Easter and Passover blessings to you

Rabbi Sam Krasner
Suburban Park Jewish Center

Passover, which celebrates HaShem bringing out the Jewish people from slavery, is the beginning of the special relationship between HaShem and the Jewish people. This is the only time since the creation of the world that HaShem openly reveals himself and changes the course of history.

Through the ten plagues, the splitting of the sea and culminating with the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, HaShem openly announces his relationship with the Jewish people and the special mission that they were chose for. This mission is that by the way we live, we shot the world that there is indeed a Borai Olam, Creator of the World, who is also the Reebono Shel Olam, the Master of the World – A Master to whom all human beings are held accountable.

We became the people on Passover. Before we were slaves. Now we are a free nation dedication to HaShem. Passover then is not just a holiday of liberation, but the beginning of this special relationship and through the traditions of Passover, we can renew and strengthen our own relationship with HaShem.

When we remove the Chametz from our homes, when we sit at the Seder table and when we eat the Matzahs, we are reenacting our beginning. We are teaching our children, and our children’s children, who we are as Jews and what our purpose is.
As it says in the Torah: “V’higadita L’vincha bayom Hahu Laimor . . .”

And you shall tell your children on that day saying,” This is on account of what HaShem did for me when I came out of Egypt.”

As We relive our beginnings on Passover, let us use this opportunity to strengthen our relationship with HaShem and our identity as Jews.

David, Rachel, Ahron, Chana and Daniel join me in wishing all of you a Chag Kosher V’Same-ach.

Reverend Judy Stevens, Ph.D.
East Meadow United Methodist Church

Christ has risen! He has risen indeed! Christians have used these words for more than 2,000 years to greet one another on Easter morning. If you think about it, that’s rather amazing: 2,000 years and the seven words remain the same – no additional adjective or descriptive phrase, no substitution of more eloquent or intellectualized wording. It’s just a simple truth and a timeless message.

The message is powerful. It says that God answers the circumstances of daily life with promises that are alive and filled with the Spirit of a living Christ. These promises are able to touch every facet of our individual and community lives. How could we possibly live joyfully and prosperously without this Holy promise? How could we live with hope if we did not have faith in God’s promise?

For more than 2,000 years, the task of Christ’s disciples has remained the same. We are to orient ourselves to resurrection living, adopting a lifestyle of sharing God’s promise of life.  Our discipleship stands or falls on our willingness to respond faithfully to the life God offers us and to communicate the possibilities of this life to our community.  Every day brings new challenges. Each day brings with it a need for God’s promise of new life in your life and mine.

The East Meadow United Methodist Church stands ready to contribute to life-giving mission and ministry within our community and throughout our world. Come participate with us as we continue to share, through word and deed, the simple message and timeless truth. 

Blessings to all who will follow Christ’s passion and resurrection during this Holy Week and Easter season; blessings to all who will remember God’s gift of redemption during the time of Passover. May God’s gift of life and love keep us faithful to the challenges God places before us.

Grace and Peace.

Rabbi Judy Cohen-Rosenberg
Community Reform Temple

From slavery to freedom is the clarion call of Passover. While we are mired in preparations, it is often difficult to feel free - we often feel enslaved, not only by the obligations that come at this time of year surrounding readying our homes for a Seder, but with all the other obligations we must meet.

The obligation of Passover is that each one of us must see him or herself as if actually freed from Egyptian bondage.  Every year we strive to fulfill this obligation by reenacting it through our Seder.

This year, try something new. In Hebrew, Egypt is Mitzrayim, the narrow place, a place too tight for your spirit to swell. Free yourself from whatever obligations make it difficult or impossible for you to let your spirit soar. Move on to a place, at least spiritually, where you can feel comfortable and fulfilled, safe and able to grow. Then you will be able to appreciate the true meaning of Passover - the ability to appreciate a partnership with God that allows us to become free, happy and fulfilled individuals.

May you have a sweet Pesach!

Pastor Cristian E. Preda and the Pastoral Staff
Christ Alive Church

As a Christian, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important event in the world. Jesus literally split history in half, B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, the year of our Lord). Even more significantly, however, the Bible tells us that the singular most important truth of Christianity is that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and He rose again on the third day.

I think about Jesus’ mother, Mary, and several other women who followed Him on the very first Easter.  They stood outside Jesus’ tomb, mourning and weeping and unaware that He had been raised from the dead.  That changed when the angel of the Lord asked them a simple question, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?”  They soon encountered the living, resurrected Jesus Christ and their weeping was turned into joy.

I was reading just last week about a woman whose 25-year-old son died in a rock climbing accident. Last Easter, the first since his death, she, her husband and her four other children stood at his grave. They were filled with almost insurmountable grief. Then the Holy Spirit spoke to her heart and reminded her that Jesus was resurrected from the dead and because He lives, her son lives and they will see him again. While she admits that there is still an ache in her heart at the loss of her son, she also knows that the emptiness she feels inside isn’t the last word because she and her son and her family know the One who rose from the dead.

I state a simple truth to whomever is reading this. You will die. You might be young; you might be old; you might be sick; you might be healthy.  Rich or poor, wise or foolish, we will all die. Have you put your trust in the resurrected Jesus Christ? If you have, you can say with the millions upon millions who have already experienced it, “Because He lives, we live.”

God bless you this Easter.

Pastor Thomas Nowak
Calvary Lutheran Church, East Meadow

Jesus is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true. But is that such good news all by itself?

Think again about those disciples. When they were finally convinced that Jesus was alive, did that fill them with the kind of joy that nothing could take away from them? Was Peter thrilled at the prospect of facing the living Lord whom he had so recently denied knowing? Would the rest of them welcome the prospect of standing under the penetrating gaze of the One whom they had all forsaken?

Perhaps we also have all sorts of misgivings. We are told that Jesus has risen from the dead and is alive right now, truly alive in the fullness of glory and majesty that were His before the foundation of the world.

Are we so sure we want to stand face to face with Him, knowing all our own shameful denials of Him and the way we have left Him to run after other things that we regarded as more important?

It isn’t just a matter of our sins, although they are bad enough. It is also our failures as Christians, as disciples who don’t live up to our faith and our confession. Can this living Lord still have any use for people like us?

That is that food news from Jesus, who died for us and lives forever. “Go tell him disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you!’” If we know how badly we have failed Him, He knows even better. If we are filled with remorse at our many denials of Him, He fully understands how we feel.

That is why He wants us to hear the fabulous good news directly from Him. He especially wants forsaking disciples like us, and denying Peters like us, to know that He still goes before us.

Yes, we have forsaken Him – but He will never forsake us! Yes we certainly have denied Him often – but He will never deny us! He has engraved our names on the palms of His hands and in His wounds of love we are always before Him, just as He always goes before us as our loving Savior and our loving Lord.

Happy Easter!