We Worship God on Sunday

It was a very simple phone call. One of the boys' baseball coaches called to explain when the next game would be, then closed with, "We'll have our practice on Sunday at 2:00. I'm going to try and make that our regular practice day, so as not to have to mess with a week night."

After I hung up the phone, it bothered me. It wasn't that 2:00 was inconvenient; in fact, with worship services in the morning and evening, 2:00 was probably the most perfect time for us to do anything on Sunday. It was the thought of Sunday as just another day that bothered me. It hit home even more when I saw another baseball schedule (for the child of a fellow Christian) which, for the month of April, included two Sunday doubleheaders and two Sunday tournaments, as well as practice on most Wednesdays.

I remember, as a youngster, when sports schedules and school extra-curricular schedules went out of their way to avoid Wednesday afternoon or night. Not scheduling anything on Sunday was a given.

Some of us discussed this fact and when it all changed. I suggested, as much as I enjoy it, professional football was a major contributor to making Sunday, in the world's eyes, just another day. A co-worker said she remembered, as a child, going to Sunday night services and the highways looking like a ghost town, and that professional football had been playing on Sunday for years. She said she thought it was the elimination of the "blue laws" and the opening of the malls on Sunday which changed everything.

She also said, more than just a regular day, Sunday had become a "Me Day," where people decided, "On Sunday, I will do what I want. It will be a day devoted to me."

That's when I finally caught on. Sunday is still the "Lord's Day" in America. The problem is that Americans have become their own god, their own Lord. For years, we have used Romans 1 as a text against homosexuality and a host of other vices, and rightly so, but before Paul ever details any of the reprehensible acts to which the Gentiles were given up, he says, "Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man . . . For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen" (Rom. 1:22-23, 25).

The beginnings of a society in which violence is glorified, in which mothers lack the natural affection to prevent them from killing their unborn children, in which neither the life, liberty or property of others is held in any esteem, the beginnings of all this can be traced to a time when America quit worshiping God and began to worship self. It began when America quit saying, "We worship God on Sunday."

It would be nice to say that the fault for this lies in the tricks of Satan and the inability of the world to distinguish between his lies and the truth of God. It would also be misleading, for at least a partial share of blame belongs to us, Christians who continue to allow Satan to take more and more of our Sundays without a fight, who refuse to say, "We worship God on Sunday."

Why did schedulers of my boyhood schedule around Sunday and Wednesday? Because if they tried to schedule on those days, there would have been such an outcry that they would have retreated quickly and quietly. Today, there is no outcry. We may grouse and grumble, but we go along and deal with the inconvenience.

Is it too late to go back? Some would say so, and in many ways they would be right, but it is not too late for Christians to reclaim Sunday as the Lord's Day. We are not suggesting that it is less important to serve God on the other days; certainly, if we are to be His people, we must be characterized by a life consisting of daily, constant service. If He is truly to be the Lord of our lives, we must surrender those lives to Him, seeing to it that we act in such a way that shows others who controls our actions and thoughts. What is important regarding Sunday is that others know we will be with His church on Sunday, worshiping Him and striving to grow in His service. We must be characterized by an attitude which says, "We worship God on Sunday."

Our God is far more deserving of the kind of respect given by our ancestors than the cursory nod we give Him as Sunday becomes just another day in our already overcrowded lives. Maybe stopping to truly worship Him will help us to regain the perspective which will allow Him, not our busy schedules, to shape our lives. Maybe then we won't have to be reminded, "We worship God on Sunday."