Today’s Scripture Reading
(August 30, 2018): Exodus 20
I go to church on
Sundays. It has always been that way. Sometimes, when I am on vacation, I look
for a Saturday evening service to attend. But usually, I attend a worship
service on Sunday. I remember attending a Saturday evening service of a large,
multisite church a few years ago, and they used the Saturday evening service to
record for the various sites on Sunday morning. They recorded the service,
placed the Saturday night service onto thumb drives, and the thumb drives were
sent out to the various locations on Sunday morning. So I remember the Saturday
night service which started off with an explanation of what was going to happen
next. We were going to pretend that it was Sunday Morning. The preacher was not
going to say “How are you this evening?” He was going to say “How are you on
this Sunday Morning?” One of the sites was going to have a breakfast the next morning, so the introduction
included a comment that we could smell the pancakes from where we were sitting,
which would not have been just a miracle over distance
but would have required time travel as well.
The Bible says “Remember
the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” And there might not be a more contentious
commandment. Even Jesus seemed to violate it. And it is the one commandment
that Jesus never reinforced. I have good friends
who accuse me of violating the commandment on a regular basis. After all, the Sabbath is Saturday. (Yes,
that is why Saturday occurs in the last column of most of your calendars. I
have had calendars that have tried to rectify the situation by placing the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, at the end of the week, but those calendars just confuse me.) Saturday is the Sabbath and did I mention that I go to church
on Sunday.
So,
the question that I get asked is this, if the Bible states so clearly that
Saturday is the Sabbath and we are to keep the Sabbath Holy, why worship on Sunday. And my answer is just as forceful. I
go to church on Sunday because Jesus Christ rose
from the dead on Sunday morning. And in doing so, he instituted the eighth day. The
eighth day is a day of love and grace. We
had made the Sabbath a religious requirement that it was never intended
to be. The Sabbath rest was something that we needed, not something that God
needed. He set the example so that we would know that we needed a day of rest.
We needed this time to connect with God, and with ourselves. We needed one day
that was holy, set apart, different from all of the others. A day when we would
do different things than we did on the other six. And on this day, maybe God
would have a better chance to speak to
us.
I
go to church on Sundays, but I am not sure that it really matters. At least, I don’t think that Jesus cares. Oh, we
still need a Sabbath. It is required by
your manufacturer for the health of what he has created. You need a Sabbath,
but maybe it doesn’t have to be Saturday
or even Sunday. But whatever day you choose, remember to keep it holy; to make
it different. This is a day that has been
set apart by God so that you can grow in him, and remain healthy.
Tomorrow’s Scripture
Reading: Exodus 21
No comments:
Post a Comment