 Sunday - A Holy Day or Wholly inconvenient?
Sunday Working
British society changed considerably during the course of the last century. Advances in technology
increased our life expectancy and material standard of living as well as changing both our work and leisure experiences. The average amount of hours worked per year has fallen from 2624 in 1913 to 1489 in 1998 (1). At the same time, the nature of the working week has changed with a considerable increase in Sunday working since the Sunday Trading Act 1994. Many more leisure activities and professional sporting occasions are also now held on Sundays.
These changes pose many questions for twenty-first century Christians and churches. How should we as individual Christians or groups respond to increased demands to work on Sundays? How can churches support people who have to work on this day? What should we do with all this extra leisure time? What is the Sabbath really about in 2009 anyway?
The Bible speaks of a day of rest as early as the second chapter. ‘And God blessed the seventh
day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done’ (Genesis 2.3). Several further passages stress God’s desire for the Israelites to rest, to focus on him and to remember his actions in creation and in saving them from Egypt (2).
John Piper, Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota, concludes that
these verses show how we are dependent on God for everything: ‘All things are from him and through him and to him. Lest we ever forget this and begin to take our strength and thought and work too seriously, we should keep one day in seven to cease from our labors and focus on God as the source of all blessing.’ (3)
Exodus 16.23 shows God’s desire for his people to depend on and trust in him. The Israelites are stuck in the Desert of Sin, a vast and hostile environment of sand and stone. God provides food for them on a daily basis, a thin bread like substance that appears each morning. They are only allowed to collect what they need for that day, if they try to take too much and keep it until morning it becomes full of maggots. Yet on the sixth day, they are allowed to take double the amount they gather on the other days to last them on the day of rest – on this day the maggots do not appear. They had to learn to trust God to provide for all their needs. In our Western society with our 24-hour supermarkets, have we perhaps lost our sense of total and utter dependence on God for food, shelter and indeed our very existence?
God shows the importance of rest in other parts of the Bible. Jesus often withdrew to solitary places to spend time in prayer with his father and on one occasion encouraged his disciples to come away to a quiet place and get some rest (Mark 6.31). In a particularly dramatic example of the need for rest, the prophet Elijah experiences the highs and lows of a life spent serving God (1 Kings 19).
Elijah has just seen God send fire from heaven, has organised the slaughter of four hundred and fifty false prophets and with the assistance of God’s power has beaten the King of Israel back to the city of Jezreel in a six-mile man versus chariot race. Not an average day at the workplace, even for a prophet. One would imagine that seeing God at work in such a way would increase his faith. Yet only a day or so later he is sitting under a broom tree praying that he might die. It is only after two sleep sand two meals provided by an angel that he is fit both physically and mentally to continue his ministry.
Even with all he has experienced, Elijah needed a good rest and a proper feed.God also tells the people of Judah that a properly observed Sabbath will lead to joy in him:
‘If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s day honourable,
and if you honour it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord.’ (4)
John Piper questions whether we really enjoy that which God meant for us to enjoy on the Sabbath – joy in knowing God – and suggests that ‘The measure of your love for God is the measure of the joy you get in focusing on him on the day of rest.’ Do we really identify with Paul’s desperate desire to know God better? (5).
Moving forward to the New Testament, Jesus attracted the wrath of the Pharisees when his disciples picked and ate ears of corn on the Sabbath. He added to their outrage when he went straight from there into their synagogue and healed a man with a shrivelled hand. The Pharisees had established 39 categories of actions forbidden on the Sabbath. They were so focused on their laws that they’d lost any sense of compassion and their indignation at Jesus’ breaking of their rules led them to plot to kill the very creator of the Sabbath itself. Jesus exposed their hypocrisy and gave the Sabbath back to the people as a blessing rather than a burden (6).
 In summary, the Bible teaches that God wants us to take time out each week to rest, to find joy in him, to remember what he has done for us and to realise our utter dependence on him. It clearly says that this is for our benefit.
Even in our secular society research suggests that we are naturally wired to need or desire this. An NOP consumer poll found that 87% of people think it is important for family stability and community life to have a common day off each week (7). Another NOP survey of 1000 adults in March 2008 revealed that 88% of people did not notice, did not realise, or were not bothered at all by big shops being closed all day on Easter Sunday (8). Research from Australia (9) found evidence that suggested most Australian families are suffering time pressure resulting from their work and that long and atypical working hours (evenings and weekends) are associated with ‘negative health outcomes’ and ‘strained family relationships.’
The reality is however that more and more people in Britain are faced with the prospect of having to work on Sundays. Parents have to consider whether to allow their children to join sporting events that would previously have been held on Saturdays and professional sportsmen and women are often unable to pursue their career without playing on Sundays. The sporting world of athlete Eric Liddell and cricketer Jack Hobbs in the 1920s and 1930s is considerably different from that of Olympic athlete Kriss Akabusi or that of rugby player Jason Robinson in more recent times.
just returned from 2 weeks at Spring Harvest in Minehead. She reports that many of the people who stopped at the TWUK stand spoke of difficulties caused by Sunday working such as not being able to attend church and feeling isolated from other Christians. Often people didn’t want to work on Sundays but felt they had no choice, especially in the current financial climate. Some believed that it was ok for those in the emergency services to work on Sundays but perhaps not for those in other professions. Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that many people who don’t officially work on Sundays, such as teachers or social workers, often end up doing so just to keep up with the paperwork. How would Jesus want us to respond to this, he who related to and indeed challenged the culture of his day?
A search of the Internet reveals the wide variety of opinions held by Christians about the nature
of a Christian holy day. Many consider Sunday to be the Christian Sabbath, taking this from the
example of the early church in Acts 20.7 and 1 Corinthians 16.2 that both suggest that the first
Christians met together on the first day of the week – Sunday. They also cite the fact that Jesus rose on a Sunday which is often the reason given why the church started meeting on this day.
Others quote Romans 14 in which Paul says that:
‘One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.’
The fact that the great apostle Paul does not explicitly say which day should be treated as sacred
leads some to say that it is no longer necessary to ‘do church’ only on Sundays. Indeed Christians in Sport report that there is an ‘increasing trend in large American churches to have parallel services on a Saturday evening.’ (10)
One church in Swansea, Oasis church based in Gowerton, started to meet on a Saturday morning when their venue, the local Conservative club, reclaimed the room on Sundays. According to Steve Dyer, one of the leaders, they have found that several people are attending who have to work on Sundays and would not otherwise be able to gather regularly with other Christians.
Ros Turner highlights the importance of workplace and professional Christian groups for those who find it difficult to meet with other Christians in church. She recalls talking to one man who works shifts and rarely is able to attend church but whom has now met up with other Christians in the workplace to worship and pray together.
In some places therefore, Christians are starting to explore the possibilities of meeting on other
days or in other ways to enable more people to gather together to worship and to reach out to their friends and neighbours who are not Christians. Other groups retain the importance of Sunday observance. Perhaps the most important consideration is that whatever our view, we need to refrain from judging those of a different perspective. Colossians 2.16 says that:
‘Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.’
Paul also says that we will all have to give an account of ourselves to God and therefore ‘let us
stop passing judgement on one another.’ (11). We Christians have found it all too easy to criticise each other over the centuries and it does little to enhance our witness in the world. We can never forget Jesus’ command to ‘go and make disciples.’ (12).
In conclusion, whatever situation we are facing right now, we need to remember certain truths. Jesus has been given authority over everything in heaven and on earth and that includes our personal circumstances (13). We each need time weekly if not daily to rest, to refocus on Jesus, to find our joy in him and to remember our total dependence on him. In these times of increased persecution of Christians, including recent stories in our own country of people being sacked or suspended for talking of their faith or offering to pray for others, it is even more important that we protect our time spent with God and with other Christians. As for how, when and where we do these things, as well as what our reaction should be when faced with the possibility of being asked to work on Sundays, perhaps it is time for individuals, churches and the wider Christian community to prayerfully debate these issues.
References
1. Lindsay, Craig A Century of Labour Market Change: 1900 to 2000 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
articles/labour_market_trends/century_labour_market_change_mar2003.pdf
2. Exodus 16.23, 20.8-11, 31.12-17 and Deuteronomy 5.15.
3. Piper, John Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1985/510_Remember_the_Sabbath_Day _to_Keep_It_Holy/
4. Isaiah 58.13-14
5. Philippians 3
6. Mark 2.27
7. http://www.keepsundayspecial.org.uk/research/index.php?id=31
8. http://www.keepsundayspecial.org.uk/news/index.php?id=64
9. http://www.relationshipsforum.org.au/assets/downloads/rfa_an_unexpected_tragedy_executive_summary.pdf
10. http://www.christiansinsport.org.uk/youth_sport/youth_parent-sundays.htm
11. Romans 14.13
12. Matthew 28.19
13. Matthew 28.18 | 