by Pastor James Bell

Not all the saints will be in Miami on Sunday Night

If you are planning to miss our Sunday Evening service, please relax before you read any further. God will not smite you for it, and your pastor will not be offended at you. Do whatever you want. No guilt coming from my direction. I promise. Are we okay? Good.



The kickoff is at 5:30. We will have our monthly worship night from 6:00 to 7:00. Some people will show up. For reasons I don’t even remotely understand, we always have some of our best services on Super Bowl Sundays. Sometimes people show up who don’t usually attend this service. Maybe they find it an inspirational alternative to the frenzied company of people who love football, while they don’t like the sport or even understand it. Some of us will put our football feelings in neutral, worship for an hour, and arrive home to see the second half, or watch the whole game on DVR, just a couple of hours later. It’s a choice. We will not look down our spiritual noses at the rest of you, so wipe the bean dip and pico de gallo off your face, along with that pained expression…..and smile.

There are so many New Orleans folks who moved west to Houston and have entertained us with their passion for their team, accompanied by Cajun rhetoric, big smiles and high fives. You gotta hope they pull off the win. The fan base around the Crescent City is so intense that even a stranger sporting a fluer de lis on his cap can instantly become like a member of the family. People who don’t know each other sing and dance together in the streets down there when the Saints win a big game.

On the other hand, New Orleans native Peyton Manning, who leads the Colts, might be the best, or at least one of the best, quarterbacks of all time. There are lots of Manning fans, and Colt fans, in H-town. As long as Manning is on the field there is interest and excitement in the stands.



For some this is a moral crisis. They wish this event would have been on another night. But it isn’t. 
“After all”, they say, “I’m just missing an hour of the same worship songs I’ve sung before. Surely, God understands. I mean, it’s the Saints!” Others will say, “Hey, this is the Super Bowl! I am planting myself in front of the tube with snacks, drinks, and some fired-up Colts fans. DON’T try to put a guilt trip on me. It’s legalism, Pastor, and it’s just not fair.”



Well, the pressure is off, if you were feeling any. Enjoy this Sunday Night wherever you are, be it with a bunch of people in your living room yelling for your team, or at the church worshipping with all your heart. You are loved and appreciated either way.

Just one thing, though. Wouldn’t it be great if every Christian happened to be as passionate about church as they are about the game? About Jesus as they are about the team? As joyfully exuberant about his victory as about theirs?

Victoriously,

James