There was a time when I was growing up that you just planned not to do much on a Sunday. You could probably find a gas station or a restaurant open here and there, but the malls (new in those days) weren't open and most other businesses were closed. No one worked on Sunday except emergency jobs (fire, police, hospital workers, etc.). There was a time that they even had "blue laws" in which most states did not allow alcohol sales on Sunday. (In fact, Washington D.C. had one of these "blue laws" on the books until it was repealed in 2013. What was up with that?)
There was a time when Christians took seriously the Scripture that says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates" (Exo 20:8-10) Since they viewed Sundays as "the Lord's Day," the Christian Sabbath, there was to be no work on Sundays. (I knew a guy in the '90's who believed that taking Saturday off was wrong. "Six days you shall labor," he said.) So they regarded Sunday as a day that belonged to God, not them.
We've come a long way since then, haven't we? Every day is our own. We might go to church on Sunday, although we might interrupt that practice if the kids have a soccer game or something. We'll go on Sunday if we can, but, look, a lot of us have jobs that require that we work on Sundays. What are we to do? Our society has no regard for Sunday and Christians seem to have followed suit, whittling it down to the stick of a "church service" as long as it doesn't interfere with anything else we want to do.
Scripture refers to the first day of the week as "the Lord's Day." We've largely taken that from him. We Christians, I mean. What would it take to actually regard the first day of the week as "the Lord's Day"? How would that change our lives, our thinking, our outlook? What does it say about us that too many of us can't be bothered to even gather with God's people once a week, let alone set aside a day for Him? It bothers me, and I'm not just talking to you. I don't believe I'm doing it justice, either.
2 comments:
I'm one who's job schedule begins on Sunday evening. In fact I'll be leaving for work within the hour. My shift begins at 6PM. I don't like my job in the first place, but working on Sunday has always bothered me. The particular company for which I work is a contractor for a 24/7/365 operation, and it does not provide ANY schedule that is conducive to a "normal" personal life. My bid is as close to having one as is possible, without increasing my stress levels markedly. I'm hoping to retire within the next two years, or at least cut back to part-time. One of the things to which I most look forward to is regular Sunday attendance at church and spending Sundays as I once was able...in kind with what your post describes. May it come quickly.
May it come quickly.
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