Can I Get an Amen?

Now, what if I told you they scored?

A fun thing happened this Easter Sunday: a group of us had gathered with a communal purpose, and passion, with the same hopes, fears and anticipation.

Now, given that it was Easter you might be expecting me to be talking about the church service. Yes, I went to church in the morning. However, the service had a very different, you might saw more hidden, kind of passion compared to this other gathering.

And what was the other gathering?

A hockey game.

At the arena?

Nope.

I was in a ferry terminal.

One TV in the ferry terminal had the game on. And the place was packed. All sorts of travellers and terminal employees gathered to cheer, talk about the game, and experience intense joys and bouts of anxiety. Fortunately I was there nice and early to get a good seat as it quickly became standing room only.

I probably loved watching the crowd as much as the game. There were all sorts of people shoulder to shoulder.

One of the employees gathered there was a supervisor of sorts for the ferries. He had his radio and cell phones squawking at him from time to time as he tried to watch the game and do his job. Another employee there was the sole operator of a salad bar. She almost seemed disappointed that customers were pulling her away from the game. One traveller to join us, the youngest spectator by far, was dressed head to toe in visual displays of which team he was cheering for. He was very concerned that he'd miss the end of the game, until he learned the boat he was on had one.

Why was there so much passion in the crowd watching the game?

Well, it's hockey, in a hockey crazed Canadian city.

But why was there more passion there then in church?

I'm not entirely sure.

Perhaps it's not fair to say the service had less passion. I suppose it's more fair to say that it merely had less visible passion. But then again, what good, or of what evidence is there, if passion isn't on display? Can you call it passion if you're quiet about it?

When the Canucks scored their first goal Sunday, there was loud, audible, make people not paying attention drop their coffee because of fright, cheering.

When the pastor said, “he is risen.” people were rather quiet.

I don't get it.

I hope with too much energy that I live to see the Canucks win the Stanley Cup, but as awesome as that would be, when you compare that with God's redeeming work through Jesus Christ, it is no where near as great.

If ever there was something to be passionate about it's that God loves each of us so much he would do anything to restore the relationship. God is crazy passionate about us. Can we begin to be passionate about the same things God is? Or are we too distracted by the hockey game?

By the way:

Go Canucks Go!