This past Sunday I caught a glimpse of something that I had not seen or experienced for years. It was like running into an old friend who I never imagined I could live without before we grew apart. The old friend I ran into this past Sunday is named "Sunday The Way It Used To Be." After a wonderful worship service and a spectacular congregational meal, the family and I went home to the manse, played with the dog in the backyard, then went inside just to hang out together as a family. It was obvious that Josselyn was tired so she went down for a nap. As we put her down in her bed we noticed our two cats were crashed out in our bedroom. Then Danielle, Wyatt, the dog, and I went into the living room, putting on one of Wyatt's favorite DVDs. Within minutes every single living creature in our house was snoring--Josselyn in her bed, the cats in our bed, the dog, Wyatt, and I on the living room floor, and Danielle on the couch. When I woke up just after 4 pm I looked up at Danielle and asked, "Did that really just happen?" It was like the stars had aligned perfectly to bring about such an historical event: a family-wide nap! It also reintroduced me to my old friend "Sunday the Way It Used to Be." Hello, old friend, I've missed you more than I'd realized.
This past Sunday reminded me of Sunday afternoons when I was a kid when we did absolutely nothing. After we returned home from worship at Yeaman's Park Presbyterian Church, my dad would fall asleep watching Nascar, my step-mom might do some cross stitching, and my siblings and I would read, watch tv, play basketball, or go fishing. I didn't grow up in 1950's Mayberry, by the way. We're talking about late 1980's and early 1990's suburbia. When I ended up living with my best friend's family during my senior year in high school, we always went over to his grandparents' house for Sunday dinner, then crashed on their couches for naps followed by a little bit of basketball on the driveway, then youth group that evening. Sometimes we thought it was boring. Looking back on it, it seems simply divine.
For many of us, "Sunday the Way It Used To Be" is a friend that moved away a long time ago. In fact, it is a friend that we don't even think about anymore or consider what we've lost in it's absence. When I hear people talk about it, especially parents of kids and teens, they always seem to act like the loss of Sunday sabbath time is something that has been forced on them from the outside. "Stores didn't used to be open when I was a kid. Now all the sales are on Sundays. The sports leagues, dance teachers, and even the schools have taken over Sunday. I hate it, but there's nothing we can do." In response to this very typical form of belly-aching, my response is a phrase I remember my best friend's mom, Donna, saying. "That's a bunch of bunk!" Just because stores are open, nobody is forcing me to go shopping. Just because there are sports and dance and piano lessons, etc. being offered on Sundays doesn't mean I have to participate in them. Society has changed, no doubt, but my issue isn't with society as a whole. I don't expect society as a whole to treat Sunday any differently. I do, however, expect Christians to treat Sunday differently.
I don't want us to go back to legalism or legislation. All you have to do is read the gospels to see that legalism is the enemy of true faithfulness. A friend told me once that his father, a Presbyterian minister in the 1940's and 1950's, used to garden on Sundays wearing a short sleeve dress shirt and a tie. When my friend, then a little boy, inquired as to how that was not breaking the Sabbath, his father informed him that anything you could do in a shirt and tie was allowed on Sundays. That's just silly and sounds a lot more like a follower of the Pharisees than a follower of Jesus. I also have no urge to return to the blue laws that forced businesses to be closed on Sunday. Contrary to a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle, I don't think legislation is the best solution to all our problems. It isn't fair for everyone in our free and diverse society to have to live by Christian rules. So niether a church imposed legalism nor government imposed legislation is the answer. The answer lies in the personal priorities of families, especially parents, and each individual Christian.
I was stuck in the waiting room at the doctor the other day where about ten of us sniffling and coughing folks sat together and watched the Dr. Phil show on the lobby television. Although I don't typically watch the show, I do have to admit that I kind of like Dr. Phil's no nonsense, no excuses approach. This particular episode involved a mother and her grown son who were constantly at each other's throats. The young man kept blaming everything on his mother, much of which seemed to be true. Finally, however, good ol Dr. Phil in his Texas accent said to the man, "You need to quit blaming her for everything. You can't control her. You can only control you." Then came the line I really liked. "You need to take a good look at yourself and clean your own house!" I liked that. And I think that's what we Christians need to be encouraged to do in regard to how we treat The Lord's Day, which is the early Christian word for Sunday. We need to quit worrying about what the store owners, football leagues, dance teachers, and band directors are telling us we are supposed to do. We need to clean our own house.
The very first Christians were all Jews, so they observed the Sabbath on Saturday. However, very early on it appears, after observing the Sabbath on Saturday, these Jewish Christians started waking up early on Sundays to worship God in Jesus Christ and to share the Lord's Supper on a weekly basis. Then, more than likely, they would go to work. But over time fewer and fewer Christians were Jews and the vast majority were Gentiles (non-Jews). Unlike their Jewish and Jewish Christian neighbors, Gentile Christians had never observed Sabbath. Sabbath was, and is still in some ways, a very uniquely Jewish idea. But over time these Gentile Christians, as they studied the Scriptures, started to notice that over and over again God commands God's chosen people to observe the Sabbath. It's one of the 10 Commandments even. So the early Gentile Christians started to think, "Hey, we are now included in the people of God and God has always commanded the people of God to observe Sabbath. Maybe there's something to that. We already wake up early and worship on Sunday, so let's try extending that out into the whole day." So eventually Sunday, or the Lord's Day, came to be considered the Christian Sabbath. Jews still and always will observe Sabbath on Saturday. Seventh Day Adventist Christians also worship and rest on Saturdays. But the vast majority of Christians have come to associate Sunday with Sabbath.
Over the centuries the Sunday Sabbath fell victim to that terrible human tendency of legalism. The Puritans took it to a new level. There were all sorts of rules for what could be done and not done on the Sabbath, even though Jesus repeatedly spoke negatively about such rules when they were made by the Pharisees. There were also all sorts of punishments for what would happen to you if you broke the Sabbath. Then eventually a country called the USA was formed that had a pretty solid Puritan pedigree and blue laws were passed to regulate commerce on the Lord's Day. But all that is gone now, the Church imposed legalism and the government imposed legislation. And I, for one, am happy that it is gone. But now I am responsible for myself and for my family. Shouldn't it be more important anyway that God's Word says I need Sabbath than what anyone else says? God says I need to rest and worship one day a week. Who knows better, me or God? I am often a "Sabbath breaker" but that is no one's fault but my own. I have to clean my own house.
Some people just plain have to work on Sunday. I get that and I don't fault anybody for having to work on Sunday. That's just life, and that's not what I'm talking about. Please, by all means, go to work on Sunday and provide for your family if Sunday work is a required part of your job. But if you have to work on Sunday I would encourage you to rest and worship (in some way) on another day of the week.
Because I am from Oklahoma, I must mention a country song at this point although I promise that this one wasn't made famous by Johnny Paycheck who apparently is from Greenfield and commited a heinous crime. How was I supposed to know? Anyway, contemporary country music both exhibits and capitalizes upon the fact that many Americans long nostalgically for a simpler way of life that has been lost. Part of that longing that I've noticed in country songs is for a lost Sunday Sabbath. In the Rascal Flatts song, aptly titled "Mayberry," they sing:
Sunday was the day of rest
Now its one more day for progress
And we can't slow down
Cause more is best
It's all an endless process
My favorite country song about Sunday, however, is called "That's What I Love about Sundays" by Craig Morgan. Here's the chorus:
That's what I love about Sunday:
Sing along as the choir sways;
Every verse of Amazin' Grace,
An' then we shake the Preacher's hand.
Go home, into your blue jeans;
Have some chicken an' some baked beans.
Pick a back yard football team,
Not do much of anything:
That's what I love about Sunday.
Here you can watch the music video and listen to the entire song. It's a good one.
In conclusion, the church will no longer excommunicate me for not observing Sunday Sabbath. The state will not arrest me for going shopping on Sunday. I'm pretty sure God will not smite me for not resting on Sunday. I am free to make my own choices regarding how I observe Sundays. But in making my decision I need to remember that God knows I need rest because God made me that way. So even though nobody is forcing me to observe Sunday Sabbath and pretty much every force in our culture is pulling me away from observing Sunday Sabbath, I need to ask myself if what I am gaining from treating Sunday like every other day is worth what is being lost. So you might consider, if you've lost contact with your old friend, reintroducing yourself. "Hello, Sunday The Way It Used to Be." It's so great to see you again!"
