How many of you reading this blog post ever go out to eat for lunch on Sundays? I am raising my hand on this one too. How many of you run out to Kroger or Wal-Mart to pick something up on Sunday afternoon or evening? Let's be honest, people of other religions or no religion aren’t supporting Sunday commerce by themselves.
Don't get defensive yet, I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, although as I’ve mentioned in a previous post we should all assess whether or not everything we do on Sundays now is worth what we lose in rest and worship, but to consider a group of people that are affected (and who quite often benefit greatly) from our Sunday commerce. I’m talking about all the people who have to work on Sundays. There’s waiters and waitresses, cooks, retail salespersons, truck drivers, nurses and nurse’s aids, doctors, gas station attendants, cashiers and baggers, and so on.For a while before I went to seminary I was a sales associate at a Dillard’s Department Store, which is a lot like Macy’s. When the manager was hiring me and we started to work out my schedule I said, “I don’t work on Sundays because of church.” He said something like, “I can respect that. None of us want to work on Sundays, but if you don’t work on Sundays then you don’t work here.” I acquiesced and he compromised by only scheduling me for every other Sunday. Just finding another job wasn’t an option. I’d just lost a job and Danielle was finishing up school at Oklahoma State. Getting a job that didn’t include work on Sundays wasn’t an option. I wanted to be in worship with my church family on Sunday mornings, but I couldn’t. We can lament the loss of the way things used to be, but this is life in the 21st Century, folks. It's time to live in reality.
Here are some snippets from conversations I’ve had with four different people lately:
Someone said something to this effect to me recently, “When I worked in the restaurant industry, I could almost never be at church. I wanted to be there. I wanted to worship, but Sundays are when the money is made at restaurants. So I went years with barely ever getting to worship.”
"I want to become a member of this church. My family is so excited about the ministry and worship here that I want to be a part of it." Great, I responded. "But I work almost every single Sunday," the person responded. "Am I still allowed to join?" Hmm... What does it mean to be a member of a church when you can never participate in worship? I wondered.
"If I always took off Sundays I'd never have Saturdays off, which would mean I'd never get to go to my kids' ballgames."
When invited to get involved with this church one person responded, "I can't be in worship because of work, unless there's another worship service in the evening sometime."
These brothers and sisters in Christ, and those who might be invited into faith in Jesus Christ and participation in the church, who have to work on Sunday either most of the time or all the time, have been on my heart lately. In light of Jesus'
commission to Peter in John 21, I've been asking myself, "Are we feeding these lambs of Christ's fold? Are we taking care of these sheep of Christ's flock?" Or are we leaving them to find their own pasture saying in essence, "You can be a part of this church when you get a different job." I'm not saying that I have any answers, only questions.I've been on the Austin Seminary alumni Facebook page asking what other churches are doing to minister to these brothers and sisters in Christ (or potential). It seems I'm not the only one who is struggling with this. One church has started a small Saturday evening worship service. Another has done the same on Sunday evening. One church has an "express" service at 7:30 am on Sunday morning. Other pastors are trying to get their church leadership to stop thinking of Sunday or Wednesday as the only options. There's five other days of the week, those folks are reminding their leadership. Some of these ideas are working. Some aren't. At least churches are thinking about it.
In our Presbyterian Book of Order we read that "Christians have received the Lord’s Day (Sunday) to be kept holy to the Lord. It is the beginning of the believer’s week and gives shape to the life of discipleship. Disciplined observance of this day includes preparation of one’s self for...public worship... acts service... re-creating rest." Then it says, “In observing this discipline, Christians whose work takes place on Sunday should set aside another day of the week for these observances.” Fair enough, but how is someone who works on Sunday supposed to set aside another day for public worship when public worship only occurs on Sunday, especially Sunday morning?
Again, I don't have the answers to this but I think we really need to start prayerfully considering the predicament and talking to folks who work on Sundays to see what they think. As we do that I want us to remember a few things and practice these in our lives.
(1) Don’t judge people who have to work on Sundays. To the person who would say, “you should get a different job then,” I’d invite you to come up to the food pantry on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, to meet all the folks who can’t find a job or are under-employed and then try to make the case to someone that they should leave their good job because it requires them to work on Sundays. Especially these days, and particularly in this part of the country, when you have a decent job you stick with it and pray to God that you can keep it.
(2) Commend people who fulfill their responsibility to provide for their family. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul writes, “And whoever does not provide for relatives, and especially for family members, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” For a growing number of people that takes place on Sunday.
(3) Stay in communication with people who work on Sundays. They need communication with the family of faith more than anyone who can be here on Sunday mornings. They need to know that they are valued members of this congregation. Sitting and listening to a sermon online or reading a blog, while they may be helpful, are not a good substitute for being in the actual presence of the family of faith gathered together to worship God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
(4) Start thinking “outside of the box” with me about how to “fish in a different part of the lake” and “feed these lambs and take care of these sheep.”
May the Holy Spirit grant us the peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as we attend to the duties of life this week with joy in our hearts.
Pastor Everett
