Sunday Morning Rituals

Vince Lotito — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:15:54 GMT

The only Jesus they may ever see will be in you! That was the theme of a message delivered to the saints yesterday at SonRise by a resolute and passionate Billy Elias. I thank God for Billy and his zeal for the Lord.

Yesterday, Billy really hit home with his message. In the backdrop of the emerging Sunday morning religion of “sports”, where the Cathedral is being replaced with the stadium and the things of Christ are being replaced with the things of soccer, baseball and football. And if you’ve ever tried to get together with friends, neighbors and family, you surely know of the impossibility of infringing on the Sunday sports rituals, never mind the thought of getting them into church.

Over the past 6 months or so I’ve been praying for a friend that I lost touch with about eight years ago, and truly miss. Recently the Lord has re-connected us. Our conversation was very typical because we both missed each others friendship, and as we talked he asked me “Vince, how could we let this happen to us?” He as right, how could we let this happen to us? As we talked more, it became apparent that as we pursue the business of our lives we often gain some things and loose others. In our case we lost our friendship. Hopefully we can rekindle our friendship, we both desire it. What also became real apparent are the real differences in our Sunday morning religions. Mine, the ministry at SonRise and the Rose Garden and his the ministry of Sunday morning sports, with his daughters into “cheerleading” and running around the country to compete in various competitions and his son into little leagues sports.

As Billy said, we need to get involved in this new religion because the only Jesus that they may ever see will be in you. That has really resonated with me, especially, since that is a message I often speak about. Especially in the area of outreach, but I nevertheless needed to hear it in the context of the Sunday morning sports rituals. I needed to hear it in the context of my lost friendship, where the only hope of renewal is in directly threatened by our Sunday morning rituals. Now I need to pray how the Lord can involve me into their “rituals” so they will see Jesus… after all, it may be the only Jesus that they may ever see.

Lord, help me to reach out! Restore and renew a lost friendship. Help me to bring Jesus in the Sunday mornings rituals. Do it for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Evangelism

Sunday Morning Rituals