It was described always with more than a bitter note as the feast of the Passover.

For, in the navy, promotions were only possible between certain seniority dates. And so you went into the zone for promotion to commander when you had been a lieutenant commander for 3 and a half years and you could not be promoted when your seniority was greater than 9 years. And if that wasnt clear enough, on the date you could no longer be promoted, a letter dropped through your door telling you that you were passed over your career was going no further.

Well contrast that with the real passing over. The pass over of the Israelites held captive in Egypt. If you were one of them, you wanted to be passed over you had gone to great trouble to be passed over. In fact, you were praying to be passed over. Since to be passed over in this way was at least a sign were being promoted to Gods chosen people.

However this day of promotion had another aspect to it. Because the Passover ensured that the Israelites could not stay amongst the Egyptians. Their bridges were well and truly burned. They were committed to moving on. The indeed were being propelled into freedom.

Now, that on the face of it, doesnt seem to bad, does it?

Well, the problem is, just as the Libyans have recently learned, going in freedom does not come cheaply. For, when we read todays lesson from Exodus, we cannot be so blind as to not see the huge suffering that was visited on the Egyptians. Nor can we dismiss the very painful upheaval in the settled lives of the Israelites. For they knew they now had to leave the daily routine and the comforting familiar behind. They also had to leave security behind. Moreover, they had to surrender to an unknown future with all its fears and danger. No wonder then their Passover meal of celebration was deeply tinged with bitter herbs.

Well last week we started to think about our congregation as community. And if you remember we started by likening it to a citadel. In other words, a place of refuge and safety from the all the bad influences that pervade society around us, In fact, a moral and caring fortress for young and old alike.

However, if we see ourselves purely as a castle fortress, we are in danger of also see ourselves as unmovable. And that can lead us to being just as selfsatisfied even self serving as the society around us. Being static breeds a desire for the familiar walls of constraint instead of the new frontiers. More to the point, the wish to remain in the same place allows the building up of the fear of freedom.

Nevertheless, just like the Israelites staying put for us is not our option. Because being fixed in one place has never ever been Gods way for his people. Instead, he wants us to move towards him, he wants us to journey towards the better and he wants us to be free to do something new about to the needs around us.

Since that alone is real understanding of Christ's words foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

So if we as a community know we must steel ourselves to sally forth from our citadel where must be start? Well, here and now we must kindle ourselves to travel. We must summon courage to move on. We must get into the right mental mind set to welcome freedom. In truth, we need do battle with a feeling we all know so well. Maybe it is an early flight or long car journey. But either way you're up before dawn, the coffee and cornflakes are downed without much pleasure as you push things into cases and try and find keys. On such occasions there is tension and apprehension even a sense of depression in the air. Its the same feeling as when we grab a hamburger at a McDonald's drive throu' on a cold, wet evening. And it all springs from not being at home.

Yet even in those situations there is joy there is pleasure of being able to move to where we are wanting to be. There is satisfaction in going on to a better home. And there is deep satisfaction in going to where we can be useful and fulfilled.

Something of this bitter sweet Passover meal is expressed in a piece by Peter Johnston whose material on church as a community we will be looking at over the next few weeks. He writes for congregations who are moving on, in this way Going on a Journey

Weve been ready to go for ages, champing at the bit, raring to go. Weve thought of everything, packed the kitchen sink, time to hit the road.

So why are we still hanging around here?

Maybe God knows something about what lies ahead?

Maybe theres just a bit more

we need to discover?

Could it be that in this last teaching moment, in this place we want to escape from, God will show us something to get us through the journey?

Were readyare we really?

Or do we just want to get on our way before we lose our nerve completely?

For some of my colleagues who received a letter passing them over for promotion, the day was for keeping a low profile. Others affected a could-care-less attitude. But one friend called his workmates into his office and had a party before letting them know his advancement was over. He wanted to say thank you to them anyway. And that was the measure of the man that was the preparedness of the man and, dare I say, that was the freedom of the man .

Well, we as the Saint Lukes family cannot stay still. We will be moving on. Moving on as a community and

moving on in what we do for our community. To many that is as much a mixed blessing as eating lamb and herbs of the Passover. Yet it should not be. Instead such news should be greeted with the joy of being promoted to rank of Gods chosen people; that news proclaims the pleasure of knowing that we have seen nothing yet and that news heralds our satisfaction of having the freedom to journey and to change and go home with Christ.

At this moment then all we must do is prepare ourselves to step out. Or as the famous poem by Minnie Louise Haskin has it: And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!" And he replied: "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."

So, I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night And He led me toward the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So, heart, be still! What need our little life, Our human life, to know, If God hath comprehension? In all the dizzy strife Of things both high and low God hideth His intention.