When Pastor Jared asked me to post something of my impressions of the service today I brought out pen and paper and had pen in air to jot down every exceptional thing about the service. After making a few notes I decided to put my pen away and just sit back and experience the service.
"This day for the Jews is like our Easter", said Jared.
I used to think as a child that this sacrifice of innocent animals was pagan and cruel because the true meaning of why they did it and why God expected it was not clear to me then. The slaughtering of their prized lambs and goats must have torn them to pieces. But they were obedient to God.
God sacrificed his most precious possession: His son Jesus. Another thing that came to my mind was that it was one thing to sacrifice an animal but to sacrifice a human and your own son had to be so much more horrible. I could not bear to sacrifice one of my children to wipe away anyone's sins.
The service went on to the confession of sins. There are a lot of sins out there. Some you wouldn't think of as bad sins but they shared the same level as all sins. One no better than another. All needed to be confessed to please God.
Quite meaningful was the fact that in a group confession we were not just confessing our own sins but we as a group were confessing and asking forgiveness for all those in the group. There is power in numbers and I think the Jews have that figured out.
Our repentance must be TRUE to be accepted by God and by our repentance we are calling God to come to us and meet us with his love and compassion.
In confession we are making a sacrifice. The sacrifice of our pride. We submit ourselves to humility in admitting we did wrong in the eyes of God. We show remorse for the wrongs we have done and we can feel cleansed.
The music by the choir was sung in Hebrew. Once being in a choir and having to sing in Latin I know how difficult it must be to sing unfamiliar words with meaning. The music was truly meaningful in the way it was sung: Reverently and with passion.
The confession in which we beat our fist over our heart and repeated the words in Hebrew that Jared led us with was very moving. Although on the lighter side, and I always find a lighter side during the oddest and most solemn of times, I thought to myself......You know when we try to speak the language of a country we are visiting and we mispronounce the words it comes up with a different meaning?
All I can say is that I hope I was not saying something much different than the original meaning when I mispronounced them. Something that would make me go back and say another confession.
I did confess to someone after the service for a wrong I did to them as suggested by Jared. I told my husband Al that I was sorry that sometimes I take him for granted.
Taking something for granted is never good. Taking for granted that God will forgive us if we do not sacrifice something for him has to be one of the worst sins against Him.
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