More on the Lord’s Day
I am posting this a little earlier tonight as there have been some questions in the comments in my previous post about why I am disturbed that churches are turning out the lights for their worship services so folks can bask in the light of the Christmas tree.
I need to make clear that while I would not call myself a sabbatarian, I do believe that the Lord’s Day is clearly ordained in the Bible as a day of worship and rest for believers. This is the position of most of the reformed and Presbyterian persuasion. Today one of the top stories on Yahoo news is about the “megachurches” closing for Christmas. I strongly agree with what David Wells (whom I have quoted here before) said in the article:
“This is a consumer mentality at work: Let’s not impose the church on people. Let’s not make church in any way inconvenient,” said David Wells, professor of history and systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical school in Hamilton, Mass. “I think what this does is feed into the individualism that is found throughout American culture, where everyone does their own thing.”
If you read the quotes from the two “spokeswomen” from the megachurches, you will see that I was right about the reasoning behind suspending services for Christmas Day (and some for New Year’s, too): the organizational nightmare of getting enough volunteers to pull it off.
I do not doubt that many Christians who stay home on that day will be focusing on Jesus and worshipping him with family and friends as they celebrate Christmas. My contention, however, is that Christmas is a man-made holiday full of man-made traditions, and though I obviously have no problems with celebrating it as a special day of remembrance, I do have a problem with it superceding a day of corporate worship which is ordained by God’s law and which I believe Christians are obligated to honor and participate in, unless providentially hindered.
Here’s an article which articulates my position about the importance of Sunday worship to the church and to the society. In it, David Engelsma says:
The Dutch have called Sunday, “God’s dike.” In the Netherlands, the dike keeps back the threatening seas and, thus, preserves the Hollanders from watery destruction. So the Lord’s Day holds back the raging waves of materialism, earthlimindedness, and pleasure-madness that threaten to engulf the Church and the Christian.
There are leaks in the dike. There are leaks in the dike among Reformed Christians, where once the Lord’s Day was honored and the Sabbath remembered. It is necessary that we stop up these leaks; we certainly must not allow these leaks to be enlarged, much less co-operate in tearing the dike down.
The matter of remembering the Lord’s Day is one of urgency, as the figure of a dike and the angry waves indicates. First, remembering the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments, indeed, a commandment that belongs to the first table of the law; not a minor matter, therefore.
Secondly, the day in question is the “Lord’s Day” according to Rev. 1:10, i.e., the day that belongs to the risen, glorious Lord Jesus Christ. In remembering, or forgetting, it, we have to do with Jesus Christ Himself.
Thirdly, our remembering the Lord’s Day results, by the Lord’s grace, in the greatest benefit for us: rest – the pricelessly precious benefit of rest. The Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27). The good of man that God had in mind is rest. Is there anything that we need more? Everywhere, there is unrest. There is unrest in the church; there is unrest in the family; there is unrest in the soul of the believer. Apart from every other consideration, it is sheer folly to forfeit rest by forgetting, and even abandoning, the Lord’s Day.
The importance of the Church’s remembering the Lord’s Day was clearly seen, and stated, by one of the fiercest enemies that the Christian religion ever had, the Frenchman, Voltaire: “If you want to kill Christianity,” he said, “you must abolish Sunday” – advice that the French Revolution carried out.
For those who agree with me that we have liberty to celebrate together the birth of our Savior on December 25, let us also consider the necessity, as Doug Wilson has reminded today, of Christians continuing to wage war with the world as they maintain antithesis. One of the great lines in the movie Babe is when the ducks start screaming, “Christmas is carnage!” as they realize the plans the farmer’s wife is making for Christmas dinner. The ducks were right. Christmas is not so much about warm fuzzies, though we enjoy the chance to remember our Savior’s birth with friends and family. But we need to remember at the same time the reason that baby was born in a rude stable with only smelly animals welcoming the most dramatic and defining event in history—the Word become flesh—was so he could suffer and die a violent death, in our nature, to be the propitiation for our sins.
As Doug Wilson says, our celebration of Christmas ought to be different from that of the world’s. If we disrupt the regularly scheduled program of corporate worship on the day the church has biblically and historically assembled together, to make a Hallmark holiday (as many seem to be doing), then I see that as a capitulation to the modern ideas of individualism and convenience. To borrow a phrase from a favorite nemesis, biblically-ordained corporate worship “trumps” the trappings of man-made tradition.
December 7th, 2005 at 6:40 am
I couldn’t have put this better myself! Thank you for summing it up so well.
December 7th, 2005 at 8:24 am
I think part of the confusion as to why this would matter is starting at what our ideas of worship are. In a church where communion is taken every week, hymns are sung in parts, responsive reading are said, there is more of a group covenental approach to worship that is not seen in the typical church where praise songs are sung and that is the worship part of the service. We need our church body for these things! Also, we tend to see worship as spiritual warfare than mainline evangelical churches do. It is our duty to gather together as God’s people and God’s army. I don’t mean this as an insult, I was in those churches for 12 years, but I know there I pretty much saw going to church as for my own edification, or that of my family, and not as a duty, nor a covenental act. I COULD sing those worship songs off by myself.
I for one am glad our church will be open as usual Christmas Sunday. We don’t have extended family to visit with so we would be lonely by ourselves! But, rather, this year, we will go to church, have a meal with our church family, visit, celebrate together.. It will be a good Christmas.
December 7th, 2005 at 8:28 am
Amen sister!
December 7th, 2005 at 8:55 am
I, personally, long for more opportunities to go to church during the holidays. We attended a Lutheran church when I was a child. I remember going to church Christmas Eve and then we went home and opened Christmas presents. Christmas day also had a service, no matter what day it fell on. We also had the Advent candles at the front of the church. They always had a New Year’s Eve service that was late in the evening, I also remember communion was traditional at that service.
I love the Advent Calendar we purchased last year from Desiring God. You place a new figure for the nativity up each day. I also like the figures because they are little wooden dowels. No detailed carvings of baby Jesus or anything. Each day you start with the story and add a little bit more. The story starts out with “Jesus is our greatest treasure-this is the story of how He came to us…” So every day for 25 days until the big celebration of God’s incarnation we hear that Jesus is our greatest treasure. Maybe I should do the calendar every month:) We need to be reminded every day that Jesus is our greatest treasure.
I would love to attend a Christmas service that celebrated our Savior’s birth as well as his death (with communion). We have a cross on our tree to remind us and our children that He came to die. So it saddens me that we not only don’t have church on Christmas day (no matter the day it falls on), but that any one would close a church on Sunday. Maybe God will use the closing of the megachurches to drive some to an opened reformed church. Though it is sad maybe it is providential (wink, wink).
December 7th, 2005 at 10:34 am
I attend a megachurch and I am pleased to say that we are having church services as normal on both Saturday and Sunday. While some megachurches have decided to close we can’t throw all megachurches in the same categories.
December 7th, 2005 at 3:18 pm
Now where is scripture does it say to keep the Christmas tradition going on December 25th? I can’t find it. Look 99.9% of most folks will not even be going to work on Monday morning December 26th. Monday is the official reconigtion of Christmas for the business world. My hubby is off! That’s when we will do our Christmas stuff. December 25th is just another Sunday on the calendar for our family.
Here’s the deal…Sunday is considered the first day of the week in our society and has been consider the first day of the week for many of 100’s of years. We are suppose to give our first fruits to the Lord. Thus giving Him our first day of the week! It’s not the law that matters here, it’s the honor that matters. I would much rather spend my Sunday morning, whether it be Christmas Day or New Years Day with my church family worshipping the Lord on High in corporate worship first and above all things. Christmas is just a side note!
December 8th, 2005 at 4:51 am
Some say the reason this is a problem is because we have set up some days as “spiritual” which aren based on tradition or our personal choice, and therefore we think we have the freedeom to hold the Lord’s Day in the same light–personal choice and tradition. Please, no rocks, I’m just throwing this out since this is what I have been thinking about.
December 8th, 2005 at 8:40 am
Good poser. I am attending church services with my family on Christmas morning. What a great way to remember why we’re celebrating at all.
One Sunday we showed up for church – walking – after a big blizzard to find it packed with people. Far more than I had expected on such a horrible morning. We had a small worship and then loaded up with shovels and hot cocoa and headed for the neighbors who hadn’t been able to dig out. Another great way to worship.
So, I guess there are some reasons to abbreviate a service, but selfishness should not be one of them. :O)
December 8th, 2005 at 8:51 am
Anita — the denomination I grew up in took that one step further. Where in Scripture does it say to celebrate Christ’s birth at all? The focus of the early church seemed to be on His death, burial, and resurrection. When I was growing up, we had no mention of Christmas at church at all. No tree, no Advent, no nativity on the lawn, nothing. We might sing Joy to the World, but never in December since we don’t know exactly when Christ’s birth was — usually in July to be safe, lol. Most families celebrated Christmas as a secular holiday, but no nativity in the home, no Christ-related Christmas at all. That was for “The Denominations”. Often, CoC members would surreptitiously go to other denominations’ Christmas services because we were starved for that communion with the rest of the world who is thinking of Christ that night. We’ve come a long way since then, our congregation is having a Christmas Eve worship service focused on Christ’s birth — with the “proper” disclaimer that Dec 25th is a man-chosen day and we’re just celebrating with the rest of the world — but a Christmas Eve service nonetheless. Sunday will probably not be Christmas-focused beyond the joy of having family and friends there who might not be otherwise. The only concession we’re making for it being a holiday is cutting back to one service and no Sunday school classes so those who have early-morning traditions can follow them.
December 9th, 2005 at 6:02 am
I come from a long line of CoC members. (My parents left the church when I was 12.) I was going to say that we had Christmas celebrations but come to think of it, I can only remember going to other members houses for celebrations, not going to church for that purpose and my grandfather does not like Christmas. The first Christmas service I can remember going to was at the E. Free church when I was a teenager.
December 10th, 2005 at 9:55 am
Gem, Yeah, I know, celebrating Christ’s birth is not even necessary or commanded by the Lord. Christmas (Christ’s Mass) orgins are in the Catholic Church. The first century church did not celebrate Christmas. But here’s my point…Where’s you heart in all of this? Is it in celebrating Christmas or honoring the Lord? There is nothing wrong really in remembering and honoring Christ’s birth as long as we remember the purpose of His birth, which is cause for celebration. However, we should be willing to set aside manmade holidays (Holy Days) to come together, worship and come to His table and eat of his bread and drink his wine with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Whether you agree or not…Sunday has been designated for this purpose. I believe this is why Christmas could be a problem.