Is Your Church Holding Worship Services This Sunday? by Albert Rommal
Is Your Church Holding Worship Services This Sunday?
Dateline USA: There is a breaking news story that churches all across America are cancelling their worship services this Sunday. We sent our investigators out to find out why. And the reason given is mind-boggling.
What plague has suddenly struck the land that prevents the saints from gathering together, as they do every other Sunday of the year? Is it war? No, there’s no war currently happening inside the United States. Is it some outbreak of disease? No, the Center for Disease Control is not reporting any unusual outbreaks. Is it some natural disaster? No, no major weather events are feared this Sunday (and besides, the services were already cancelled.) Has the Government suddenly banned the meeting together of Christians on the Lord’s Day? No, that hasn’t happened either.
So what in the world happened that could have such an impact on the church in America? In the now immortal words of the young boy running past Master Scrooge’s house,
“Why it’s Christmas day, sir!”
That’s right. Christmas itself is cancelling worship services all across America. What the world could not do, what wars and natural disasters could not do, what the government could not do, Christmas has done. It has figured out a way of preventing Christians from worshiping Christ on the Lord’s Day.
Even the unbelieving world is scratching its head on this one. “Dumbfounded” is the only way to describe the looks on their faces when they asked the simple question, “Now, why is it again that you aren’t going to have church this Sunday?” And with straight faces the answer came, “Because it’s Christmas!”
There are heroic stories of saints gathering together in the worst of circumstances during World War II. And in countries where Christianity is outlawed, saints still gather and sing hymns silently to one another so that they are not discovered. The threats of persecution and death have not prevented believers from gathering together. No matter the circumstances, Christians have huddled together to worship their Lord on His day under the worst of circumstances.
And yet, amazingly, with the effortlessness of the wind, Christmas is preventing Christians from worshiping Christ this Sunday. Christmas has done this.
Oh, the hue and cry in such circumstances will be that there is nothing special about Sunday and that we have liberty to meet any day of the week. True it may be that we may worship Christ any time of day and any day of the week but perhaps someone can tell me why it is that just about every church in the world meets on Sunday and why this practice has been going on for 2000 years.
Try as they might to come up with some noble excuse like “liberty,” the truth is that Sunday has been seen as the “Lord’s Day” from the earliest days of the church, if not in name, certainly in practice. It also just happens to be the day our Lord rose from the dead, hence its other name, “Resurrection Day.”
In case someone forgot, Christ’s resurrection is THE reason the saints gather on Sunday and not Tuesday or Wednesday or any other day of the week. Never mind the issue of the Sabbath, the history of God’s people is that the day of worship in practice switched from Saturday to Sunday. And it was our Lord’s resurrection that brought that about.
There isn’t time in this brief article to defend the idea that Sunday should be set apart for the Lord. But even churches that reject that notion (of a Christian Sabbath or Lord’s Day), habitually meet on that day for worship.
So why cancel worship this Sunday?
There is one reason. Those who made this decision (which is to say the pastors) can point to liberty all they want, but that is not the real reason. If that were the reason, we would see Sunday services cancelled all the time and for all sorts of reasons.
Inconvenience is the reason churches are cancelling their services this Sunday.
Sadly, it is the pastors who’ve made this decision, the ones that are the under-shepherds of Christ. I have no doubt that had they continued their practice of preaching this Sunday, the sheep would follow.
It is a lovely thing to know that that is exactly what the sheep would have done.
Any pastor who would say to his congregation, “I know this coming Sunday is Christmas, and I know that you will have many things to do and many things going on, but I humbly ask that you lay aside these things for a while so that we can gather together to praise and thank our Lord,” I’m sure would have been warmly received.”
In fact, pastors may have found that their congregations worship of Christ this coming Sunday to be a bit sweeter, a bit more pleasant and even a bit more loving. Saints may find that their reason for gathering every Sunday for worship to be renewed, re-emphasized, re-invigorated by the reminder of Christ’s birth.
But this won’t happen in many churches because the saints won’t be given the opportunity. I’m sorry, but that is too high a price to pay for “liberty.”
If Christmas is a spiritual holiday, which many make it out to be, then worship should be on as usual. If, on the other hand it is a secular day, then it has no business interfering with the affairs of the church, which Christ purchased with His own blood.
I hope that pastors will reconsider this new practice of forgoing the worship of Christ on Sunday because, after all, “it’s Christmas,” in favor of using the coincidence of these two days in one to be an opportunity to step away from the world (on one of the worldliest of holidays) to remember Him who was laid in a manger amidst the shepherds and angels.
I don’t know, but maybe the union of Christmas and Sunday could become a very special Lord’s Day, whereby we can gather together to sing,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
May God grant us wisdom to do this a few years from now when these two days inevitably meet again.
About the Author
Albert Rommal is the co-pastor of Northwest Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona. He has been an Elder/Pastor for over 16 years and helped plant two churches in Maryland. He is author of FAITH: What Happened to You the Moment You First Believed?. You can find articles, podcasts and information about his book at http://www.thesovereigngod.com.
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