Greetings Members and Friends-
Okay, so I’m a fan of the Red Sox. It’s probably good that we get that out of the way. I am a casual fan. I’ll watch an inning here and an inning there. I can’t and won’t commit the kind of time necessary to watching entire ball games. Add on to that the fact that there are 162 of them.
At some point when the Red Sox started winning (probably around 2001)- I started following them again. Let’s face it- 1986 was devastating. Soon our family vacations included taking a trip to an away ballpark to cheer on the Sox. Because our children enjoyed this ritual so much they chose Cleveland over Disney. True story!
On the night it looked like the Red Sox were going to win their first championship in 86 years, I woke up my son (9 years old at the time) and had him come into the living room to watch history unfold. This past year, we watched together as the Sox sealed the Series with Sale on the mound. He was in North Carolina, while I was in Connecticut. We texted each other constantly. Once again we shared a father/son moment.
My grandfather was a lifelong Red Sox fan and he lived his entire life never having the opportunity to share this moment with his sons (or his father). Through the magic of Facebook I saw that my uncle (on of his sons) had taken his son to that final game in Los Angeles. In his own way, I know that he was sharing it with his father, my grandfather.
Sports has a way doing that. But there are other connections that we make. My parents took me to church. We didn’t go every Sunday–but it was important enough to go in between Christmas and Easter. They forced me to go to youth group (turns out, I like it). They let me stay in worship when I didn’t feel like going to Sunday school.
I do think it’s important to make those connections. I think it is our job as a church to keep those connections strong. If someone has been connected to the church- we should do all that we can to remain in fellowship. I think that is what Jesus did really well- he connected the disconnected to something big.
Peace-
Rev. Will