If you attend church regularly, it is not uncommon for people to start looking at their watches near the end of the service. It is almost as if their butt's have a clock on them, or maybe it is their stomach. One of the reasons people want to get out of church as quick as possible on Sundays is because they want to get to the restaurants before the other churches "get out," so they do not have to wait for a table.
I have been considering this change in eating habits hard this whole week. In contrast to Nehemiah 8, as Ezra reads from the Law, the people hear they are supposed to celebrate the Festival of Booths in the seventh month and they happen to be in the seventh month right then. So you see the whole lot of them stop what they are doing and flood out of the city to chop tree branches to build their booths, while at the same time, they inform the people in the countryside they are supposed to be celebrating this festival.
When I read Nehemiah again last week it caught me by surprise. In the Old Testament, almost every time something significant happens, the people involved build an altar and worship God as a memorial and God will say to recognize this event with a festival every year in perpetuity. This band of returned people who had been unable to celebrate their festivals for decades in Babylon and Persia realizes what they have missed. So they stop what they are doing to build booths and worship God and remember God's providence.
We happened to celebrate our quarterly Lord's Supper today. I was thinking about this one ceremony enshrined in the New Testament by Jesus himself and how we are still doing it. But I also knew once the service was done, much of the church body would stop and eat at a restaurant or go to the grocery store and buy food etc. Others might even go shopping or whatever. As a society we have rejected the Sabbath and its rest and instead will often put things off during the week for Sunday after church.
There is a problem with Christians shopping and eating out on Sundays, businesses respond and make their employees work on Sundays and many people I speak with in the service sector are unable to attend their church, because they have to work and serve other Christians who went to church and are now wanting to eat out instead of cook. I have no interest into delving into legalism, but God did tell us to respect and observe the Sabbath and we have rejected it and I think much of society is suffering from it. There is a response from the throne when we reject God.
I may pastor a church, but I cannot control what people do on Sundays after church. I did inform the church this morning that as for me and my house, we will begin observing the Sabbath and it is my hope, restaurants would start closing on Sundays and staying open on Mondays instead. I have no interest in hurting business, but I do have an interest in feeding the emotional and spiritual health of the people in my community.
Trust me, I love my fried chicken, but I do not want someone else to miss church to bring it to me.
