A Word About Sunday

 
Ok, I know that you all are tired of deer pictures, but yesterday I made the mistake of having my son take scenery pictures for the blog, and they all came back out of focus.  His 50 million pictures of mule deer, on the other hand, came back crystal clear.  Go figure!

I remember talking to a friend once who had just returned from a trip to Jerusalem.  I asked for her impressions...and she said that what struck her the most was the reverence with which they treated the Sabbath.  Apparently the Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown, and she recounted how a holy hush fell over the city as the sun began to sink.  She said that you really got a feel that this was a day set apart to honor God, and for rest.

Contrast that with the Christian Sunday, the Lord's Day.  When I was child in Virginia, I remember very well the Sunday Blue Laws, which have since been repealed.  Each Sunday the stores were closed, bars were shut down, and if I remember right gas stations used to take turns being open, one station every so many miles, so that people could get gas in the case of emergencies.  I am thinking that most of the restaurants were closed too, but I could be wrong about that.  But what impressed me as a child was knowing that things were closed because it was a day to go to church and honor God.  I wasn't sure of all the ramifications, but I sensed that Sunday was a different day, a special day, a day set apart from the others.  A day that commerce took a back seat.  A day to slow down.  Sunday was important, different, and to treat it as such was the LAW.

Now I am certainly not a Bible scholar, or here to do some legalistic sermonette on what everyone should be doing on Sundays.  But after church yesterday I drove past Walmart, and noticed that the parking lot was just as full on Sunday as it was on Saturday.  And I enjoyed the lunch that I ate at the restaurant, and I was glad that the gas station was open so that I could go on my Sunday drive.  It was convenient, but I don't know if it was necessarily good.  Jesus talked about that in Mark 2:27-28:

"And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath."

In my mind He was saying that we don't serve the sabbath, the sabbath was created to serve us.  A day set apart to honor God and rest...was made just for us.  It is good for us.  To not set that day apart is to miss out on something beneficial that God has intended for us.  He made us, He knows our needs, and He knows that we need this.

So...maybe it would behoove some of us to rethink Sunday.  To pray about it, and ask God if we have been living in a way that we miss out on something that is good for our body, mind and especially our spirit.  In our 24/7 world, it is no longer the law that we set apart a day a week to honor God.  To rest, relax, enjoy our loved ones.  We are free to shop, do the laundry, clean the house, mow the yard and scrub the toilet to our heart's desire.  We can get all of our work done so we are ready for Monday.  Our culture practically dictates this.

But...Jesus said that the sabbath was made for man.  God does not create anything by accident.  So maybe the time has come to get on our knees...and ask Him to show us how He would have us spend our Sundays.   DLB