And he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27-28 ESV)
And he said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. (Mark 3:4 ESV)
This morning I preached on the passages from Mark 2-3 in which Jesus and his disciples pick and eat grain on the Sabbath, then Jesus heals a man's hand on the Sabbath. The ultimate point I was wishing to make was not that we are simply free to do what we want on Sunday (which is often today how many Christians view their Sunday afternoons, with eating out, shopping, or watching football), but that we are called to affirm life on this day, recognizing that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. If he is in charge, we are called to do good not just for ourselves but make it where others can rest, too. In an era in which so many have to work on Sundays in order to keep the economy going and make it so that we who are privileged are free to relax on this day, I challenged the church to give up activities that make it where others have to work on Sundays. Don't others wish to spend time with their family, rest, or even attend worship on Sunday, but can't because of our activities? Though I don't believe in passing Sunday laws and know that one can take this practice to Pharisaical levels ("Hey, you're writing this post on a Sunday afternoon...doesn't that mean that the controllers of the internet have to work so you can write?"), I think it's important that we question whether or not is good that we make cooks and servers work so that we can eat, grocery stockers and checkers so that we can shop, and football players and peanut vendors and grounds crew and traffic cops so that we can be entertained.
The reaction, of course, was rather indifferent. Hopefully it will change people over time, but likely not. Maybe I'm wrong in my interpretations on this subject, though I think that our culture (as well as the Christian subculture) has swung from legalism to libertinism. Yet here's the two general reactions to what was said that bother me.
-1)"I like what you are saying, but in our capitalistic world, we can't really stop what Sundays have become." This attitude basically admits that Christians as a whole are impotent to shine a light in our culture. Sure, we pass laws all the time telling people how to live their lives, but moral influence? Forget about it. This says more about the weakness of genuine Christianity today than it does about the world. Don't we believe in the power of the gospel to change the world? I guess not.
-2)"You may be right, but I'm still going to do what I want to do." Now, nobody will say this directly, but it's what we do. Maybe I made some people uncomfortable today, but after they've had their dinner at Applebees and then spent the next two hours looking through shops at the mall, they've forgotten about why they weren't very happy with the preacher this morning. Many Christians today are so comfortable in their own culture that they refuse to be changed. Yes, the preacher might say things that they know are right, but are they willing to change? Are we as hard-hearted as Pharaoh?
