“So what do you think the Sabbath is for? What do you do?”
Is he testing my theological position? Is he looking for an answer to a question he is asking because he wants the chat or because he actually wants an answer? Does he work at the local kebab shop and is now asking, ‘Should I be there on Sunday?’
Actually, I knew my interlocutor well. He doesn’t work in a kebab shop and he probably has a much more strongly held and well thought through position than me.
“It’s like Christmas.” I reply. “It’s a time to celebrate. It’s a time to meet with people. It’s a time for remembering Jesus. It’s a time to stop what we do for five or six days a week and celebrate.”
Your week can be hard work, doing your job, writing essays, looking after your family, just making life happen or like me, spending most days looking for a job that in a couple of months I’ll probably say, “Oh, I wish I was on holiday!” Even though I’m out of work, I really look forward to my weekends and especially to Sundays. What, Sunday? Church? Singing? A sermon? Christians?
Yes! I look forward to Sunday a little bit like I look forward to Christmas Day. No one’s Christmases are perfect but generally speaking, Christmas Day is the one day of the year I know I’m not going to be at work, I won’t be writing an essay. I’m with my family, the people I love the most. We eat together, we talk together, we laugh at bad jokes, we reflect on the year, we eat good, wholesome food together. Both my sister and I no longer live with my parents, so going home to visit at Christmas is special. There’s always a lot to catch up and no matter what I’ve been learning to cook – Mum’s cooking and Dad’s choice of wine is always going to taste fantastic! We’re not a Christian family, so we don’t celebrate Jesus at Christmas but we celebrate each other and enjoy each others’ company and we enjoy life and the things we have.
When it comes to Sundays, and there are usually 52 of them each year, I have a similar enthusiasm. The week has perhaps been tough or perhaps really good – either way there are stories to share and people I want to share them with. There are people I want to know about because they are my friends and my family. I look forward to meeting them on Sunday at church. To hearing about their lives and to laugh with them or to cry with them. I look forward to saying by my actions, “God is in charge of my life so much, that for one day, I don’t need to look for a job, I don’t need to make phone calls or send e-mails or do internet searches.”
I look forward to celebrating Jesus with them. It’s Jesus who gives us unity together. It’s Jesus who ultimately gives us any reason to celebrate because he dies and rises for us so that we can have relationship with the living God. Together we sing about him and to him. We say sorry for not doing life very well and we ask for God to change us to do it better. We listen to his voice as the Bible is preached: We want to be reminded of how good God is and we want to know how to live well for the next seven days. We remember that a day is coming when all our labour will cease and those who trust in Jesus will be saved and will enjoy not a day of rest, but an eternity of rest with Jesus enjoying God!
After being together (or before if you meet in the evening) to celebrate we continue to spend time together, drinking tea, eating food and opening our homes. The ones with space in their house invite the students and those without space to have food with them. We share our belongings and our lives together. Or maybe we go to a café and those that can’t afford it are covered by the rest – because it’s Christmas isn’t it!?
Maybe afterwards we go to someone’s house to watch a film or we go and visit our friend who is ill. We comfort them and pray for their healing. It’s the day when you’re able to talk to your best friend without holding your newborn daughter or watching your toddler because people from the wider family in the church are looking after them, playing with them in the garden. Maybe it’s a day to take time alone or in a group to read a book on that doctrinal point you want to know more about, or to practice playing guitar, or to enjoy God’s creation by getting on your bike. Maybe it’s time to restore a broken friendship and say, “my friend, please forgive me for being an idiot. Can we be friends again this week?” It could be time to get your friends together and pray for your friends who don’t yet celebrate Jesus. It could be a time to pray for countries where Jesus isn’t celebrated very much and even less than the UK. Maybe it’s simply time to get to bed early in order to be able to work better during the week. Or maybe it’s time to get to bed early in order to fulfil some of your marital duties that you’ve been neglecting during your busy week!
Being a Christian and being a group of Christians is completely 24/7. But Sundays are special. Don’t waste your Sunday! Don’t waste your Sunday with work! Celebrate Jesus with Jesus’ people. It’s good for you and it’s a little picture of heaven.
Is he testing my theological position? Is he looking for an answer to a question he is asking because he wants the chat or because he actually wants an answer? Does he work at the local kebab shop and is now asking, ‘Should I be there on Sunday?’
Actually, I knew my interlocutor well. He doesn’t work in a kebab shop and he probably has a much more strongly held and well thought through position than me.
“It’s like Christmas.” I reply. “It’s a time to celebrate. It’s a time to meet with people. It’s a time for remembering Jesus. It’s a time to stop what we do for five or six days a week and celebrate.”
Your week can be hard work, doing your job, writing essays, looking after your family, just making life happen or like me, spending most days looking for a job that in a couple of months I’ll probably say, “Oh, I wish I was on holiday!” Even though I’m out of work, I really look forward to my weekends and especially to Sundays. What, Sunday? Church? Singing? A sermon? Christians?
Yes! I look forward to Sunday a little bit like I look forward to Christmas Day. No one’s Christmases are perfect but generally speaking, Christmas Day is the one day of the year I know I’m not going to be at work, I won’t be writing an essay. I’m with my family, the people I love the most. We eat together, we talk together, we laugh at bad jokes, we reflect on the year, we eat good, wholesome food together. Both my sister and I no longer live with my parents, so going home to visit at Christmas is special. There’s always a lot to catch up and no matter what I’ve been learning to cook – Mum’s cooking and Dad’s choice of wine is always going to taste fantastic! We’re not a Christian family, so we don’t celebrate Jesus at Christmas but we celebrate each other and enjoy each others’ company and we enjoy life and the things we have.
When it comes to Sundays, and there are usually 52 of them each year, I have a similar enthusiasm. The week has perhaps been tough or perhaps really good – either way there are stories to share and people I want to share them with. There are people I want to know about because they are my friends and my family. I look forward to meeting them on Sunday at church. To hearing about their lives and to laugh with them or to cry with them. I look forward to saying by my actions, “God is in charge of my life so much, that for one day, I don’t need to look for a job, I don’t need to make phone calls or send e-mails or do internet searches.”
I look forward to celebrating Jesus with them. It’s Jesus who gives us unity together. It’s Jesus who ultimately gives us any reason to celebrate because he dies and rises for us so that we can have relationship with the living God. Together we sing about him and to him. We say sorry for not doing life very well and we ask for God to change us to do it better. We listen to his voice as the Bible is preached: We want to be reminded of how good God is and we want to know how to live well for the next seven days. We remember that a day is coming when all our labour will cease and those who trust in Jesus will be saved and will enjoy not a day of rest, but an eternity of rest with Jesus enjoying God!
After being together (or before if you meet in the evening) to celebrate we continue to spend time together, drinking tea, eating food and opening our homes. The ones with space in their house invite the students and those without space to have food with them. We share our belongings and our lives together. Or maybe we go to a café and those that can’t afford it are covered by the rest – because it’s Christmas isn’t it!?
Maybe afterwards we go to someone’s house to watch a film or we go and visit our friend who is ill. We comfort them and pray for their healing. It’s the day when you’re able to talk to your best friend without holding your newborn daughter or watching your toddler because people from the wider family in the church are looking after them, playing with them in the garden. Maybe it’s a day to take time alone or in a group to read a book on that doctrinal point you want to know more about, or to practice playing guitar, or to enjoy God’s creation by getting on your bike. Maybe it’s time to restore a broken friendship and say, “my friend, please forgive me for being an idiot. Can we be friends again this week?” It could be time to get your friends together and pray for your friends who don’t yet celebrate Jesus. It could be a time to pray for countries where Jesus isn’t celebrated very much and even less than the UK. Maybe it’s simply time to get to bed early in order to be able to work better during the week. Or maybe it’s time to get to bed early in order to fulfil some of your marital duties that you’ve been neglecting during your busy week!
Being a Christian and being a group of Christians is completely 24/7. But Sundays are special. Don’t waste your Sunday! Don’t waste your Sunday with work! Celebrate Jesus with Jesus’ people. It’s good for you and it’s a little picture of heaven.
2 comments:
very good post! i was leading a short devo on "slowing down" to be with God today. always a challenge, isn't it?! keep well. s
Very good, Adam. Very well written and inspiring. I miss Sundays like that (more or less) living here in the Middle East because Sunday is a working day in Arab countries. And though you can choose another day of the week to be your "Sunday" (because there still is a weekend: Friday and Saturday) in reality it is not that simple. The churches have their 'Sunday' meetings from Thursday till Sunday and it differs from church to church. So the celebration of 'Sunday' is different for different Christians. And though you can celebrate the day you go to church it is hard to do that because you feel like you are still like an outsider and you are not part of the community yet (if there is a community like you describe within a church). That's one reason why I miss VLKB :). It is much easier to have the Sunday you talk about in Vilnius (at least for me). I guess it's also because i have lived there long enough to know the people and to be known by them. Very good post :).
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