About the Lord's Day

Thoughts on Mother Kirk, by Douglas Wilson - chapter 6 - The Lord’s Day

 

Summary of Wilson’s argument

Observing the Lord’s Day has gotten a bad rap from the Puritan Sabbatarians, who frowned on napping, bike riding, or other recreational activity on the Sabbath.  The original command was to rest from our normal work (Deut 5:12-15), and to worship (Leviticus 23:3).  Works of necessity and mercy are also allowed, such as cooking meals and doing someone a good turn (Mark 2:23-28; 3:2-5).  The Sabbatarian view that insists the whole day be involved with worship, necessity and mercy neglects the foundational command of rest.  But rest should be accompanied by worship, or it comes to violate God’s purpose for the day (Isaiah 58).

 

It is hard to observe the Lord’s Day without doing so as a people.  We need to give each other rest, and observe it together, for it to really “work.”  This Old Testament command is like the tithe or the call to apply sacramental signs to our children: it may be modified in the New Testament, but we don’t need to find it restated in the New Testament to believe the modern day Christian is called to it.

 

The Sabbath day was changed from Saturday to Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, and then appeared to the disciples the Sunday following (John 20:26).  The early continued to meet for worship on Sunday (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2).  Hebrews 4 makes the point that the Sabbath has a creational aspect (the Father rested from His work) and a redemptive aspect as well (the Son rested from His work after the cross).

 

Romans 14:5 and Colossians 2:16-17 are addressing annual and monthly Old Testament feasts, not the Sabbath day.  If they meant to say the weekly Sabbath day is like every other day, it would contradict the verses above.

 

Don’t approach the Sabbath with a list of things you cannot do.  Focus on the basics of rest, worship, necessity and mercy.  Observe the day such that your children desire the day, instead of dreading it.  It should be more celebrative than funereal.

 

There remains a rest (Sabbath) for God’s people (Hebrews 4:9-10).  “This is the day the LORD has made” (Psalm 118:24) spoke of Sunday, the day Christ was risen from the dead.  Sabbath portrays the Gospel, which gathers, relieves, saves, restores, and feasts God’s people.  The day should do the same each week in our observing it.

 

We are set free as New Testament Christians from ritual observance of the Old Testament law.  But the Sabbath was founded long before Moses, and continues as a principle for us to endure.

 

 

Further thoughts of my own

Wilson is right that HOW we observe the day matters.  Just as in all our obedience to God, Sunday observance should be a “get to” not a “got to.”  A delight more than a duty, though it is both.

 

Wilson doesn’t mention this, but his argument contravenes both the Westminster Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism at points regarding the Sabbath.  This is jarring to state baldly, but it is a position to which most orthodox Presbyterians hold today.  Contra Westminster, the Sabbath should involve basic rest and can involve recreation as well.  Contra Heidelberg, there IS a day still set aside for us to observe, regarding the Fourth Commandment and Leviticus 23.

 

 

Wilson skirts this issue, but part of Sabbath observance is giving rest to others, particularly your servants.  This is in BOTH versions of the Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20:10; Deuteronomy 5:14).  It is explicit: “that your male and female servant may rest as well as you.”  So don’t make the illegal immigrant who is cleaning hotel rooms and bussing tables, work on Sundays.  Most modern Christians feel free to eat out or shop on Sundays, but doing so takes away rest from those who are working.  A society that observed the Lord’s Day properly would have employers requiring Sunday work far less than we do.  Just as I would not encourage anyone to blaspheme (3^rd Commandment) or to dishonor their parents (5^th commandment), so I ought not do anything that encourages them to go to their normal waitering job at the restaurant (4^th commandment).  Such work is not a work of necessity or mercy, and often creates a schedule conflict with worship.  The principle is to not do anything that directly causes someone else to work a job on Sundays.  The Sabbath should be oriented around the church and the home, not the marketplace of gas stations, grocery stores or restaurants.

 

The question is often raised of how to give rest to the wife, who usually has extra work if eating out is not an option.  First, the husband can find plenty of other ways to give her rest: helping with the preparation, the cooking, and the dishes, for example.  The husband whose only means of giving her rest is taking her out to eat needs to expand the ways in which he serves and blesses his wife.  Also, the meal schedule can be adjusted, planning a simpler meal, or leftovers, for Sundays.  For wives who find meal preparation a burden, this is quite important.  Others who enjoy cooking may “do it up” on Sundays.

 

I believe this to be a relative command, based on Christ’s teaching on the Sabbath, when His disciples picked and ate grain, and He taught in response to objections about David breaking ritual law under necessity (Mark 2:23-28).  There are times the gas station is a necessity on the Lord’s Day.  Most of the time, this is because you didn’t adequately prepare the day before, but there are exceptions like vacations, where it cannot be helped.  God means the day as rest, not keeping a list of don’ts.  You don’t have to sleep in your car or go hungry if you are far from home on a Sunday.  Sometimes the ox is in a ditch, and work or shopping is needed.  But you should prepare as much as possible on Saturdays to observe Sunday properly.  Again, not so much as a list of do’s and don’ts, but as time set aside to spend with the Lord.  In days past, when we had more of a Christian culture, much of Saturday was taken up with getting ready for Sunday.  You did the work around the house so you didn’t have to mess with it on Sundays.

 

On a date night with your wife, you may often think of an errand to run in the store.  But you intentionally don’t do it, to keep the evening special with her.  It can wait.  How much more should we set aside routine market activity on the Lord’s Day, to spend it with Him and His people?

 

There is a plausible argument for the opposing position, allowing market activity as on any other day of the week.  So I do not treat this as a sin issue, prosecuting people that practice differently, especially not as a pastor.  But I do believe this to be the Biblical means of observing the Lord’s Day.