair
will shout hurrahs at the harvest,
So those who went off with heavy hearts
will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.
Nirtzah:
The last cup of juice, that of Elijah, is held up as a toast)
The Maunday Thursday, Passover seder has now been completed, with a wish that next year, we may celebrate Pesach in Jerusalem. To Jews, this represents their wish that the Messiah will come within the next year. To us, as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, straight, Queer and open hearted Christians and friends, it represents our wish that God’s New Realm of Justice, Healing and Liberation, begun in Jesus, in the footsteps of Moses, David, Elijah and Miriam, will be established very soon! May we be part of this liberation miracle!
(sung)
May God bless us, and keep us
May God cause such light to shine upon us
And be perciful unto us
May God lift up our hearts in our devotions
And bring us peace
Amen
Next Year in Jerusalem!
ALL - Next year in Jerusalem!
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