I wonder how many of you love parades? I think most of us get excited about a parade with all the people marching down the streets with the bands and the floats and different community groups marching. It’s a time of big celebration. When I used to serve a church in New York City it seemed like there were always these huge parades. There was the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and the Halloween Parade down Sixth Avenue in Lower Manhattan. There were parades for Cinco de Mayo, Saint Patrick’s Day, Gay Pride, for all the national holidays, and more. There were also some highly charged religious and political parades. When you gather six million people in one place there’s generally no shortage of reasons to start marching down the street.

Each parade had its own special character. Of course, the…