I know that the sports fans among you are anticipating the arrival of football. The fall sport really kicks off this weekend, but I've got my mind on baseball. Little League baseball to be precise! One of my favorite pastimes is being involved with my son's Little League experiences. The ball park where he plays is sacred ground to me and it's a mini-vacation every time I go out. I'd almost swear it's even 10 degrees cooler out there.
Some years I've helped coach, some years I've watched from the sidelines, but either way I thrill in knowing that Fall Ball is starting soon. Candidly, I must admit that part of the reason I love it is that I get to be a kid, too. And I remember, like Bruce Springsteen, my "glory days." No matter what I'm doing at the Westbury Little League field, I'm doing something Biblical - I'm remembering and I'm participating.
Such is the case for the ritual of the Passover, explained by Moses in Exodus 12. In that passage Moses lays out the plan by which God is going to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Out of their bondage, the Jews will later learn that the "liturgy" he described had to precede their liberation, that relationships came before religion, and that the Passover wasn't all about celebration.
Like me at the baseball field, the Jews and Christians alike are called to remembrance and participation in the Passover as a part of God's ongoing plans for liberation of people. If you'd like to hear more about what I mean, come take part in a series of teaching called Teach Your Children Well, Sundays between now and the end of October. There will be eight familiar stories of faith for you to talk about with your children and others, as well as a new way of looking at what God was doing then and is doing now.
Play Ball!
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly e-column written by me, Gary Long. I’m the pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston. To read more of my writing, check out my blog, Life to the Lees. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this list, just contact me at glong@wmbc.org.
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